Small Gold Crescent Hair Pin with Pearl Chain

This is the smallest hair ornament in the range and by some distance the easiest to wear. The face is a crescent — a chandrakor, the same half-moon that gives the Maharashtrian bindi its name — worked in raised floral relief so that flowers and scrollwork stand up from the surface rather than being cut into it. A single round stone sits at the centre of the curve, and the lower edge is finished with a fine beaded rim.

From one tip of the crescent trails a short gold chain carrying two drops: a small white pearl and a fluted gold bead. The chain is the part that moves, and it is what makes a piece this small register at all — a static two-inch ornament on dark hair tends to disappear, while a swinging drop catches the eye.

Three colourways change the centre stone: Red, the ruby-red version shown and the most traditional; Green, which is the least common of the three and reads well against gold; and White, clear and neutral enough to go with anything. The gold-tone relief and the pearl chain stay the same across all three.

The fitting is a single straight prong behind the crescent. Make a bun or a plait first and secure it, then slide the prong into the hair at the edge of the coil so the crescent lies flat against it. Because the pin is short, it does not need much hair to hold — which is the practical point of it. The large arch pins in this range need a substantial low bun; this one works in a small twist, in a half-up style, or pushed into the top of a plait.

At about two inches it is also the one you can wear without the ornament becoming the subject. It is small enough for an office day or a family lunch, and two or three of them worn together along a plait is a standard way to dress long hair for a festival without committing to a single large piece.

It is worth saying what you are buying at this price, because it is the least expensive thing on the site. This is a small copper piece with a gold-tone finish, a glass stone and a shell-style pearl. It is not an heirloom and it is not pretending to be one. What it is, is a genuinely useful object: the ornament you can keep in a bag, lose without grief, and still reach for more often than anything else in the drawer, because it goes with everything and asks nothing of your hair.

If you have never worn a hair ornament and are not sure whether you will, start here rather than with an arch pin. It costs almost nothing to find out, and if it turns out you like the habit, the larger pieces in this range will make sense afterwards.

Base metal is copper with a gold-tone finish. Keep it away from hairspray, which settles as a slightly acidic film and dulls plating faster than ordinary wear ever does — spray first, let it dry, then pin, and wipe with a dry cloth afterwards.

About the Gold-Tone Finish

This is brass with a gold-tone plating rather than solid gold, which keeps the price where it is and the weight low enough to wear comfortably. Plating is a surface rather than a bulk property, so how long it lasts depends almost entirely on what it meets — perfume, hairspray and sweat all shorten it, while a dry cloth after wearing and a closed pouch between wearings extend it considerably.

Care

Put this on after perfume, hairspray and hand cream, and take it off before washing, swimming or sleeping. Wipe with a dry soft cloth and use a dry soft brush around the stone settings and between any pearls, where a cloth cannot reach. Store it in a zip-lock pouch — which is what the supplier themselves advise, and the single most effective thing for a plated piece, because it keeps humid air off the metal. Never use silver polish, dip cleaners or an ultrasonic cleaner.