I have rather unusual coloured hair, slightly red, but not completely, so finding a hair grip which actually matches it is near impossible, therefore my best hope is to a grip which blends.  I therefore usually go for blonde hair grips as they tend to blend in best, whereas brown are slightly too dark.  

I use hair grips when I French plait my hair, I need them to hold my hair in at the back of my head, just above my neck in place or occasionally I wear a bun and then need loads all the way around to hold it in.   I have medium long thick curly hair so it is heavy to hold up, hence the grips are a super necessary essential.

I always get my hair grips from Boots, never even considered getting them from anywhere else. I do like Boots own brand hair stuff and have a number of hair clips and grips from there as I find them to work well and are good quality and well priced.

The hair grips are a very simple design, just a bent strip of metal coated in blond matte colour plastic(?) covering. The bottom part of the grip is straight whilst the top of the grip has three waves in the metal which helps it stay in the hair.  Both ends of the grip have a "bobble" at the end so that the grip doesn't scratch your head with the sharp edge of the metal when putting them in.  

These are the smaller "essential" version of Boots hair grips however boots also make a large version of this grip.  I have only ever bought the smaller version as these are perfect for what I need them for.  They come in a pack of thirty, displayed on a piece of purple card which is more than enough grips to be going on with.  For holding a bun in I will use about 8-10 grips.  A pack of 30 costs £1.49.

The grips are easy to use.  Depending on how I want the grip positioned in my hair I will either slide it in, usually at around a 45 degree to begin with then once it is a little way into my hair push it down flat towards my head so it goes further into my hair and is flat to my head, or sometimes I will stretch the chip open before I put it into my hair.  

These grips are durable and last years if you don't lose them.  I do find the occasional grip gets a bit bent, ending up in a "v" shape rather than both sides of the metal grip closing back in to touching each other.  All in all a must have for women for long-ish hair!