Grecian-Inspired Hairbands

I browsed a hair accessories shop recently and I was shocked out of my skin, when I found out how expensive some of these hairbands were. Evita Peroni is selling the leather ones at RM115-RM156 each, while the cheaper ones were selling them at RM35-RM50 each!

Being a known cheapskate, I am determined to make my own. I bought leather straps of 3 different colors and 1 silver ribbon at 2m length each, all for less than RM20. And I made myself a total of 5 hairbands!

And this is how I did it. After I measured my head, from front-top to back-bottom and back up again, I figured I need about 52cm in 'circumference'. So, I cut up the straps and ribbon in 42cm each, leaving the extra 10cm for the rubber band. I sorted them out into 5 groups of 3 pieces each. 1) 3nos of dark brown leathers; 2) 3nos of reddish brown leathers; 3) 3nos of beige leathers; 4) 1no of dark brown, 1no of reddish brown and 1no of beige; and 5) 3nos of silver ribbons. (Other alternatives, would be 4 straps or 5 straps)
Then, I cut up the fake leather scraps from a furniture refurbishing store (from my Mecha-monocle project) into a strip, as wide as the 3 straps put together. After that, I divided the strip into 10nos of 4cm lengths (2 end pieces of each hairband), and made a marker of 1cm on each end. And glue.
After looping the leather bits back to be glued on the other side of the ends, I made sure I leave a allowance for the rubber band to be threaded later. (If you decided to use a rubber band for hair that is already in a loop, you should insert it in at this point, before sealing it up.)Repeat it for the other end, while ensuring that the straps are all in line and facing the same way up. After the glue at both leather ends are securely dried, insert the rubber band. In my case, I cut up 20cm, which is double the remaining length of what I need to complete the loop.
This is so that it will not be too tight and end up shrinking & sliding to the back of your head, by the end of the day; while still having a little tension because it is including the knot you will be tying and the width of the leather ends. Meaning to say, it will be only slightly less than 10cm after it all.
Since my hair is naturally straight and with some leftover curls at the end from my perm 2 years ago, it looks really neat & tidy here. Or else you can try a poofy wild variation, like how they dressed Blake Lively's hair in Gossip Girl, during the white party.