I know scrunchies are horrible naff works of the devil but what am I supposed to tie my hair back with?

[Pennybubbly]

It's long and fine and slides / clips just glide out. Rubber bands are sinful and elastics just look crap.
So?

Oh, just use the scrunchies. I know that in SATC, it was said that no-one in New York wore them...but I seem to recall you are in Japan

You could try 'fancy' type elastics like the ones from Boots.

I have just discovered these type of things that are covered buttons.

IO messed up that link... here

Just used plain hair bands that they sell in boots. I'm blonde so use the fair ones and they're pretty much invisible once in.

RoseofheOrient - you live in Kanagawa - oooh i used to live in Motoyawata on the outskirts of Tokyo, now back in the UK. I still miss the lovely, lovely Japanese people i met there and the noodle bars i used to go to on the way back from work.
Pennybubbly I sometimes use bobbles that are brown and so are hardly visible once they are in. Also banana clips, which i used to think were a bit naff, are great and you just twist your hair up and put it in and that's it, easy.

I think elastics probably look a lot less crap than scrunchies.

I do banana/ibis clips all the time, and I think they look really neat.

Stone Bridge have a gorgeous selection of hair clips/bands etc

at StoneBridge prices

Thin elastics look better than scrunchies. And they actually hold better than scrunchies too. Back when I was younger and didn't know any better they were in fashion (or so we thought) I always had to have an elastic under the scrunchie anyway.

I tend to use clips like this.