Think of all the ways a hair tie could be used as an advantage during a sport. Maybe while a girl is running her cross country race, she’ll slip off that black elastic and snap it at another runner. Or maybe a water polo player will pull on another by the hair tie around her wrist.

Officials don’t want to test athletes’ creativity by thinking of new ways to use hair bands as a weapon, so hair ties around the wrist are banned from most girls’ sports including track, water polo and soccer to name a few. However hair ties are still allowed in the hair.

“The referees do checks before the game and they make you take off any jewelry or hair ties you have around your wrist,” said sophomore JV water polo captain Alison Knysh. “They just don’t want anyone to be able to grab it. It’s for the athlete’s own safety.”

This policy of no hair ties may seem extremely trivial, but competitive girls can be vicious.

“A referee told us that last year at CCS one girl found out that another girl was wearing a belly button ring and she pulled it off,” said Knysh.

Although the tug of a hair tie is not much compared to that of a belly button ring, officials have made it simple by saying: no jewelry or accessories other than the required uniform. This is all to try to prevent bloodshed and tears during high school games and meets.