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Searching Our Site

We have a couple of ways to search our website to make it easier to find the bows you want. We have over 5000 items on the site, so a little help in searching can go a long way.

Text-Based Search

The first option is a text-based search. It searches the site looking for the word or words you typed into the search field. You do the searches by first selecting the size of bow you want and then typing the descriptive word or words in the search field. Click the search button and it will look at the whole site to try to find what you want. After the search is complete you can order the bow or bows right from the results screen. The Search Bar is shown on the top over the Home Page. You can get to the search screen from any page by clicking on the SEARCH link in the navigation panel on the left of the screen.

A few tips. You don’t need to use the word “bow” or “bows” in your search. It assumes that’s what you are looking for. Likewise, you don’t need to use the word “and” when using two or more search terms. Just put a blank between the words. If you use more than one search term the Search program looks for all the words at the same time. If you are looking for a red and blue bow,   type “red blue” in the search field. But if you want a red bow or a blue bow you need to do two searches, one with the “red” search term and the other with the “blue” search term.

All of the newer styles on the site are well-annotated with search words, but older bow styles still are only lightly annotated. We are working on fixing this, but there are a lot of bows and not many of us. It will take a while to get all the bows on the site to the point where they are easily searched. So, in the meantime you can compliment your searches by browsing the website. You could discover the perfect bow for your outfit this way!

COLOR MATCHER Searches

This is exclusive to Rainbows By Paulette. The goal of our COLOR MATCHER search is to find the bows with the color closest to what you want to match.

You get to the COLOR MATCHER either by clicking on the link in the Search Bar or the COLOR MATCHER link in the navigation panel. For phones the link is included in the dropdown Navigation Menu at the top of the Home Page.

The search works by you clicking on the color in the Color Chart closest to what you what to match, selecting the bow size, and clicking the “Click Me” (How Original!) button at the bottom of the page. The COLOR MATCHER then searches the website to try to find what it thinks are the closest matches to the color you want. The bows with the colors closest to your selection are at the top of the results page. You can order bows right from the results page.

This photo shows the Results Screen from searching for yellow MEGA bows. The “yellowest” bows are in the top row and bows with other colors in addition to yellow are in the next row. Some colors only have a few matches while others have a lot. Its best to play around with the search, selecting different shades before you make your decision on which bow you want.

Sometimes its hard to see why the COLOR MATCHER includes some bows in the results. These bows may have only a little bit of the color you want. The COLOR MATCHER tries to pick out the dominant color of the bow and if the bow has a lot of colors it can get a little confused. Fortunately, this usually happens only in a minority of the selections. We are constantly working to improve the MATCHER’s performance and things will continue to get better. So, just like with the standard text-based search, in the meantime you can compliment your searches by browsing the website. You could discover the perfect bow for your outfit!

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Let’s Talk About Barrettes

The main barrettes we use on our bows are Spring Clip and Alligator (or Curl) Clips barrettes. Alligator clip are used on our Infant, Small, and Toddler size bows and Spring Clips are for Medium, Large, and MEGA bows. Alligator Clips are good for young kids with thin hair and work best with the smaller size bows. Some customers want Alligator Clips on Medium and sometimes even Large bows.

Spring Clips are the best barrettes for Medium-MEGA bows. They grip the hair better and are good for holding in the larger bows. The wider base gives a very good mounting place for the bow.

It’s very important to use top quality Spring Clip barrettes. A top quality barrette will last and will hold the bow without breaking your kid’s hair. Unfortunately there are a lot or junky barrettes out there that won’t stay in and break easily. A bow with a slippery or broken barrette is useless!

How can you tell a top quality from a junky barrette? I’m glad you asked! Take a look at the photo on the left. The first thing you notice is that the Good Barrette is wider and the Grips are larger and stronger. This is important because its the Grips that you squeeze with you fingers to open the barrette. They are the part that gets the most use and unless they are strong they’re the part that can break first. What you can’t see in the photo is that the Good Barrette is made with thicker metal than the Junky Barrette. The larger Grips and thicker metal help make Good Barrettes really durable.

Next take a look at the photo on the right. Now only does the Good Barrette have better Grips, it also is wider and has larger, heavier duty Hinges. The greater width gives the barrette better holding power regardless of hair thickness. The heavy duty Hinges resist breaking and make the Good Barrette more durable.

The photo below shows a side-by-side comparison of the parts of the Junky and Good Barrettes.

 

The Good Barrette body is wider, made of thicker metal, and has heavy duty Grips and Hinges. The Junky Barrette has a wimpy, single bar spring. The Good Barrette spring is double-barred with the bars connected by a bunch of crossbars. The spring is dimpled which gives it a better grip on hair. The extra bars spread out the clamping force so the Good Barrette can hold strongly without breaking hair. The Good Barrette Clip is triple-barred with the outer two bars dimpled. The 3 bars and the dimpling work together to hold well and still not damage hair.

Why do bow companies still use Junky Barrettes? They won’t tell us, but we think they either don’t know the difference and haven’t bothered to find out or they do know better but still use Junky Barrettes because they’re cheap and easy to find.

Bottom Line – Don’t buy bows with junky barrettes. That’s wasting money. How can you be sure you are getting Good Barrettes? That’s easy. Get your bows at Rainbows By Paulette. We ONLY use Top Quality Barrettes on our bows. To do anything else would be simply embarrassing!

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Let’s Talk About Selecting The Right Bow Size

A question we get all the time is “What size bow do get for my kid (or grandkid)?”. To get started on the answer take a look at a screen shot of the bow comparison figure that is on our Solid Color Bows page.

The chart is to scale, the size of each bow is in the correct relation to the bows. The bow dimensions in inches and centimeters are given for each bow size. The chart also gives recommended age ranges for each bow. Of course, this depends on the kid, Mom, (and Grandmom). Some Moms will put a MEGA bow on a 2 year-old and others use Medium bows on 10 year-olds.

Medium
Large
MEGA Extra Large

These photos show Medium, Large, and MEGA bows on a 7 year-old model.  The Medium or Large bows are just about the right size for this girl, the MEGA is a little big. That’s why we say the MEGA bows are best for girls at 9 years old and up, but some Moms and kids really want to make a statement.

Small Looped Baby
Toddler
Medium

These photos show Small, Toddler, and Medium bows on a 2 1/2 year-old model.  The Small and Toddler bows are just about right for her, but the Medium bow is OK and is something she can grow into.

So, selecting the right bow size depends on your kid’s age, size (some kids grow faster than others), and the look you want. If you have any questions or want advice, we are happy to help. Just give us a call (225-751-0914) or drop us a note. We love talking to our customers!

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Cleaning Our Bows

Our bows last a long time, so kids get them dirty. Sometimes really dirty. Sometimes really, really dirty! So how can you clean them? If you have a grosgrain bow its pretty easy. Just put a couple of tablespoons of dishwasher soap like Cascade (wear gloves and eye protection) and warm water into a small tub or pot and soak the bow overnight. Swish it around occasionally to help knock off any dirt. Then rinse the bow and hang it up to dry. If you have a light color bow with some stains you may have to use an all-fabric bleach soak, too. DO NOT use a chlorine bleach! Polyester satin bows can be cleaned the same way.

Unfortunately, washing glitter bows can knock off some of the glitter.  Right now we don’t have a recommended way to clean glitter bows.

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Keeping It Fresh

We’ve got more then 5000 hair bow styles on our site, but our customers always are on the lookout for the freshest and newest styles. That’s where our New Bows page comes in. We put our latest creations here! We keep it fresh by taking out older posts when we add new ones. The newest additions are at the bottom of each section with the older ones on top. For instance, in the Disney Bow section the bows at the bottom of the section are the ones we just posted. The ones on top are pretty new too, but older than the latest ones at the bottom. As we add new bows we’ll delete whole rows from the top of their respective sections.

We’ll usually keep bows in the New Bows page for a couple of months or so. Not all of our customers visit our site every day (We can’t image why they wouldn’t, but that’s the way it is!) so we keep the new bows on the page for a little while so they can have a chance to see them when they do visit.

So, when you visit our Website you can go to the New Bows page first to see the latest styles. But don’t forget to go to the other pages on the site. Just like people, just because a style is older doesn’t mean its not beautiful!

Happy Browsing!

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Too many bows to select from? Use our Wish List!

We have a gigantic selection of bows, so much so that sometimes its hard to pick just the right one. We feel your pain! (We have to make them.) Our Wish List can help you whittle down the selection to the ones you really are interested in.

All you have to do is to put bows in the Shopping Cart and check the Add to Wish List checkbox. Then click the Add To Wish List button and the bow will be moved from the Shopping Cart to your personal Wish List. The Wish List is saved on your device and kept for 3 months from the most recent Wish List update.

From the Wish List you can move items to the Shopping Cart or remove them permanently from the Wish List. Just check the appropriate checkbox and click the Update Wish List button.

When you return to our webstore you can access your Wish List by clicking the MY WISH LIST item on the top of the main navigation bar.

Anytime you see a bow you might be interested in, just add it to the Wish List. It will stay there and you can come back another day and add it to your cart if you want. You can even put it back into the Wish List from your Cart if you like. After a while your Wish List will have your personal collection of favorite bows you can select from. Happy Shopping!