What area do you think the LA should provide more information about?
5 July 2009
Ever tried to do something one handed? Eat a big burger, tie your shoe laces, peel a banana, do a pony tail? Not so easy is it?
Burger sauce down your chin, starchy banana peel in your teeth, laces dragging in the mud and a hair-do you wouldn't leave the house with.
Many people have no choice in doing things one handed. They range from the visibly obvious upper limb amputees and congenital conditions to the less evident arthritis sufferers, stroke survivors and many more.
One individual attempting to help make some of the little things easier is Holly Franklin.
After a long battle with a congenital vascular condition, Holly became an upper limb amputee in 2006. Since then, like many others, Holly has taken on the challenge of living a regular life with one hand.
Until recently Holly was annoyed by her inability to put her hair up in a pony tail. Not finding any readily available solutions that didn't require a degree in contortion, she cobbled together a one handed hair tie.
Holly says "I searched the internet for ages and I could only find ‘how to' instructions for pony tails that involved door knobs, laying backwards on a couch and other methods. Which are all things I'd personally not want to do in public. Over time and with various sources of inspiration, one thing lead to another and I finally have a design that works. I got to thinking, there must be many hundreds of girls, women and a few guys out there who are keeping their hair short because they don't have an easier solution. I'm putting the word out there to let people know that there is one less challenge in their daily life. You can buy my 1-UP hair tie and other products from my web site."
The hair tie is a simple concept and Holly has created a variety of designs, with more to come. With her varied audience in mind, there are detailed instructions for two different methods of creating a pony tail: one for those like her with one hand and another method using hand and feet. She expresses her interest in finding other methods. "I'm working from my own personal experience of living with one hand. I'm curious to know if there are any people out there that would be interested in using my hair tie and devising a ‘no hands' method - one that is socially acceptable in public."
This is just the beginning for Holly's enterprise. She has more product lines in mind. "I can't go into specifics but I do have lots of ideas up my sleeve. I hope to continue to make life easier and beautiful for many people"
COMPARTMENT SEVENTY6 and its online presence were founded in 2009 with the aim of providing consumers like Holly with a range of specialised hair accessories, jewellery and other products.
You can view this and other products on their website here - http://www.compartmentseventy6.com/