I often wear black and white and the colors on this coordinate well. It is made from an average thickness elastic band that has black ribbon wrapped/ knotted around it to weave in the beads. You can see the thickness of the elastic band from the photo. This is showing the band stretched as far as I could. In reality, the beads touch. I have been using it for about 2 months and it shows no signs of wear. The beads are shiny. I would have preferres a matte finish. I wrap the band twice around my ponytail. Sometimes I put my hair in a bun and wrap this around it instead of using hair pins. I would have liked it better if the beads were just a tiny bit smaller, but that being said, they are not too large to prevent me from purchasing it again.