

Nearing the end of _Spirited Away_ , Zeniba weaves and gifts Chihiro a hair
tie and claims that it will protect her.

![A screenshot of Zeniba giving Chihiro a hair
tie](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2h510l.jpg)

Is there any indication that this (presumably magical) hair tie played any
useful role during the rest of the movie?


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2018-06-04T02:04:59.353
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question
spirited-away
Did Zeniba's hair tie help Chihiro in any way?


Some people speculate that

> it helps her identify her parents later in the movie. It does sparkle at the
> end of the movie, this only shows that her adventure happened.

It's never stated least not in the movie itself beyond "It will protect you."
from Zeniba herself. So no, it serves no useful role (it is possible it was
going to, but the showing of it could have been scrapped). Well maybe beyond a
"oh my hair tie? I got it from some friends.." type thing...


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2018-06-05T13:22:51.493
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There is a scene towards the end where Haku warns Chihiro to never look back
until she reaches the outer end of the tunnel. When she's about to enter the
tunnel, she stopped for a while and started turning her head around but
stopped at the very last moment. At the same time the hair tie sparkled. Its a
very subtle scene.

[![turn head
gif](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HRvhw.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HRvhw.gif)

Now Haku did not tell her the reason why. But if you are familiar with Asian
cultures, looking back would have trapped Chihiro in the spirit world forever.

Yes, the hair tie did save her. At least in my interpretation.


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I guess that it will help chihiro in the future, for an Instance chihiro will
untie her hair and then she will remember that it is from zeniba and she will
remember that she was once trapped from the spirit world


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2019-08-31T05:16:59.560
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The hairband stayed in Chihiro's hair after she passed the tunnel back to the
human world. This gives us the proof that it was all real and that it was not
a dream.


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