Often an integral element in a village's complete traditional costume is a distinct hair ribbon [cinta] which is worn in the accepted style for that village. As non village-specific machine embroidered blouses and double jaspe skirts [cortes] from Salcajá are gaining wide acceptance as the modern national indigenous costume, the woman's belt [faja] or hair ornament are often the only remaining articles of dress that give a clue to her village of origin.

The industrious weavers from the Totonicapán area produce the belt most widely used in the non-specific modern native costume, as well as village- specific hair ribbons and belts on small table looms, with foot pedals to raise and lower different combinations of warp threads, battening the weft with their fingers. They often supply the markets in distant villages with belts and hair ribbons custom made in the traditional motifs, colors and materials preferred in the village in which they are to be sold and where local production does not meet the demand.

Many villages, San Juan Sacatepéquez, Sumpango, San Andrés Itzapa and Santo Domingo Xenacoj, to name just a few near Antigua, have special ceremonial, fiesta, or marriage hair ribbons, often made of rayon (formerly silk) with elaborate tasseled ends. These represent a considerable investment, showing the wearers wealth or status in the social religious hierarchy [cofradía]. These will often be woven on commission, in the village style, in Totonicapán.

How a girl or woman arranges her hair with the cinta can, in some villages, indicate whether she is a maiden, of marriageable age, has children or has achieved matriarchal status.