The original cotton string was starting to wear down. It broke once already, but it was just the very end that snapped off, so I could just tie a new knot and call that the new end. But now it was starting to do it again. I bought some paracord from the hardware store and replaced it with that.
Right after I pulled the original string out of the waistband, I remembered that someone once told me that you can tie the new string to the old string, and then pull the old string out and thereby pull the new string into the hole, instead of trying to push the new string through the hole. That would have been a good thing to have remembered about 30 seconds earlier.
In case this is useful:
If you have a chopstick, you can tape the new string to the back and push the chopstick through the hole to guide the string. Other solid objects like a wire coat hook can work, but you have to make sure the tip won’t snag.
In the West, we use forks
if you’re holding your pants up with a fork, what’s the string for?
Garotting assailants, I thought that would be obvious
Getting the tampon out when it’s full
This is so funny lol. Why did people downvote this?
I use a pen and its cover. Put one end of a string alongside the tip of the pen, then slide in the cover to make it snugly tight. The pen goes in head first.
Some pens also come with a slight narrow trim/gap opposite of the clip, where you can tie it and it won’t release going in.
If you have a flexible wire cable feeder (for running cables in walls) they work great. This is basically how they put them in at scale in the factory.