TikTok Just Taught Us a Surprising Hack for Taming Flyaways with...Dental Floss?

TikTok, you don’t stop, and we love you for it. How else would we find hyper-specific communities like CrocTok and coverage on topics like #jello? It’s also an ever-expanding vault of beauty tips, and one that’s caught our eye recently is the dental floss trick for taming frizz.

New York-based hairstylist and TikToker @mattloveshair is largely credited for making the dental floss trick popular on the platform. As you can see in the video above, Matt takes an extra-long piece of dental floss and drags it over the top of his head, holding each end of the floss taut. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty satisfying to watch.

Dental floss often comes coated in a light wax, so it’s easier to maneuver in the tight spaces between your teeth. (Note: There are unwaxed flosses, too, but for this trick to work, you’ll need the waxed variety.) The logic is that when you run the waxed floss over your hair, it will smooth down any frizz and flyaways the way a styling product like a wax, pomade or gel would.

Though the floss trick does seem to work in the short-term, it’s best used as a quick fix rather than an actual long-term solution to frizz. In other words, if you’re about to head into a special event or your friend wants to snap a selfie and you notice that the top of your head is sprouting flyaways, a few passes of dental floss could help temporarily.

If you rely on this trick too often, though, you could cause a buildup of—you guessed it—wax on your hair, which will cause it to look dull and flat. Not to mention, because you have to use a lot of tension to slide the floss down your hair, this could cause breakage or damage.

TL;DR: Using dental floss on your strands might make for a fun party trick and can perhaps even be helpful if you’re in a pinch, but it’s not meant for regular use.