Another day, another TikTok hack that has caught the attention of the beauty buff masses: that’s what I thought when I first read about this one.
But this one surprised even me, the person who washed their face with Head and Shoulders shampoo for a month after the latest viral video – which, spoiler alert, only ended in sore skin. And it uses a very unusual tool of choice: a sieve.
Yes, you read that right. The latest haircare hack for a curly blow dry is apparently sitting in your kitchen cupboard, and it looks like it does much more than just drain pasta.
Racking up over 800,000 likes on the video-led platform, Liz Fox Roseberry’s video shows the creator holding her hair upside down, catching her strands in the sieve and blow drying from beneath before looking back at the camera with a big bouncy blow dry most of us only dream of.
If you’re anything like me, you may have to rewatch it a couple of times to truly believe what you’re seeing and ask yourself, is that safe?
I certainly remained dubious until I actually gave it a go, forever putting TikTok’s best-performing beauty videos to the test to see if they really work…
Why is a sieve being used to blow dry hair?
Well, this is the million-dollar question, and I can’t quite give an exact answer as to why this kitchen tool ever made it into a beauty routine. What I can say is that it’s cheap, often ready to hand at home and works in place of an actual piece of hair styling kit.
“The sieve works in the same way as a diffuser in that it helps to disperse the air from the hair dryer,” shared Lizzie Carter, founder of Only Curls.
“The bowl of the sieve helps cup the hair during the drying process, which helps the curls to form as it lifts the curls into place. The mesh of the sieve protects the hair from the direct blast of a regular hairdryer, which would break up the curls,” she added.
That explains why it could work, but Lizzie recommends opting for a diffuser instead if you have one to hand, as it can more effectively get air into the roots, aiding a faster, more thorough blow dry.
Is it safe to use a sieve to blow dry your hair?
The key concern to this technique is whether the sieve, which is metal, can actually heat up and scorch your strands. So, the original sieve haircare hack creator Liz Fox Roseberry took to trying it out with a thermometer to see whether her followers were blowing hot air (pun fully intended) or valid in voicing their opinions, and the result was a little surprising.
Where most hairdryer’s temperatures range between 80 to 140 degrees (with many hair stylists considering 140 to be too hot for this tool) the temperature of the sieve got to around 145 after just one minute.
Of course, this isn’t as hot as hair straighteners or a curling wand, but it still wouldn’t be considered the healthiest option for hair, especially for a prolonged amount of time or without the proper heat protection in place. But, if keeping it to 20-second blasts per section on a low heat setting, Lizzie Carter says it should be ok.
“Is it good for your hair?” Liz asked in her caption, “probably not haha, but I, for one, am not worried about it….That’s just me [sic].”
Does using a sieve as a diffuser work to curl your hair?
Sieve in one hand, hairdryer in the other, I set out to give this haircare hack a go. And as someone with naturally curly hair, I was a prime candidate for it to work wonderfully.
However, it’s safe to say I was left a little disappointed, and I think that comes down to length.
With near waist-length, very thick hair, trying to catch it all in a sieve was near impossible, leaving tight corkscrew curls in some areas and semi-straight strands in others.
It’s clear this isn’t a hair hack for everyone. Those who are likely to see good results, from what I have seen so far, is anyone with short to mid-length hair that’s already curly or wavy, and a ‘plop method’ following curl-enhancing products is only going to aid the result.
Many have also found the result to be frizzier than their usual drying method, so having a hair oil to hand will help flatter flyaways too.
So, there you have it. While this haircare hack didn’t work for me, there seems to be a number of people who do love the sieve drying style. After all, there seems to be little harm in trying it, so long as you do so as Lizzie Carter recommends, particularly taking overheating into account.
What actual haircare products, kitchen tools aside, do I love to enhance curls? I’ve listed them below.
Curly hair shampoos & conditioners
*Eliza may earn commission on sales from these product links
Curl creams
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Curl gels
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Hair dryers with diffusers
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