I Tried a Tights Hair-Wrapping Hack and It Worked: Photos
Wait, TikTok's Tights Hair-Wrapping Hack Actually Works
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There are very few natural hair hacks that surprise me anymore. This is mainly because the Black community has done a fantastic job of sticking to what we know, particularly when it comes to hair maintenance. I grew up learning from the people in my family that to preserve my hairstyles, I was to wear a bonnet when going to sleep, or to wrap my hair in a stocking cap if it was straightened. This is the way I've always done it, and I had no intentions of changing my methods. So you can imagine the way my world was turned upside down when I discovered a new — and dare I say better — way to wrap my hair on Tik Tok.
Though she credits the idea to someone else, the TikTok user that I came across doing the hack was Tiana Morris. It goes as follows: take a pair of tights, and first cut the feet off. Then, put each half of your hair through each leg of the stocking, and tie it like a durag. It looked almost too good to be true so, of course, I had to try it for myself.
After my most recent wash day, I conveniently had a pair of stockings on hand so I immediately got to work (these L'eggs Everyday Women's Nylon Stockings ($6) are similar). I cut the ends off both feet and placed the section that would normally go over the stomach area on my head. Did I look like SpongeBob in that episode when he had the balloon on his head? Yes. But with the promise of convenience dangling before my eyes, I forged ahead.
The hardest part of the hack was the next portion: getting my hand through the stocking to pull my hair through the leg. The section that was already on my head was a bit tight, so once I successfully got my hand through the feet, I then had to pull at the fabric at the front of my head to create space for my hand to actually grab my hair. It was a bit awkward to maneuver at first, but once I did it, by the time I got to the other side of my head, it was a breeze. Once both sides of my hair were in the stockings, I tied both ends together. It was then that I vowed to never wrap my hair any other way again.
This hack is nothing short of genius. It's such a simple technique in hindsight, but my singular goal growing up was to perfect my wrapping technique. Despite the fact that said technique involved lots of brushes, bobby pins, and attempts to defy gravity, I was not aware that there was any other way out there.
I will say that if you have shorter hair, you don't need to have the "leg" area of the stockings as long, so feel free to cut them a bit shorter to avoid struggling to pull your hair through like I did. Additionally, this most likely will only work for blowouts, silk presses, and some variations of locs, so if you have long, thick braids in your hair, you may want to stick with a bonnet. On the other hand, now that this hack is in my arsenal, it will probably be the only way that I wrap my straight hair moving forward, and for that, I am beyond thankful. Deliverance: it's a beautiful thing.
