The water bottle hair-drying hack- our verdict

You already know we love a hair hack here at Q, so when we heard that Huda Kattan, aka the legend behind beauty brand Huda Beauty, had shared one of her own, we had to find out more. This one, weirdly, involves using a water bottle and a hair dryer to produce curls- and probably not in the way you’d imagine. Prepare for a work of investigative journalism at its’s finest.

Huda shared the hack with her 28.8 million-strong Instagram following via her account, @hudabeauty, which shows a video of a water bottle being cut in half, with a slit cut in one side. Hair is then placed inside the water bottle and a hairdryer blows air through the slit (if you’re not following this, give the video a watch- it’s short and will explain in ways we can’t!). This, apparently, gives hair a curly appearance.

In the caption, Huda writes, “OMG!! 😲 Have you guys tried this HACK?! Using a water bottle to create curls! I had to try it & I have to say it WORKS! This took me less than 1 minute to do MY WHOLE HAIR!! It’s got to be the best hair curling hack EVER! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 Caution: make sure to wear gloves to prevent burning yourself, I hurt myself a little bit 😫”

We almost don’t want to believe it works. But judging by Huda’s curly ringlets at the end of the vid, it does. It seems the combination of the heat and the pressure of the hairdryer causes the hair to bounce around inside the bottle and twist, creating curls within seconds.

And Huda’s not the only person claiming that the hack works: a fair few people have tried it out themselves, with a large proportion sharing their curly after pics. This includes South Florida stylist Olivia Smalley, who shared a video of her attempt with her nearly 140,000 Instagram followers, writing, “Did this hack just BREAK THE INTERNET?! Died. Dead. A water bottle? Is this real life? I saw this on @asil page and I had to do a tutorial immediately!! I said to myself, there is NO WAY this will actually work.” Her video inspired others to post their attempts at what Smalley is calling the #blowthebottlechallenge (a very amusing hashtag to scroll down).

However, there are some people who were disappointed when the hack did not live up to its promise, with Evening Standard journalist Sabrina Carder writing: “I was optimistic about the hair curling trick as I love an at-home beauty hack, but alas, even to my poker straight thin hair it did nada.”

Similarly, Evening Standard journalist Meghann Murdock “My hair has refused to cooperate, even at the hands of some of the capital’s finest hairdressers, so I was surprised by the hint of a wave.”

So what’s the verdict? Personally, we don’t think this one’s for us. We can’t help but linger on Huda’s caution to wear gloves, because here’s the reality: applying heat so closely and directly to the hair isn’t going to be best for it, and not only that, it could melt the plastic of your water bottle. If you’re planning on trying this hack yourself, our advice is to proceed with caution. It might produce promising results, but Huda doesn’t specify how long the curls actually last, and the whole thing seems a little… well, DIY.

You might just be better off sticking with what you know and getting out the old curling tongs.