Guys, we hate to be the ones to break it to you… but TikTok might not be the answer for everything. We know, it’s a radical thought. But while we so often turn to the platform for our daily serotonin boost, there are just some things that should perhaps be left to the professionals.
Specifically, we’re talking about those dangerous beauty hacks that are constantly circulating the platform, making it seem like everyone and their mother can be a cosmetologist without any qualifications.
WATCH: TikToker demonstrates dangerous “sun contouring” beauty hack
Don’t get us wrong, we love a beauty hack as much as the next person; anything we can do ourselves rather than fork out a fortune to get done professionally we are quick to jump on. And sometimes a quick DIY beauty hack can reap great rewards.
However, many “at-home” methods that have been circulating the platform really don’t live up to their name. And current Big Brother star Tilly Whitfield is case in point.
Heading to her Instagram on Friday, Tilly shared a candid post about her awful experience with a TikTok acupuncture tutorial gone wrong. The 21-year-old even uploaded a series of raw photos that displayed the extent of the damage to her face.
As a result of the faux pas, the communications student donned a blue face mask while in the Big Brother house, causing viewers at home to question why she felt the need to cleanse her pores 24/7.
“For those asking why I have my blue clay face mask on continuously through out the show this is what my face looked like a week prior to entering the house hence why I always have makeup on and my skin is always covered.” Tilly captioned her Instagram post.
“This is the result of attempting to remove scarring I inflicted on myself trying to replicate an at home beauty procedure I saw on a tik tok video 2 months before big brother 🤣 who bloody else would manage to do such a thing.”
While the 21-year-old didn’t go into too much detail about what the procedure actually involved, Tilly explained she “shoved needles deep into (her) skin”, alluding to the fact the at-home beauty hack involved acupuncture of some sort.
If the graphic photos weren’t enough of a wake-up call to anyone planning on replicating the treatment, Tilly further explained the full extent of the damage inflicted onto her skin, while also imploring her followers not to make the same mistakes as she did.
“Please please don’t try any “DIY” or “at home” beauty procedures” Tilly begged. “I ended up in hospital with temporary loss of vision in my eye due to swelling and was very sick from the infection, not to mention my face was somewhat unrecognisable. Leave it to the professionals 🌈🦄✨”.
As well as temporary loss of vision, Tilly now has “deep below surface level scarring and dark pigmentation”.
While it’s easy to brush off Tilly’s story as a one-off beauty fail, the fact it is, there are so many opportunities for the exact same thing to happen to others… and not just from this particular beauty hack.
If your TikTok algorithm is anything like ours, scrolling on your for you page will lead you to witness a multitude of beauty hacks that are oh-so-enticing to try but oh-so-disastrous should they fail.
A video uploaded by @stopiteli, with nearly two million likes, is a prime example, in which the TikToker demonstrated how to contour your face using sunscreen.
“Haters will say it doesn’t work, but I am convinced that if you put a base sunscreen of SPF 30 on and SPF 90 on all the spots that you would put highlighter on, the sun will contour your face where you put bronzer and you will be naturally snatched all summer,” @stopiteli told viewers.
What was perhaps even more alarming than the suggestion itself was the hype the TikToker received in her comments section.
“You are on to something!!” one user wrote.
“Wait try it on your abs too.”
If you’re confused as to why sun contouring is dangerous, just ask skin care guru Zoe Foster-Blake who has been a massive advocate for daily SPF wearing for quite some time now.
Back in 2013, on her blog Zo They Say, the cosmetics entrepreneur wrote, “My answer when people ask me what my number one best beauty tip is, and that is, (sing it with me now)… WEAR SUNSCREEN EVERY DAY, WHETHER CLOUDY OR SUNNY, AND YOUR SKIN WILL LOOK YOUNGER, FOR LONGER.” Yes, it was bold and in all caps… so you know she’s serious.
If that’s the case, we don’t think Zoe would take too kindly to TikTokers forgoing sunscreen on specific parts of their face just to have a “natural contour”. Like, bestie, what are you going to do in 20 years when different parts of your face look different ages? The sun is going to have to contour a wrinkly canvas.
Sadly, the hacks don’t stop there.
Back in March, TikToker @agbe_ filmed herself dyeing a patch of her blue hair pink with nothing but some perfume and a hair straightener. If you’re thinking this method sounds too good to be true then you’ve hit the nail on the head. And the comments section echoed your sentiment.
“You can see the pink powder on the straighteners lol” one user wrote.
“Firstly the straightener wasn’t plugged in second there was pink powder on the straightener three she was holding the pink powder” another added.
A third even called the content creator out for the implications of sharing this “hack”, writing “why even do that knowing some kids won’t notice it’s not plugged in and ruin their hair”.
Indeed, some TikTok users just won’t be able to discern what’s real and what’s fake, as well as what’s safe to try at home and what’s not. As the platform’s beauty “hacks” continue to become more and more “accessible” and “simplified”, the lines get increasingly blurry and any of us can fall victim to trying out these potentially dangerous DIY methods.
So, we implore you, every time you see an enticing TikTok beauty hack… please research it first, ask your GP or a qualified cosmetologist for advice prior to trying anything you might regret.
And remember, just because a “beauty hack” may be trendy, it doesn’t mean you have any obligation to participate in it. In fact, body positivity activist Abbie Chatfield actively warns against jumping on the TikTok bandwagon at times.
“These trends on TikTok are so awful and toxic, and it’s hard to not want to participate myself,” Abbie told Girlfriend exclusively. “They’re disguised as harmless fun, but the implications are severe. Every few days there’s a new beauty standard to try to live up to.”
If you see others on TikTok going to all lengths to change their appearance then that is their choice, but it doesn’t have to be yours unless you want it to be and it is safe to do so.
As Abbie put it: “There is nothing wrong with thinking YOU are the beauty standard. You have no idea how others see you, and you’d never speak to your best friend the way you speak to yourself.”
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