I always feel so accomplished when I actually put in the effort to style my hair — not only does it look so much more put together than if I let it air-dry, but my shoulders get super hot after spending so much time blow-drying and curling it, and it feels like an upper-body workout without the effort.
Apparently, I’m not alone in this: TikTok users are upping the burn on their arm and shoulder muscles by adding wrist weights to their hair routine. It might look a little silly, but it’s honestly pretty hard work. If you don’t have time to go to the gym, I couldn’t help but wonder if just attaching weights to your arms and curling your hair is actually an effective workout.
Experts featured in this article
Kelly Bernadin, CPT, is a Group Fitness Instructor at Michigan-based Life Time Clubs.
Could wrist weights make hair care an effective workout?
“That makes sense,” says Kelly Bernadin, CPT, group fitness instructor at Life Time Clubs in Michigan, “because while curling your hair, your wrists are elevated above your head most of the time.”
Although scientists have not tested this just In this strategy, researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2016 had 89 participants wear wrist and ankle weights for 20 minutes, three times a week, while performing everyday activities like housework or gardening. They found that this actually increased skeletal muscle mass.
Bernadine says that if you wear wrist weights and curl your hair, you’ll feel the sensation in both your biceps and shoulders. “That burning sensation indicates that those muscles are working and are definitely being stressed, which is what we’re doing when we lift weights,” she says.
But the burning sensation doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting stronger in your upper body; you’re only putting light strain on your muscles for a relatively short period of time, so the benefits are minimal compared to more targeted arm and shoulder training. “You’d have to curl your hair every day for a year before you could really say, ‘curling my hair makes me stronger,'” says Bernadine.
Hairdressers’ arms are some of the strongest, thanks to the time they spend tugging at hair with blow dryers and curling irons many days a week. They’re strong even without wrist weights, Bernadin points out. But to replicate the same results, people in other professions would have to spend hours blow drying and curling their own hair, likely burning it in the process.
Still, Bernadine understands why this strategy is so popular: We all lead busy lives and sometimes you need to kill two birds with one stone. Adding a little arm workout into your morning routine can’t hurt.
A word of warning, though: “When holding a heated tool in your hands and applying a load you’re not used to, be very careful not to accidentally burn your face,” warns Bernadine, and this is not the kind of “burn” anyone needs to get out of training.
A tip for anyone trying weighted curling: move slowly and take the weights off when your arms start to shake. It’s okay (and healthy!) to not work out every day. Only strength train when you can focus on repetitions and form, and preferably without a hot piece of metal in your face.
Jennifer Heimlich is a writer and editor with over 15 years of experience in fitness and wellness journalism. She previously served as Senior Fitness Editor at Well+Good and Editor in Chief of Dance Magazine. A UESCA-certified running coach, she has written about running and fitness for publications such as Shape, GQ, Runner’s World, and The Atlantic.