This One-Step Hair Hack Creates the Perfect Messy Bun Every Single Time

Topknots are the ultimate, everyday hair style. They sweep hair off our faces in an elegant yet nonchalant way, and can be dressed up with a headband or decorative ribbon or kept casual with a few face-framing tendrils.

In theory.

In reality topknots leave us looking like Miss Trunchbull half the time. Either we pull our hair back too tight and it’s slick to the head, making our hair look far greasier than it actually is, or the bun is so tiny and poky it could never pass for the lustrous topknots of our Instagram feeds.

And yet it doesn’t stop us from absentmindedly whipping our hair into a topknot every afternoon. After all, when we get it right, it’s worth the mishaps.

Luckily, there’s a new technique going viral on TikTok, which supposedly guarantees the perfectly placed, just-messy-enough topknot every single time.

Posted by Quinty Mirjam de Vries, who has more than 44 million likes on the platform, the hack demonstrates how a simple flick of the wrist is all that’s needed to secure the perfect topknot.

First, de Vries pulls hair back into a high ponytail, but instead of pulling hair all the way through, she pulls it only halfway through the elastic before twisting the band and flipping her hair over her hand before securing the style.

The whole style takes less than 10 seconds, which is even more impressive when you realize that de Vries has considerably slowed it down per her followers requests.

We’ve tried it ourselves, and while we’re definitely not at de Vries’s level, we can confirm it works. However, you will need a very stretchy hair tie to allow for all that wrist movement.

Once you’ve mastered the move, finish it off by tucking in any loose ends and pulling out sections at the front if you’re going for a messier finish.

This story originally appeared on Glamour U.K.