We live for simple hair hacks that take less than a minute to do, but make things look 8,000 times better. The ‘pinch hair hack’ is one of those, and we can’t believe we’ve only just been introduced to it.

Over on makeup artist and hair stylist, Emma Chen’s Instagram, we’ve noticed there’s a simple trick the pro puts to good use again and again to create that incredibly tousled and airy texture that she’s known for. And, even though we don’t profess to have her hair skills, this pinch hair hack is a technique we’re pretty confident we can master. 

Chen explains that there might be a better way to encourage some oomph in hair, without blasting it with too much texturizing spray and dry shampoo. “Do you over prep hair?” she asks. “Using too much product can sometimes be as bad as not using any product at all. Hair becomes weighed down,  limp and over-processed,” she adds.

The alternative? “The key to adding volume and texture without relying on product is creating different shapes in the hair. It stops the hair barreling into itself and creates dimension,” Chen says. 

One way you can do this of course, is with styling tools. Styling your waves in alternate directions helps to add a mussy texture. But, when it comes to framing your face and adding extra lift, movement and shape at the front, that’s where “the pinch” comes into play.

Pinching together the two sections of hair at the front of your parting brings the top part closer together while the rest can swoop further apart, which gives a cool-girl curtain fringe shape. It adds a little extra root lift at the “pinch” and when paired with some tactical waves that curve at your cheekbone it gives our facial features a little extra definition. The best part? You don’t need to be in front of a mirror with all your styling tools to hand. It’s a trick you can use anywhere at any time to refresh your style  and add some pretty dimension. 

This story originally appeared on Glamour UK.

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.