Forget Your Strainer—the New Pasta Hair Curl Hack Blowing Up on TikTok

It might just be time to cast your rollers aside, as a new hair tool is taking over TikTok—and it’s definitely not what you would expect.

Rigatoni pasta has found a new purpose in the world: as a hair roller. Our For You pages have been overrun with videos of women using the inexpensive kitchen staple in the place of heatless curling kits, rollers, Dyson’s famed Airwrap and all the dupes that followed its 2018 launch.

While it may be growing in popularity, with a number of creators putting the hack to the test, this isn’t the first time that something from the kitchen has doubled up as a hair product. In 2023, the humble pasta strainer began trending after a creator, Liz Roseberry (@foxcraftcustom), realized that it could be used as a diffuser.

Despite their similarities, Rigatoni can, according to the tales of its success online, create tighter and more defined curls.

How to Get Pasta Curls

A front-runner of the trend is a creator who goes by @acquiredstyle on TikTok. The influencer shared a “rigatoni curls” tutorial to the platform on July 8, and it has since been viewed more than 6 million times.

“I curled my hair with a full head of pasta,” she told viewers. “Let’s take it out and see if it worked.

“I made sure that my hair was damp, I used some texture spray, [and] I let the whole head sit for an hour, not even that long. I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t expect for them to be like this,” she said.

Viewers watched as the creator removed each piece of rigatoni from her blonde locks, which she had rolled around her hair and fastened to her head with silver clips. Each section of hair fell to reveal tight and defined curls, which she brushed her hands through to create a more relaxed, undone look.

“These are the cutest curls I’ve ever seen,” she added, expressing her verdict on the hack.

She had shared herself creating the look on TikTok earlier that day, in a post that has been viewed more than 1.7 million times. She told viewers that she felt inspired to trade her curling iron in for rigatoni after seeing a post on Instagram by @theshinysquirel of the southern Italian pasta being used as rollers.

An army of creators soon followed in her footsteps, each sharing their own attempt at the hack and each appearing pleased to varying degrees with the result.

One creator, @mireyarios, called the curls “time-consuming,” but shared that she was content with the resulting look in a post from July 27, in which she had tested out the hack.

Another TikToker, @emchan13, pulled a shocked expression while taking the rigatoni out of her hair to reveal tight curls, but did say that the activity resembled something that people did to pass time during COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. Her post was shared to the platform on July 11.

While this method of achieving the curls may not be for everyone, the majority of online viewers have reacted positively to the unlikely hack.

“How does the rigatoni look better than the gelled curls,” one user, @danipossi, commented under @acquiredstyle’s attempt at the hack. Her comment has been liked more than 28,700 times by TikTok users.

Another, @ring, wrote: “New trend unlocked.”

“OK, everyone running to buy rigatoni lol,” a third user, @kellealv, wrote.

TikToker @carbonefinefood commented: “Rigatoni curl girl summer.”

In 2023, Newsweek spoke with Roseberry, from Texas, to learn how she devised her viral “pasta strainer” hack in the first place.

“I have always had straight hair that gets frizzy,” the jewelry designer said. “After seeing dozens of TikTok videos discussing how straight and frizzy hair could be a sign of wavy hair, I became curious. So, I decided to try the viral ‘plop method’ a few times, but I just didn’t have any success with my diffuser.

She added: “I just kept wishing I could scoop larger sections of hair, that’s where the strainer comes in. Apparently, the hack has been around for ages! I just thought to myself: ‘okay, what’s something that’s bowl-shaped that has holes?’ and boom! For me, it worked worlds better than a diffuser. I’m always open to creative solutions and lifehacks.”

Newsweek reached out to @acquiredstyle, @mireyarios and @emchan13 for comment via TikTok and email.