Women Are Shaving Their Legs With Sandpaper In Bizarre New TikTok Trend

TikTok has been a bit of a godsend throughout the last year, to be quite honest.

The video sharing app, which surged in popularity over the coronavirus pandemic, has provided us with hours of entertainment, as well as providing a number of nifty tips and tricks to try and make our lives a whole lot easier.

But there's one trend that we've seen doing the rounds on the app that we're going to be giving a miss - and that's using sandpaper to shave our legs.

Erm...ouch?

A woman going by the username @Jules49of revealed she discovered the novel way of hair removal by following accountants on TikTok.

"I'm watching this girl, she's an accountant, and she starts talking about shaving her legs with sandpaper!" Jules explained.

"She used 600 grit sandpaper on her legs. She said to circle this way 10 times, and then do the same thing in the opposite direction 10 times."

She continued: "I did it, and oh my God, my skin is so soft. It's awesome. And it works!

"I have been using a fricking razor all this time - didn't need one! All I needed was 600 grit sandpaper. Thank you, accountants of TikTok."

And Jules' beauty hack has seen many women run out to hardware stores to grab some sandpaper and start using it on their leg stubble.

But before you go searching for some of your own 600 grit paper, we spoke to some experts about using sandpaper on your skin is necessarily the best idea.

Unsurprisingly, it isn't.

"Sandpaper can cut/scratch your legs, break veins, and become generally sore," Sharon Cobley from Pure Aesthetics 365 tells Tyla. "It basically rips the hair off."

Elsewhere, Natalie James, founder of self-care brand Tingle, added: "It's not a very sanitary option! It is extremely rough and while it may be removing your hairs, it can also take off a lot more skin than you might expect."

Natalie adds that repeatedly using sandpaper as a hair removal tool could led to potentially nasty skin conditions.

"Sandpaper can actually remove layers from your skin and actually lead to folliculitis as a result of aggravating the hair follicles."

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For those of you not in the know, folliculitis is what happens when hair follicles become inflamed, and can lead to pimples or red, hard lumps forming on the skin.

Instead, Natalie believes the humble razor is the best hair-removal product.

"We know it's old fashioned but the good old razor method is probably the safest option for removing hair," she said. "Sandpaper is sold in hardware stores for a reason."

If you're looking to splash out, Sharon suggests laser treatment.

"I would personally recommend Class 4 laser hair removal," she says. "This destroys hair follicles when in the 'Anagen' stage.

"Repeated treatments will eventually provide smooth legs for years to come. There is no breaking of the skin for this treatment, so you won't end up with cuts or scratches on your legs!"

Topics: Life News, Beauty, Life, Health, TikTok

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley