Scalp popping: how safe is tiktok's newest trend?

The newest TikTok trend to break the internet is one that involves the cracking of one's own scalp by pulling on the hair.

On the most popular clip with the hashtag 'scalp popping', user @yanasemerly has amassed over 800,000 likes and 6.6 millions views influencing many to try the trend for themselves. But unlike cracking your own knuckles, this new trend is now being slammed for causing painful side effects.

How does one pop their own scalp?

The video shows two girls wrapping a small strand of hair around each other's fingers and tugging at it until we hear a surprisingly loud popping sound prompting the girls to laugh while looking shocked.

Other users, however, did not have such lighthearted reactions as many comments express a rather negative outcome to the hair pulling. One such user said:

I must be doing it wrong because that hurt

And another said:

Directions unclear and now I have a bald spot

Serious health concerns

Jon Musgrave, an NYC-based massage therapist, explains that this practice has actually been around for some time and is used, therapeutically, to release pressure points:

I first became aware of it as something Mexican women do to help relieve heat-induced migraines. It's not a standard Western massage technique, and it's not something that I would do to myself or to someone else.

The massage therapist compared the practice to trying to crack one's own neck. Essentially, if you do not know how to perform this type of cracking you might end up tearing the skin or connective tissue underneath the scalp:

it's something that many people do but is not particularly safe, and should be left to someone who has the training and experience to do it safely.

So, we think it's safe to say that this is one hair trend we definitely won't be trying out. And you probably shouldn't either!

Check out the video above for footage of the viral clip.