Fix a Too-Loose Mask With Two Knots

Any mask — even a surgical-style or cloth one — should fit snugly around your face. But since many masks gap at the sides, here’s a quick trick to make yours fit better.

I learned this from a TikTok (shared by Katie Couric on Instagram) from a dentist who goes by Dr. Olivia. Here’s her demo:

You need a tiny bit of slack in the earloops, so this hack works best for smaller faces, but it goes like so:

1. Fold the mask horizontally to put the two corners with the same earloop together.
2. Tie a knot as close to the mask as possible.
3. Tuck the resulting point inside the mask, which closes off the gap.

I’ve been tying knots behind the ears if a mask is too big (either for me or for my children), but that doesn’t solve the gap issue. This does.