Can You Really Cook Bacon With a Hair Straightener?

This week in things I didn’t know I didn’t need to know, apparently there are people who cook bacon with hair straighteners – isn’t that an interesting tidbit?

If you thought our microwavable bacon update was an innovative hack, just wait ’til you see this baby.

TikTok user itsmeju1iette has shown the world that if you place a strip of bacon and a small serving of egg onto the hot plate of your hair straightener, you can walk away with a plate of sad-looking, but admittedly cooked (it seems), food.

Check it out for yourself:

@itsmeju1iette

what’s a stove? ???? #foryou #4u #foryoupage

♬ original sound – Cheri

As strange – and gross – as this seems, Juliette is not the first one to experiment with hair straightener cooking techniques. Back in 2016, SBS reported that folks on the internet were using their straighteners to make popcorn. One kernel at a time.

If you’re wondering you can pop popcorn with a straightener pic.twitter.com/3pOZuQhKlK

— Nic (@itsnicolee06) April 19, 2016

You’ve got to admit, seeing the popcorn fly on out is kind of exciting.

And swinging back to bacon – a topic we all love to discuss – there’s an entire Reddit thread dedicated to cooking the meat product in a hair styling tool.

Can you cook bacon with hair straighteners ? from AskReddit

One user advised:

“A hair straightener or flat iron can reach temps over 400F [about 200C]. The recommended safe cooking temperature for bacon is 160F [about 71C]. So, it might be OK. I can’t really recommend it though.”

And, well, it seems as though this Redditor may be onto something. According to the Food Safety Information Council, pork needs to be cooked to a minimum of 75C in the centre. Self magazine shares that “most” hair straighteners get to temperatures of 450F (about 232C). So the heat levels are more than there, but does that a good cooking appliance make?

Food Safety Information Council explained to me that while there have long been curious trends when it comes to cooking food in strange places, “our advice is to stick to cooking food on proper cooking appliances and check riskier foods have reached a safe temperature using a meat thermometer”.

Long story, short: straighteners are not designed for food. And if you’ve ever had hair product or your hair touch the device, you’re risking a whole lot of possible nasties in your breakfast (or the reverse!). Best stick with the pan, yeah?