TikTok Took a Scene From ‘Money Heist’ and Made a New Challenge

Mega popular social media app, TikTok, has been known to blow up certain products, songs, and trends with just a few viral videos. The app has brought back old songs from the dead, revived old Disney stars for ridicule (Debby Ryan, anyone?), and made random products sell out on Amazon.

All it takes is one person sharing something cool they bought or a new makeup product to really make something small go big. Random products on Amazon, songs from unknown singer-songwriters, or certain recipes have all blown up because of TikTok. The app has never failed us with new and fun trends to try and memes to mimic, and the newest beauty trend is no different. 

TikTok users have come up with yet another beauty meme to keep us entertained for weeks to come while many of us are still under stay-at-home orders. This time, it's in the form of a hair challenge. The challenge is based on a fan-favorite scene from the Spanish Netflix series Money Heist, and it's become so popular that many TikTok users are trying their hand at the fun beauty hack that only requires a pencil and some patience.

Money Heist follows a criminal mastermind who goes by "The Professor" as he plans to pull off the biggest heist in recorded history — to print billions of euros in the Royal Mint of Spain. To help him carry out the plan, he recruits eight people with certain abilities and who have nothing to lose. 

One of those being Raquel, aka Pencil Girl, who was actually an inspector of the National Police Corps who is put in charge of the case until she ends up joining the group working on the heist. In the now-viral scene, Raquel takes a pencil and, with ease, she wraps her hair in a loose bun around the pencil and then puts it up on the top of her head. 

The challenge in question is typically filmed from behind, and people with really long hair (or medium-length hair are attempting to do updos with nothing but a single pencil) attempt to reenact the scene from the Spanish Netflix series, Money Heist, in a scene where the professor and Raquel prepare for their phone call.  

Many TikTok users have been trying it out for themselves to see if they can do the challenge as easy as Raquel in the series. Some TikTok users have also used chopsticks, hairpins, and even porcupine quills to create their own versions of the now-famous pencil bun. This meme has made way for countless dating jokes and interpretations, like this one about hunting down your friend’s crushes.

While some users are priding themselves on their skills to actually master the Money Heist Challenge, others are confused as to why this trend even exists. One Twitter user wrote, “out of all the ‘new skills’ i said i’d learn in quarantine the only one i’ve learnt is the money heist hair thing.” 

Another Twitter user commented on how addicting the challenge is once you get the hang of it and  wrote, “money heist got me putting my hair up with a pencil every two seconds.”