I Tried Blake Lively's Secret For Keeping Her Hair Shiny & It's Kind Of Worth It

You've been there before: You're scrolling through your Instagram feed when you see your favorite celeb post about their favorite new product — a face serum, vitamins that will make your skin brighter, or a specialty food service. You can't help but want to be like the stars, but are the products worth it? In Elite Daily's new series, I Tried, we put it all to the test. We're trying those products as well as celebrities' health and wellness tips, recipes, and life hacks. We'll do the leg work and tell you what living like your fave star is really like.

Few things in this world are as glamorous as Blake Lively's hair. It's long, silky, somehow both beach-tousled and exceptionally blown out, and all-around gorgeous. Seriously, I would die to have hair like Lively's. My straight, thin hair looks the same no matter what I do to it, so I'm pretty much SOL when it comes to getting Lively-level locks. I've tried almost every hack to make my lame hair more exciting, with the exception of one thing in particular — Blake Lively's secret trick for keeping her hair shiny: mayonnaise. Am I really willing to go this far? The answer is apparently a resounding "Yes," because I just put a condiment — as in, a sandwich condiment — all over my hair in an attempt to transform into Blake Lively.

In 2014, Lively told the lifestyle website Byrdie that she owes her iconic hair to mayonnaise. Yup, you read that right. She said:

My mom taught me this really great beauty tip. She used to put oil or mayonnaise on the bottom half of her hair before she would shower. That way, when she would shampoo, the soap wouldn’t strip the bottom of the hair and dry it out, making it brittle.

I don't know if I should be thankful that my mom never put mayo in my hair or p*ssed that she didn't. I could have become a famous actress with famously great hair, Mom!

So, does mayonnaise really make your hair shinier? After years of lackluster locks, I just had to put Blake Lively's secret trick to the test.

The big question: What kind of mayo?

As far as tests go, this one is pretty simple. You just need some mayo. Lively didn't specify what kind of mayo her mom put on that famous hair, so I was left a little in the dark. Do I go Hellmann's, or will a store-brand do the trick? What about full fat versus lite mayo? And what about organic versus GMO-filled, artificially colored mayo? After lots of thinking, I decided to go with Trader Joe's brand organic mayonnaise, partly because if I'm going to slather mayo on my head, at least it will be organic, and party because that's what was in my fridge.

Mayo Time

Because I'm an awful person who likes to torture my friends, I made my friend Kia come over and put the mayo on my hair. I lied and told her that I needed her to help me "evenly apply it," but really I just wanted her to be the one to touch it. I don't hate mayo, but I'm not a huge fan of having it all over my hands (or hair, really, but I'm making a sacrifice here).

Here's what my hair looked like before the mayo, just for reference. I can't lie, I was having kind of a great hair day, so I was sad to be covering it with mayo. But alas:

I only needed to cover "the bottom half" of my hair with mayo, per Lively's instructions, so I told Kia to spoon out about a quarter cup of mayo (I figured that it was better to have to add more than to have too much) and get to work. The mayo felt pretty gross and the sound of her slathering it into my hair was incredibly off-putting, but it was also pretty funny; 10/10 would recommend if you're looking for a hilarious activity.

After the mayo was evenly distributed, I let it sit for about 20 minutes. Lively didn't say how long her mom kept the mayo in before showering, so I figured that 20 minutes was probably enough time. And also, sitting totally still — I was not trying to get mayo all over my shirt — got a little old somewhere around the 18-minute mark.

After 20 minutes of grossness, I hopped in the shower and shampooed and conditioned like I normally do. I was really worried that the mayo wouldn't come out with just one pass at the shampoo, but it seemed totally fine, and when I got out of the shower, everything felt normal. I did get a few whiffs of mayo, but Kia told me that I was being paranoid and that the smell was coming from outside. Crisis averted.

The Verdict

After letting my hair air dry (my usual routine), I surveyed the results. It didn't really look any shinier, but it definitely felt different: It felt lighter and smoother than usual. It must have been all those oils that didn't get stripped out by my shampoo. Here's an after photo:

I wouldn't say that my hair is any more or less shiny than before, so I don't know if I'd call Lively's hair secret a 100 percent success. But it was at least partially successful, so if you're looking for a lighter, smoother finish, this mayo trick could be your new best friend.

All in all, would I do it again? Probably not. The sliminess of the mayo was kind of disgusting, and I feel like my shower drain was pretty gross after I washed all the mayo out of my hair. There have to be less unpleasant hair products out there that have a similar effect, right? But if you're totally desperate and you have nothing in your bank account and even less in your fridge, Blake Lively's mayo secret is definitely worth trying out.