5-Minute Craft Review

Let’s see if the crafting empire’s crafts and life-hacks actually work!

Many internet users may be familiar with the brilliant crafting empire entitled 5-Minute Crafts™. If not, 5-Minute Crafts is a collection of social media accounts, the original being their YouTube channel, devoted to life hack and crafts that are typically eccentric in nature. I could spend hours, eyes glued to my small iPhone screen, watching obsequiously as the host of 5-Minute Crafts duct-tapes her socks to create a makeshift water shoe. However, my adulation for 5-Minute Crafts has yet to have been put to the test… until now. In this recurring feature, I will be putting 5-Minute Crafts’s DIYs and life hacks to the test. 

In this issue, I will tackle a classic life hack that addresses the annoying moment when starvation kicks in, yet available supplies consist of only a hair straightener and some popcorn kernels.

My hypothesis on the efficacy of this hack: 

Although I am skeptical, I think of no concrete reason as to why this life hack would fail. To my knowledge, a popcorn kernel only needs a source of heat to pop. Coming from someone who has received multiple burns after trying to straighten my hair, I am sure that a straightener is definitely a source of heat. 

Procedure: 

1. Obtain a hair straightener and some popcorn kernels 
2. Plug in the straightener, and turn it on
3. Once the flat iron heats up, place a single popcorn kernel between the two plates of the flat iron and hold it shut
4. Wait until the popcorn pops, and enjoy! 

My Experience:

Okay, so this procedure seemed easy enough to me, but surprisingly steps three and four quickly became difficult. First of all, getting a single kernel in between two scorching hot pieces of metal is virtually impossible. Seriously, I think I damaged the nerve endings in my fingertips. Oops. Secondly, you can’t hold the plates together too loosely, or else the kernel will fall out. However, you also can’t hold them too tightly, otherwise, the piping hot kernel will come shooting out from between the plates. Lastly, I was under the impression that the kernel would pop after at most one minute. Boy, was I wrong. I decided to record the procedure so that I could watch the footage later, but the recording took so long that my phone completely ran out of storage. My arm hurt so badly from holding the straightener up for so long that my wrist felt sore the next morning. But after the pain, suffering, and probably ten years taken off of my life, it happened: the popcorn popped! After seven and a half minutes, I had popped one piece of popcorn with my hair straightener. I felt ecstatic, unstoppable, on top of the world! I was on such a high that I decided to go for round two. This kernel, like it’s stubborn sibling, took around seven minutes to pop. However, this didn’t get me down, so I decided to have a celebration—a feast consisting of the fruits of my labor: two pieces of popcorn.

Conclusion: All in all, was this life hack helpful? No, not at all. Did this life hack save time or money? Again, no. Did the popcorn taste especially good? I’m not going to lie, it kind of tasted like packing peanuts with a hint of John Frieda “Frizz Ease®️” Hair Oil. I don’t really understand the reasoning behind the creation of this hack because, after all, why would anyone have loose popcorn kernels if they didn’t own a microwave or air popper? But, nevertheless, did this life hack work? Technically, yes. It did what it was supposed to do and arguably could help someone in a very, very specific situation. Thank you for following along with my life-hacking journey. Stay tuned for next time!