Hairstylists warn Sofia Richie fans that they could damage their hair by trying to recreate her iconic sleek bun

• Sofia Richie, the daughter of singer Lionel Richie, is one of TikTok's most popular "it girls."
• She often sports a slick bun, and she recently shared a tutorial on how fans can recreate the look.

Sofia Richie is known for many things — her old money aesthetic, her lavish wedding festivities, her famous family and friends, and, of course, her slick bun.

Earlier this week, Richie, 25, gave fans a tutorial on how she does her signature sleek hairstyle on TikTok, in a video that has already received over 21.3 million views and 2.3 million likes.

She begins the tutorial by saying she'd just gotten out of the shower and that it was the "perfect opportunity" to show fans how she crafts the look.

Richie said she's mastered doing the bun with any product, but she preferred working with hair oil, Oribe lotion hair lotion, and a hair mask.

"Honestly because it started wet, it is so secured onto your head," she says at the end of the TikTok, adding that damp hair helped the bun become firm like a "helmet" without being "sticky" or "hard."

But while fans appear to be loving Richie's guide to achieving her signature sleek bun, hairstylists on the platform have issued warnings about a key part of her method — wet hair.

Styling wet hair can cause it to 'snap off,' hairstylists say

TikToker Abbey Yung, who describes herself as a trichologist in training and posts regular content about hair and skincare, responded to Richie's tutorial in a TikTok warning viewers trying to grow out damaged hair not to try the sleek style with wet hair.

"Don't try this hairstyle if you're trying to grow out damaged hair," Yung said in her stitch with Richie's original video.

"Wet hair is incredibly fragile and susceptible to breakage," she added. "Even when our hair is dry, brushing, pulling, and twisting on it are what ultimately causes our hair to snap off, so the potential for breakage just becomes so much worse."

British hairstylist and colorist Rachel Valentine echoed Yung's warnings in her own response to Richie's TikTok.

"Yes it looks amazing, however, this is going to be so damaging if you do this to your hair," she said. "Our hair is like an elastic band and when it's wet it's really stretchy and if you think about the more your going to be stretching that elastic band and putting it under stress, the more likely it is to break."

Another issue that fans of the hairstyle should be aware of is the damage a tight, slick bun can do to hair over time.

According to Healthline, repeatedly pulling hair back into a tight updo can cause Traction alopecia, a condition first identified by doctors in Greenland in the early 1900s after they discovered women styling their hair into ponytails were losing hair along their hairline.