an image showing the boyfriend effect from TikTok

So what exactly is ‘the boyfriend effect’ that’s all over your TikTok page right now?

I’ve never felt so validated

8 months ago

In order to understand what exactly ‘the boyfriend effect’ is you keep seeing on your TikTok we first have to set the scene.

It’s Friday night. You’ve just put fresh sheets on the bed, taken an everything shower, lit a candle and all in all have created a very cosy, clean and tidy room. Your boyfriend is coming over and you want to make sure it’s a nice environment for him to be in. He arrives and you fall asleep cuddling together.

Flash forward. It’s 2 am and you groggily wake up needing some water. The light from the moon dimly illuminates the corners of your room, and you swear you can see cushions discarded onto the floor, clothes strewn haphazardly onto the floor and something that vaguely resembles a bowl of half eaten cereal on the floor?

Once morning breaks you can see the full extent of the mess, and it looks as though a tornado has hurled through your room. Now replace tornado with boyfriend and it’s an accurate depiction of what’s happened. And we’re not alone in this, as other girlfriends have been making TikTok’s showing first hand before and after of their room descending into an untidy chaos that is being labelled ‘the boyfriend effect’.

@worryaboutyaselff

🤣😅

♬ ABBY USED MY SOUND – livinonthedancefloor💋

So, what exactly is the ‘boyfriend effect?’ Essentially it’s where your room is beautifully tidy and you can maintain a good level of cleanliness when you’re by yourself. But then the moment your boyfriend comes over your room suddenly becomes impossibly messy in a matter of minutes.

@lusungumbambo

And hes sipping on my Stanley #fyp

♬ original sound – Vanessa Sirias

We all know guys can not always be the tidiest but the main thought behind why this happens is just that our rooms are really only made for one person, meaning a lot of the time there’s just not enough room for everything, although I’m still leaning towards option one… But with the boyfriend effect and boyfriend air from TikTok both working in full force together, what are girls to do?!

As a result, it looks like girls we’re just going to have to accept the fact that when our boyfriends come to visit us they will be arriving into a gorgeously aesthetic and tranquil space, complete with our hair and makeup looking flawless. By the time they leave our makeup will have melted off our faces and our hair will have become a ball of tangled frizz. The floor will be covered with various receipts and snack wrappers, the fan will have been moved to a weird angle, and somehow the fitted sheet on your bed that doesn’t budge an inch when you’re on it for a week will be completely detached from all but one corner, where it will be desperately hanging on for dear life.

Ah, the things we do for love.