The Boyfriend Effect Is Trending Online — Here's Why

We don't know about you, but we are currently on #datingtok. Judge us all you want, but it's cuffing season y'all, and after a hot girl summer, we are ready for a cuffed-up fall.

But one trend on TikTok has made us question whether we actually want a boyfriend or not. The girls are taking to the app to show us pictures of before and after getting into a relationship with "the boyfriend effect" and spoiler alert, the results aren't pretty.

What is the boyfriend effect? We explain it below.

The boyfriend effect is a trend on TikTok that explores what happens to a girl before and after entering a relationship. This trend is a take on the girlfriend effect trend, where a boy's style improves exponentially once the latter enters a relationship.

The boyfriend effect is similar, but the opposite. In the trend, a girl will show pictures of herself before being in a relationship looking stunning and all dolled up. The TikTok will then cut to the girl after having a boyfriend looking... well... we'll just let you decide.

The video posted by content creator Angelica Pham, set to the song "Greedy" by Tate McRae, has the words "Everyone's talking about the 'girlfriend effect' but what about the 'boyfriend effect?'" with a video of her and her boyfriend.

Angelica then cuts to pictures of videos of her looking stunning and like a fashionista. The TikTok then cuts to "me now" with videos and pictures of not her finest moments. The caption reads, "Will I regret embarrassing myself for this girlfriend trend? Prob."

People commented on the video and agreed that the "boyfriend air is so real." Boyfriend Air is another TikTok trend where girls show themselves before going to hang out with their boyfriend looking cute, and then after looking like they were hit by a brick wall.

As you can see by this video posted by @notsophiesilva, before hanging out with her boyfriend, she has very cute pigtails with bows. Afterward, her hair is all over the place.

This video posted by @honeybeewaxx has 7 million views, 1.6 million likes, and 7,069 comments. In the first picture of the creator with full glam, the words read, "How I looked when I pulled my bf." The next picture shows her looking equally beautiful but with a goofy look on her face and a beanie on.

The commenters are truly relating to this trend saying things like, "BF effect genuinely hits so hard," "The BF effect is real…it happened to me too," and "Will 100 percent be fighting this BF effect in my next relationship."

This video posted by @chelseylm6 got a little fancy using Cap Cut. The video put together the boyfriend trend and the Mike Wheeler trend. The words read, "How I looked when I pulled my bf," once again looking beautiful. When Mike Wheeler snaps the words read, "How I looked now," with the creator looking just as beautiful, but fresh-faced and natural.

NOTE: All these women are beautiful either way.