An expert has warned against spraying your Christmas tree with hairspray to prevent pine needles from falling.
While many plant experts claim the hack does indeed work, Sheffield-born Christmas tree expert and owner of Christmastrees.co.uk, Mark Rofe, has branded the method 'old-fashioned' and 'useless', while warning of the 'fire risk'. ' can cause a life threat.
The trick is to spray your entire Christmas tree with hairspray so that the moisture is trapped in the pores of the plant, keeping the branches and pine needles in place a little longer.
Speaking to FEMAIL, he explained: 'Using hairspray to prevent the needles from falling out of your Christmas tree has become a bit of an old-fashioned and unnecessary hack.
'If you go back about 20 years ago, the most popular Christmas tree sold in Britain was the Norway spruce. These have spiny needles that tend to drop, especially if the tree dried out or was exposed to hot conditions.
Sheffield-born Christmas tree expert and owner of Christmastrees.co.uk, Mark Rofe, revealed whether hairspray can prevent pine needles from falling from your Christmas tree (stock image)
“I think the idea of using hairspray was that it would help keep the needles in place to prevent this.”
Mark explained that while the hack does help somewhat with pine needle retention, keeping a healthy and long-lasting Christmas tree largely comes down to the type of tree you bring home.
“The most popular Christmas tree sold in Britain is the Nordmann fir, also known as the 'non-drop' Christmas tree,” he added.
'Maybe you can guess why. The needles of these trees do not tend to fall; they are more likely to turn brown, curl up and shrivel while they remain on the tree.
'This is why I say the hairspray hack is not necessary, because we have trees that have now become much better at retaining their needles.
“So in most cases, hairspray is probably completely useless when it comes to helping your tree retain the needles.”
The good old hairspray trick involves spraying your entire Christmas tree with hairspray to trap moisture in the plant's pores, helping the branches and pine needles stay in place a little longer (Stock Image)
The world-famous Christmas tree is traditionally an evergreen conifer and includes the species spruce, pine and spruce.
The expert suggested opting for a different festive tree to avoid the pine needles falling out, adding: 'If you have the less popular Norway spruce Christmas tree, hairspray may help.'
Still, Mark was hesitant to recommend hairspray, even for the barest trees, due to the highly flammable nature of the hair product.
He said: 'The fire hazard you would create would far outweigh the potential benefit you would gain from preventing the needles from falling from your tree.
“The combination of wood, flammable liquid and a heat source can cause an inferno in your home.”