The study, published in PLOS One last week, tested a variety of masks and additional materials that might help improve the masks’ efficacy. Along with the pantyhose-over-the-mask trick, researchers tested other “fit hacks” including using rubber bands to shape the mask over the face and taping down the edges of the mask to the face. //

But the most effective approach may also be one of the most intolerable, as participants reported “high levels of discomfort” while wearing the pantyhose, though none of the mask combos tested saw high marks for wearability.

Still, these hacks are “accessible to the general public,” researchers emphasized, and they encouraged health care and other essential workers to consider boosting their protective-gear game.