A Cuban resident in the United Kingdom was involved in a humorous incident with a supermarket employee when she entered the store wearing a hair wrap, a common hair practice among Cuban women.
Leonor Rosales, known on TikTok as @chinita_9210, shared the moment in a video posted in mid-August, where she recounts what happened with humor and pride. "I'm a Cuban living in England and just wait, today I'm going to tell you a juicy story," she begins in the clip that lasts a little over a minute.
According to her, a supermarket employee who already knew her had been asking for some time what she was wearing on her head. That day, Leonor decided to reveal the mystery: she removed the cloth covering her head and showed her the tourniquet. "Look, this is a tourniquet," she said in response to the woman's astonished reaction, who had no idea what it was.
The Cuban woman then explained the technique, known on the island as "coquito": you wash the hair, dry it, apply a bit of oil, and put the twist in before sleeping. The goal is to keep the hair stretched and straight. "It's like using a flat iron, and it keeps it looking gorgeous," Leonor summarized.
The employee was so impressed that she expressed a desire to learn. Leonor promised to return to the supermarket to teach her. "Don't worry, I'll come back here later and show you how it's done," she assured her.
At the end of the video, the Cuban posed an open question to her followers: "What do you call this in your country? Torniquete, coquito, what do you call it? Let me know."
The torniquet is a widely used hair practice among Cuban women. It involves sectioning and brushing the hair to wrap it around the head and securing it with pins, a scarf, or a net, with the goal of keeping it stretched for several hours.
Leonor made it clear that she feels no shame in walking down the street with a tourniquet on. "I am Cuban wherever I go, and I am not embarrassed to go out on the street like this," she stated. "Because when I take it off, my hair looks beautiful."
The video recalls other content featuring Cuban women in the diaspora who showcase customs learned on the island that attract the attention of people in their host countries.
In May 2026, another Cuban residing in England caught attention on social media for using a roll of toilet paper as a curler, a practice that many Cubans recognized right away.
On this occasion, Leonor's scene piqued the curiosity of her followers, who shared the different ways to refer to the tourniquet in their respective countries. The video garnered over 7,000 views on TikTok.
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