Young people in China have taken self-made sun protection to the next level with their latest innovation: full-face masks made from lotus leaves.
People from southern Chinese provinces, such as Zhejiang, Sichuan and Fujian, are making their own sun protection masks with lotus leaves they pick from roadside ponds.
Viral videos show them covering their faces with the giant leaves, which are at least twice the size of their faces, using hats or helmets with straps to wrap and tighten the leaves.
Eye and nose holes are poked through the leaves to allow seeing and breathing.
One practitioner from southeastern China鈥檚 Fujian province, surnamed Yin, said he had planned to wear a beauty mask to prevent suntan before spotting lotus leaves near his home.
He said he found them very effective: 鈥淓verywhere except my face has become tanned!鈥
Yin also praised the sun protection tool as natural and free of charge.
The videos have created hilarious reactions online.
Many said the people in them look like giant mosquitoes or Pinocchio, the Disney character whose nose grows long when he tells lies, because of the long lotus stem still attached to the leaves.
鈥淵ou must have lied, otherwise how do you explain your long noses?鈥 one online observer said.
鈥淪ince when can mosquitoes ride motorcycles and post videos on social media?鈥 said another.
Some described the behaviour as funny but dangerous.
鈥淚t will not look so cool when you cause accidents wearing lotus leaves while driving. Also, the stems might hurt people,鈥 one person said.
Some shared their own self-made sun protection face masks.
Among them were those made from tarpaulins and their own long hair combed from back to front to cover the whole face.
The new trend is just one of the latest bizarre sun protection tools that Chinese people have invented.
More than a decade ago, the so-called facekini went viral around the world after a group of middle-aged women wore it to protect their faces from the sun on the beach in Qingdao, eastern China鈥檚 Shandong province.
The facekini covers the head and face and reveals only the eyes, nostrils and mouth.
Some even included elements of fashion, such as that of Peking opera masks and Spider-Man.
Some other cooling summer tools sold online include the umbrella hat and the fan jacket, which has power bank-driven cooling fans.