Women in the service industry are saying on TikTok that when they wear their hair in pigtails, they make more money, BuzzFeed reported.
TikTokers and service workers told the outlet they made substantially more money when their hair was put up in a pigtails hairstyle, which is often perceived as youthful or girlish.
The TikTok conversation began when TikToker Grace posted in 2021 that she made more tips after deciding on the spur of the moment to wear pigtails to work, the outlet said.
@semiattractivementallyok♬ PUT ME IN A MOVIE – Stargirlvibes
The video gained popularity again in July, according to NBC News.
“They told us to do this in Girl Scouts to sell more cookies,” one person commented on the video. Girl Scouts of the USA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“What’s wrong with this world,” another user wrote.
In 2007, the American Psychological Association released a report expressing concerns about the sexualization of young girls in popular culture. In 2019, University of Massachusetts researchers published an update to that report, summarizing the few studies that have been done since, and confirmed “the presence and problematic effects of sexualizing media and marketing.”
Still, UMass researchers also note in the report that “research studies and journalistic reports show that when girls are able to critically evaluate the media and are engaged in feminist activism, they combat the effects of hypersexualized media.”
Now, this trend has played out in the workplace. One TikToker and dancer, Veronica Portillo, told NBC News that when she wore pigtail braids “something just clicked with these men, and they started throwing me money.”
@vipveropor Never putting pig tails on my future daughter
In a Tiktok, she shows herself putting on the hairstyle and then, at the end of her shift, dumping a pile of money onto a table. “OMG IT WORKED,” her video said.
Portillo recounted making roughly $600 on a Sunday evening with the pigtails, a night where she would normally take home $100. “It’s definitely unsettling,” she told the outlet.
Lisa Stirling, a server, also told NBC that she tried the style — and made 16.7% of her sales via tips, compared to 12.5% while not wearing it.
