The Lesson in Glitter Roots

The last week has been a dominated by a whirlwind of teenagers throwing glitter on their roots. Glitter roots is a fancy trend that probably won't stick around, although it's bound to last at least as long as it takes for everyone to get the glitter out of their hair. But what will last long is the New Jersey salon that started the craze. The Fox and the Hair had been playing with glitter roots for a while before the fashion magazines got a hold of it.

The Rise of Glitter Roots

They had been experimenting with glitter roots for a while and posting the results of their work on their Instagram. Then country singer Lucy Hale came across it, decided she liked it, and reposted it to her 10 million followers with the caption “hair goals.” That's all it took. After that is when you started seeing bloggers and Teen magazine spray the internet with a veritable fountain of sparkly excitement. Glitter roots has that consumable mixture of a simple concept and interesting looks. It's easy to look at and talk about. It's even easy to have an opinion on it, even if doesn't last long. So what can we learn from this?  

Post Your Experiments on Instagram

We're not saying you'll start the next nation-wide trend, but showing something original for people to repost and fantasize about is a great way to get attention. The glitter root is not a particularly striking trend, and frankly doesn't even look that good most of the time. But it is fun, and there are so many different ways of playing with it. It's what drooling marketing strategists would call “easily consumable.” And while there is definitely some artistry involved, the appeal for most people is lighthearted fun. So get out there and have fun.

Be warned, though. Not every experiment should be shared. The Fox and Hair posted refined work. They didn't show people their first attempt. They showed people the hairstyles that looked the best and the most intriguing. This goes back to something we've mentioned before, about only putting your best face forward in social media. People scroll fast, and bad or even mediocre pictures make them scroll faster.