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Let's be honest—sometimes there are sort of "secret" ways we can make more money at our places of work.
But when we really begin to think about why some of these things work, the truth can be quite creepy.
Bella of @b_woodard on TikTok shared how she'd seen fellow restaurant servers style their hair in different ways, as they had witnessed a dramatic increase in the size and frequency of the tips they received depending on their hairstyle.
The most popular and successful option appeared to be servers who wore their hair in pigtails, which is said to make a person look younger, more innocent and more naive. This is attractive to some customers, especially male customers, and encourages them to leave larger tips.
In her experimental video, Bella explained:
"Okay, so, I saw this TikTok about this girl, she’s a waitress and I’m a waitress, and how she gets more tips when her hair’s in pigtails, for some weird, crazy reason.”
Bella proceeded to split her hair down the middle after washing and drying it. She then slicked it back with styling gel, put her hair in a pair of low-sitting ponytails.
Bella pointed out:
"If this works, I’m just gonna say like that is so weird and gross, but I’m down for more tips."
You can watch the video here:
Bella then cut to a new scene, where she was in a yellow long-sleeve shirt instead of her hot pink t-shirt, her pigtails messy after sleeping in them.
Bella had returned to confirm that the pigtail look had, in fact, worked.
“Y’all were not lying."
"I got a hundred and thirty-five dollar tip by one guy tonight."
"Wear pigtails to work, I’m about to be doing this every day.”
Due to the popularity of the pigtails video, Bella decided to start a whole series of videos on her TikTok page titled, "What Hairstyle Makes the Most Tips as a Waitress."
Each video was designed the same way, featuring Bella doing her hair in a new style, and later reporting back on how successfully the hairstyle seemed to earn more tips.
Bella made a follow-up video featuring space buns, to which she stated:
"The pigtails made more tips than [other styles], but I've had a lot of people compliment the space buns, but mostly, it was weird old men, and they would make, like, a comment about my hair... Do the pigtails."
Later when she tried bubble-braid pigtails, Bella stated:
"These got nearly as many tips as the original small pigtails. So definitely do your hair in some kind of pigtails."
"I'm all about making more tips, and if men love this, then, of course, I'm going to do it."
Some TikTokers were invested in the series, gave Bella more suggestions, and shared their own success stories.
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But other TikTokers were thoroughly creeped out by what this implied about Bella's customers.
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While it's smart to take advantage of what works and earns more money in the workplace, we have to question why these things work and if they're worth doing anyway.
Bella may have cracked a code at earning more tips, but at what cost?