A restaurant waitress showed how her tips changed drastically after trying different hairstyles.
In a viral video posted to TikTok, user Sam McCall (@sammccall0) documented the hairstyles she wore during several shifts at a restaurant, revealing exactly how much money she took home after each shift.
“Testing the server hair theory to see what gives me the most tips,” she wrote about the clip, which has been viewed nearly 50,000 times since it was posted last week. On the first day, she showed off her long brown hair slicked down with her bangs peeking out from a colorful headscarf. By the end of her shift, McCall revealed she had earned $310 in tips.
The next day, she wore her hair in Dutch braids with her bangs over her forehead. After changing her hair, her tip total increased to $428 for the entire shift. On the third day of testing the viral hair theory, McCall decided to wear her hair in a messy bun during her shift. She later revealed that she earned $392 in tips with her hair styled.
In a follow-up video, McCall continued her experiment by styling her hair in a half-up, half-up look and earned $465 in tips, the most money of the four shifts she documented.
“Hair theory” is a viral trend that has been circulating on TikTok under the hashtag #hairtheory, which has a staggering 19,000 posts. On the app, TikTok users have claimed that the way you style your hair can alter your appearance, how you feel about yourself, and how others perceive you.
Many people took to the comments section to share their shocked reactions to the amount of tips McCall earned after each shift.
“Where do you work and make so much money?” asked one TikTok user, while another said: “That’s a lot of money for one day.”
Others shared how they felt the hair theory experiment could be improved, such as one person who suggested wearing one hairstyle for an entire week and comparing each person's tip totals.
Meanwhile, some TikTokers shared which hairstyles they think generate the most tips.
“My daughter swears she earns more when she wears pigtails,” one person wrote, while another followed suit: “My daughter swears space buns are the best.”
More recently, another person sparked outrage after claiming they saved nearly $153 in one week by not tipping at several establishments. Anonymous TikTok user @idontip revealed in a video posted earlier this month exactly “how much money [he] made in a week in Los Angeles without tipping.”
He showed the different restaurants he had visited, and on a tablet it showed that he had paid $12.80 for a meal, but had decided not to tip. Other payments she had made throughout the week included one for $99.66 and another at a coffee shop for $6.75. In both situations, she decided not to tip. Other receipts, one of which was from a table-service restaurant, showed the total for one of her meals was $88, while another was $58. She even included images of a restaurant receipt for $389.47, which she also refused to tip for.
Although she was given the option to tip between 18 and 22 percent on each purchase, she decided to choose the “no tip” option and saved a total of $152.92 by not tipping.
“Not leaving a tip on a bill over $300 is extremely inconsiderate,” said one viewer, criticizing the man for not leaving a tip. “There's no way you could have left $0 on a meal worth over $300.”
“This is absolutely disgusting,” said another.
Although there has been an ongoing debate about tipping practices in the United States, in California it is customary to leave between 15 and 20 percent of the total bill before taxes. Others insist on a 20 percent tip, but some say 18 percent is the bare minimum.
