How many people would you assume would watch a seven-minute YouTube video where someone’s hair gets braided? Just make an intelligent, educated guess based on what you know about hair braids, YouTube, viral videos, public interest, and people’s attention spans. Well, I am going to presume that you are 13,686,732 points off, because that’s how many people have watched a seven-minute video where someone’s hair got braided! Isn’t that just the darnedest thing you have ever heard of?
Basically, a very sweet mommy-braider named Mindy McKnight has curated a highly successful YouTube channel called “Cute Girls Hairstyles,” and has 1.6 million subscribers. The names of the braids sound like the things that judges say at the Olympics when a gymnast or an ice skater does something very quick and twisty in the air. For example: “wrap-around French style,” “quick slide-up,” “teen double twistback,” “twistback flip under,” “simple braid (with micro-braids),” “double-French fold-in,” and “quadruple-flipped ponytail.” Of course, these hairstyles are sometimes lovely and sometimes cockamamie, but in a way that would absolutely kill on the playground.
McKnight’s videos are also a solid mommy-blogger mix of plucky, cheerful, and unintentionally discouraging, because even though McKnight is a very coherent and patient teacher, one second you’re following the steps, and then the next second, you’re just clutching a pile of follicle chaos with both hands.
Anyway, do you want to guess how many people watched something called “? Did you guess 22,406,841? Whoa, someone got good at this game in the past two minutes. There’s no fooling you twice!
