Why "Just Be Authentic" Is the Worst Social Media Advice for Hairdressers
Why "just be authentic" is the worst social media advice for hairdressers
If you have spent any time in a hairdressing Facebook group or sat through a social media masterclass aimed at salon owners, you have almost certainly heard it. Just be authentic.
It sounds warm, reassuring and easy to follow. It is also one of the least useful things a stylist or salon owner can be told, because it describes a feeling rather than an action. Nobody has ever finished a shift, opened their camera roll and known what to film because somebody told them to be themselves.
Authenticity worked when it was accidental. It stopped working the moment the whole industry started manufacturing it on purpose.
Authenticity worked when it was accidental
What used to be unfiltered is now planned, scheduled and optimised for engagement, right down to the caption and the trending sound. The feeling people originally responded to was the absence of a plan. You cannot plan your way back to it.
Take the crying on camera moment, a trend that has swept through hairdresser content for a while now. Filming yourself mid breakdown and turning it into a post with a call to action at the end is not vulnerability. Let us call it what it is: attention seeking.
The performance of honesty is still a performance
Even the content that claims to be unscripted rarely is. Five drafts deep. Edited within an inch of its life. It is still a performance, however many times the caption says no filter.
Here is the pattern we have watched play out across the industry. Authenticity worked at first because it was natural, and people connected with people. Then everyone tried to manufacture the same feeling on purpose. The moment you perform authenticity, it disappears.
The fixWhat to post as a hairdresser instead
The salons and brands winning right now are not chasing relatability for its own sake. They are being useful. In practice that means:
- Solving a real problem a real client has walked in with.
- Teaching something only someone who does this for a living would know.
- Or owning the fact that you are a big, established salon and leaning into it, which, done with a bit of self awareness, works.
None of that needs manufactured vulnerability. It needs clarity about what your salon is genuinely good at, and content that proves it week after week.
