A woman who allowed a new hair salon to take photos of her for social media after getting a haircut said she couldn’t believe what she saw when the photos were uploaded.
Tess Grimmerveen, 29, from Amsterdam, recently tried out a new hair salon called Holo. She looked at social media and decided that the haircut was impressive.
But, as she told Newsweek magazine, she realized that the women in the photos were “much more attractive than I was.”
Glimmerveen went ahead with the appointment and was impressed, saying that her hairdresser “really understood my vision” and was “very happy with the final cut.”
She asked to have a photo taken to send to her girlfriend, but another staff member asked for permission to take a photo for the salon’s social media, and Grimerveen agreed.
But what happened next went viral on TikTok after Glimmerveen posted the story on her account @tessglimm on September 12th, where it has been viewed more than 500,000 times.
He started by posting a normal photo he took for his girlfriends, saying, “This wasn’t the most photogenic photo ever,” and joking in the next slide, “Looks like they agreed.”
Because the version of Glimmerveen shared to Holo Salon’s Instagram wasn’t exactly Glimmerveen and was clearly filtered.
Newsweek reached out to Holosaron via email and Instagram for comment.
Tess Grimmerveen was photographed after getting a haircut. When the snaps were posted to the salon’s social media, they looked nothing like her. Tess Grimmerveen was photographed after getting a haircut. When the snaps were posted to the salon’s social media, they looked nothing like her. TikTok @tessglimm / Holo Salon
“The photo looked like me, but I didn’t register it right away. In fact, I had to laugh out loud when I realized it was my photo, but… Then I got FaceTuned,” she told Newsweek.
She then commented on Holosaron’s Instagram post, saying, “Not my face,” and shortly after, Holo sent an apology to Glimmerveen and deleted the post.
The apology was made public in a TikTok video update by Glimmerveen, with the salon saying, “Hello, we saw your comment. We would like to apologize for using a filter on your photo. This was done by our marketing team.” The post has been deleted and we apologize for the inconvenience.
Meanwhile, Glimmerveen thought the situation in the photo was “funny” and shared it with friends, but it “really caused a huge uproar” on TikTok.
Hundreds of TikTok users took to the comments section of Glimmerveen’s video to defend her natural look and criticize her use of filters, with one user writing, “Hey, are you sending me this? So beautiful! This is so rude.”
Another user commented: “Gosh, I’m about to cry”, while another called it “very shady”.
“You were great without it,” another TikTok user assured her, while another added, “Why on earth do they think it’s okay when you’re really great?”
Glimmerveen told Newsweek magazine that she was touched by the “sweet and kind” response and admitted that she was “surprised that so many people responded the same way.”
She said she had “no hard feelings” toward the salon, adding, “I felt a little bad about it. They were nice people and I’m still happy with my haircut.”
But she added: “It’s understandable that some people feel a lot of pressure to present the perfect image, and it’s very easy to tweak a few things before posting a photo. Especially when a salon like that wants to create a little bit of atmosphere.” It was a little more appealing than I was giving it away. ”
Glimmerveen continued, “I’m confident in my own skin, but seeing the filters and adjustments on my photos made me feel a little weird, even though I don’t look like that in real life.” Should I? That’s kind of sad, I don’t mind it, but feeling like I have to change my appearance on social media to look like everyone else. I understand.”
According to data from Statista, an estimated 5.07 billion people are thought to use some form of social media. Young users are the most likely to use TikTok, with 36% of global users aged 18-24.
Facebook remains the world’s largest social media site, with over 3 billion monthly users, and Instagram has reached 2 billion monthly users as of April 2024. Meanwhile, the rise of influencers, a type of celebrity on social media, has created a new industry. In 2021, the global influencer marketing market value was $21.1 billion.
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