The Power of Authenticity: Why We Only Use Unedited Images on Our Website
When it comes to our website, we believe in authenticity. What you see is what you get - no photoshopped images here at hairkittykitty.com! We know that our customers appreciate seeing real images of our products and hairpieces, and we think that's more important than trying to make ourselves look younger or "better" than we are.
I came upon this realization the hard way -- in public.
Hi There, Wig and Topper Lovers! I'm Heather from HairKittyKitty. You may also know me as CysterWigs on social media platforms.
I look back at some of the choices I made during my first ten years in the wig business and shake my head. For example, paying a freelancer to blur images on our old website seems like a really silly idea in hindsight.
I'd like to talk a little more about that now.
My photo editor at the time recommended heavy editing of the images based on my age. Apparently most model images in the beauty industry are Photoshopped beyond recognition, and she thought that aesthetic would help sell more stuff.
This wasn't something I wanted, aesthetically speaking. However, my fear and insecurity about my weight, age, and appearance made me feel like she was right. After all, I am the primary model of my products due to budget. If she could make me look more like a model, I told myself, then this would be a good move.
Next thing I knew, all of my images looked like something right out of the uncanny valley. Not a single pore in sight.
But then I realized something: it didn't matter. Our customers loved our real, unedited images because they represented the truth about our products and hairpieces. They appreciated being able to see how each piece looked in its natural state, and what kind of transformation they could expect if they bought a wig or topper from us.
Now our approach to product modeling is much more minimalistic on purpose. The images won't look perfect. I strongly believe my customers and I like things better this way. It's way more real!
I got rid of all the old, edited images on CysterWigs.com and replaced them with unedited pictures of myself. The launch of HairKittyKitty on Black Friday 2021 was my opportunity to show how I truly look with various types of hair - without any digital enhancements. We're almost one year in and still going strong!
The images on hairkittykitty.com are taken without any filters, and we do not use skin blurring, color correction, or any other adjustments after the photos are taken. We use a combination of cell phones -- top of the line Google Pixels and iPhones -- to take the images. I do not use any additional filters on the phones. In full disclosure, their software may do some of this automatically. I am not sure if that's the case, but I do know that I disable all the filter settings. Sometimes I do use the "portrait" setting to get a little variability in the photos. This will blur the backgrounds (imprecisely, see the top image in this post as an example), but does not blur my face in any way that I can detect (pores, makeup errors, and a small zit are also evident in that image).
Zoom in on the product images and you'll see every fine line, stray hair, and makeup mistake. I created a zoom effect on all the product pages specifically so you could see the flaws in all their glory.
Post-photography, we import the images into Canva to resize and center them. We also use Canva to add a watermark. That is the extent of the processing of the images in our store.
Today, we continue to be an authentic brand that prioritizes real images over Photoshopped perfection. The power of authenticity lies in its ability to capture people's attention and imagination and build trust with your customers. And at the end of the day, isn't a solid relationship based on trust something we all want? I certainly do!
Let's aim to accept ourselves as we are. There's freedom in dropping the insecurity, letting your hair hang down, and just having some fun.
Perfection is boring as hell, anyway.
Hugs and Hair,
Heather (aka CysterWigs)
