5 Tips To Make Your IG Feed Cleaner And Better

Yo, yo, yo. What the ? Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. You know, my mom listens to my podcast sometimes, and she, like, w- reads all my emails and stuff, and it's painful 'cause she's in marketing, right?

And so she'll, she loves telling me what I'm doing right and wrong. She, which I honestly, I really appreciate. Like, I, I'm totally here for the feedback, especially from, like, just such a different perspective. Right now, do I always take that into consideration?

No, as I would teach you listening to this. But one of the things that she actually told me recently was like, she was like, "I was listening to one of your podcasts recently. It was so good, but you were cursing so much." And I was like, "You know what?

I'm okay with, like, being unapologetic and, like, just cursing my off." Right. 'Cause we're hairstylists, right? But low key, low key.

Even I will listen to, like, things sometimes, and if there's, like, excessive cursing, sometimes it'll turn me off. So- So Jodi, can you do me a favor? We need to set up, like, some sort of swear jar situation, I feel like. I love this.

I am so in. We need to, uh, w- okay, so I'm gonna try my best. I'm gonna try my best, y'all, to not curse as, um, as much as- ... I already have at the beginning of this episode.

Please. I'm gonna keep it clean and PG, and me and Jodi are gonna come up with a plan to make it so I don't curse as much. Anyway, in this episode today, we are gonna be talking about the things that really irk me when it comes to Instagram profiles and feeds and content. Basically, not just irk me, but also just, like, where I see massive opportunities for improvement.

These are the things that I'm constantly saying in my funnel reviews for my students. So if you are a member of Modern Stylist Movement, you have the opportunity at the time of recording this of getting your marketing funnel reviewed on a monthly basis. So you can submit for your bu- well, your marketing funnel, your Instagram, or your Facebook, or your Google My Business, and then your website. And I'll look at it all, and I'll give you feedback.

And these are some of the things, as far as Instagram specifically goes, and honestly, this could probably be transferrable to a lot of other platforms as well, the improvements that I see that a lot of people could make, and a lot of the mistakes that people are making. So I'm excited to get into it with you today. I'm gonna start out by just saying that, like, I, I feel like a lot of people will say that your Instagram feed and making it curated and perfect doesn't matter anymore, which I semi-agree with. I semi-agree with.

But particularly for a hairstylist, your entire, like, brand is, uh, uh, i- the visuals matter so much, right, especially when it comes to your work, because somebody is literally shopping visually for a visual service, right? Like, they are visually gonna be changing their hair. They want you to showcase your visual skills, and if things are not visually nice in one way or another, then people are not going to be as likely to trust you. Would you agree, Jodi Brown?

You know that I agree so, so much on this, and I notice this in my own habits. I believe it is subconscious. If this person cares enough to take care of this aspect, they are going to care enough to take care of me. When it comes to our industry specifically, um, 100% I agree.

And, like, what I will say is that if a perfectly curated feed is gonna stop you from posting, then don't care about it, okay, because then just do it. I'd rather you just do it than freak out about it. But when you just do it, there are certain things and simple things that you can do to make it so the feed looks nice. And, like, it doesn't have to be this perfect plan.

Like, it doesn't have to be, like, "Every other post, I have X." Like, it doesn't, it really does not have to be that curated and beautiful. It just has to look consumable, or be consumable- Yes. and just generally nice.

And I'll share with you, like, what that could look like for you today, okay? So, when you think about a client going onto a Instagram page, right, the very first thing they're doing, scrolling, okay? Mm-hmm. They are just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling.

They are not going into every single individual post and reading every single little thing and taking their time, right? The very first thing that they're gonna do is just scroll, because you need to give them a reason to give a, to want to actually consume things in a detailed way and a slow way first. And the only reason a potential new client is going to give a is if it cohesively, visually looks nice from the outside very quickly, right? Yeah.

So we need to make sure that the feed actually does look consumable and is consumable, and then we focus on the actual quality of the content and the details and all of those things, 'cause it does matter. But it, nobody's gonna give a about what you put in your post, or they're not gonna wait around to wait for you to get to the point five seconds into your Reel unless you give them a reason to give a, right? So, let's talk about what's gonna make them want to actually dive deeper and actually stick around. The first thing is going to be after photos first.

If you are putting before photos, like, but, which by the way, I'm, I'm totally here bef- for a before and after. Mm-hmm. I think in a carousel way, or even better, like a Reel, I think is so cool. Like, I'm totally here for a before and after situation.

But always, even in a video, show the after first. Show the after first. I would say video most of the time. There are other, there are ways that maybe you wouldn't that would still do well and it be cool, but if it's just a photo or a carousel, you absolutely need to show the after photo first.

And honestly, the before picture should probably not even be in the cover of the photo. Agreed. In rare circumstances, it could be. But the majority of the time, you should just have the after as the cover photo on your feed so it looks like you do good work, because literally someti- I will go onto an Instagra- I will go onto an Instagram and I'm, like, giving this person maybe live critique, like they're here with me, and I'm like, "Is this their work or is it not their work?"

Right. Because if it is their work, and, like, 'cause sometimes you can't tell.So, sometimes the before picture, people will go onto the gig, especially non-hair stylists, people are gonna go onto your profile, they're gonna see this before picture, they're gonna think that that's your work. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. They're gonna dip. They're like, "I'm not going to this f- I'm not going to this hair stylist." Especially when they're new and they're just finding you and they're looking, and if that's the first thing they see, you're totally right.

They're just gonna be like, "Nope." So if you're doing that, stop doing it. After photos always first. And this also brings me to as far as, like, after photos go, right?

That's pictures of our work. Again, give somebody a reason to give it. This is always my... I've been saying this motto, that's been my motto for years, since I started teaching.

You have to give somebody a reason to give a shit, right? So, when we talk about the quality of content, or when we talk about the other types of content that we post to make somebody trust us enough to want to work with us, we need to give somebody a reason to give a shit first. So, Jodi, what is the main reason somebody is going to want to get their hair done? Or, what do they need to see in order to want to learn more about you to justify getting their hair done with you?

What's the very first thing that they need to see? They need to see your work. Right. 'Cause that's what they're paying for.

100%. Right? So, on your feed, the majority of what I should see is work. I think a lot of business-oriented stylists want to diversify their content, which I am all here for and I absolutely will encourage, right?

People are not just going to go to you because of the hair. And we could talk about how every other hairstylist is just hair, right? So, how do we differentiate ourselves? Cool.

I would love for you to post different types of content that's not just your work. But, if it's... But it's still, we still need to be, in my opinion, we still need to be focusing majoritively on showcasing our work, because that is what somebody is paying us for. And if s- you don't give somebody enough work to look at, then you don't give them enough of a reason to give a shit to want to learn more about you, your diversified content, where you're posting about your client experience, where you're posting about yourself, or whatever that other type of cont- or education that doesn't have to do with your work, or whatever it may be.

The, whatever you're posting, right, that's different, I h- I think my safe ratio is that 70% of your feed should be work or work-related, at least from the cover photo. At least from the cover photo, okay? So, like, if I'm just looking at the feed and I'm not going into a video, I'm not actually opening up posts, on the feed, I visually want to see 70% hair, okay? Then the 30 extra percent can be whatever the fuck else you want it to be.

But this also brings me into my next point, which is I think very important that you label things or you make sure that somebody knows what they're getting themselves into. So, a lot of people, what I think is really cool, will do a pinned post, and it's kind of like an about me post, right? I think it's really powerful to get somebody to get to know you. Mm-hmm.

Uh, our studies from this pas- our surveys from this past year say that, like, getting to know the stylist is super important for somebody before they book an appointment. So, I think a pinned post on a feed about you is so sick, right? Yes. I see a lot of people now doing this, which is so cool.

Problem is, it's just a picture of you at the top of the feed and you're not telling somebody why they should open up this picture of you. Right. Right? So, if I just see a picture of you at the top of the feed, I'm like, "Okay, it's a picture of you.

You look great." Scrolling right past it, right? But if you labeled that cover photo, or that Reel, or that picture, or that carousel, whatever it may be, and it's like, "About me," or, "Learn more about me," or, "Start here," or something like that, now I have a reason to actually go into it, because I know what I'm getting myself into. So, labeling things clearly and cleanly just to give your person an idea of what they're getting themselves into is very important.

So, if you think about yourself as somebody who is scrolling, somebody who has precious time, and also somebody whose attention span is absolutely fried, 'cause all of our atten- attention spans are fried, right? Actually, I'll even go even deeper. Your brain is psychologically wired to not waste energy. Okay?

You primally are wired to take any focus, attention, or time away from things that waste energy. So, your brain is trying to find signals that this is something that is important or worth your energy, will help you with your survival or whatever it may be, is generally relevant to you. Mm-hmm. And anything that's not relevant to your brain, to a person's brain, that the brain perceives as not relevant immediately, the brain does a very quick and fast and easy job of getting that shit out of the way and taking your focus away from it.

So, when you're scrolling, you have w- 0.1 seconds to tell somebody that... L- tell somebody's brain, "This is worth you consuming." Right?

So, if you don't give somebody that label sharing with them, "This is why you should check this out, because it's relevant to you," right? Or, if we are spending the first three to five seconds of a Reel saying, "Hey, guys. I just wanted to pop in and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," right? You are wasting somebody's time and you're not signaling to that person's brain that you are worth spending time with, right?

I find a lot of the time, the first, like, three to five seconds of an Instagram Story, of an Instagram Reel, any piece of content could probably be cropped out and trimmed, and then that whatever you actually, when you actually start talking, that is when the thing can start, right? That's when your actual Reel could start, and it could be, uh, do a much better job of actually grabbing people's attention. So, a lot of the time, maybe we'll go on our Instagram Story and we'll say, "Hey, guys. I know that I haven't posted in forever.

Like, I'm so sorry. I've been so busy with family stuff. But today, I wanted to teach you how to curl your hair in 0.5 seconds.

Today, I wanna teach you how to p- curl your hair in 0.5 seconds." Which one am I gonna stick around for? 100%.

Right? So, when you are posting content, trim...Right? Less is more.

It's like when you are, have too much jewelry on and you wanna, like, edit before you leave the, leave the, leave the door, right, with whatever you're wearing, right? Take off one piece of jewelry before you walk out the door, right? That concept, same situation for your content. How are you feeling about that, Jodi?

I totally agree, and I wanna just add, too, like, with the, I agree with everything you just said, and I think with the, one of the things that we can think about as stylists is the fact that your work, being as aesthetically pleasing and beautiful as it is, like, so many creators spend so much time trying to figure out visual hooks. As a stylist, you are so, like, it, it's a benefit that your work itself is the visual hook in a lot of situations. Um, and then I just want to add for the getting right into it piece, if you open any successful author's work, they do not start with a long preamble. You are right in the scene, right?

From the get-go. That is storytelling 101, and essentially content, especially now, it's, it's, storytelling elements are so much more important than ever before. So, totally agree. I love the book, uh, the book, uh, reference there.

100%. They always give you a reason to give a shit first, right? Yes. Goes back to my mantra.

100%. Thank you. The other thing, too, just so you guys know is, like, you can change your reel covers, right? So, a lot of the times I'll see, like, reels, awesome reels posted, right?

But a lot of the time, the actual, the way that it posts onto your feed, it'll look like, because it's, like, a thumbnail from the middle of the reel that's, like, just trash, right? You can change and curate your reel cover. So, let's say you're making a video about something and you wanna have work on your feed, but then, you know, you wanna post a video about whatever else. You could post a picture of the work, or maybe the video starts with the before, or something like that.

Make it so the cover photo is changed out. Am I right, Jodi? You can, like, change the cover photo, right? You can curate it.

Oh, 100%. You can edit it. There's a lot of, you can pull from thumbnails of the reel so you don't even have to make a, a specific one. Absolutely.

And my hot take is that, like, I believe almost every video should have text on it. Like, I think that's the number one most slept-on thing when it comes to how people consume. Yeah. And so, you can either create, like, a standalone reel cover, which in some circumstances you'll need to, but often if you just pull in the text that's already on your video, you are killing two birds with one stone.

Period. I love that. Very much so. So, pay attention to your reel covers.

Another thing, also, too, do you think, Jodi, like, do you think one to one, like, making sure that the square is good, too? I know that Instagram's, like, changing the way that things are, like, showing up on feeds sometimes here and there. But, like, do you think that, like, they'd rather be safe than sorry, like, making sure that, like, everything looks good within, like, a one to one square? I believe so, because I do think, too, that having negative space, like, does make things more appealing when it comes to the text.

So, if you play it safe and you kinda center it, I think nine times out of ten you're gonna be better off regardless of whether or not they see the square. Thank you for that, and you just triggered something that I need to tell everybody about in this episode right now. Oh my God, this drives me nuts. This is probably my number one thing that actually drives me crazy.

Negative space. You are posting a video, and there is any black lines on the outline? Also my pet peeve. Dude, you are wasting, you are completely wasting the time and energy you just put into that content.

I want you to go onto your Explore page right now. I want you to find one video that has a black outline. I want you to find one. You won't.

Right? No, like, editing your video and then cropping it into this black outline in the published video. Absolutely not. Yeah.

The video needs to take up the entire screen. The only exception to this is if you're posting, like, a landscape video or something like that, but even then some, the video that you are posting does not have edited-in borders. It does not have edited-in black borders. You're posting the raw, like, fully, full-size, fullscreen video.

Right. Do not post with borders. Oh, my God. Don't do it.

Yeah. A- you will not get engagement. You will waste all your time. I see people do this all the time and it makes me so sad.

Me too. Yeah, no, agreed. I think the only exception is, like you said, landscape edit, and those, like, if it's, like, a professionally created video- Yes. even then, or, like, an excerpt from, like, a celebrity interview or a movie where it's, like, okay, you're gonna turn this to get the full effect.

That would be, like, the only situation I think that it makes any sense. There are few exceptions. Yeah. So, just your video, the one that you are uploading, it should fill up the entire screen 99% of the time.

9 to 16. Period. That's the, yeah. 9 to 16.

9 to 16. Next thing is, just generally improve the quality of your photos and videos. Now, there are tons of classes out there, in my opinion, and there's, like, YouTube videos for, like, how you can take a better picture, you know, and take a better video. I'm gonna say, number one, lighting is the answer.

Okay? Lighting is the answer. And you won't realize this until you actually try a lot of different lighting sources with the same subject. Like, I want you to take your client and try five different locations in your salon and outside, and then see how those photos show up differently, because you will very quickly recognize how much of a difference that lighting makes as far as how the photo actually looks from a quality perspective.

And my best advice, I know this is general advice, but y'all need to hear it, girl, 'cause I'm still seeing that does not look as amazing as it should. Like, this is your work. You put so much time and effort into this. Like, this should be photographed well.

It should be shown and showcased beautifully because you put in hard effort and work, right? My biggest advice is genuinely just, like, go outside. Indirect sunlight, go outside if you can. Girl, I'm so sorry about it.

Like, maybe, I know I'm, like, the queen of client experience, making our, our clients comfortable and like that.My tea was, like, I'd be like, "So sorry, girlfriend. We're gonna freeze for a second, and we're gonna go out in this snow, and we're gonna take a picture really quickly. I'll make it as fast as possible."

Like, I would j- it just was what it was. I needed to get the content, right? 'Cause inside my suite was garbage trash. Now, there are absolutely ways that you can create really great indoor lighting setups as well too, you just have to do the research.

And Modern Stylist Movement, um, we have a guest speaker class at the time of recording this that's available for you to check out. It's from Julie Loy. Um, and I actually checked, uh, recommended that you guys check out Julie Loy. She teaches all about hair photography, and she has really, really great tips.

But you guys have a guest speaker master class in your hub, if you're listening to this and you're a Modern Stylist Movement member. Good lighting, go outside, indirect sunlight, best lighting for hair, my opinion. Would love to hear what Jodi's opinion is about that. Can I give just, like, a hot tip?

Like, just give a- Yes. little away here? So- Yeah, and disagree with me too- ... if you want to.

The lighting tip, so indirect sunlight, absolutely one of my faves, whether it's through a window or outside. But the biggest game changer for me, and I learned this from my now business partner who is a professional photographer, is turn off the incandescent overhead lighting. So- Yes. like if you have a ring light or, which s- soft boxes are my preference, like if you're gonna go for the indoor setup.

But like even if you have those things set up and you have that incandescent overhead light, it is going to pull super yellow. It's going to almost actually make it grainy. So if it feels a little bit darker in your, when you're taking the photo, like it's a good thing a lot of the times. That's my like- Yeah.

Thank you for sharing that. Yes. A- so for example, like my filming setup right now, all of my house lights- Same. and the only lighting that I have on, and my blinds are actually closed as well too.

And I know that you guys, a lot of you guys aren't watching the video form of this, but like I am taking like a professional video right now. Um, uh, I have like two lights in front of me, I have two lights behind me, and that's the, and those are like my filming lights, and those are the only ones that are on, and it looks beautiful. If I had the overhead light on in the- my house, it would be awful. It would be ugly as sh-.

And it'd be ruining it all, it'd be creating weird shadows, all the things. So thank you so much for bringing up that great tip. So true. And if it ends up being dark, guess what we can do?

We can edit it. Oh my god. We... Wait.

Oh my god, wait. We're saying we can edit our hair photos? Yes, I know that we don't wanna come off, like, fake or, like, give a bad repre- misrepresentation of our work. We're also scared that people can tell if we edited our photos.

Who the f- cares? First off, if another hairstylist is, is judging you for editing your photos, then screw them. Who the hell cares? They're not paying your bills.

Mm-hmm. Okay? Your clients are paying your bills, number one. Number two, if a client could tell that you edited your photos, maybe that is when we went too far.

And I'm talking to client, not a hairstylist. If a client can tell that they, you edited your hair photos, then maybe that's when we went too far. Okay? But the majority of the time, the edits that I would recommend are ones that are not super noticeable, and they're ones that are just helping you reflect what this actually looks like in real life in the photo.

Because things photograph completely differently than they actually look to the human eye, and it's very fair and reasonable for you to edit the photo. And I honestly will say that it's very rare that you will have a completely uneditable photo, right? Like one that, like, it's completely perfect. Like, I don't want you to strive for that, because you'll probably never get there, right?

So I want you to strive for taking great raw photos with great lighting, with the tips that we just gave you, and then also using post, raw content editing to make it a finalized, polishable, polished photo, and postable photo. 100%. Also, we talked about this really quickly, clean your cameras as well too. Take a cloth that you would use to clean glasses, okay?

Don't use a shirt. Don't use wet- don't use spit. Like whatever. Take a cloth that you would use to clean glasses, and then, like, clean your camera that way as well too.

Just a little hot tip. But edit your stuff, bro. Right, Jodi Brown? Yes, for sure.

I think sometimes, we even experienced this recently with some video that just pulled super, super warm. Sometimes you have to edit to reflect what's actually there. Like, it's not about misrepresenting, it's about actually re- representing accurately. Period.

I love that, right? Like, you're, I love how you said that. Like, like, sometimes we're scared that we're, that if we edit, we're gonna misrepresent our work or something like that. When in reality, you're actually, like, showing what it actually looked like.

There's nothing wrong- Exactly. with that. Um, another huge tip, uh, in my, this is something, this is a personal pet peeve of mine. Maybe it doesn't make a massive difference, but it, I, I think for my eye, visually, it does.

Make sure that the hair is fully in the photo. Like, there should be absolutely no hair cropped out of the photo. I wanna see the entire head of hair, period. Like, it's very unsatisfying when there's not the entire hair in the photo.

Agreed. I am... And my last piece of advice for y'all is lean into different types of content. So I think, you know, with algorithmic changes and things like that, especially when video became, like, a huge deal and everybody's like, "You have to only post video now," or whatever it may be, people may have pivoted completely to video.

People may have com- uh, pivoted completely to photo, or whatever it may be. I would say it's very he- a very healthy practice for you to try to execute your content in different types of formats. So carousels- Mm-hmm. photos, reels, and then mixing it all up, right, and doing maybe the same thing, but in those different formats could be a really powerful strategy for you.

Because if you think about maybe your, even your own experience as a consumer, sometimes you're in the mood to watch a bunch of videos, and you can turn the sound on or whatever it may be. And maybe sometimes you're in bed and your partner's asleep and you don't wanna wake them up with the crazy loud sound from the video. Right. Or sometimes maybe you just wanna look at photos, and videos are too over-stimulating for you.

Your clients have the same moods and swings and changes, and your clients all differ as far as preferences go, even if they are an ideal client. This is such, like, a weird, detailed preference that I feel like changes so much. And so I would recommend...Just having those different forms of content so that way you can ...

You're more likely to hit more people in a way that they actually want to enjoy that content. Agreed? Agreed, and I would argue that, like, so often when people are like, "I don't know what to ... Like, I don't have any new content ideas," like, have you actually utilized your existing ideas enough?

Yes. 'Cause the answer, I would say 99.999% of the time, would be no. Go back to what you've already done, shift it in a different way.

Yeah, 100%. I've been using that as example because we have personally, in our own marketing, seen so much success with this, with, like, taking ... Like, let's say we post a Reel and it does really, really well. Take the same concepts, the same hook, and then reformat that into a different type of post saying the same.

And that's exactly what you should be doing as a marketer anyway. If you have an ideal client, if you have a specialty, if you have brand messaging, your job is to say the same over and over and over and over again, just in different ways. Wow. So, diversify the way that you execute the content, but still talk about the same concepts that are strategic and proven to work for you.

Is there anything else I wanted to cover today, Jodi Brown? I think we got it. I feel like this is, like, a very implementable episode, so- Yeah. like, literally take a look, audit your own social media and, like, hit these changes.

It will make a difference. Yeah. Choose, like, two ... Like, go take all the ...

that I just did, okay? I want you to listen to this episode again. I want you to write down notes. I want you to audit your own Instagram with those notes, and then I want you to see where you can make the two biggest changes.

From what I shared with you, I want you to focus on making those two big changes your next post, and then build from there. Yeah. All right? Thank you for tuning in to Modern Hairstyles podcast.

Hope that you enjoyed this. Hope that your Instagram feed's going to be beautiful and stunning and iconic and amazing. And I'm going to be looking out for it, so don't play with me, 'cause I do be looking at your Instagram, okay? So much love to you.

Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2025 Hunter Donia LLC.