So THIS Is How They Make Hair Look So Freaking Perfect in Those Commercials

My entire existence I've wondered how the women in hair commercials get their hair to look so bouncy, shiny, thick, smooth... did I say shiny? That shine, man! But as much as I wanted to believe that the products they were selling — and I was then buying — would give me hair like that, I knew it wouldn't. How could it?! I have naturally fine, limp, lifeless hair that I've only come to embrace in the last few months, after spending years trying to add volume and wave to hair that was just not meant to have either. But it turns out, the women in those commercials don't even have hair like that.

As a part of Suave's new Hair You Can Believe campaign, the brand released a video that shows the insider tricks the haircare industry has used for decades to make the models' hair look so freaking good. I'd like to think I'm not naive, but my jaw actually dropped when I saw what actually goes into making a hair ad. Here's what I learned:

1. They use green-screen technology to make the hair do those waterfall-like flips.

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People dressed in full-body green suits stand in front of green screens and play with the models' hair with green fishing rods. The green is edited out later, of course, so what the viewer sees is just hair impossibly floating in mid air.

2. They stuff styrofoam balls underneath the hair to create unattainable volume.

SUAVE

If stylists can't quite achieve the shape they want, they'll fake it with styrofoam stuffing.

3. They use a lot of fake hair.

SUAVE

One scene in the video shows a model lying down with her tumbling waves perfectly positioned against the lacquered ground — and then she sits up to reveal her short, cropped hair and the pile of extensions she was lying on top of.

Insane, right?! Suave researchers even did a study and found that 74 percent of millennial women don't believe that the hair shown in ads is achievable (because clearly it isn't, not without the help of props). It also revealed that two thirds of women have lost trust with brands after learning these secrets.

So, as part of their new campaign, Suave asked their models to style their hair themselves, as demonstrated at the end of the video. It's crazy to think that this has been the norm for hair brands for so many years. But with more real-women initiatives and transparency like this, maybe brands can start regaining that lost trust with consumers.