# Alternating before-after reaction — rebuild sheet

An 11.5s selfie video that cuts back and forth between a man's exposed thinning hairline and the same man with a full head of hair, product held up once in the middle — 3,691,797 views, 23,860 likes, by ceciliadragoncol.

**Why it works**

It never states a claim, so there is nothing to argue with — it just alternates two states of the same face until the gap between them is the whole message, and the only running text on screen is a legal disclaimer, which reads as honesty rather than selling. The wardrobe changes on every cut, so the beats land as separate days rather than one staged take, and the shocked face at the end is the viewer's reaction pre-performed.

**The beats**

| Time | What happens | On-screen text |
|---|---|---|
| 0.92s | Arm's-length selfie in a dim interior, black tank top, hair wet and slicked flat back so the receding hairline and bare temples are fully exposed; face screwed up, unhappy | Results may vary. |
| 2.76s | Tiled bathroom wall, pale blue-grey tee, hair still wet and slicked back, hairline still the subject of the frame; flat deadpan stare down the lens | Results may vary. |
| 4.6s | Plain pale wall, dark green tee, hair now dry, dark and thick; a small green bar held between the fingers beside the head — the only appearance of the product; eyes wide, mouth open | Results may vary. |
| 6.45s | Extreme close-up, camera low and near, white tank; one hand sweeps the hair straight back off the forehead to show the thin front hairline and scalp | Results may vary. |
| 8.29s | Close selfie, dark background, hair big and full; hand clapped over the mouth, eyes wide — pure reaction | Results may vary. |
| 10.13s | Light marble/tile wall, white tank, full thick brown hair over the forehead, mouth open in shock; an animated red "HOT SALE" badge with a down arrow points at the product tag | Results may vary. / HOT SALE |

A small green product tag sticker sits bottom-right in every frame; its own text is too small to read at this resolution. **What the frames cannot tell you:** whether there is any spoken audio or music, whether he speaks to camera, what the product actually is beyond "a small green bar", and whether there are additional beats between the six sampled stills. Nothing here fills those gaps.

**What carries the value**

The hairline, cut against itself. The bare scalp is deliberately exposed twice in close-up before any result is shown, and the result shots are framed so the hair fills the top of the frame. The shocked face only signs off on a contrast the frames have already made — it is not doing the persuading on its own.

**Shoot it**

- **Camera:** front-facing phone, held at arm's length, chest-up. Handheld, small natural sway. One shot per beat, no camera movement inside a beat. One beat is much closer than the rest — near enough that the forehead fills the frame.
- **Light:** whatever the room has. The problem beats are dim and warm, the result beats are brighter and flatter. Do not match them — the light difference helps sell them as different days.
- **Wardrobe:** change the top on every single cut. Plain tanks and plain tees, no logos. This is the rule that makes it read as real footage rather than a shoot.
- **Staging the two states:** the problem beats need the hair wet and slicked flat back, or swept back by hand, so the scalp is visible. The result beats need it dry, volumised and falling forward. Alternate the states rather than running all the befores then all the afters.
- **Product:** appears once, mid-video, held up beside the head. It is never demonstrated, applied or explained.
- **Text:** one small disclaimer line, bottom-centre, identical for the whole runtime. Nothing else.

**Needs a real subject.** This format cannot be shot hands-only or with a stand-in — it depends on one recognisable face carrying a genuine visible change across every beat. Whoever you cast has to have both states available.

**Or generate it**

The beat worth generating is 4.6s — the product beside the head, both states of the story present in one frame.

```
vertical 9:16 front-facing phone selfie, arm's length, chest-up, {SUBJECT} in a plain
dark short-sleeve tee against a plain pale interior wall, hair dry and full and pushed
up off the forehead, holding {PRODUCT} between thumb and fingers up beside the head at
temple height, eyes wide and mouth slightly open, soft even indoor light from the front,
phone-camera look, slight grain, no retouching, no on-screen text
```

*Motion:* handheld selfie at arm's length, small natural sway and a slight drift closer as the hand lifts the product to the head — no zoom, no cut inside the beat.

*Text overlay:* one small line pinned bottom-centre, unchanged for the entire runtime — `{disclaimer line}` — nothing else on screen, no beat captions, no counters.

**Reference:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DaM0s8rxE9o/
