LEHI, Utah (ABC 4 News) – From up-dos to casual dos to daddy dos, one Utah family has gone viral with their online business. And Friday night they’ll be going national.
The McKnight family started with making their daily hairstyling routines public with a blog. Millions of hits later, they’re becoming quite famous.
Dozens and dozens of hairstyles flood the blog.
“Things that are still fun and cute, but quick,” said Mindy McKnight.
Mindy started
Adopt a ‘Do, Cute Girls Hairstyles about two years ago. She started it as a way to share ideas with family and friends and showcase her daughters’ daily dos.
“I remember thinking, 'who is going to visit that?'” said Mindy’s husband Shaun.
Mindy and Shaun have five daughters and a seven-month-old son so it’s undeniable that they have their hands full…of hair! Mindy’s creations along with her beautiful daughters created quite a stir and video requests started pouring in. So, she and Shaun started a
youtube channel as a host for their blog videos.
The “Cute Girls Hairstyles” channel began to get more and more hits until it became one of youtube’s most popular. In May, not long after launching their channel, the McKnight’s won youtube’s “On the Rise” competition.
“We won by the most votes they have ever gotten,” said Mindy.
This award landed them a prime spot on the viral video mecca’s homepage for 24 hours.
“And we had over two-million views in one day!” said Mindy.
Today, Mindy’s “Twists Into Side Flip” video has more than three million views and the “Waterfall Frenchbraid” video has nearly six-million views. Since January the McKnight’s youtube channel has had 30-million visitors…that’s about 1.5 million views a week.
“It's fun to see how fast it can grow. The question is, can we keep up? Said Shaun.
Mindy brings the creativity and Shaun handles the business and technical side of things.
“As it's growing, he's learning and now when he sees things in the street you'll hear him say, 'Oh that's a good Outty-Frenchbraid with a Twist,’” said Mindy.
“My guy friends sometimes razz me about it but I tell them, 'hey, my wife makes more than you do!' So, ya know (laughs),” said Shaun.
And the family is about to be a primetime star. ABC’s 20/20 is including them in a youtube special set to air Friday night at 9 p.m. mountain time.
“They called one day and said we'll be there in two days from L.A. and be ready. It was crazy!” said Mindy.
The couple admits this has been a quick climb to fame.
“I'm just praying that I don't look like a fool,” said Mindy.
But, they also say they are still the same, wholesome family they were before.
“As long as our kids like doing this we'll continue. And the moment they don't we'll stop,” said Shaun.
They remember that the reason they started the blog was to give a quick and easy way for parents to bond with their children each morning. Shaun remembers the exact moment he had the revelation. Mindy was out of town and he had to fix his daughter’s hair for a church function.
“And she turned around and she said, ‘you do hair good for a boy,’ and gave me a huge hug. And I said, you know what, cast all the masculinity aside, this is what it’s about for me,” said Shaun.
On
cutegirlshairstyles.com there’s even a section just for Dad. It’s called
“Daddy Dos.” This is where there are several hair-dos that Shaun performs that are easy and very cute in case mom’s not around.
The website is generating more and more revenue from advertising both from youtube and the original blog…not to mention their facebook page already has more than 30,000 fans.
