Viral TikTok investigates protestor's claim that stay-at-home order is reason for grey roots

'As a math teacher, I love you for this'

A viral TikTok shows a woman investigating and questioning the claims of a protestor who railed against the extended stay-at-home orders on the basis that she needed to get her grey roots dyed.

Last week, residents in Lansing, Michigan, were filmed protesting after the state’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended the stay-at-home order through 15 May in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.

In a video shared to the NowThis Instagram, one woman protesting the safety measures can be seen telling the camera that “it’s time for our state to be opened up,” as she and other residents are “tired” of not being able to “go to the hairdressers, get our hair done”.

“It’s time to open up,” she reiterates, after showing her long grey roots to the camera.

However, according to a TikTok uploaded by a user named Rebecca, who goes by @rebabeba, the woman in the news clip is likely being untruthful about the amount of time it’s been since she’s gotten her hair dyed because of the lengthy growth of her roots.

@rebabeba

My math could be off because I actually used the average bass player’s pointer finger 🤷🏻‍♀️ ##covid19 ##quarantine ##michigan ##coronavirus ##stayhome

♬ original sound - rebabeba

Explaining that she decided to do “some research,” Rebecca shows herself looking up how long Michigan has been under a stay-at-home order, how fast hair typically grows, and how long the average woman’s pointer finger is, which she said would “make more sense later”.

After gathering the figures, Rebecca “did some math to determine how much her hair should have grown in the 28 days that she has been under the stay-at-home order”.

According to Rebecca’s calculations, which she acknowledges "could be off," the Michigan woman’s roots should have grown about .45in in that time period.

So, “doing what any sane person would do,” Rebecca compared the length of the protestor’s index finger to her roots, and came to the hypothesis that the woman started the lockdown with visible roots and had likely not gotten her hair dyed since October 2019.

The investigative TikTok has since been viewed more than 323,000 times and liked by more than 80,000 people.

“This is the best thing I’ve seen in awhile,” one person commented.

Another said: “As a math teacher, I love you for this. Queen. Icon. Legend.”

According to the latest figures, there have been 35,291 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Michigan and 2,977 deaths from the virus.