Bumpits
Bumpits, also stylized as Bump It! and BumpIt,[1] is a plastic arc-shaped wedge used to create a pouffy, voluminous hairstyle which was popular around 2010. The product was advertised in informercials.
History
[edit | edit source]Before the introduction of Bumpits, 1960s figures like Diana Ross, Priscilla Presley, and Jackie Kennedy sported the hairstyle by teasing with a comb.[2][3]
Development
[edit | edit source]The product called Bumpits was invented in 2008 by Kelly Fitzpatrick-Bennett, a mother of two from Kingsburg, California, who had worked as a hairdresser from 1994 to 2001 and left due to a hand injury.[4] She opened a mortgage business in Fresno and continued to attend hair conferences. She became inspired to develop Bumpits while watching The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.[4]
She used her savings to develop about 50 prototypes, one of which used kitchen knives and Velcro. She worked with a nearby injection molding company Jet Mold to ensure the product was shaped in a way that kept the hair in place. The product finished, she applied for a patent. There are three different sizes, depending on how large of a "bump" is wanted. In 2008, she traveled to trade shows in New York, Miami, and Chicago with her 20-year-old daughter and found an "overwhelming" demand for the product. In the spring of 2008, she founded a company called Big Happie Hair and hired employees, including her daughter and son. The company had an office and warehouse in Fresno.[4] "Can you believe that something so simple didn't exist?" she told the Hanford Sentinel in 2008.[4] In 2010, Big Happie Hair donated 2200 Bumpits to Selma High School in California.[5]
Culture
[edit | edit source]Amidst the economic recession, hair-care sales declined overall despite the popularity of Bumpits.[6] The product and its corresponding hairstyle were associated with Snooki and Hillary Clinton[7] and were popular in rural areas, including areas of Idaho and New Jersey.[8][7] Stephanie Kocielski, artistic director of John Paul Mitchell Systems, said to The New York Times, "The bigger the hair ... the closer to God."[7]
Bumpits came in blonde, medium blonde, brunette, and black.[9][4] Its instruction manual features seven different hairstyles.[10] In 2009, a package of three cost ten dollars.[10] To insert the Bumpits, a wearer pulls up the front section of the hair, tucks the Bumpits underneath, and then evenly distributes hair across the Bumpits' plastic teeth.[1] The hairstyle can hide thinning hair.[11]
In 2022 and 2023, as Y2K fashion is revived, celebrities have worn Bumpits.[12][13][3][14]
References
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