Woman Dyes Her Own Hair 10 Days Before Friend’s Wedding. She Immediately Realizes She ‘Made a Mistake’ (Exclusive)

• Jordan Malloch was scrolling through TikTok when she came across a video from a creator putting highlights in her hair using a cap
• The Sydney, Australia, native had been wanting to add something to her own hair for a while, but getting it done at a salon would cost upwards of $500. So, she decided to try replicating the creator’s highlight technique herself and filmed it
• Later, she posted about the process on TikTok; her video has since amassed more than 69.1 million views and 11,000 comments

Jordan Malloch was scrolling through TikTok when she came across creator @brittanyfrangipane’s video, in which she was putting highlights in her hair through a cap.

The Sydney, Australia, native had been wanting to add a little “somethin’ somethin'” to her hair for a while, she says, but getting it done at a salon would cost more than $500, a price she couldn’t justify — especially with her best friend’s wedding coming up in New Zealand.

So, 10 days before her friend’s wedding, after a long day at work as the operations manager for a men’s custom suiting retailer, Malloch decided to try replicating the creator’s highlight technique herself. She had no plan, no strategy — she just dove right in, recording herself throughout the process.

“I thought, ‘It can’t be that hard,’ ” the 32-year-old tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Well, it was! I had tried dyeing my hair as a teenager with, let’s say, less-than-fantastic results, but for some reason, I thought now would be different. Then I quickly realized I’d made a mistake. But I couldn’t really go back, so I just doubled down on it.”

Throughout the process, Malloch was texting a friend, updating her on the chaos, including one clip of her reaction to pulling the cap off. After seeing the video, her friend told her to upload it.

Malloch listened, edited the video and uploaded it without much thought around 11 p.m. that night, Australian time.

“At 11:39 p.m., I texted her and said, ‘Yeah, I think that video may blow up,’ ” Malloch says. “Little did we know to what extent. The next morning, I woke up to 100,000 views. By the time I finished work for the day, we had surpassed the population of New Zealand (4.8 million people). It kept growing, and I couldn’t keep up with all the comments and messages.”

Since then, her TikTok video has amassed more than 69.1 million views and 11,000 comments.

“I don’t take life too seriously and enjoy just having a laugh, especially at my own expense,” Malloch says. “People called me stupid, told me they hated me, said they were glad TikTok was being banned to never see stupid people again, and all sorts of other things. None of it bothered me. If anything, it made me laugh. There were a few great comments asking, ‘What flavour of noodles?’ and just simply, ‘El Dente?’ These made it all worth it, and these are my people, clearly.”

“Everyone at work thought it was hilarious that a silly little video could blow up in the way it did,” she adds. “A few close friends reached out, had a laugh with me about it, and said how great it was because there wasn’t any acting or playing to the camera — it was just me being myself.”

Looking back, Malloch adds how upon seeing the streaks in her hair, she jumped in the shower, rinsed it out, used purple shampoo and put on a hair mask. She says in the moment she was terrified that she would end up with the most awful streaks in her hair. She even checked the time the supermarket closed, just in case she needed to make an emergency trip.

But after all of that, Malloch realized she had panicked for no reason, as it blended pretty well, aside from a couple of questionable streaks, but nothing that worried her enough to fix.

“Trust in the process,” she captioned a follow-up video of herself showing the finished results, which has also garnered more than 11.2 million views.

“Always looks more dramatic,” one user comments. “Once the rest of your hair blends it isn’t bad.”

“It turned out really good actually,” another person writes.

Someone else says, “Little help for next time. Shampoo first then pull the cap off! The cap slides off much easier and doesn’t cause as much damage.”

While in the end Malloch is happy with the results, she shares a bit of advice for those looking to dye their own hair in the future.

“Be prepared to fail and make sure you film it!” she says. “Honestly just go for it. If it doesn’t work there are options but in this economy not everyone can afford to go to a professional so I think this is a great alternative.”