Abstract
Hairdo and make-up are considered to be some of the most important factors that can greatly influence people's appearance, and many people think that make-up is relatively more important than hair-style in changing impressions. However, it has not been empirically clarified yet whether hair-style or make-up has more influence on people's impressions. In this study, we conducted two experiments using 6 evaluation words to measure and compare the effects of hair-style and make-up on impressions, and analyzed the data using ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that both hair-style and make-up had a strong effect on impressions for all evaluation words. In fact, hair-style had nearly twice the partial regression coefficient as make-up for “clean.” In addition, interactions were observed between hair-style or make-up and gender in some rating terms, indicating that there are differences in the degree of influence of hair-style or make-up on impressions between male and female observers. We also categorized the evaluation words that hair-style or make-up correlated strongly with, and identified the impression change characteristics. By clarifying the influence of hair-style on impressions, we expect to explore further possibilities of the influence on the impression of hair-style and to develop and market hair care products that appeal better to consumers.
