Posted on 06/28/2003 3:18:42 PM PDT by demlosers
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Halle Berry aside, most American men show an "overwhelming" preference for women sporting long, luscious hair compared to shorter cuts, researchers report.
Oh, and sorry, Madonna: men also seem to prefer brunettes over blondes, by a wide margin.
The findings are based on interviews with 50 men conducted by psychology researcher Dr. Kelley Kline, of Florida State University in Panama City, Florida. She and co-authors Dr. Colin Peeler and undergraduate student Kim Fazzone presented their findings earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, in Atlanta.
Numerous studies have examined the sexual appeal of various female facial characteristics or body types, but Kline said no one had looked at "perceptions of attractiveness based on hair length" until now.
In their study, the Florida team had 76 women and 50 men averaging 27 years of age rate the attractiveness of women depicted in 6 different photos.
Three of the photos were actually of the same young Caucasian woman, her hair altered by computer to short, medium and long lengths.
"We had a short-hair condition where the hair was above the ears, cropped close to the head," Kline explained in an interview with Reuters Health. "We (also) had the hair in a medium style ... just a little bit below the ears, and then we had the long-hair condition where it was at least 8 inches or more past the shoulders."
Otherwise, the woman's face and expression were exactly the same in each of the three pictures.
According to Kline, both men and women "overwhelmingly find the long hair length significantly more attractive than the short and the medium hair length."
She said the biological imperative to find a healthy, fertile mate may explain the finding, at least in men. One popular psychological theory holds that while women are driven to find moneyed, 'resource-rich' men, men are primarily looking for reproductive fitness in their mates.
"Hair is going to be a signal of that, because a younger woman will usually have longer, thicker hair," Kline explained.
On the other hand, when Kline's group asked women about hair-length preferences for men, the vast majority chose short or very short cuts. Since long hair is so closely linked to femininity, Fabio-like locks might signal to women that a man is somehow less virile or capable than his buzz-cut brethren, Kline theorized.
And there was one more finding of interest.
"At least in our study, gentlemen do not prefer blondes. They prefer brunettes," Kline said. "Its kind of an interesting finding, considering that in our society we concentrate on the blonde -- it's so pervasive."
The Florida researchers hope to reproduce their findings in larger studies using photos of various women, including older women and women of different ethnicities.
I agree 100%! I have thick, wavy hair that is growing out to my shoulders from a shorter cut. The short cut drove me NUTS - constantly had to have it trimmed to keep the shape, it needed more fussing with to make it look good, plus because it didn't have the weight to pull it straight the waves went beserk and I had odd cowlicks all over my head.
I never blow dry anymore unless I'm going out at night - I used to but it dried my hair out too much. I just wash and towel it dry in the AM, and it air-drys in the car on the way to work. It helps if you turn the blower on and aim all the ducts at your head (or open the window on the highway) ::grin::.
It's only a problem in the winter - up here (VT) it will freeze if I go out of the house with it wet. Sometimes I do it anyway....
LQ
Stay Safe WD !!
In later years, hair-length is not that important.
Did they have long hair when young?
Also, is there a reason they wear their hair short, and how short is it?
When I say short, I mean short: above the ears.
I never knew that short hair was so much work!
But then, I never dated a short-haired woman! LOL.
Well, someone agrees with me, at least.
*Read: VERY little effort
Our exchange started me thinking where the idea that short hair was less work entered my mind.
I suddenly realized I formed that opinion by observing how much more women bothered about their long hair compared to how little I bothered about my short hair (I'm a guy).
I never paid much attention to short-haired women; I never saw them in similar circumstances to the long-haired women I have known, to see that some might fuss even more about their hair than the long-haired women of my acquaintance.
Even severly pulled back in a bun?
Me too. The most dramatic change in how men ever treated me occurred whenever I dyed my hair red. There's something about a redhead, apparently. But I've gone back to my natural brown, nevertheless.
Hair in a severe bun is waiting to be let down. What? No prim and proper schoolteacher fantasies?
In at least one of my posts on this thread, I had written the following:
"Hair communicates (though one must take into consideration a woman's entire appearance, considering how she would look with shorter hair as compared to wearing long hair up--while also taking into consideration whether she has long hair but is wearing it up because she is appears engaged in a certain activity, to accurately guess what her hair communicates)."
Note that in the above, I said one must consider hair-length not by itself, but in light of other aspects of woman's appearance.
Those other aspects include the way she is dressed, what she is doing at the time one observes her, whether she uses makeup, what kind of makeup, and how much, and one must observe other aspects of her hair: If long, has she treated it with chemicals, sprayed it with glue, puffed it out (big hair), or otherwise messed with it unnaturally?
For example: To me, if a woman I see in the street appears from her apparel to be working in an office that day, if her hair is long, I would expect a traditional woman to wear it up or pulled back--not free to wantonly fall over her shoulders or eyes.
Hey, I was just asking about your thinking--it had nothing to do with how I think.
Up or down or back or bun--in the right context, long hair on a woman is better than short hair.
Who says you have to dry it? I am strictly "wash and wear."
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