Study combs for truth about hair perception

Some people have it made.

Consider the case of Professor Marianne Lafrance, who holds both a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Windsor and a master’s from Boston University. She was a professor of psychology at Boston College for 24 years before she moved up to Yale and their Women and Gender Studies Program.

Last year, she used her high-powered (and high-priced) education to conduct the landmark study on “the psychological impact of bad hair days.”

Honest to God.

Her conclusions, (Nobel Prize committee, please take note) were that women not only have “bad hair” days, but they also have “smart hair days,” too. The Yale study found that people tend to make instant, subconscious decisions about an individual based on what hairstyle they are wearing. There is no information on how long this study took or how much it cost, other than the fact Proctor & Gamble picked up the tab.

This is what they got for their money.

“We wanted to learn whether the frame around the face – the hairstyle – can significantly alter how a person is seen. We found that different hairstyles quickly lead others to see different kinds of people, ” Lafrance tells us.

She goes on.

An individual may decide if you are intelligent, sexy, open-minded, affluent or careless within seconds of meeting you, based on your hairstyle. Across the board, men and woman had the same reaction to specific hairdos. Why is Miranda the short-haired one on “Sex and the City”? Because she is the smart lawyer.

Question: What do Diane Sawyer, Candace Bergen, Martha Stewart and Hillary Clinton have in common? They want to be perceived as smart, so they cut their hair.

Conclusion: Want to get smarter? Cut your hair shorter!

When you are considering your next hairstyle, consider Lafrance’s advice that no style is all good or all bad and that we do, in fact, judge a book by its cover.

The other key findings in the Yale study were that as a hairstyle increases a woman’s perceived sexiness, it decreases a woman’s perceived intelligence. Women wearing short, tousled hairstyles such as Meg Ryan and Charlize Theron, are seen as “most confident and outgoing,” an asset when meeting new people or starting a career.

Most men I know would adore Meg Ryan if she were bald or wearing a mohawk.

Back to the Lafrance study. Length does matter when it comes to woman’s hair, she says. Women with long, blonde hairstyles such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Christina Aguilera are perceived as the sexiest and most affluent. Women with casual, medium-length hair such as Liv Tyler and Sandra Bullock are viewed as more intelligent and good-natured.

I suspect Marianne talked to a lot more women than men in her study. Men, we realize, are all pigs and couldn’t care less about hairstyles, long or short, formal or casual.

But some men were in the study.

Men wearing short, front-flip hairstyles, Brad Pitt and Matthew LeBlanc, were seen as self-confident and sexy. It is not surprising that men with this hairstyle were perceived as the most self-centered, the study tells us.

Most women I know would take Brad Pitt if his head were on fire, no matter what his hairstyle was.

Men with medium, side-parted hair are viewed as the most intelligent and affluent, great for that job interview, but also as the most narrow-minded, the study tells us.

Think Fabio had it made? Very long-haired men were perceived in the study as the least intelligent and most careless. Why is it that every time I see Fabio, he is dating another breathtakingly beautiful model?

Don’t believe the study?

Ask Professor Lafrance. She is the one with the master’s degree.

I, myself, am having a stupid hair day.