News

Wednesday 24 September 2008

UK women dying to get more confident, study finds

Those in need of the confidence to confront their boss, stand up and sing in front of a room full of strangers, or even try new things in the bedroom, need look no further than a bottle of hair dye, new research shows. A study by experts at Nottingham Trent University, in conjunction with Clairol nice n’ easy, has found that after dying their hair women felt significantly more confident, impulsive, sexually exciting, rebellious, creative, attractive and able to deal with criticism.

At work, women were shown to gain an added confidence to express their opinions and make requests they would not normally consider such as asking for a raise, a promotion, or time off. Similarly, dying their hair gave women the impetus to be more forthright or put their foot down with romantic partners, family members and friends.

Almost half of women agreed they would sing or dance in front of strangers at a social event after dying their hair, would ask someone out, initiate sex with a partner or experiment with something new romantically. A similar number were more likely to help someone in the street, raise a complaint in a restaurant, speak up over something which annoys them, or ask for favours.

The study showed the most popular reasons behind women dying their hair were to get attention from people they didn’t know, family and workmates, or to reinvent themselves. Women were less likely to colour their hair to try to feel better about themselves, maintain an existing colour, experiment with a new image, or retain a youthful appearance.

Lead researcher, Dr Mark Sergeant, from Nottingham Trent University’s School of Social Sciences, said: “These findings are really interesting, and show that the effects of hair dying among women can be quite significant. Not only were confidence and mood levels elevated, but inhibitions seemed to be mitigated too.”

ENDS

Notes for editors: Participants for the study were aged between 25 and 66-years-old. The majority of participants favoured light and dark blonde colours, chestnut and dark brown. The least popular colour was black.

Press enquiries please contact: Dave Rogers, Senior Press Officer, on Tel: 0115 848 8782, or via email: dave.rogers@ntu.ac.uk

Or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on Tel: 0115 848 8774, or via email: therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk