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PSYCHOSOCIAL IMPACTS OF HAIR BEAUTY AMONG WOMEN

Women have always suffered for beauty. It is important to assess by how much and in what ways have women suffered for beauty? The classification of hair as “good” or “bad” is based on the kinkiness of one’s hair texture. The real good hair is straight hair, hair like white folks’ hair. Yet hair remains standard to measure our beauty by which hair gives reflection of gender identities because how a woman wears her hair matters to how she will be perceived as an individual

Women visit the beauty salon for many reasons. The most common reason is to take care of their hair together with aim of change their appearance, maintain beauty and for pride. Most women have begun to the validate the existing beauty standards and are beginning to change traditional ideals of beauty .

In America, the history has developed a focus on the individual, emphasizing the modification of one’s outer appearance as a public display of one’s own ideals, values and beliefs. It is common to find that people assign labels to refer to the physical appearance of others. For example, persons who choose a certain fashion hair style may be automatically assigned to a certain personality traits .

In Africa, the pharaonic civilization in Egypt used hair styles to distinguish between social classes. The upper rank of their society wore specially designed wigs made of natural hair while priests completely shaved their heads as a symbol of purity. Essentially different classes and groups could be identified simply by looking at their hair styles. In these cases hair is seen both as an indicator of a certain identity within a society as well as a symbol for someone’s essence and soul .

In Tanzania across ethnic groups hair beauty carries different meanings. The braid patterns or hair styles indicates a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position and religion. Elaborate patterns are done for special occasions like weddings, social ceremonies or war preparations. People belonging to a tribe can easily be identified by another tribe member with the help of the braid pattern or hair style.

The Sociology of hair attempts to address whether associations to personality have been assigned to women based on the colour and length of head hair. The topic of hair seems to be of more cultural significant to women than men. A study of its sociology, symbolism and its assignment to women would seem of greater importance. Women have longer head hair than men and spend more time and money than men in hair styling.

Social Psychologists look hair within the social context as the most common viewed attribute. Research in this area is typically undertaken using controlled experiments in which hair colours, hair lengths and hair amounts are treated as variables while the perceptions of others are the dependent variables.

Psycho social factors propelling hair beauty among women.

Hair beauty is a multibillion-dollar industry worldwide, on average woman spends approximately $50,000 on hair over lifetime and almost two hours a week washing and styling hairs . From the explanations above we can deduce that hair beauty may have the implication of economic status of an individual.

Many people believe that hair appearance is important because our hair represents our personality, thoughts and beliefs. For centuries women have been able to play different roles by changing different hair styles and from their stories we can see that hair contributes greatly to women's self-esteem, actions and motives.

The hair style we have, the foods we eat and the activities we enjoy all have common social meanings assigned to them that are dictated by popular culture of the time. Fashion is one example of this. Historically, hair style served as a means of displaying or revealing one’s gender identity, religious views and socio-economic class . Hair style as construct in assigning certain meaning to an individual with certain hair style.

Hair is a social construct that is deeply connected to the identities of women and she described hair as part of a broader language of appearance, which whether or not we intend it, tells others about ourselves”. Symbols exist within this phenomenon that makes up a broader language is communicated to those we meet to make statements about who we are. The central concept is the issues of personality and self-concept as explained how others can assign our personality impression through hair beauty as social construct.

Moreover, hair is one of the first thing other people notice about us and is one of the primary ways we declare our identity to others. Both in our personal relationships and in relationships with the larger world, hair sends an immediate signal that conveys messages about our gender, age, social class and more.

On the other hand, hair can make you feel amazing, “Your outward appearance projects things about you, and people will make judgments about you based on that”. Hair plays vital role because it frames your face and it’s a prominent part of first impressions, so it’s fair game to care for the same. From the explanations above we derive that first impression as key phenomena which can be influenced by hair beauty.

Hair is so malleable, it can give women feeling of control over their bodies that they don’t otherwise have in the process of building self-image .

Moreover hair beauty results to confidence development. When a woman improves her hair appearance an amazing thing happens hence people begin to pay attention to her, listen to her, seek her company and ask her opinion. She becomes more confident and this makes her look even better as her confidence grows as she receives respect at work, at home and everywhere. As her insecurity falls away she becomes more daring, self-assured, courageous and she finds she can do anything .

Additionally many African American women define their beauty and self-esteem by their hair type, texture and length. Many women reported increased feelings of self-esteem and self-confidence when they wore weaves or had long straight hair. For the sake of building confidence women are more devoted to hair beauty and tend to invest much of their time and resources on it.

On the other hand social rank is equally tied to hair. The pharaonic civilization in Egypt, used hair styles to distinguish between social classes. The upper echelon of their society wore specially designed wigs made of natural hair, while priests completely shaved their heads as a symbol of purity. Essentially, different classes and groups could be identified simply by looking at their hair styles .

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