Hair-Color Matching and Self-Concept: An Exploratory Study on Japanese Women

Impression managements with fashion, cosmetics, hairstyle and hair-color etc. are omnipresent. Matching to the self-concept is the primary factor in impression managements. In the current research, we examined how hair-color matching evaluation would correlate with one's intended impressions to others and how the matching of hair-color might affect the self-perception in Japanese women. Results indicated that: 1) Hair-color matching evaluation by oneself was related to the one's intended impressions. 2) The colors that were thought to be matched to oneself were evaluated as socially desirable and interpersonally likeable. Thus, Japanese women want to make them appear "socially acceptable" and it is an important criterion for hair-color matching evaluation. This is consistent with the idea that motivation of managing impressions is to convey one's social roles in communities.