Reading body language involves being sensitive to gestures, facial expressions, eye contact – and even hairstyles. Both women’s and men’s hairstyles can reveal personality traits.
Here’s what your hair says about you.
Discovering Personality Traits Through a Woman’s Hairstyle
“Hair is often an excellent predictor of someone’s self-image and lifestyle,” says Jo-Ellan Dimitrius in Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior – Anyplace, Anytime. However, she also writes: “Because so many hairstyles are acceptable on women, most stylistic deviations don’t indicate much about a woman’s personality. Extremes of length, volume, style, and color are the most telling aspects of a woman’s hair.”
What Short Hair Says About Personality
Short hair that is carefully cut and styled may reveal an artistic personality. Most high-maintenance hairstyles indicate financial well-being; short hair that requires regular cuts and dyes may reveal that the woman cares about her appearance, and is willing to spend a significant amount of money to look good.
“Spending a significant percentage of one’s income on hair – or any other aspect of personal appearance – suggests vanity, a need for acceptance, concern about others’ perceptions, and possibly insecurity,” writes Dimitrius in Reading People.
What Long Hair Reveals About Personality
Women who are over 40 years old and wear their hair long may not resist growing up. Dimitrius writes, “Sometimes women with this trait are caught in a time warp and still think of themselves as teenagers or college students rather than as grown-ups. Such women may be fairly unrealistic in their outlook on life as well as in their perception of themselves.”
Women who have long hair may believe it makes them more sexually appealing. Long hair could also reveal a bohemian spirit or freedom from conventional expectations.
What Gray Hair Reveals About Personality
Women who let their hair go gray naturally – or who dye it gray or white – are likely to be comfortable with their age and who they are as women. Generally speaking, they decide for themselves what they like and what looks good on them (unless of course they are allergic to hair dye. In this case, gray hair doesn’t reveal personality traits).
What Mohawks and Purple Hair Reveal About Personality
Women (and men) who do strange and wonderful things with their hair may be artistic and nonconformist. However, they may be conforming to their own subculture (punk rock, Goth, rebellious artist, etc). People who experiment with dramatic hairstyles are generally young and adventurous, with little regard to how they're perceived by "conventional" society, such as employers or authority figures.
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Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen - Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is a full-time writer and blogger in Vancouver, BC, and the creator of the Quips and Tips blog series.
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