Effects of Hair Style on Human Physiological Response in a Thermal Neutral Environment

Recently, research on variables associated with hair styles are increasing with the spreading of total coordinated intention in the fields of clothing and cosmetology. In the present study, we focused on examining the skin temperature on the scalp(the vertex, temporal, and occiput), humidity on the occiput, skin temperatures (the forehead, back of ear, back of neck, upper back, abdomen, forearm, hand, thigh, calf, and foot), rectal temperature, total body mass loss by hair styles in a thermal neutral environment. Four young females participated as subjects. For a certain period, each subject had the five different hair styles in a random order: (1)Straight short hair(SS), (2)Perm waved short hair(PS), (3) Straight long hair(SL), (4)Perm waved long hair(PL), (5)Ponytail style(PT). Subjects wore briefs, bra, shirts with long sleeves, long legged training pants, and socks. The environmental variables of a climatic chamber were kept constant at $21{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$ of air temperature and 55${\pm}$5%RH of air humidity. The results indicated the following: The skin temperature and humidity on the scalp did not show any significant differences among five different hair styles, but straight long hair style(SL)was the highest on the vertex, temporal, and occiput. The temporal skin temperature($29.8\sim30.8^{\circ}C$) was the highest, while the vertex skin temperature($28.7\sim30.1^{\circ}C$) was the lowest. Humidity on the occiput was the highest in the perm waved long hair style(PL). The back of ear skin temperature was significantly lower in the ponytail style(PT) than in the other four hair styles(p<.001). In the straight long hair style(SL), the skin temperature on the back of the neck and on the upper back were significantly higher than those of the other four hair styles(p<.01). Mean skin temperature and rectal temperature had no significant differences among hair styles. Total body mass was the highest in the perm waved long hair style(PL)(p<.05). We acquired fundamental data to enable the improvement of the current hair clinic system, wigs, functional hats, and helmets.

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