A new study suggests that the desire to have smooth, wrinkle-free skin may start with paying attention to hair colour. Scientists from Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, United States, sought to understand the impact of hair colour on skin appearance, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
The research team showed participants pairs of photographs of women with modified hair colours. When asked to rate facial skin evenness, the results showed a clear pattern: faces displayed with dark hair received ratings indicating their skin looked more even compared to faces with light hair.
The researchers stated that "this is an important finding, because skin smoothness affects assessments of credibility, competence, attractiveness, and health, while these assessments in turn influence varied perceptions and diverse real-world outcomes."
In two experiments, researchers photographed 45 women aged 19 to 79 years in the first experiment, then surrounded the faces with either a black background or an oval shape with a colour close to skin tone. Sixty-one participants were asked to rate skin evenness in both photographs. The results showed that facial skin displayed against a black background was considered more even compared to faces in an oval shape with a skin-tone-like colour, despite the faces themselves remaining unchanged.
In the second experiment, researchers photographed 41 women and modified their hair colour, then asked 80 participants to rate their skin appearance. Again, the results showed that women's skin received ratings of being smoother when their hair was dark. Dr Carlota Patris, who led the study, said: "These results show that skin appearance is affected by the contrast between skin colour and the surface surrounding the face, whether that is background colour or hair colour."
