Human Hair Diversity: Integrating Science & Consumer Realities

Hair plays a significant role in human personal and social identity. Therefore, fundamental hair research, cosmetic formulation, and hair assessment innovation will benefit from an awareness and appropriate integration of perception and behavior research relevant to hair. This talk will summarize the known scientific dimensions of human hair diversity and conceptually map them in relation to hair perception and behavior studies. Specific examples of behavioral investigations using human data will be presented, along with a summary of the relative strengths of the methodologies applied and how such studies can help to improve hair fiber and assembly experimentation. Additionally, cross-country and cross-cultural perspectives, and their relevance to hair innovation and claims, will be discussed.