What Women Notice First: Hair Cues That Signal Confidence and Care

Listen up, I'm going to tell you something that most men wouldn't know. Women are reading you before you can open your mouth! And your hair? It's saying a lot.

I learned this the hard way back in my early twenty's. I was doing seminars, working sixteen hours a day and my hair looked like I had stuck my finger in an electric socket. One woman after a seminar stopped me and said, "Your message is powerful but your appearance is working against you." That hurt. But she was right.

This is what science tells us. Humans send and receive visual messages in about 13 milliseconds. That's faster than you can blink. Your mind is making instant evaluations about health, social status and genetic worth before conscious thought even enters the picture. And hair is one of the first signals in this process.

Yale University has a perception lab that measures this type of behavior. It was found that eleven different evaluations of you were made within seven seconds of initial contact. Hair accounted for about forty percent of that initial impression. Why? Because hair is a biological sign board announcing your health, self-esteem and detail awareness.

Women are especially aware of it. Why? Because the science of evolutionary psychology can supply an answer; for thousands of years women have had to look quickly at possible partners. Therefore, grooming habits in men indicated whether the man had the ability and discipline to provide grooming habits for himself, possibly for offspring! Shiny, well groomed hair also indicated good nutrition and low stress! Conversely, hair that looks bedraggled, dirty, or poorly combed connotes ill health or the presence of adverse conditions. Dr. Marianne LaFrance of Yale has investigated this phenomenon and found that when women view well-groomed and poorly-groomed men, their brains illuminate differently. The amygdala, a part of the brain that deals with the perception of emotions and detection of danger, was found to exhibit less excitability when subjects confronted men of good appearances.

The meaning of this conversion is that good grooming makes the groomed appear to be less dangerous and more accessible. Now we come to the interesting part: it is not necessary for the subject to have a stylish hairdo, or to make his appearance such that he will remind one of a fashion plate; women are not asking for perfection; they would just like to see evidence that there is a little regard taken for their personal appearance. I once had a client who was a very able manager, but an entire stranger to a mirror. His hair was always a little greasy, and its coat was combed in fashions to meet dudes of an unchanging character since time was in its infancy. He could not grasp the reason for the failure of his personal influence in executive meetings. We did not give him the head of a model, we simply taught him that it was necessary that he wash it properly, put the right lotions on it, and make it conform somewhat to his age and ripening years. His confidence grew, his board meetings went better, and his wife told him she was glad to have appeared with him at functions again.

The difference between mangy looking hair and good manes is due to an understanding of the subject-matter. Your Hair follicles require three things: correct supply of blood, things to eat, and no excessive amount of adrenal producing substances. When the cortical hormones run riot (which they will during stress, lack of sleep and bad dietary habits) the could of the organism refuses sustenance in complete entertainment of the necessary things, and gives its energies to other things than that of producing hair.

The British Journal of Dermatology describes how chronic stress changes hair growth cycles by pushing a greater amount of hair follicles into the rest phase. This is why men who are going through divorces, or loss of job or business or financial pressures have thinning hair and a dullness to it. Their physiology is saying to them "survival mode." This is instantly picked up by women. A thick head of hair signals low stress and good health. When the hair is dull, brittle and thinning neurological responses fire off concern. And that’s not being superficial, it’s the hard wired recognition of patterns which have kept our species alive.

Now let’s understand what is necessary to make the health. Protein. The hair is made up of 95% keratin, a protein of structure. If there is no adequate protein levels in food intake , not talking about protein powder , then there is no way for the body to make hair shafts that are strong. The minimum protein intake is around 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight per day, more required if activity is high. Biotin is a B-vitamin and plays a large role in keratin production. Lack of this shows itself in the hair being brittle and slow growing. But the supplement companies will never tell you this. If a person is not Biotin deficient, larger amounts will not have any effect. Eating eggs, nuts and sweet potatoes is in your interest, as opposed to swallowing large amounts of isolated Biotin. Omega 3 fatty acids, these are for non-negotiable essential. They reduce inflammation in the scalp, supply Sebum for healthy shining hair and keep the hair follicle in a healthy happy state. The Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology has done studies showing when omega 3 is given as a supplement for 6 months the density of hair has increased greatly and has reduced hair loss. Wild caught salmon, sardines, walnut, these should be stereo type foods in your diet. But this is only half the story.

How you treat your hair on a daily basis is of enormous consequence. Isn’t it amazing what men can do to their fros through poor habits in washing their hair? You don’t have to shampoo every day unless you work in a coal mine. Daily washing strips necessary oils and leaves hair dry and frizzy. Two or three times a week will suffice in most cases.

When you do wash use lukewarm water—not hotter. Heat destroys the hair cuticle—the outer covering of the hair. The tiny scales that ought to be flat are raised out of place, thus destroying the beauty of the hair. Cold rinses at the finish help seal the cuticle and give sheen.

The other great mistake that men make—they do not use a conditioner. The use of conditioner is not feminine—it is functional. It takes the place of moisture, smoothes the cuticle and prevents breakage. Apply it to the mid parts and ends of the hair—not the scalp. Leave it on for one minute only and rinse thoroughly.

The kind of product you use is of greater importance than you think. Sulfates—these terrible cleaning materials in the cheaper shampoos—remove everything from the hair, including the good. Be sure your product is not sulphate distilled. Silicones, too, are accumulating and destroy look of hair, giving them rigidity. If you are using products, use them only sparingly. Others use three times as great a quantity as necessary.

Here is something, though, that has shown a marked difference in my own fros: scalp massage. Only five minutes three or four times a week. Use your fingertips, pressure rather firm, in small circles over the entire scalp. A study out of Japan's Standardized Scalp Massage Study has shown that a four-minute daily scalp massage can increase hair thickness in 24 weeks through better blood flow and stimulation of dermal papilla cells. Plus, it feels nice and is good for stress—cup of tea!

Your haircut also communicates things. If you wear out-of-date styles, you're stuck in the past. If you wear a style that doesn't fit your face shape, it shows you pay no attention to your appearance. If your cut has been grown out too long, you show not enough regard for yourself. You don’t need to pay an arm and a leg, though, but you do need to have a barber who understands bone structure and takes pride in his work.

Women notice if a man's hair contributes to his other features. If you have a round face, you need height and angles. If you have a square jaw, softer styles tend to balance the hard angles of the jaw. Oval faces can wear most any kind of style but that doesn't mean that any and all of them look equally good. You can ask the barber for a fair opinion—he’s a good barber who will tell you what he really thinks.

Gray hair must be mentioned. The trouble isn't going gray. The trouble comes in when the man does not seem to look after his gray hair. Gray hair has a different texture—coarser and often drier— which requires different attention. Gray hair may also be yellowed from exposure to the sun or from the use of some kind of putty. Purple shampoos take care of the yellowing. Moisturizing hair care products become essential because gray hair does not receive the natural oils that younger hair uses up.

Some men attempt to hide their graying hair with bad dye jobs. Women know them at once and then they tell a thing called lack of confidence. Own your gray or see after it the right way, but don't half measure with shoe polish dark that does not fit with your skin tone.

The confidence piece is where all of this pieces together. You may have the best hair, but if you are forever touching it, fretting about it or making apology for it, they will smell the lack of confidence. O te other hand, a man who takes care of his appearance and omits it from his thoughts in a variety kinds is magnetic.

I have bein a white witness man thousands of other times, being a man myself, who has been substance spent grooming himself, but not a slave to it, whom those carve forth self-assurance. He has looked after the basic maintenance man, the clean have committed men others—voth axneed labors, conversations and learning repartees. That is what most all women these days delicious magnetic about—a man who isn’t fretting about the small things at all, neither but although has gotten the additional things taken care of.

Your hair is telling the story of your manner of movement in the world’s journeying. Is it a story of neglect and of ignoring? Or is it of self-respect and caring meant for it? Women are reading that story of yours whether it is known to you or not.

Start small. Get a haircut. Get some decent shampoo. Get bought some decent diet. Get required sleep. They are not big and difficult things to do, but they are things which assorted require regularly and systematically done. That is what separates the boys from men, the willing one of himself, asking or not. The truth is men have confidence, those who not or possible possible. Women notice and have always noticed them down and all the time and shall all the time.