The psychology of hair-dye panic buying during the coronavirus pandemic, explained: 'Hair does matter'
After phases of pandemic-inspired panic buying that have included masks, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and then both flour and yeast, reports now point to yet some other items that have been flying off shelves: hair dye, clippers and other mane-related grooming products.
"People are starting to need a haircut," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told the Today Show on Friday. "You see more beard trimmers and hair color and things like that. It's interesting to watch the dynamic play out." Sales of hair clippers increased 166 percent and hair coloring products rose 23 percent, from the same period a year earlier, according to Nielsen, CNN reports.
This latest consumer interest jibes with what’s been a trend, at least anecdotally through social media, of women giving themselves “quarantine bangs” and of others (including Tallulah Willis) even shaving their heads while stuck at home.
And while it might seem like either an oddly-timed explosion of vanity or an extreme reaction to boredom, there’s likely something deeper going on here.
“I’ve been studying the importance of hair for a couple of decades, and hair, in general, is a kind of indicator that things have changed or could change or should change,” Marianne LaFrance, Ph.D., Yale University professor of psychology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, tells Yahoo Life about this time of both major change and frustrating stagnation.
Like it or not, our identity is tied up in our appearance, manes included
“Hair does matter,” LaFrance says. “It matters not just in terms of how we appear to others but how we appear to ourselves. So, when we look at ourselves in the morning brushing our teeth or hair we think, that’s not how I normally look! And it does raise issues about, so, who am I now?”
Adds Vivian Diller, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist who specializes in female identity, “We all know that looking good and feeling good are closely intertwined. It's a psychological fact and doesn't change, regardless of what's going on around us. When we look good, we feel good. When our hair is unruly or we see gray roots surfacing, it unsettles us.”
In normal times, Diller tells Yahoo Life, we're all aware of the “good hair day” phenomenon, meaning, “a positive attitude shift that follows a blowout or a great cut or new style. And so it is [during this time],” she says. “For some, that means their hair looking smooth or curly or neatly trimmed. For others it means a dramatic change, like adding bangs or cutting their hair short or off altogether.”
Hair upkeep is typically part of a routine, and routines bring comfort
In addition to hair being deeply connected to our identities, our tresses are tied up into comforting routines, LaFrance notes. “Everything else about our routines is currently upset, and there’s no reason hair shouldn’t be one — and that it’s actually not a trivial one is interesting,” says LaFrance, who says it struck her as “a significant thing” that she would now not be able to get her usual every-eight-weeks haircut. “It’s just one more way of how things are currently profoundly different, and how our day-to-day lives have been disrupted in huge ways.”
For women who color their hair, she says, “there is a certain kind of panicking going on there. What do you do when the gray emerges — after many years of trying to keep that not visible.” And for those who have taken the buzz-cut approach?
“I think changing one’s hair in a fairly radical way is often something that both predates other changes or signifies other changes,” she says. “Whether divorce or the death of a spouse or the loss of a job, often we change our hair as a way to either prompt us out of the old ways and think about some new ways… or to give voice to the fact that the old ways are no longer.”
Our hair is one of the few things we can actually control right now
Finally, this pandemic has brought with it a lack of control — whether through job loss, school’s cancelation, or the inability to socialize — and making a decisive hairstyle change can be satisfying.
“As shelter-in-place orders extended beyond a few weeks, many of us sought ways to return to some normalcy and order,” says Diller. “Routines and schedules provide a sense of safety in a world that feels out of control, and one way for women to find that security is to take charge over their bodies. At-home workouts, manicures, blowouts and hair coloring are just some of the ways women have created routines that comfort them during this chaotic time. “
Adds LaFrance, “If we’re managing this part, [maybe as part of] a set of things — exercising or eating in a fairly healthy way or going out walking — it gestures toward the normal,” and explains that the thought process, conscious or not, could be, “If I can take care of my hair and my eating habits, then I’m making myself normal at a time of high abnormality.”
Finally, LaFrance admits, “I worry that, of all the things to be thinking about in this time of panic and death and dislocation, should hair even be something that enters my mind? But,” she says, “it is.” And she’s clearly far from alone.
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC and WHO’s resource guides.
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