世論 What Japan Thinks

This recent survey from iShare into hair colouring is working under the presumption that all of its sample has black hair, given that there is no question about one’s natural colour.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 30th of September 2009 562 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.5% of the sample were male, 35.9% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, and 33.8% in their forties.

Earlier this year I had a more detailed look at hair colouring.

Despite being 100% Japanese, my wife is actually naturally dark brown rather than black, which used to get her into trouble at school as many schools forbid hair dying, along with make-up, etc. She used to work somewhere where she got a light brown dye not because it was in vogue or the like, but actually was a very important part of the corporate image!

Research results

Q1: Have you ever dyed your hair? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=312	Female N=250
Yes	57.3%	41.3%	77.2%
No	42.7%	58.7%	22.8%

Q2: What colour is your hair right now? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=312	Female N=250
Black	62.8%	81.1%	40.0%
Dark brown	27.6%	14.7%	43.6%
Light brown	5.2%	0.6%	10.8%
Blonde	0.5%	0.3%	0.8%
Other colour	2.1%	0.6%	4.0%
Skinhead, bald (skip to Q3)	1.8%	2.6%	0.8%

Q2SQ: Why did you choose your current hair colour? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=304	Female N=248
It’s the colour I wanted	60.9%	53.0%	70.6%
To match company rules, the habits of those around me	16.3%	24.0%	6.9%
Was recommended at hair salon	2.9%	1.3%	4.8%
Other	19.9%	21.7%	17.7%

Q3: What hair colour in a business contact leaves the most favourable impression? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=312	Female N=250
Black	53.9%	66.7%	38.0%
Dark brown	21.2%	7.7%	38.0%
Light brown	1.4%	1.3%	1.6%
Blonde	0.5%	0.6%	0.4%
Other colour	1.2%	1.0%	1.6%
Whatever colour doesn’t matter	21.7%	22.8%	20.4%

Q4: What hair colour would you most like your partner, spouse to have? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=312	Female N=250
Black	39.0%	43.6%	33.2%
Dark brown	22.4%	18.6%	27.2%
Light brown	4.6%	5.8%	3.2%
Blonde	0.9%	1.3%	0.4%
Other colour	3.2%	3.2%	3.2%
Don’t mind whatever colour it is	29.9%	27.6%	32.8%

Q5: Have you ever looked up on the internet what colour might suit you, what colours were in fashion, etc? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=312	Female N=250
Yes	12.1%	8.0%	17.2%
No	87.9%	92.0%	82.8%