Colored hair affects the facial attractiveness judgment and identification at different time courses

Abstract Although faces usually include hair of various colors, the effects of colored hair on face perception have received little attention. Because hair is a part of face in actual interpersonal situations, this study examined how colored hair influences the facial attractiveness judgment and identification with the short and long durations (60 and 1,700 ms). In Experiment 1, the facial attractiveness was relatively consistent across stimulus durations regardless of hair color. Moreover, the individual attractiveness was relatively consistent between blond and black hair at the short duration, but diversified in response to hair color at the long duration. In Experiment 2, the identification accuracy was lower for blond than for black hair only at the short duration. These findings suggest that hair color disrupts the identification of briefly presented faces, whereas it does not impair attractiveness judgments. Instead, hair color modulates perceived attractiveness when faces are viewed for a longer time. These results highlight how external facial features shape interpersonal evaluations depending on the time available for face processing. This temporal pattern may help explain how subtle biases related to physical appearance emerge during rapid social encounters.