The Hair Color Men And Women Find Least Attractive, According To One Sad Study
Of course, not everyone agrees.
Trifonov Igor / Shutterstock Many studies have looked into how people with different hair colors are perceived in the dating world.
Usually, the discussion comes down to blondes and brunettes, but do you know who is always being overlooked? Redheads — that's who.
Are redheads considered attractive?
A study published in Psychology Studies found that men and women who have red hair are not considered as attractive or approachable as their blonde or brown-haired counterparts.
In their experiment, researchers had a group of men and women wear black, brown, blond, and red wigs to a night club in order to see if people with any of the three hair colors were approached more or less than others.
As it turned out, male and female red heads alike were both approached the least and rejected the most.
Only 13.8% of men wearing a red wigs got women to agree to dance with them, while men with black locks led the group with a 35% success rate, followed by men with brown hair at 30% and men with blond hair at 27.5%.
And although some psychologists have said that women usually put less importance on physical traits than men do when it comes to the opposite sex, the experiment still showed that men with red hair still received much less of a response from women.
This seemed to be a problem for their lady counterparts, as well.
The same study found that the woman with red wigs were only approached by 29 guys, whereas 127 men approached women with blond wigs, 84 men approached women with the brown wigs, and 82 approached the women with black locks.
And when men were showed photos of one woman wearing four different hair colors, they rated the photo with red hair as the most temperamental, least shy, and most sexually promiscuous out of every hair color.
So, why do some people think red hair is not attractive?
Stereotyping might be the culprit.
"One reason may stem from the stereotypes that people hold of redheads. Research suggests that (compared to women with other hair colors) women with red hair tend to be perceived as more temperamental, outgoing and promiscuous (but also more competent). And the relative rarity of red hair may make such stereotypes more difficult to disprove," David Matz, a social psychologist tells YourTango.
He then explained that, although red hair may be striking because it's rare, it's also why redheads lose points. "We have found that hair color preferences generally tend to match the prevalence of hair colors in a given region. Again, given the relative rarity of red hair, it is not surprising that red hair is least preferred," continues Matz.
Yikes! We know everyone has a type, but this may be taking it just a bit too far. Besides, dating a ginger is always a good idea — they're wonderful people! — in case you needed convincing. And many people find them impossibly attractive.
And things may be looking up for redheads nowadays, as some more reports suggest that our flame-haired friends may actually have started to become more desirable, not less.
So, get out there and embrace your beautiful, redheaded self!
Nicole Weaver is a love and entertainment writer.