Principal author: CSW
Subject: CSW
Photographer: CSW
Date: June 18, 2009
Reprinted with permission from The Journal of Unemployment Research, vol 1., no. 1, Summer, 2009, pp3-7
Preamble: Principal author bought a new hairdryer, basing her selection upon color, shape, and size, but feared manufacturer would think she fell for unlikely hype that hairdryer offered an “ionic” as well as a “regular” drying feature. Principal author asked four science friends if they too found said claim about “ionic” drying suspect. Two failed to respond, while a third did extensive Google research and hypothesized that manufacturer claims might be overblown. The fourth science friend begged principal author to follow through on joke offer to dry half her hair on the “ionic” setting and half on “regular.” Principal author agreed to serve the interests of science.
Hypothesis: Hair on side of head dried with “ionic” setting would not be perceptibly different than hair on side of head dried with “regular” setting.
Materials:
Revlon Ionic Hairdryer 1850 (pink accents, featuring attractive small button on handle with a snowflake painted on it)
Nisim shampoo
Natural Instincts Color Treat 3 conditioner
Towel (green)
Plastic brush (blue, with plastic bristles (white) with little knobs on the ends (blue))
Camera (Olympus)
Procedure:
Subject shampooed hair with Nisim shampoo and rinsed: conditioned hair with Natural Instincts Color Treat 3, and rinsed. Subject towel-dried self and hair, then got dressed in order to appear in documentary photos. Subject combed all hair straight back and tried to pat it into place, more or less. Subject began to wonder if she really wanted to take a “before” picture (see Figure A).
Note: Since pictures were taken in mirror, the hair sticking up is on the left side of subject’s head, as well as left side of Figure A.
Figure A.
Subject parted hair smack dab down the middle, then placed a plastic bag over the right half of her head (see Figure B).
Subject parted hair smack dab down the middle, then placed a plastic bag over the right half of her head (see Figure B).
Figure B
Holding the hair dryer in her left hand, subject blow-dried* the left side of her hair, on High and on Hot. No attempt was made to style hair. (subject did not have enough hands to take a picture of this procedure, but took a picture by smooshing stuff between jaw and shoulder, in order to show attractive hairdryer (see Figure C).
*”Blow-dried” must be correct, because “blew-dry” can’t be.
Holding the hair dryer in her left hand, subject blow-dried* the left side of her hair, on High and on Hot. No attempt was made to style hair. (subject did not have enough hands to take a picture of this procedure, but took a picture by smooshing stuff between jaw and shoulder, in order to show attractive hairdryer (see Figure C).
*”Blow-dried” must be correct, because “blew-dry” can’t be.
Figure C.
Halfway through process: left side of hair is dry, right side still wet (Figure D).
Halfway through process: left side of hair is dry, right side still wet (Figure D).
Figure D.
Subject moved the plastic bag over to the left side, in an attempt not to skew the results by “over-drying” that side.
Crucial moment: Subject punched the little snowflake button on the hair dryer handle once.
Then, holding the hair dryer in her right hand, subject dried the right side of her head, on High and on Hot. No attempt was made to style hair.
Figure E demonstrates the result.
Subject moved the plastic bag over to the left side, in an attempt not to skew the results by “over-drying” that side.
Crucial moment: Subject punched the little snowflake button on the hair dryer handle once.
Then, holding the hair dryer in her right hand, subject dried the right side of her head, on High and on Hot. No attempt was made to style hair.
Figure E demonstrates the result.
Figure E
Discussion: Experimental flaws - material, procedural, and essential:
Subject does not own a tripod or have enough hands to take pictures of procedure.
Discussion: Experimental flaws - material, procedural, and essential:
Subject does not own a tripod or have enough hands to take pictures of procedure.
Subject is right handed and may have done a strange job of aiming hair dryer at her left side.
While over-drying could have skewed the results for the first (left) side dried, the notion of holding a plastic bag over that side was not necessarily smart. Plastic bag may also have skewed results and flattened hair on left side. That said, the left side always did look flat, even when the right side was still wet.
Drying subject’s very thin hair on High and on Hot is lunacy.
Subject did not time how long she spent drying each side.
Subject’s hair really doesn’t want to part smack dab down the middle, but rather a bit to the left, so the “after” pictures are suspect.
Essential flaw: Subject was unable to tell when the little “ionic” button on the handle, with a snowflake painted on it, was “on” and when it was “off.” When she pushed it, a noise was made, but the button did not actually remain depressed. When she pushed it a second time, the same thing happened. Subject searched for something that lit up when button was pushed, but found nothing. Subject wondered if the “ionic” button must be held down the whole time. Of course, subject was skeptical about the little ionic button doing anything in the first place, so there was some possibility of experimental bias.
Even more essential flaw: While searching to see if anything lit up when ionic snowflake button was pushed, subject found another button, rather prominently displayed, and visible in Figure D below subject’s nose. This button is on top of the hair dryer, not on the handle. It is pink and sports no snowflake. It is marked “Ionic Dry.” This button was left in the “on” position throughout the above experiment. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the stupid snowflake button on the handle makes the air cold, if held down and not released.
Conclusions: Due to multiple experimental flaws, nothing can be concluded from the experiment. If further funding is secured, perhaps half the head can be dried with the Ionic Dry button set to On, and half dried with it set to Off. This experiment serves as a valuable control study demonstrating how astonishingly different the two sides of the head can appear under absolutely identical ionic drying conditions.
(Comment really did come from Dr. M, but I'm copying and pasting it out of an email. I didn't have a blog back then.)
ReplyDeleteTo the journal editors:
I applaud the extensive efforts taken by the subject to address this important scientific question. I further applaud the implicit self-sacrifice involved in documenting with photos that did not necessarily always show subject at her very best.
However, as is so often the case in science, by sheer serendipity, another scientific question may have been raised and lo, a hint of an answer may be present buried deep within the data. I propose that the little snowflake button may serve to "cool" the blowing air while the button is depressed, with the goal of achieving another alledged effect. That is, it has been postulated that drying or "finishing" hair with a cool burst of air may further serve to "smooth" the hair cuticle, achieving a more controlled "look" with a lower quotient of frizz. I believe this important research may serve to challenge that second hypothesis, in that the right side, while perhaps (due to described technical challenges) not dried with a steadily applied lower temperature flow, appears to be LESS, rather than MORE smooth.
Perhaps more importantly, ethical questions regarding society-held suppositions of "good" vs. "undesirable" results, in the arena of hair smoothness, are raised by this subject's work. In the discussion, this subject expresses a preference for the fluffier side, or rather, that the methods used resulting in the flatter side were "lunacy". Indeed, the very idea that "smooth" is an inherently "good" quality, and that the "ionic" (and the more recently touted "ceramic") qualities of said hair dryer represent an unequivocal benefit worthy of increased cost, is challenged. Studies such as this one, while preliminary, provide strong support for continued production of hair dryers that allow the "ionic" features to be optional.
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. D. C. M.
Addendum: This work, of course, forces reconsideration of yet another hypothesis regarding hair smoothness, a corollary to the "cool air" hypothesis. That is, that rinsing the hair with cold water will also "smooth the cuticle". Perhaps the innovative application of the plastic bag by the subject in this manuscript could be used to test that question?
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Dear Dr. M -
The editors were sortof hoping for letters more along the lines of, "I wet my pants, I laughed so hard." However, your liberal use of quotation marks, as well as your concern about societal norms for "beauty" has won their hearts over.
The editors, JUS