Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

Respondents were then asked to express their level of agreement or disagreement with sixstatements about hair extensions (Table 6). Examples of these statements which are abbreviated in Table 6include ―Hair extensions are cheaper to maintain than natural hair‖ and ―Hair extensions make me lookmore beautiful‖. The results show that the respondents had the most agreement with relating to easymaintenance (77.7% strongly agreed and agreed) and faster growth of natural hair (62.6% strongly agreedand agreed). This is supported by the mean scores for the six statements in Table 6 which show the levelof agreement was greatest for statements relating to ease of maintenance (M=1.93, S.D.=1.25) followed bygrowing natural hair faster (M=2.77, S.D.=1.33). The results also reveal that 51% of the respondentsstrongly agreed and agreed that hair extensions make them look more beautiful while 42% strongly agreedand agreed that straight, long and bouncy hair was more attractive than short kinky hair. Whenrespondents were asked to rate the pictures of various hairstyles (see Figure 1 and Table 4); their threemost preferred styles (i.e., braiding (long/singles, braiding (cornrows, and weaving (long/straight) allincorporate the use of extensions. The rating of the natural cropped (short afro) style as the fourth mostpopular hairstyle is perplexing and is most likely a reflection of the respondents‘ aspiration to embracethemselves for who they are. Whilst it represents the style they would like to wear, the respondents chooseto go with mainstream hairstyles which they believe are more socially acceptable and easier to maintain.