Keeping up oneõs appearance: Its importance and the choice of type of hair-grooming establishment

Transcription

1 Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207±222 Keeping up oneõs appearance: Its importance and the choice of type of hair-grooming establishment R. Keith Schwer *, Rennae Daneshvary Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, P.O. Box , Las Vegas, NV , USA Received 20 September 1998; accepted 10 September 1999 Abstract This study investigated factors which in uence the importance one attributes to overall appearance and the choice of type of hair-grooming establishment. Data were collected from a sample of 245 respondents residing in a southwestern metropolitan area. Analyses reveal that respondents employed in professional/managerial, clerical/secretarial, sales, services, and military occupations, ones in which appearance could in uence job performance, identi ed maintaining an overall good appearance as very important signi cantly more often than respondents employed in other occupations. Employment in appearance-important occupations signi cantly in uences the choice of hair-grooming establishment. Demographic variables have greater explanatory power than economic variables (appearance-important occupations and income) and establishment attribute variables (image, service experience, and convenience). Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PsycINFO classi cation: 3920 JEL classi cation: D12 Keywords: Physical attractiveness; Occupational success; Choice behavior * Corresponding author. Tel.: ; fax: address: schwer@nevada.edu (R.K. Schwer) /00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S (99)

2 208 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± Introduction Americans are taking care of themselves by exercising, eating nutritious foods, taking care of their skin, and enhancing their appearance including their hair via color, transplants, and permanents. In a quest to enhance their appearance, both women and men are spending more time and money on physical appearance, including personal grooming at beauty salons, beauty shops, and barbershops. Men, historically patrons of barbershops, are relatively new customers to beauty salons and beauty shops. 1 According to American Demographics, one in six men patronized a beauty salon in As would be expected, men who frequent beauty salons differ from men who patronize barbershops. Men who did so were more likely to have a higher level of education, a higher level of income, and to be employed in an executive or a managerial position than men who frequented barber shops (Exter, 1990). These facts give rise to two questions: (a) Why is appearance important? and (b) What determines oneõs choice of hair-grooming establishment? Many early studies (1970s and 1980s) of appearance used a social psychological approach. 2 According to Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani and Longo (1991) these studies primarily addressed the perception (e.g., social, intelligent), treatment (e.g., selection as a dating partner), and characteristics (e.g., personality traits, behavioral tendencies) of attractive and unattractive individuals. The economic e ects of physical attractiveness have been more recently investigated by Bosman, Pfann, Biddle and Hamermesh (1997), Collins and Zebrowitz (1995), Frieze, Ohlson and Russell (1991), Hamermesh and Biddle (1994), Kyle and Mahler (1996), Loh (1993) and Roszell, Kennedy and Grabb (1989). Generally, less attractive people earn less than better looking people (Frieze et al., 1991; Hamermesh & Biddle, 1994; Roszell et al., 1989). Roszell et al. (1989) found that attractiveness in uenced income attainment for men, older individuals, and those employed in predominantly male occupations. Similarly, Frieze et al. (1991) showed that the starting salary of 1 Beauty salons usually o er full service including cutting, coloring and perming hair, selling retail products, and o ering skin care such as facials. Beauty shops are more limited in their services usually omitting skin and nail care. Beauty salons are usually frequented by males and females, beauty shops by women, and barbershops by men. 2 Economic studies are likely to use measurable physical-appearance information to assess measurable behaviour, such as assessing the e ect of height and weight on wage levels.

3 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± men was signi cantly in uenced by their attractiveness, but not so for women. However, both attractive women and men earned more over time. A principal nding is that appearance is important in occupations which rely on person-to-person contact and ones in which appearance may in uence economic productivity. Height and weight have also been used in assessing the economic e ects of physical attractiveness. Loh's (1993) results showed that height positively a ected the wage levels for men and women; whereas, obesity slowed wage growth, particularly for men. Likewise, Collins and Zebrowitz (1995) found a signi cant relationship between height and income ± taller men had higher incomes than did shorter men. Other appearance cues such as the color of hair and the use of cosmetics can also in uence income, as demonstrated in an experimental setting by Kyle and Mahler (1996). Physical attractiveness not only pays o for the individual but also for rms which hire attractive employees. Bosman et al. (1997) demonstrated that Dutch advertising rms with more attractive executives experienced faster growth and higher revenues than did rms with less attractive executives. Thus, there appears to be an economic incentive to appear attractive. Previous research, however, has not addressed whether or not people who are employed in some occupations, rate the maintenance of overall appearance more important than do people who are employed in other occupations. Moreover, research has not fully considered the behavioral consequences of individuals putting more or less emphasis on physical appearance (e.g., does it a ect grooming habits or maintenance rituals?). Nor has it addressed if they patronize a beauty shop, barbershop, or a beauty salon in maintaining their appearance. This paper uses a sample to investigate whether oneõs (a) occupational status in uences the importance one attributes to maintaining overall appearance, and (b) occupation in uences oneõs choice of type of hair-grooming establishment. Speci cally, we test two hypotheses: Hypothesis 1. The importance respondents attribute to maintaining overall appearance is signi cantly related to their occupation, gender, racial/ethnic group, and age. Hypothesis 2. RespondentsÕ choice of hair-grooming establishment is significantly related to their socioeconomic characteristics (occupation, gender, racial/ethnic group, income, and age) and perceptions of important hairgrooming establishment attributes.

4 210 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207±222 The hypotheses are tested using logit analysis. We measure the importance of appearance with a binary assessment and the type of hair-grooming establishment with a nominal-choice variable. A set of economic, demographic, and choice variables used separately and collectively o ers empirical evidence as to the signi cance of occupational status and other factors in uencing appearance assessment and the choice of hair-grooming establishment. 2. Physical appearance The inferences that people make about others based on their physical appearance have been extensively studied by researchers. In general, the studies conclude that beauty is good, meaning that physically attractive people will be successful in a multitude of endeavors, including professional and social. 3 Another line of physical-appearance research investigates the concern for oneõs appearance, also referred to as vanity, and its relationship to behavior. 4 For example, in their study of vanity and consumer behavior Netemeyer, Burton and Lichtenstein (1995) found correlations between vanity scales and consumer-based constructs such as cosmetics-use behavior and clothing concern. Burton, Netemeyer, Lichtenstein (1995) studied the role of appearance concern in relation to health-related behaviors and concluded that women were more likely to engage in potentially harmful behaviors such as eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, and intentional sunbathing than men. The authors attribute the di erences in appearance concern to cultural socialization processes and attitudes which have existed for centuries. They suggest that perhaps with the increased number of women in the work force, concern for personal appearance would diminish 3 Brie y, the beauty is good theory suggests that beautiful people are perceived to have more favorable personal attributes than nonbeautiful people. Extensive reviews of research on physical attractiveness stereotypes using meta-analysis were conducted by Feingold (1992) and Eagly et al. (1991). Feingold's (1992) review showed that physically attractive people were viewed as more sociable, dominant, sexually warm, mentally healthy, intelligent, and socially skilled than physically unattractive people. Whereas, ``the correlation literature indicated generally trivial relationships between physical attractiveness and measures of ability'' (Feingold, 1992, p. 304). Eagly et al.'s (1991) ndings on the physical attractiveness stereotype traits were similar and concluded that ``... the average magnitude of this beauty-is-good e ect was moderate, and the strength of the e ect varied considerably from study to study''. To some extent, both studies debunked the good-is-beautiful stereotype. 4 Netemeyer et al. (1995) de ne physical vanity as ``an excessive concern for, and/or a positive (and perhaps in ated) view of oneõs physical appearance'' (p. 612).

5 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± as women succeed at work and gain social power ± although, further opportunities for success in the workplace may be achieved by enhanced appearance. Research shows, however, that the importance of appearance may di er by occupation. Hamermesh and Biddle (1994) used a survey (Holzer, 1993) which assessed employersõ views on the importance of appearance for hiring to determine if better-looking people sort into occupations where beauty is more productive. The survey asked employers ``How important or unimportant is attractive physical appearance [for the job most recently lled]?'' Although the sample size was small, the summary statistics revealed some interesting ndings, for example, 90.9% of employers said that looks were important for retail sales occupations; whereas, only 16.6% considered looks important in precision production occupations. Thus, it appears that appearance is important in occupations where employees have more contact with their customers. In summary, the studies suggest that individualsõ concern for their appearance may a ect grooming behavior. This supports our studyõs premise that individuals employed in occupations where appearance is important will solicit services from an establishment that will enhance their appearance, making them more successful in the workplace. 3. Methods Surveys were distributed to a convenience sample of 245 subjects (of which 220 answered all questions) including university sta, employees of a bank, employees of a government building, patrons of beauty salons and barbershops, and members of a civic organization. Though respondents were selected on an availability basis, surveying at ten beauty establishments and four nonbeauty establishments introduced randomness into the survey and acted as a check against bias-sample selection. The surveys were distributed by students during the spring of 1995 and the summer of The sample was comprised of more women than men, 60.9% and 39.1%, respectively. The mean age of respondents was 33.6 years with a range from 18 to 80 years. About 36.0% were employed in professional/managerial occupations, followed by secretarial/clerical (18.6%), sales (14.1%), service (11.4%), technical/ trades (8.2%), and armed forces (6.4%). About 4% were retired and 1.4% were homemakers. The median household income was in the $35,000±$49,999 range. By far whites represented the largest portion of the sample (77.1%),

6 212 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207±222 followed by African-Americans (8.6%), Asians/Paci c Islanders (6.7%), Hispanics/Latinos (6.2%), and American Indians (1.4%) Development of hair-grooming establishment attribute scale In order to measure consumersõ perceptions of important hair-grooming establishment attributes, a scale of attributes was developed by drawing on the limited hair-grooming establishment literature (Strischek & Du, 1989) and initial eld work. Respondents were asked to rate nine attributes in selecting a hair-grooming establishment as either very important, somewhat important, or not at all important. To identify dimensions underlying the original nine important attribute variables, an unrestricted factor analysis was performed. A three-factor solution emerged which explained 61.6% of the total variance of the nine items. The alphas for the factors ranged from 0.58 to The items had loadings from 0.61 to Factor 1, Image, was composed of three items: reputation, atmosphere, and attire of employees; Factor 2, Service Experience, consisted of quality service, cleanliness, and courtesy; and Factor 3, Convenience, consisted of location, price, and convenient hours. The scores from the factors were used in subsequent regression analyses Modeling This section describes our model of (1) the importance of maintaining overall appearance and (2) choice of type of hair-grooming establishment Modeling the importance of appearance Given previous ndings suggesting the linkage of one's economic livelihood and appearance, we might, therefore, expect that the importance of appearance should depend on one's occupational status. We test this hypothesis using a binary dependent variable of the importance of maintaining overall appearance RATE APPEARANCE (1 ˆ very important, 0 ˆ not very important), and independent variables re ective of the respondents' occupation and other explanatory variables identi ed in the literature. Appearance-important occupation group was operationally de ned as being employed in professional/managerial, military, services, secretarial/clerical, or sales occupations. The variable APPEARANCE OCCUPATION was

7 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± de ned as 1 if respondent was employed in appearance-important occupations and 0, if not employed. A positive relation between occupation and the importance of appearance is anticipated. Research has established that women spend more time managing their appearance than men (Daly, Hogg, Sacks, Smith & Zimring, 1983; Aune & Aune, 1994) and that among African Americans, Caucasian Americans, and Asian Americans, Caucasian Americans spend the most time on appearance management and Asian Americans the least (Aune & Aune, 1994). On the other hand, African Americans spend more money on personal care and clothing than other groups which indicates they are concerned about their appearance (Fisher, 1996). Given seemingly contradictory conclusions, we forgo a directional hypothesis for race and appearance. Females, however, are more likely to consider appearance maintenance to be more important than males. The independent variables WHITE (white ˆ 1, minority ˆ 0) and FEMALE (female ˆ 1, male ˆ 0) were included in the model. Pliner, Chaiken, and FlettÕs (1990) study con rmed that females were not only more concerned with their physical appearance than males; but that the importance females place on appearance decreased with age. The continuous variable AGE is included and we expect it will be negatively related to the appearance variable. Our estimating equation in functional form is as follows: RATE APPEARANCE ˆ f Appearance Occupation; White; Age; Female : Modeling the choice of type of hair-grooming establishment Given previous ndings suggesting the linkage of one's economic livelihood and appearance, we would expect that oneõs choice of a hair-grooming establishment would depend on an individualõs employment in an appearance-important occupation. This hypothesis is tested with a multinomial logit regression, using a dependent variable CHOICE (1 ˆ frequent barbershop most often, 2 ˆ frequent beauty shop most often, and 3 ˆ frequent beauty salon most often), and independent variables re ective of economic, demographic, and important hair-grooming establishment attributes (factor scores generated from attribute responses). Our estimating equation in functional form is as follows:

8 214 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207±222 CHOICE ˆ f Appearance Occupation; Female; White; Age; Income; Image; Service Experience; Convenience : 2 APPEARANCE OCCUPATION in the choice equation was rede ned to exclude the military since an appearance standard valued by the military may be di erent from what is valued by civilians. In particular, with respect to haircuts, the crewcut available at any barbershop may be considered ideal in the military; whereas, a fashionable haircut that would help one get ahead in an advertising rm, might be seen as inappropriate in the military. Accordingly, we would expect that persons employed in appearance-important occupations (professional/managerial, clerical/secretarial, sales, and services, operationally de ned as APPEARANCE OCCUPATION ˆ 1) would seek beauty-enhancing services, since an economic incentive exists for looking oneõs best. The greater variety of appearance-enhancement services, we posit, would be received from a beauty salon. Additionally, higher-income individuals, other things equal, may select a beauty salon since they are more expensive than beauty shops or barber shops. Barbershops are more likely to operate on a rst-come rst-serve basis; and, beauty shops and salons are more likely to accept appointments. As such it may be inconvenient for a uent males to wait around in the traditional barbershop. Thus, appearance-important occupation and income should decrease the probability of choosing a barbershop or a beauty shop relative to a beauty salon. We use two income classes in (2). Three independent variables, re ecting the importance of hair-grooming establishment attributes, are expected to in uence choice of type of establishment: FACTOR 1 (Image), FACTOR 2 (Service Experience), and FAC- TOR 3 (Convenience). Choosing a beauty salon which o ers quality service and ambience, for example, may enhance a customerõs self-esteem and similarly boost their esteem in the eyes of others. Many exclusive beauty salons are places to be seen and to be pampered. Generally, they are also more lavishly decorated than beauty shops or barbershops, and in some cases, provide their customers with complimentary service, for example, wine or champagne. Patronage of these types of establishments may also symbolize the status of a customer, that is, a re ection of social class. However, if price is the most important attribute to a customer, then a no-frills beauty shop or a barbershop would be preferred over a full-service salon. Factors 1 (Image) and 2 (Service Experience) are expected to decrease barbershop and beauty shop choice; and, Factor 3 (Convenience) should increase such probability.

9 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± Lastly, three demographic variables are added to the model: FEMALE, AGE, and WHITE. We would expect that patronage of the types of establishments to di er along gender lines for historical reasons. Historically, men frequent barbershops and women use beauty shops. With the advent of the beauty salon, de ned as a full-service establishment, the traditional gender segmentation became less prevalent. As noted earlier, males are fairly new customers to beauty salons. As such, we expect males to choose barbershops over beauty salons, other things equal. Age might also come into play because younger people may be less averse to crossing boundaries that were traditionally de ned along gender lines. Previous empirical research shows that younger persons are more concerned with their appearance than are older persons (Pliner, Chaikner & Flett, 1990). Therefore, we would expect younger individuals to be attracted to the amenities that beauty salons o er ± facials and nail care, tanning booths, sale of beauty products, and at some salons, trendy music and furnishings. Since all ethnic/racial groups may be employed in appearance-important occupations, no directional hypothesis is formulated for race Results Binary logit regression was used to test Hypothesis 1 and a multinomial logit was used for Hypothesis 2. The variables are described in Table 1. We used 220 observations for which there were no missing values Importance of maintaining appearance Table 2 presents the results of the binary logit regression of maintaining appearance. Overall, the model exhibited good explanatory power, the hypothesis of all slopes equaling zero was rejected and the model correctly predicted the importance ratings for 74.5% of the respondents. Individually, the model estimated statistically signi cant coe cients for two variables ± APPEARANCE OCCUPATION and WHITE. APPEARANCE OCCU- PATION (de ned as 1 for occupations readily identi ed as likely to pay a premium for appearance, otherwise zero) yielded the expected statistically signi cant positive coe cient (statistically greater than zero at less than the 5 The small numbers of some of the ethnic groups warranted a less ambitious consideration of ethnicity.

10 216 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207±222 Table 1 Description of variables Variable Description Rate appearance 1 ˆ if rate overall appearance important Choice 1 ˆ if choose barbershop 2 ˆ if choose beauty shop 3 ˆ if choose beauty salon Appearance occupation 1 ˆ if employed in the military, professional/managerial, secretarial/ clerical, service, or sales occupations Female 1 ˆ if female Income 1 1 ˆ if household income is $75,000 or more Income 2 1 ˆ if household income is $35,000±$74,999 Age Age of respondent White 1 ˆ if respondent is white Factor 1 Image Factor 2 Service experience Factor 3 Convenience Table 2 Binary logit regression of the importance of maintaining overall appearance a Variable Coe cient and z value Marginal e ects on probability b (overall appearance ˆ very important) Constant 1.23 (1.56) Appearance occupation (3.04) (3.02) Age (0.62) (0.62) White )1.78 )0.339 (3.20) (3.48) Female )0.29 )0.06 (0.86) (0.86) c LL n ) d LL 0 ) v d.f. 4 Signi cance level Likelihood ratio index Percent correct 74.5 a n ˆ absolute z value in parenthesis; *** P < b Partial derivative of probabilities with respect to the vector of characteristics evaluated at means. c Log likelihood with n explanatory variables. d Log likelihood with all b ˆ 0 except for the intercept term.

11 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± level using a one-tail test). Thus, respondents employed in professional/ managerial, sales, clerical/secretarial, services, and the armed forces, identi- ed maintaining an overall good appearance as very important signi cantly more often than respondents employed in occupations where appearance is considered less important. Whites were less likely to rate maintenance of appearance important than minorities. This result stands in contrast to Aune and Aune (1994), but in agreement with Fisher (1996). Moreover, the marginal e ects, also shown in Table 2, support the signi cance of the occupation and white variables. Contrary to the literature (and in some cases, popular opinion), there was no di erence in the perception of appearance maintenance by gender Choice of type of hair-grooming establishment Table 3 contains the multinomial logit regression results of the choice of type of hair-grooming establishment. The estimated parameters for each equation in the table measure the e ect of changes in explanatory variables on the logarithm of the ratio of the probability of a ``beauty shop'' or a ``barbershop'' choice relative to the probability of ``beauty salon'' choice. The explanatory variables were grouped into three separate sets shown in columns 2±4 in Table 3, and one joint set, identi ed in the column heading All. Using the likelihood ratio test distributed according to the chi-square distribution with the degrees of freedom equal to the number of explanatory variables in the set, we tested for the contribution of the set of economic, demographic, and establishment-attributes variables. The null hypothesis that the slope coe cients for all variables in each set equals zero was rejected decisively as shown by the signi cance levels of 0.000, 0.000, and 0.001, respectively. For the economic variable set, being employed in an appearance-important occupation decreased the probability of using a barbershop and a beauty shop relative to a beauty salon, statistically signi cant at 1% and 5%, respectively. INCOME1 was also negative and statistically signi cant for the beauty-shop-choice group, indicating a reduced probability of using a beauty shop relative to a beauty salon. For the demographic data set all three variables were statistically signi cant for the barbershop group and for the beauty shop group. We nd that older, nonwhite males had a higher probability of using a barbershop than a beauty salon. On the other hand, being female, younger, and nonwhite increased the probability of using a beauty shop relative to a beauty salon, all things equal.

12 218 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207±222 Table 3 Multinomial logit regression for choice of type of hair-grooming establishment a Variable Explanatory variable set Economic Demographic Establishment attributes All Choice group: Barber shop Constant )1.247 )1.923 ) (3.645) (3.023) (14.217) (0.080) Appearance )1.722 )1.762 Occupation (4.678) (3.636) Income 1 )0.348 )0.045 (0.654) (0.071) Income 2 )0.175 )0.732 (0.438) (1.351) Age (2.222) (1.955) Female )4.721 )5.017 (4.527) (4.467) White )0.974 )1.682 (2.195) (3.118) Image )0.210 )0.016 (1.224) (0.075) Service experience )0.500 )0.499 (3.597) (3.186) Convenience (1.609) (2.534) Choice group: Beauty shop Constant )1.239 )3.791 )2.322 )2.925 (3.730) (5.854) (14.078) (3.813) Appearance )0.886 )0.761 Occupation (2.563) (1.981) Income 1 )1.834 )1.731 (2.476) (2.288) Income 2 )0.252 )0.388 (0.795) (1.150)

13 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± Table 3 (Continued) Age ) (5.854) (1.861) Female (2.751) (2.665) White )0.615 )0.596 (1.860) (1.618) Image )0.087 (1.056) (0.532) Service experience (0.883) (0.784) Convenience (2.751) (2.206) LL n b ) ) ) ) LL 0 c ) ) ) ) v d.f Signi cance level Likelihood ratio index Percent correct a Coe cients show relative to excluded category, beauty salon (absolute s values are in parentheses); *** P < 0.01; ** P < 0.05; * P < b Log likelihood with n explanatory variables. c Log likelihood with all b ˆ 0 except for the intercept term.

14 220 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207±222 The stronger contribution of the demographic variables relative to the economic and establishment attribute variables is supported using the likelihood ratio index. The index is for the demographic set, and and and for the establishment-attributes and economic sets, respectively. The establishment-attributes pattern revealed two interesting points: (a) a statistically signi cant negative sign on quality for the barbershop group, and (b) a signi cant positive sign with convenience for the beauty shop group. Considering the explanatory factors jointly (shown in column 5 of Table 3), the pattern of signi cant coe cients for the barbershop group remained essentially unchanged from consideration of each explanatory set separately. The signs and the signi cance of the economic and demographic factors remained unchanged. On the other hand, a slight decrease in signi cance occurred for SERVICE EXPERIENCE and a marked increase in signi cance occurred for CONVENIENCE. CONVENIENCE when considered separately with the establishment attributes had been insigni cant. Whereas, considering all variables resulted in the CONVENIENCE variable gaining statistical signi cance, although the sign of the coe cients did not change. A positive sign suggests that the importance of convenience favors a barbershop relative to a beauty salon. The pattern of the signi cant coe cients for the beauty salon group also remained essentially unchanged. When considering the explanatory factors jointly, a decrease in signi cance occurred for AGE. WHITE when considered separately had been signi cant, albeit at the 10% level; whereas, considered jointly with all variables, it lost its statistical signi cance. All in all, demographic and establishment attributes factors accounted for greater in uence on the probability ratio between barbershops and beauty salons than the economic factors. Our survey responses suggest that the demographic dimension, in particular, age and gender, plays the signi cant role. 5. Conclusion We nd that an appearance-important occupation is a signi cant predictor of the importance one attributes to overall appearance and that it signi cantly reduces the probability of choosing a barbershop or a beauty shop relative to a beauty salon. We reach the same conclusion when considering the economic factors separately or jointly with demographic and establishment attribute factors.

15 R.K. Schwer, R. Daneshvary / Journal of Economic Psychology 21 (2000) 207± Using a set of economic variables which includes appearance-important occupation and income variables, we compared the relative contribution to the likelihood ratio index with a set of demographic variables (age, gender, and race) and establishment attributes (image, service experience, and convenience). The demographic set contributes more explanatory power than the economic and establishment attributes. Considering all explanatory-variable sets jointly, the probability of choosing a barbershop relative to a beauty salon is signi cantly associated with older, nonwhite males not employed in appearance-important occupations, preferring convenience and accepting less quality in hair grooming. On the other hand, the probability of choosing a beauty shop relative to a beauty salon signi cantly re ects older women with lower incomes, who are not employed in appearance-important occupations. Similar to barbershop ndings, convenience is a signi cant factor in choosing a beauty shop relative to a beauty salon. Our ndings point to a signi cant dimension in the importance people attribute to maintaining appearance; but, people choose a hair-grooming establishment based on a mix of economic and noneconomic factors. As such, one may maintain oneõs appearance using the services of either a beauty shop, a barbershop, or a beauty salon. Thus, the quality of the product, that is the haircut or style, is but one of a number of amenities o ered by some high-end beauty salons. ``Keeping up appearances'', on the other hand, using a barbershop or a beauty shop, may result in quality hair care and few, if any, accompanying amenities in a less-than-fashionable salon. The di culties encountered in operationally de ning ``appearance occupation'' is an indication of some of the complexities involved in making selfimage relevant consumer decisions. Appearance importance seems like a straightforward construct, but upon further examination, issues about what kind of appearance one wishes to project add complexity to the issue. Additional research on this issue is warranted. Important appearance issues not addressed in this exploratory study merit further attention. For example, do people who focus on appearance select appearance-important jobs? Are people in appearance-important occupations forced by their situation to focus on their appearance? To better understand the importance that appearance plays in the occupational setting researchers should also assess the complementarity of other components of appearance, that is, hair, clothing, posture, cleanliness, with occupational groups and the amount of money and time spent for each of the grooming and appearance enhancements. Such research, no doubt, calls for a rich data set.

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