A survey conducted by Kao Corp, a Japanese cosmetics company, revealed that Japanese women’s changing hairstyle coincides with the country’s economic state. An article in the Nikkei business daily reported that the survey claimed that when the economy is good, women wear their hair long, but tend to favor shorter hair when the economy is in a slump.

The article pointed out that in the 1990s during Japan’s economic slump, the average Japanese woman had short hair above their collarbones. Since the country’s economic upturn in 2002 hair length had grown. However, it is noticeable that women are again reverting to shorter hair – could this be an indicator of an economic downturn?