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Bad Hair Blues

© Amy Marquis

You're getting ready for work. You peer in the mirror, pleased at what you see - a clean reflection, not a hair out of place. And then you sigh. You know that perfect coif is only an empty promise, for the moment you leave the house, all will be lost.

There's nothing worse than a bad hair day. It can sneak up on you at any moment - with or without rain. It causes loss of confidence, bad attitudes, and even anti-social behavior. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but the question is, why does it always seem to strike the moment you step foot outside?

Believe it or not, there is a scientific explanation for the bad timing. It's called relative humidity. You've heard your local meteorologist use the term, but what is it?

Quite simply, relative humidity is a relationship between dew point and temperature. The closer the dew point is to the temperature, the higher the relative humidity. The higher the relative humidity, the worse the hair.

Dew point is a measurement of the amount of moisture in the air. A dew point of around 30° Fahrenheit feels pretty dry, while anything in the 70s is downright uncomfortable. Of course, extreme temperatures can make high dew points feel worse, but it's all relative.

To understand relative humidity, think of it in visual terms. If a daily temperature is graphed, it will look like a hill: Lower in the morning before the sun has a chance to heat up the earth, rising toward the afternoon at the sun's peak hours, and sloping back down at night after the sun sets and the earth cools once again. The dew point, on the other hand, would generally be a straight line, provided there are no big changes in the weather.

Overnight and into the morning, temperatures are lower and closer to the dew point. It is this proximity that makes the air feel more damp and it's also the reason why bad hair tends to strike more frequently in the early morning and nighttime hours.

While no scientific solution for a bad hair day exists, there's always the hope of research. In the meantime, to keep your do from being a don't, ask your boss if you can change your hours.

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