Hairy Numbers

Data Vis / Poster 
Fall 2018


︎ An Experiment: Visualizing 120 random people and their hair styles.

︎ My design question

How many people choose to dye their hair and at what age?

In recent years, I’ve had a colorful and ever-changing relationship with my hair. At one point, my hair was bright red—and people noticed. In fact, it often invited others to share their experiences with hair dying. I wanted to know if hair dying was a common experience among young adults, or was I more biased to notice it? And what hair lengths and styles were most popular? Ultimately, this project was a great exercise in visualizing observational data.

︎ My process

120 random participants, 4 hours on 1 bench, + a lot of looking ︎

1. Data collection

2. Synthesis

3. Visual research

4. Design iterations

5. Refinement

︎ My process — research

︎ Understanding hair



︎ Understanding data

︎ My process — design

︎ Early experimentation with markmaking



︎ Early experimentation with visualization