Research Shows Why a Good Hair Day Can be So Important for Your Career

The temperatures are soaring in much of the country, and it's hard to have a "good" hair day when your're dripping sweat or the humidity is making you resemble a chia pet.

Having a terrible hair day can be distressing for many people, but it turns out it can also affect your ability to manage well or to get along with others at work.

According to studies by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, researchers say that when you believe you're attractive (having a good hair day), then you tend to believe that you're in a higher social class and believe that hierarchies make sense when it comes to the organization of people or groups. You believe that people who are lower in the hierarchy are there because they deserve to be, and also because they're less attractive.

This may have some real implications for the workplace. For example, a boss who believes he or she is attractive (probably having a good hair day) believes that those on the team who are further down in the organization are at that level not because they didn't get a chance, but because they simply aren't talented enough -- or didn't put in much effort.

Here's where it gets really interesting: When study participants were asked to just remember bad-hair days, they were more likely to see inequality as an issue. But when asked to recall a day when a good-looking date smiled in their direction, they were all about hierarchies.

There have been other studies that look at the effect that physical attractiveness has on the workplace, such as beautiful people doing better in their careers. Many workers may have felt helpless if they didn't fit the "norm" of conventional beauty standards.

But this research shows that workers may have more power than they believe. Next time you need to do well at work -- such as a big presentation -- think of a time when you felt attractive. That will help you boost yourself up the ladder mentally and that can help you interact with others by "reframing what you see as your place in the social hierarchy," says Margaret Neale, one of the researchers.