A study on the design factors of the bridal hairstyling by Analytic Hierarchy Process

In Taiwan, bridal styling is an element never to be neglected in the overall wedding process, including wedding photo shooting, engagement and wedding ceremonies, "guining" (the return of a bride first visit to her mother's home after the wedding), etc.; all of these involve attentive planning with one-of-a-kind hairstyles for brides. A myriad of factors, such as the stylist's word-of-mouth reputation, service, professionalism, as well as the bride's demands, conditions and outward appearance that the stylist takes into account, altogether give rise to the complexity and difficulty of styling. This study employing the Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) to construct the bridal hairstyling factor assessment model, where hairstyling options are ranked to elect the best feasible bridal hairstyles.Research finding: The four primary assessment criteria for an optimal bridal hairstyling design plan. The bride's personal background (0.321), the bride's outward appearance (0.286), occasions and places for which the hairstyle is chosen (0.249), and the bride's dresses and accessories (0.144). In addition, there are 20 secondary assessment criteria, where there are seven weights with a value higher than 0.05; these are: the bride's personal preference for hairstyling (0.121), wedding photo shooting, engagement, wedding ceremonies,"guining"(0.093), the bride's facial shape and forehead height (0.091), the bride's personal traits (0.090), the bridegroom's going to the bride's home and escorting her to the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds' entry to the wedding venue, wedding toasts, the guests leaving the banquet (0.082), wedding gowns and the bride's hair color(0.063). The bridal hairstyling factor assessment model constructed in this study can serve as an objective and effective approach for choosing the most appropriate hairstyles for brides.