Average Hair Washing in a Week

For our Chapter One project, we decided to conduct a study about how many times our
classmates wash their hair per week on average. Our population is whole statistics class, which
includes 26 students. The variable that was studied is the average amount of times that an
individual washes their hair in a week. As girls, sometimes we avoid washing our hair everyday
to keep it healthy, so we were curious to see how other people in our class took care of their hair.
We wanted to survey our classmates on something that we care about and that they should care
about, too. Our variable is quantitative because it is the amount of times people wash their hair in
an average week. We were looking for the exact number of times that our classmates wash their
hair in a week.
Our survey included the whole population of our statistics class, instead of a simple
random sample. We decided to survey our class by using a Google Form because it leaves
answers confidential, so no one would have a privacy issue. Everyone is easily accessible for
communication and most people answered the Google Form we sent out, although we did
experience undercoverage. One student was sick on the day we sent out the form and two
students were unable to fill out the form, so we only received 23 out of 26 students’ answers. The
lurking variables we experienced during our survey were the one sick student and two non-
participants, the sports that make people sweaty and want to wash their hair, and gender because
generally females have stricter hair routines than males. Although we dealt with lurking
variables, we did not face any obvious confounding variables during our study. If we could
change anything for our next survey, we would allow our Google Form to be opened long
enough so everyone could respond. The data we collected from our survey was represented in the
ratio level of measurement because our variable has a true zero. Also, the differences can be
arranged in order. For example, someone who washes their hair once a week probably has more
oily hair than someone who washes their hair seven times a week. Our variable has an exact zero
because it is impossible to wash hair less than zero times a week.
Our study did not include a control group because it is not an experiment, it is a survey.
Because our study was not an experiment, we did not need a placebo, so there should not have
been a placebo effect. A double blind study was not necessary because we did not have bias and
there was not a placebo.We surveyed our classmates anonymously, so there were potential
confidentiality and privacy issues. This is because students might not have wanted to share how
often they wash their hair. To avoid dishonesty, we made our survey anonymous.We collected
our data via Google Forms. The process of creating our survey included determining answer
selections, choosing how many times the individuals could answer the survey, and finally
sending the survey to our classmates. One thing we had to consider was whether or not to have
our answer selections as ranges or specific numbers. We decided that specific numbers would
give us more accurate results. Because we chose specific numbers instead of averages, we had
clearer results and were able to spot any patterns in the data. From the results, we noticed that
30.4% of our classmates wash their hair seven or more times every week. This group of students
who responded with washing their hair seven or more times was the largest group from our
survey.