A method for acquiring hair characteristic data includes an image acquiring step and a data acquiring step. The image acquiring step acquires a cross-sectional image of a human hair 50, in which plural types of fibrous tissues (ortho cell 52a, para cell 52b) constituting cortex cells 52 contained in the human hair 50 are visualized so as to be distinguishable from each other. The data acquiring step acquires numerical information indicating a distribution state of the visualized plural types of fibrous tissues (ortho cell 52a, para cell 52b) from the cross-sectional image.