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Women own an average of 21 pairs of underwear, and many say an ill-fitting or ugly pair can ruin their day, a new survey shows.

"We know that bad hair days can affect women's moods, but who knew that bad underwear days could also ruin their day," says Lisa Lee Freeman, editor in chief of ShopSmart magazine, from the publisher of Consumer Reports. Their research center conducted a telephone survey of 1,008 women 18 and older about intimate apparel.

Almost half of women (47%) say they feel sexier and more confident wearing a nice or special pair of panties. "The first thing we put on in the morning does make a difference in our day," Freeman says.

Women have three weeks of worth of underwear, she says. "That's means we don't want to have to do our laundry as often."

Among the findings reported in the January issue (www.shopsmartmag.org):

•27% say their mood is affected by wearing an ill-fitting or unattractive pair of undies.

•10% of women own 35 or more pairs.

•65% buy neural colors, with white being the most popular, followed by black and beige.

•Overall, 46% of women say briefs are the style they wear the most often. But women age 18-34 are more likely to wear the bikini style.

•56% of women fold their panties; 27% just toss them in the drawer.

•1 in 10 women admit that they will venture out of the house without underwear.

•Half of women have complaints about the way their underwear fit, with "wedgies" (30%) topping that list, followed by "doesn't lay flat under clothes" (19%) and "not enough coverage in the rear" (14%).