Effects of the stereochemistry of oligosaccharide head groups on the physical properties of aqueous synthetic glycolipids, 1,3-di-O-dodecyl-2-(β-glycosyl)glycerols bearing cellooligosaccharides (β-1,4-Oglycosidic bonds) and maltooligosaccharides (R-1,4-O-glycosidic bonds) as hydrophilic groups have been studied. The increase in the number of glucose residues, N, in the two different headgroups exhibited opposite effects on the physical properties of the aqueous glycolipids. For the maltooligosaccharide-containing lipid, Mal N(C12)2, increasing N in the head groups decreases the hydrated solid/liquid crystalline phase transition temperature Tm and increases the "hydrophilicity" of the lipids. However, the Tm of the cellooligosaccharide-containing lipids CelN(C12)2 increases with increasing N of the cellooligosaccharide head groups. It is noteworthy that Tm jumps from 59 °C (for N ) 4) to above 160 °C (N ) 5), so that the Cel5(C12)2 cannot form a liquid crystalline phase and was totally insoluble in water. The results can be explained in terms of different conformations of the head groups, i.e., a "helical" conformation of the maltooligosaccharides and an "extended" conformation of the cellooligosaccharides.