Cohorted Cult

Lockdown gave many women the confidence to finally say goodbye to their hair and embrace the buzzcut. After all, what did it matter? We were all inside – the old rules of how women ‘should’ look no longer applied. The head shave can be a great way to reclaim control of our bodies, reject beauty standards, give ourselves a change, express part of our identity or just boost confidence.  

I had years of cutting my hair shorter and shorter, never quite daring to get rid of all of it. I don’t know what pushed me to finally commit. I think I’d just had one lockdown DIY home haircut too many. I admittedly had a leg up – my housemate had clippers already.

Even once I was sure I wanted to do it, I was worried for lots of reasons. What if it turns out my head is a really weird shape? What if my hair is the source of my power? What if I’m not attractive without it? And the big one: what will people think?  

The answer to all of these questions is the same and became clear once I’d done it.  

WHO CARES?  

So much of our worth as women is tied to our appearance and by extension our hair. It’s incredibly liberating to remove that source of judgement – from ourselves and others. In the days immediately after the shave, I caught myself worrying out of habit about how my hair looked, as I have done my whole life, before remembering it was all in the bin, and I didn’t have to think about it. It was a good feeling. 

Something about cutting off chunks of hair and letting it fall to the floor to get it short enough to shave, and then of course the shaving itself, was incredibly satisfying. It felt like a rebellion, even though it was my hair. It’s easy to forget sometimes that our hair and our bodies belong to us, and we can do what we want with them, regardless of what societal beauty ideals may say.