Hair no more...........

So any of you who follow me on Instagram will have probably seen that I've had a little bit of a haircut.......

Photos from Hula Hair (see link in video below)

Going from boob-length green hair to less than 1cm long has been an interesting experience. Shaving my head is something I've always wanted to do and talked about for years. Working up the courage to actually do it was another matter. Since taking the plunge I'm not sure why it was such a big deal. I suppose there's something innately scary about a major change to the way you look. You get kind of used to yourself a certain way and changing it seems like it might change who you are somehow. There's also a major association with long hair and femininity. Almost without exception every person I told beforehand tried to convince me not to do it, or at least expressed concerns that it was too big a change. The words 'but you're so pretty', while extremely complimentary, uncovered an ingrained assumption that girls with short hair can't be considered as attractive or as female as those with long, flowing locks.

The reactions I've received post-shave have therefore been pretty surprising. The positivity has been overwhelming and come from people in varied contexts. I expected my friends to be supportive and positive as they're all people pretty similar to me but I was taken aback by work colleagues and strangers telling me how much they liked my new look. I realised on receiving these reactions that I'd been expecting people to treat me like I was weird or unstable for doing such a thing. These may well be ridiculous concepts in the broad range of human existence but they are often gut reactions to difference. While I can't deny I've been getting some odd looks on the bus and I'm pretty sure the group of lads on a stag night last Friday wouldn't have tried to talk to me had I been wig-less, the majority have been completely cool. It's actually helped to identify the sorts of people that I am more likely to connect with and encouraged my already present lack of fucks about criticism of the way I look.

From a fashion perspective I've been able to be more of a chameleon than ever. I already owned a ton of wigs but I'm much more likely to reach for one now that I have more of a prompt and changing my hair colour, cut and length to match my mood is revealing a layer of expression I hadn't necessarily always noticed. Dressing to match my mood is now even more apparent. While I think I'm going to keep it short for a while I can imagine limitless possibilities for growing it out!

I've definitely found a cliched sense of freedom in doing this and I'm interested to see how it will continue to develop. To see the complete transformation visit https://vimeo.com/144728699 and watch the video Molineaux Productions made for me!