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Why do women cut their hair?

by Heather Craven (Subscribe to Heather Craven's posts)
Sep 25th 2006 11:00AM

240Comments

Filed under: Just For Moms, Life & Style

After some recent inspiration from a couple of the Blogging Baby staff members, I decided to cut a majority of my hair off and enjoy a bit of freedom from the weight of my locks. A drastic change in hairstyle can be quite devastating for a woman. One bad hair cut makes for many, many bad hair days. I know this all too well. About eight years ago I took a picture of a perky Meg Ryan to my then hairdresser and asked her to do the same thing for me. What began as a noble effort on her part ended up as me looking something like a poodle. It took nearly a year to grow it out and I have been the queen of long hair ever since then.

Why do women cut their hair? Other than the obvious reason of having it hang in our faces, what possesses us to sheer our lovely locks in favor of a pixie or a short bob? I found an article that brutally cut to the chase and states the main reason we do it is to alienate the men in our lives, quite literally cutting them out of our lives. The author writes, "one of the key reasons why it's such a clear indication of displeasure when a woman cuts off all that beautiful hair. Women know how much men love their hair, and so when they cut it all off they are effectively cutting men off, from their beauty, from their attractiveness to them, from their love. It's a clear gesture of defiance, or dissatisfaction, or despair, a spiteful kind of emotional kick in the balls."

Although I do agree that this is one reason a woman might cut her hair, I believe there are many other reasons. For me a needed change was in order. The stress of my father dying, moving in with my mother and leaving my significant other has been weighing on me. The heaviness of my hair got to be too much. There are many things in my environment I cannot control right now. But the weight of my long, thick curly hair? That I can control. I decided I simply no longer wanted to deal with two feet of curls, and so off they went. The empowerment that I feel is exhilarating. I don't feel as though my femininity ended up in piles on the salon floor. In fact, quite the opposite. I feel younger, sassier and more attractive than I did before.

I know many other mothers who share this sentiment. For women who once had long, flowing hair, motherhood presents a new challenge. Time is one factor. Once a baby comes along, there is rarely the opportunity for a shower much less an hour for styling and primping. Another issue is those little hands entwining themselves into the roots of your scalp. It just takes one serious pull and a fistful of missing strands to make many moms decide to schedule an appointment at the salon.

What about our readers? Do you have any hair stories to share? And if so, any regrets? Or do you revel in your carefree short hair?

Tags: bobs, empowerment, long hair, LongHair, Meg Ryan, MegRyan, pixie cuts, PixieCuts, short hair, ShortHair

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