I didn't really have a choice when it came to cutting my hair. The truth of the matter is, I would have been way too scared to just wake up one day and decide to shave my head. Because girls don't usually have short hair. Guys like long hair. Long hair is prettier. Everyone will advise you against chopping all your hair off, as if it doesn't grow back but I'm here to tell you one thing: screw that.
This is the story of how I "lost" my hair and found myself.
When girls talk about chopping all their hair off, that usually means they're going for a super short bob or pixie cut. But when I say that all of my hair was cut off, I mean I was literally bald.
I had been wanting a pixie cut for years and so when I woke up from brain surgery with half of my head shaved I realized that a buzz cut was most definitely going to be in my near future. For the sake of symmetry, and so that I wouldn't look like Skrillex anymore, I decided to shave off the rest of my hair too.
So at this point I was completely bald. Which as you can imagine was rather disorienting at first. For the first few days I kept grabbing a comb to untangle my hair but upon remembering that I didn't have any, eventually threw it in the trash. Looking in the mirror was an out of body experience. The only thing that helped me was thinking of how I had the same haircut as Natalie Portman did in the movie "V for Vendetta."
You might think that hair is just a huge aspect of vanity but in reality it's also a major part of your identity. So here I was granted with the opportunity of not only sporting a bad ass buzz cut but also recreating who I was.
My hair was gone, so I had to make up for it with something, right? I definitely felt like if I had the confidence in myself to be content with my short hair, then I would be able to pull it off. Being able to feel pretty despite losing something that is so often associated with femininity was a huge test of my self-confidence but it ultimately made me stronger.
Getting rid of all your hair is the first step to the ultimate journey of self-discovery. I felt like a new person. Everything felt different; the wind, taking a shower, going for a swim. And most importantly I got to know myself so much better without hiding behind a bunch of dead, split end ridden hair that I was sick of dealing with anyways.
I became so much more confident, so much more outspoken and here's another crazy thing: I actually felt prettier. So here's the thing: if you want to cut your hair short just do it. You'll actually gain a lot from losing a few (or a dozen) inches of hair.
