Many women feel they have lost touch with their femininity and feel the need to find a new way to express themselves and feel pretty again. As an attempt to reconcile this feeling and find themselves again, some take an approach that may seem unorthodox—shaving their heads.
Shaving your head seems like the scariest thing to do as a girl as long hair is tied to the traditional female beauty standard. Because of this, shaving your head can be so freeing as a woman. It allows you to find your own sense of beauty from within.
Erika Titus, a viral tiktoker with 4 million followers, touched on her journey through shaving her head and why she thinks it would be beneficial to her, stating, “I feel like I’ve become a chronic people pleaser… my want to be beautiful has never really been for me.”
If you have long hair— the process can be scary. It is a big change that can go against anything you have ever known. In another TikTok, Titus described how she felt in the moments leading up to her shaving her head: “I know it’s going to grow back, and I know I’m gonna benefit a lot from this experience, but I’m just really scared. I think that’s part of the reason why I should do it as well.” Embracing a change like this, in my opinion, is extremely brave, and that action of bravery is enough to establish a change in one’s entire opinion of themselves.
MHS student Payton Grasser (‘26) stated, “Having no hair forces you to take a good look at your face, embrace your features, and understand yourself better.” Hair can be a source of comfort and familiarity that individuals hide behind. Grasser describes that, “I think as a woman, it’s good to let go of something that holds so much power in your femininity.”
Shaving your head is a big “screw you” to conventional beauty standards, and exemplifies women’s desire to do something for themselves, rather than for the men around them. Women have been freeing themselves from the expectations that have burdened them for centuries. For some, it is a symbolic form of growth and letting go of their past self.
The moment you choose to leave your reliance on the conventional beauty standards and instead look inwards is when you can find what makes you feel truly beautiful and special. Shaving your head is a difficult task, and many won’t take the leap, which emphasizes the strength in the action.
