Is short hair the new power move?
“It’s one thing to say you’re going to let go. It’s another to actually do it. To loosen your grip, to let yourself fall. So when I walked into the hair-cutting place, I was taking a leap. But I wasn’t doing it for some guy or because of some list. I was doing it for me.” -Felicity
Beyonce made headlines a few weeks ago when she cut off her long, luscious locks into a short little pixie. The media speculated as to reasoning behind her pixie cut. Was it because she is a mom? Did her friend Gwyneth Paltrow tell her to do it?
Every possible option was discussed, but one that kept coming up was that she did it to feel empowered. Her colorist, Rita Hazan, told Us Weekly, “I was shocked. I think she was just feeling empowered, like a strong woman, and she said she’s been feeling it for a long time. She didn’t want to hide behind her hair in real life.” For most women, cutting off your hair is a powerful life change.
With the character of Felicity from the TV show “Felicity” (quoted above), we were literally seeing a transformation of a woman when she cut her hair. She was getting rid of the thing that was weighing her down. And for many women that seems to be what a short haircut allows them to do. They are getting rid of the excess baggage. Regina George isn’t the only one whose hair is full of secrets.
Short hair is also a way of showing that you’re not going to hide behind your locks anymore. For actresses such as Emma Watson and Miley Cyrus, their dramatic cuts allowed them to show that they are no longer the little girls they were when they began their careers. It was a power move for them to get more diverse roles in their career.
Sallie Krawcheck, former Wall Street titan and the new owner of 85 Broads, recently spoke out about how women’s hair care literally slows us down and at the end of the day, makes us lose money. At a recent panel she spoke about how even if she and her husband get up at the same time she has to spend 15 minutes extra a day on hair and makeup, while he doesn’t. That 15 minutes adds up to an extra hour and 15 minutes a week which is 60 hours a year which is one whole work week (and that doesn’t include shaving your legs, so factor that in.) A shorter cut can down on time (shorter drying and styling time) and you can leave the house still ready to go out and conquer the world.
Short hair queen Rihanna can agree with that hair assessment which is why she favors a short cut. She recently took out her extensions and weighed in on her love of short hair. She told a fan via Instagram: ”I’ll be back to long! I’m just not very good with long hair. I don’t know how to do it, I don’t have the patience to deal with or style it. It’s always on your neck, or back and gets in the way. It’s this thing attached to me that I always have to take care of. Then a week later, I’m over it–new style, new color, new length. Short hair is my mojo though.”
And as for those critics that say short hair isn’t feminine, I would say the exact opposite. Short hair puts the entire female figure on display unabashedly. What is more powerful than that?
Do you feel like your long hair is holding you back? Tell us in the comments!
By: Meredith Lepore
