Why do some women shave their heads?

[chrissy-b]

I did it the first few times because I felt like doing it. No special reason.

Then I did it again when my hair was BSL the day after my best friend died of cancer. Her husband, two other friends and myself all did.

[Roseate]

Well, I was simply telling the story of someone who did shave her head and her reason why.

She said "I can smell the flowers better now"!

Is this the question? What does that mean? One would want to ponder...

...She felt as though it was a freeing experience for her, as though her senses had been awakened.

She was going deep with it in thought.

See, I guess I am just not very deep. I thought she meant she could smell the flowers better, because her hair was not in the way when she bent over to smell them!

[Arctic_Mama]

I've never understood why someone would shave their head, any more than why someone would grow it long... I've never understood because the reasons are varied and personal to each who does it!

I would shave my head to see what happens except it would look terrible on me - I already hate updos because I can see just how fat my face is (currently trying to lose about 100 pounds) and it makes me self conscious, so shaving would be like streaking nekkid through the street. But in some sense I WISH I were brave enough to just *do* it, and not care what others think.

It's an experiment, and a liberating one at that. I can totally 'get' why someone would feel it is an interesting or even necessary thing to do, just like growing hair long may be necessary to that person's self image at the time.

[jahof45]

I didn't shave it completely but I injured my back and need DH to help with showers so I had a stylist cut it into a very, very short pixie. I loved it for the ease of care too. Jump in the shower, wash hair, slap in so Mudd and go. It looked like hell on me but it sure was easy to live with and gave me the chance to begin again with virgin hair after 20+ years of dye.

[PrliamntofRooks]

A friend of mine had almost BSL-length when she shaved her hair. She did it because her neice was diagnosed with Leukemia, and she told people at work that she would shave herself bald for $1000 in donations for cancer research. She had the donations in less than 3 days, and her managers arranged for a whole staff meeting to watch her being shaved. They have since become corporate sponsors for a cancer charity.

[RancheroTheBee]

I did it for lots of reasons.

1. Raised money for cancer research.

2. I was grieving over a death.

3. My hair was falling out in chunks anyway from bleaching it, so I decided, eh, why not.

I can't say it didn't come with its share of problems. Like the dental hygienist who treated me rudely because she thought I was a Neo-Nazi. The cold looks from people.

That said, I got a lot of positive reactions from people like the elderly and small children, the last people I would have expected to accept it so easily.

Typical old-person reaction: "Well, that's nice. You must save a lot of money on shampoo."

Typical little-kid reaction: "Did that hurt?"

[ratgirldjh]

i used to regularly cut my hair with clippers to either a 1/2 inch long or 1 inch long. i loved it short like that and so did my husband.
now that my husband is gone and i have a bf - he did NOT like me cutting my hair so short - so i started growing it - and i love it! i had long hair before too - but just got started cutting it off for some reason...

[jera]

Funnily enough, I mentioned to a friend the other day that I've wondered what it would be like to be bald. She said she'd shaved hers off once because she lost a bet with her DH.

There was a shaven-headed girl who worked at a petrol station here, and I used to covertly watch her, fascinated. I thought she looked beautiful, and I wondered about how freeing it would be to simply not have to consider hair all the time: no caring for it, no blowing in your eyes, no feeling grotty on a bad hair day. However, I don't think my features are good enough to successfully carry off a bald head, so I'll stick with my hair while I can.

Fair play to the women who do proudly sport a shaven head, though, whatever their reasons. They rock.

True, but a bald head would get very cold in the wintertime. I guess I agree with the consensus of opinion that long hair is a gift and not a burden. Just my personal feeling. Those who shave their heads for kids who have cancer are awesome.

[JessTheMess]

I always wanted to shave my head. I still joke about it now and then. I would love to start from scratch and grow all virgin hair. I think that I would look so wierd though, my neck is long and thin, and I have a wierd head. I find most women that I have seen with shaved heads beautiful, I wish I had the guts to do it.

[Suldrun]

I have never shaved all my head but I shaved 1/2 in HS just for fun. My friend did it and I only vaguely remember it actually happening..I think alchohol was involved lol.

I did cut it very very short in 2004. I cut off all my blonde.I have naturally dark brown hair. It actually was not supposed to be that short but the first hair dressor gave me a horrible mullet I went somewhere else and she cut off the back and fixed it into a cuter pixie..I was shocked because I had never had my hair that short but I did grow to like it actually. people at work did double takes though because it had been shoulder length and blonde lol.

I kinda wish now I had shaved it...it would have been neat to see what I looked like. After all this waiting and Monistate I dont think I will shave it anytime soon