South African Woman Cutting Their Hair Short

Oct 13, 202119 min read

Updated: Aug 27, 2022

(Etsy, n.d)

Let me tell you something life-changing. Cutting your hair short is the most liberating and the most freeing feeling ever!!!

I wish I had a fantastic story to tell you about what motivated me to cut my hair but my reason for cutting my hair is as cliche as it can get. So the end of 2019 was a time when I reached a milestone - I matriculated! With reaching my goals and getting my first paying job, man I was becoming a woman! And one of the most powerful things a woman can do except give birth is when a woman goes through a new beginning. With that being said, I decided to cut my hair short. Was that the only reason why I cut my hair? No.

In this blog article post, I want to share my own experiences or thoughts on this subject, along with many other women who have their own experiences. A good friend of mine and I were discussing the idea of sitting your hair short or even going bald. Her thoughts and experiences from women in her own culture and me being of a different culture, we both came to find out that there is a stigma of both our cultures but with somewhat the same reasons. I began to do my own research and this is what I found.

South African Black Woman Cutting Their Hair

I watched a movie called Napply Ever After, this movie is about an African- American woman who is a perfectionist exec who experiences a romantic setback (a break-up) because her partner thought she does not even know who she is as a person. Due to her break-up, she begins a journey to self-discovery that begins with a dramatic hair makeover. From her childhood, she was taught that hair was what determined her beauty. Her mother would always straighten her hair, with a hot comb, since straight hair was determined as beautiful, and religiously told her not to swim with her hair, cause it will become ugly. So, being taught that your hairs' natural texture was ugly, which stems from generational manipulation of socially standard hair beauty, will course be something that is hard to unlearn. Shaving her hair was an opportunity for her to unlearn those destructive lies told about Black women regarding their hair, and this was an opportunity for her to love herself in a way no one else could.

The reaction I got when I cut my hair, my families reaction was that my haircut was well needed since my hair was extremely damaged. Some of my friends were confused as to why some may have been worried- I do not know. But my favourite reaction was when I went back to my high school to fetch my Matric certificate and usually when I do something new with my hair I am often asked "Is it your hair?" or you get the usual compliments, "Wow you look really good". Now cutting my hair was something I have never done in my high school career, and their reaction to my haircut was, dead silence it was not even mentioned. And I am not mad, it was just something that I picked up.

Like the main character in Napply Ever After, my hair was one of my biggest insecurities. I either relaxed my hair, braided with extensions or wore a weave just because I never thought my natural hair made me beautiful and it never made me feel beautiful. That's what the movie pointed out to me, that I believed my God-Given coily hair was not beautiful to me and shaving my head was even worse! It took a movie for me to do my own self-analysis and to do something about it. Which I did! With my first paycheck went straight to the Salon and cut it! As soon as I left, I felt lighter, I felt evolved and I felt grown. I was satisfied, My short hair brought out my chubby chipmunk cheeks and it truly built my character. I may sound like I am exaggerating, but believe me, I learnt to appreciate feeling vulnerable and excepting myself with my hair.

With the help of technology and the development of social media, there are group chats and pages on Facebook and Instagram where women with Nappy hair can find beauty hacks to help nourish and keep their natural coily hair healthy and naturally grow it. Growing up I had never had access to that information nor did my mothers nor my grandmother. They were taught and we were taught that braiding and relaxing your hair is what made your hair grow, only to learn that WE WERE LIED TO.

So what is the reason for cutting your hair? Nobuhle Mbuetulzi said, "I have cut my hair short, it was mostly due to hair damage." Which is again common. Babalwa "Babs" Dlamini says, " I have shaved my hair. As a woman living in South Africa, you are kind of taught that your hair is your beauty. If you remove your hair or cutting of your hair, you are kind of removing your beauty. So it creates a toxic vibe towards hair, and it is really difficult to make decisions because everything you doing is like "Why would you want to do that?" cause you just removing beauty from yourself. And it is very frustrating you know. And what motivated me to shave my hair is that I kind of wanted to start off fresh and relook at myself from a different perspective and because I just wanted to."

Another factor that has contributed to loving short natural hair is that natural hair has become trendy to many black women, due to many women who pushed to advocate natural hair and starting from the very roots to allow your natural hair to grow for example we have, Singer Nandi Mngoma and two Miss South Africa, Shudufhadzo Musida and Zozibini Tunzi who have encouraged many back women to cut their hair, including myself. For those who do watch Red Table Talk (if you don't, please do) Jada Pinket Smith for quite some time always wore turbans (headscarf) because she had felt insecure about her hair, and she does say she had a lot of hair. We have seen her rock her short hair and look amazing with it, she recently shaved her head bald with her daughter Willow looking Amazing and just radiating inner peace and stripping off social expectations about what society sets as a standard imprisoning many women. And let us not dare forget their Red Table Talk speaking about going bald, and it had me in tears. Although you have heard these words so many times, so have I. But finally putting to action those words, it brought true meaning to be free from the social standards.

I don't know about anyone who may have felt this, but having wearing weaves, braiding my hair with extensions made me feel excepted and looked at rather than being overlooked. I wanted others to acknowledge my external hair since, having weaves and extensions was a way for me to say "Look at me" and when I have acknowledged it built my confidence, I needed other people acknowledgement and compliments to build my confidence, even worse my ego. Now, having cut my hair, I am stripped out of all of that, because now I did not need others acknowledgement and my ego was not being fed by others. I learnt to embrace myself at my most natural physical appearance and my natural crown. I am happy to say, I have learnt to love myself more, and yes once in a while would love compliments (who doesn't), but I love the woman I am becoming.

In all, I have done it all. I have relaxed my hair, I have braided my hair, I have had it in dreads and now I have cut it. I have new goals with my hair, and it is to embrace my Afro, which I will talk bout later, and I would like to Shave it all again one day to experience that feeling again.

White South African Women Cutting Their Hair

Kiara Berkett has shared her own experience cutting her hair short and here is what she had to say, " I have had my hair cut at least more than four times into a bob. The first time I did it was a new look because I suffer from anxiety and I was diagnosed at a young age. It was something I was told that might help me to just feel more confident with myself because it will all be a new change so it was kind of like a whole ideal look. I always did it to just feel a bit better, to feel more confident in socializing, so it is kind of the basis of why I would have these occasions where I would cut my hair short and give myself a whole new look and style. Whenever I did, I was perkier, happier and I carried myself more differently". And these are the things we love to hear, cutting you can always showcase the growth that you feel from the inside to reflect on the outside. I have seen the growth in Kiara and the act of strength this woman has shown. We love to see it boo!!! I wish I could find more White South African Celebrity women who have shaved their hair short as a presentation to the youth. If you know any please share some of them in the comment section.

I recently learnt of an experience from Amilia Bogahlo she was looking to cut her hair relevantly short and through her own research she found out that in the workplace cutting your hair is deemed unprofessional. She also told a story of a girl back in high school who had shaved her head bald and being in high school you know how rumours spread. Do you know Why She hair? She cut it to donate it to women who are going through Chemo Treatment. A good deed, being assumed to be an act of weakness, but little did they know, a powerful act it was to do something out of the goodness of the heart. This is what Amilia had to say about women cutting or shaving their hair as white women. She says,

"If you had to talk about gender. Let's say a white female and a white male. Let's say they both shave their hair, people wouldn't say there is anything wrong with the male who had shaved his head, but people would immediately think there is something wrong with the female if she shaved her hair, which shows gender inequality on its own". Which you do see in media presentations, you get men like Jason Stamen, his shaved makes him more manly, but when Pink cuts her hair short but let's not forget the Britney Spears incident in early 2000. As a woman, you are associated with mental illnesses, especially in the white culture.

She then furthermore speaks on the girl at her high school who shaved her hair. This is what she had to say, " So in school when that girl shaved her hair, it was quite clear people thought that there was something wrong with her or assumed she might have had an when a black girl did, it wasn't preserved the same. It was viewed as edgy and cool, no one made a big deal". this comes to show how South African women presentation to celebrate their natural short hair has changed the way it is viewed for black women, thanks to many South African Black celebrity women who have paved the way for all other black women. Now, it is important for young South African white women as well, especially young white women to have representation to see other South African white celebrities to pave the way, for other young white South African women.

Her research on white women having their head shaved in a world place, this is what Amilia found. She says, "In the world environment if I had to go in there with a shaved head, as a white woman it is seen as very edgy, unethical and unprofessional. it is different for black women in South Africa. It doesn't have to mean that only a certain group of women or a certain race is allowed to shave their heads. If we are wanting to really introduce equality into every race then it is going against cultural appropriation, it is going to go against all these things and culture because to be equal means not only one group of women to own something, it cant be like that. Like in school, the white girl who shaved her hair, she was bullied and made fun of, everyone made such a big deal about it like no one has ever seen that before, people were judging her but didn't even ask her, ' Hey, you know, why did you shave your hair?", or whatever the case was. They just assumed the worse and maybe she just shaved her hair for cancer. We women, as women we love our hair, some of us more than others but for her to do that, it should have shown us strength to go against, what is seen as a woman, as "women have to have hair" - NO! Hair should never define femininity, it should never. People should do whatever they want to do with their own bodies and people should mind their own business, and if they don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. So yeah... That's my Ted Talk. Thanks for coming to my Red Table!!!" Yes, preach it ggiirrrl.!!!

Indian South African Woman With Cutting Their Hair

I had asked my wonderful lecture Derosha on what are the stigmas that as a South African Indian woman face cutting their hair short or even bald. She answered, " The Stigma of women cutting their hair to a pixie cut hairstyle in the Indian community I grew up in is a signifier of that woman being seen as more masculine than feminine." In the Indian community, the tomboyish appearance is frowned upon. This is what Derosha has to say about cutting your hair in the name of body positivity, she says, "There are positives and negatives to cutting hair because you want a new look, new purpose and new you that is positive. When you cut your hair because someone forced you to keep it long or cut it short, then that is negative. Your Hair is part of your body and anything you do in the name of body positivity is the right thing to do".

Farah Amod shared her experience and opinion on women cutting shaving their hair. She says, "I would say cutting your hair or even shaving it is some form of resistance and not wanting to fit in the mainstream beauty ideals and looks, such as having long and just resisting, that is like taking back their freedom and owning themselves and not looking for validation or trying to fit into you know stereotypes should look like". This shows this is not the only culture that struggles with the stereotype made for women to live up to, all women struggle with this, especially young women.

Farah then continues to say, " I think your hair and shaving it is a very therapeutic process. I was going through something these few past months, recently I have been feeling better but I just needed something to kind of push me over the edge and like make a change, so I cut my hair pretty short maybe to my collarbone, and honestly, when the hairdresser was cutting it, I just felt like I was snipping my problems off, you know. It may sound sort of silly, but really that how I felt. I just felt lighter, not only in the sense most of my hair was gone now, but in the sense, I had been carrying all this baggage and not only did I want a new look but I wanted a change to signify that I have changed and I am in a different phase in my life and I am opening up to whatever new is going to come, so yeah I guess, that's my opinion on it."

She later brought a beautiful point in which I think many women would appreciate. she says, " Someone said once, it is a well known saying that says, "Beauty of a woman lies on the length of her hair". But I really think that's not true. I think there are all types of hair, not just shirt or long. There is kinky hair, there are dead straight, wavy, frizzy and combinations and I think that is an expression of yourself and you should embrace not only your hair type but your hair's style even if it, not something everyone else likes, or everyone else is into it at the moment if you know what I am saying. I have very curly and frizzy hair and when I dry it after washing, it gets really big it is like a mini Afro. And I used to be very self-conscious about it, because all my friends who went to school with, they had dead straight hair, mostly wavy hair. and it wasn't frizzy. Recently I was like "What the hell, this is my hair!!,". So I put treatment into it now, not to make it straight but to keep it healthy and hydrated, and actually, it's still frizzy but it is like curly and frizzy and is squint it up and style it in different ways and it suits me and I like it!!!. And that whole keeping your head straight and long, you know that stereotype of what it should be like to look neat. I think it is such nonsense because ever since I started doing that and excepting that it is what my hair is actually, it suits me a lot better, than what I was trying to make my hair. I just felt kind of at peace with myself and when you not judging yourself and you own who you are, and whatever that means and all your different changes and looks, then it's just you coming up to that whole self-actualizing phase of excepting yourself and loving who you are and becoming a better person. so I think the cutting and shaving your hair especially women is more than just, I feel like its a whole new look that is based on culture, theory and doing certain things that are based on rebellion. those are my opinion.

South African Coloured Women Cutting Their Hair.

The beautiful talented South African KFM breakfast radio presenter Sherin Berends is an amazing representation for many beautiful South African Coloured women in having someone represent being bald and owning it and doing with sas and style. Sherin made the big chop back in 2012. She had once said that her goal is to challenge female beauty mainstream standard of beauty, so she shaved her hair and she says she's never looked back. she puts it as becoming a woman who is "completely and unapologetically Sherin Berends" (Peterson, 2020).

My lovely friend Denisha had something beautiful to share about this topic this is what she says, " Well in my ‘culture’ growing up a girls hair is a big deal - the common thought that girls have long hair and boys short hair. So the longer your hair the better! When I turned 18 I decided one day to chop off my long locks and it was the scariest thing ever! My father was not impressed, to say the least, but I think secretly he was proud of the decision. I wish I was brave enough to shave off my hair! My mom was very supportive she cut her hair when she was around the same age and even had a pixie cut and all sorts- super brave Momma, and of course, she looked so beautiful. I think her bravery helped me to see that hair is like any other accessories we have and as women, we shouldn’t allow others to dictate our individuality. She’d always say guess what…it’s hair, and hair grows back! So despite the whispers of the way things should be, or how you’ll never find a husband because your hair is the same length as his or you look sick with your hair short or anything else - I think the most important thing is to not allow others to shape the decisions you make about your body, as long as you’re comfortable with your choices and they’re in line with your beliefs". With the example set by her beautiful mother, Denisha was able to embark on the same journey of cutting her own hair short not only was it beautiful but it suited her and you can tell by the inner beauty her mom showcased reflected the same thing when she cut hers short too.

Here are some more beautiful quotes from other amazing women

Here is what the Amazing Meriel Jane Mitchell has to say:

"I do find that the subject of hair to be very very intriguing, because of our different cultures, different fashions, and most importantly I feel we have had to reassess our thinking on matters because we do not live in an ideal world anymore, we live in a very stressful modern life. Where we see women getting Cancer and their hair falling out, so ever since that struck me, I realize that that is not a pleasant thing to happen to any woman. I often wondered how would feel and I have truly have tried to put myself in people's shoes like that and I would say, that in the light of that traumatic experience, I don't feel that we can criticise other women, her friend or her group of friends or just a group of women who in solidarity cut their hair to know what it is like to feel a woman has no hair. having said that I think it drives home the point that in all honesty long hair or just having hair, as the bible tells us 'a women glory' (1 Corinthians 11:15). However, having cancer and the traumatic loss of hair from that takes out of the equation. I feel that in this modern world people want to express themselves, they feel that they have personal rights, they have freedom of choice. And I know that many people are very artistic in their thinking, and they think they can express it in the colour of their hair and the fact that they can have no hair, so that is just a personal choice, let them do it. We can stop people from doing that, I feel one must also feel sort of philosophical and say, "Thank goodness, hair grows again". So for those who want to experiment and cut their hair and have different hairstyles and make a fashion statement, well it's not forever, it will grow again. It's more for a fashion statement in this day and age.

The lovely Lorrie Gorrie had to say that, "Having short hair is easily manageable since you can wash your short hair as it dries a lot quicker and there is not much need for you to waste money going to the Salon since taking care of your hair and going to the salon is expensive".

Pat Stamatelos had this beautiful message to share:

"It was Jeannette Walls author and Journalist who said that a women hair is her crowning glory, and before that, it was the bible. No one can dispute that shiny silk locks are beautiful and enhance a ladies looks, but I believe that there is a downside to all this. In the crowing glory business, it is the care and the money that is spent in keeping it in top condition. Now take a man (taking a shower) water running off his shiny crew cut hair, no shampoo, conditioner, gel rubbing, wrapping, blowdrying, hot tongs in front of a mirror. A towel passes over his hair once, twice and he is done- Confident after all and he looks as good as he was yesterday and yester-year. You see him walking blustering wind and confidence, driving an open sports car - Confident. He is still looking good, with no hair going all over the place, that's making him look ridiculous, witchy and untidy.

We women have been slow in catching up with the man's secret confidence, but now we know it's all in the hair or lack of it.

Then enters Grace Jones, Jamcian American Model and Singer who became known for her distinctive and intriguing appearance with her buzzcut and it all. And no conditioner or hairdresser and still Confident as Hell. Jones' style transcended the time of the peak of her success and lives today through many artists.

Then there is Lupita Nyong'o, a Kenyan-Mexican actress who poses on the cover of Vogue Cover Magazine and dazzled on her pictures, buzzcut and all, and confident and radiant. She plays 12 years A slave and her iconic role in Black Panther (with her buzzcut).

Coco Chanel says, "A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life. To one of liberation and freedom". Then we also have Tamelo Tumilo, who said "I can colour my hair, shave letters into my hair and glitter and simply own my buzzcut. So impactful on my being". And she says, "I chose to cut my hair as a form of expression and to make me feel more confident. Sienna Brown says, "Not having hair has really allowed me to discover the best parts of myself and provided me with the confidence needed to go through life full speed".

The beautiful Sandipa Hoffman had this to share about her journey with cutting her hair and this is her experience:

"I really like the topic because I was thinking obviously hair carries so much of your identity, especially when you are an ethnic woman or anything. There is immediate associate hair with beauty and that's how I was most of my life. So I basically have had long hair from the time I was really small. I had long hair over my shoulder from the time I was 13 and onwards. I have never had short hair, I have always had long hair flowing hair and I thought was the thing that made somebody pretty or beautiful and that if you had short hair you were like not beautiful. That is how I associated hair with beauty. So, I thought about that for a long time, that's why for as long you have known me I have always had long hair. And during this lockdown I figured, if I am not going to do it now, then when am I ever going to do it and I decided to be brave and went to get it cut. So it was a big decision and I thought about it for such a long time because it was that I never had short hair and I wondered how it was going to look on me if I was going to look good with it".

She further adds, "I thought about it for many months before I gave it the first chop. So I first cut my hair in December 2020 and then I cut it again in March. That's when I really got brave - but I really love it!! It is because I saw that you can make a change, even though it's a big change even if it's out of your comfort zone ts really good. And I really love my short hair now it's so much better because it's empowering. It just shows that beauty isn't associated with hair length. It's associated with the confidence you wear it with. So I love my short hair and I think if you shave your hair and get away with natural hair, that's just the best thing because it just shows your true beauty. So there are many many benefits than just being brave and taking that big chop and if it doesn't work out for you, it will grow back. I really had the best experience with my short hair".

In conclusion, as long as we are making ourselves happy, our hair can also be a way of attracting a potential partner, but having short hair and shaved hair, should be another way, we accept them like that, don't we? The hours we spend getting our hair perfect for date night or girls' night out is a reflection of our confidence. When we decide to chop our hair off, it is us choosing to make a sacrifice and careless attitude to what men think or our partners think (Shannon, 2016). And a breakup or other traumatic experiences are common times for us women to cut their hair as we see it is the one thing we can take immediate control of; we all know it is often a struggle to adjust our feelings and move on right away. In a soppy way, our hair is a window to our souls--it carries many memories often related to the bonding process we have with the maternal figures in our lives as well (Shannon, 2016).

I wrote this article to show that no matter what our race, background, environment, race and culture is. As women, we all have a human experience. To show that you do not have to cut your hair because of having a mental breakdown, as a rebellious act. Due to the pandemic, people have spent more time, focusing and shining a light on the differences and calling it "being woke" and the cancel culture that we all forget that we are humans, who experience the same discrimination as women, society tells us what makes us beautiful with physical appearances. Forget all these labels and celebrate your human experience and if cutting your hair brings you in your present of yourself, at vulnerable state with allowing yourself to be seen by you. Do That!! No one can do you, the way you do you!