What’s with the whole world hating on women with short hair? More importantly, why do people think they have the authority to do so? What does it matter to you if a woman has short hair? She probably doesn’t care that you prefer it longer. Maybe she deals with hair loss and having short hair is the only way she can wear it. What if she just likes having short or even no hair? Do you know how much of a hassle it is to maintain long hair? And lastly, why do you care so much?
I’ve had short hair most of my life. When I was around five years old, my hair was cut to right under my ears and I had bangs—you could probably describe it as a long bowl cut. As I grew older, I remember having long hair. In every school photo, I had longer and longer hair, and it changed to being very curly when I was in the sixth grade.
In seventh grade, I cut my hair to my shoulders—everyone had an opinion about it. I then let it grow out and started colouring it with blonde streaks. One time turned into a few times and I was soon a semi-blonde. Then, I started using heat on it almost every day and it was fried so far beyond repair—so I chopped it all off. I was left with a boy cut at 14 years old and, once again, everyone had an opinion about it. Guys told me they preferred girls with long hair. Family told me that they liked me with long hair because now I looked like a boy.
After that, I once again let my hair grow out, which was a horrible, ugly and tedious process. I then cut it off again in Grade 11, right in time for my high school graduation pictures to showcase a short blonde bob.
If you haven’t caught on yet, my hair journey has included a lot of cutting and growing and bleaching (and some bangs were thrown in there at various times too)—bar the few months where I had orange hair, but that’s not important. While my hair has changed vigorously over the years, the one thing that hasn’t changed is people telling me they prefer me, or women in general, with long hair.
While I do miss having long hair sometimes, when I look back at photos when I had long, wavy hair, I just don’t feel like that’s me. The short hair I have now, which hasn’t grown past my shoulders in the last two years, makes me feel the most like myself. The comments, especially coming from men, about how long hair is preferred on women, need to stop. Even though I don’t listen to them, it can really affect how women with short hair feel about themselves and no one needs that negativity in their life.
So women with short hair, I see you and you look amazing.
Photo by Laurence Brisson Dubreuil
