Yes, the title may seem a little like click-baity, but it’s true that I have an extreme desire to to shave my head. There are many reasons why I want to shave my head and I’ve actually been wanting to for the majority of this past year. And let me just say that if I do indeed shave it, I’m not planning on doing it in Britney Spears fashion where I just grab a razor and do it myself. Instead, I would sign up to be a shavee at a St. Baldrick’s event where I could fundraise in order to spread awareness and raise money for cancer. With that said, that is one of the main reasons why I want to shave my head because I think being able to partake in that would be such an incredible experience.
I’ve read a lot of blog posts by people who have shaved their heads, and there has been a common thread among what they have felt after doing it – liberation. That sense of liberation is something I assumed I would feel even before I did any research on the topic, however now that those feelings have been validated, I’m beyond ready to feel them. In the Hindu religion, a shaved head is a symbol of rebirth, and it is a tradition for babies’ heads to be shaved sometime in their infancy before age three. The reason for this tradition is the belief that often a baby is born with undesirable ties from the past, and that shaving their head rids them of any negative energy from a past life and ensure them purity and good fortune for the future.
Although I am not particularly religious myself, I am very spiritual and do believe that the act of shaving a head harvests a strong connection between the mind, body and soul. I think that going through the experience of having a full head of hair and shaving it off has to be an experience that is not only liberating, but also humbling. It’s humbling in the sense that I think I would begin to focus more on the other qualities I possess within myself, and not just the outside features that I often spend too much time worrying about. Of course, too, the somewhat superficial side of me can’t stand how damaged my hair is from years of coloring it (I worked at a hair salon in high school, so my hair has seen it all) and I want a fresh start. However, that reason holds little value in comparison to all the other reasons for why I want to do it. I want to shave my head to be able to experience my identity when it’s stripped down, in order to truly become my best self. I want to shave my head because I want to be able to be the confidence for someone that didn’t shave their head shaved voluntarily. I want to shave my head because I want to be able to walk into a room and be confident in who I am both inside and out, without feeling like I need to fit society’s narrow idea of “beautiful.”