I Shaved My Head Today
Posted: May 5, 2010 Filed under: Celebrities, Hair, Personal, Silly 15 Comments »So today (I wrote this on April 27th) I shaved (a part) of my head.
I mean, it’s not a huge deal…Natalie Portman and Demi Moore shaved their ENTIRE head, after all. Just google images “half shaved head” and you’ll get Carmen Electra, Cassie, Alice Dellal, and Lala Vasquez, among others. My new hairdo isn’t original, nor is it that daring, nor is it difficult to obtain. In fact, it’s only worth seven pounds.
But…
this is the first time in my life I’ve ever done anything drastic to my hair…or body. Actually, prior to this, my most daring venture was a belly piercing (that doesn’t even exist anymore). If you know me, you know I am fairly predictable with things like this and rather conservative with my body. The most I did to my hair was straighten it, and the shortest I ever cut it was to my shoulders (5th grade). And it was ALWAYS one length.
I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. Perhaps it’s being all by myself in a foreign country, perhaps it’s reading too many fashion blogs, or perhaps it’s my admiration for the “badass androgyny” look that propelled me to do this. All I knew was—I wanted a drastic change on my body. A lip piercing, a tattoo, my hair…SOMETHING.
I’ve been contemplating a tattoo since high school. A unicorn on my ankle. Hearts on my wrist. A treble clef on a finger. But then I would always think…would it still look good when I’m 40? And so I still don’t have a tattoo.
I was seriously considering a lip ring in Jan/Feb, and even went as far as to schedule an appointment at a piercing parlor. However, the night before the appointment I did some research and found that lip piercings rub up against your teeth/gums and cause (frightening) gum deterioration that can never be reversed. Needless to say, I don’t have a lip piercing today.
And then three days ago, I was on “scene queen” Hanna Beth’s blog and came across pictures of her with her new (shaved) hair. Then I remembered seeing the same cut on a girl riding the London tube and loving it; suddenly I was knew I was going to do it.
I thought about the cut for two days, and came to the conclusion that 1, it’s only one side and it still can be covered (just flip the hair back down over it) and 2, hair grows back. So two days later, after a shopping spree at the TOPSHOP sale on Oxford Circus with Lydia, I did it.
Three clips pinned my hair up in a messy bun as the lady combed the section to be shaved out.
“Is this okay?”
“Yeah it’s fine. Just do it.”
Snip snip. Snip.
Literally three snips later she held a fistful of long, dyed brown hair between my eyes.
“Want to keep it?”
“Heck no, what would I do with it?”
And then she placed the cold plastic of the buzzer to my temple.
I guess this is what a haircut feels like to my brother and dad, who go to the barber monthly. Her fingers pressed into my scalp as the hair clipper buzzed into my hair, mowing it down like grass.
“Is this okay?”
I looked at myself in the mirror, a stranger with the right side of her head in a buzz cut. Sharon’s haircut experience came to mind as I looked up at the lady:
“More.”
Getting a ton of hair cut off must be one of the most exhilarating, liberating actions anyone could feel. I felt lighter, I felt newer, I felt better. I left the shop stroking my new naked patch, marveling at the feel of the short bristles under my fingers. I kept telling Lydia to touch it, saying, “You know how when boys cut their hair we always stroke it ‘cause it feels so soft and smooth? Well now I know what it feels like to have my head touched that way!”
It’s also much colder on that side when the wind blows.
I wonder how it’ll feel if I shaved everything off…
HAHA, kidding. No worries. I think I’ll do this one patch at a time.
So thanks everyone for all your positive feedback on the new ‘do.
And you know, I really don’t think Britney was crazy after all.
—————–UPDATE may 01, 2010————————-
sharon shaved some more off for me!
and we had a photoshoot of sorts on saturday night after coming back from vendome mayfair (=
(look how tan we are from greece!)
this is how i did my hair for vendome though. HAHA pretty trippy huh? can’t even tell there’s a shaved spot! well, until the wind blows at least…
but no regrets. i LOVE it!
till next time!
xx~ aileen
update: here are the latest images/news/etc on the shaved hair (how it grows back, what i do to make it look nice while it’s oh-so-slowly growing back, etc). these will open in new windows.
1. Highlights of NYC - i put designs into the shaved side to personalize/mix things up
2. Kunku’s Birthday - i am growing it out
3. Cutting Hair - i then dye the side i am growing out blonde (to prevent it from looking way awkward) and eventually i cut the other side off altogether
thanks for reading! enjoy =D
You already know what I think about your shaved head. (Haha, isn’t getting buzzed one of the coolest feelings evar?? No pun intended. Okay, maybe just a little bit intended.)
Are you wearing colored contacts? o_O
I love your hair! I did mines like a week ago. I feel down sometimes because people are hating on me. Just a question though, did anybody hate on you after you did this to your hair?
of course! the friend i got it done with didn’t like what i was doing (she still thinks im crazy). a lot of conservative friends tell me to grow it out. my mom would skin me alive. but the good thing about the partly-shavedness of this hair is that you can flip it over and cover it!
frankly, i do what i want. most people love it, and as long as you rock it confidently, nobody can bring you down ;D haters gonna hate!
power to ya sister! <3
hey! i am going through the SAME thing right now (the reasons leading up to you doing this) .. i just need a change and something to express the new chapter of my life i’ve begun (i just moved to nyc for school). ever since i saw cassie with this last year i became obsessed. i just never had the balls to do it until recently. the only thing holding my back is the growing back process .. is it awkward? my hair is a lot longer than yours, prob only like 4 inches away from the top of my butt lol .. so i think i’ll look like a freak growing it back and having one side soooo much shorter than the other. also, does it look weird when you flip your hair over to the other side? like can you tell that that side is bald? or does the hair cover it well enough? or does it look kinda fishy .. lol. my hair is very thick and long too. any feedback would be GREATLY apprecaited! thanks! love the cut btw!
My hair has grown out a lot since then…my longer side (the left) is now like half a foot from my butt and my other side is shaved haha. If you look here, the most of the time when the hair is down you can’t even really see the shaved part: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs898.snc4/73190_1435125328865_1554900004_896899_1246376_n.jpg
Anyway, for the hair to even out in length will probably take 2+ years. I’m growing it out now and it’s about 2 inches long. Depending on your hair, it will either grow out or down. My hair grows downwards, so the shaved part doesnt stick out. It’s not too awkward, and can be hid fairly easily.
My suggestion to you if you want to shave one side is to not shave TOO much. That is, stick to no more than 1/8 inch. I personally think Cassie’s is a bit TOO short, and if you try to cover it up by flipping your hair over, it really won’t cover well and it’ll just look kind of weird and awkward.
Otherwise, you should have no problem covering the shaved patch (if you only shave 1/4-1/3 of your head), especially if you have thick, long hair. Good luck and have fun with it! (Don’t let haters bring you down either (=)
[...] funny, actually. The top post our blog gets hits for is the “I SHAVED MY HEAD” (http://internationalsensasians.com/2010/05/05/i-shaved-my-head/) entry I wrote a while back. I keep getting messages from girls who are interested in the cut, [...]
This haircut looks beautiful on you
I’ve been wanting to do it lately but I dunno if it’ll look good on me.
omg you are sooo beautiful!! that last picture is :O xxxx
OMG! ok i’ve been contemplating doing this for a while but i havent cut my hair in 9 years. this idea seems so RADICLE and CRAZY but i want to do it, im just scared. Huh, Im freaked because im black but i have long hair cause im part vietnamese. i have 2 years of high school left and its time to try something new & thanx to u my decisions made! =)
hye. i really2 want to shave my hair, and i already think for a week…is it ok? is it still look nice?
im totally want a hair cut like u…ive been browsing the net each day…any advice?
[...] had decided very last minute to cut all my hair off. The shaved side was growing out and I had dyed it blonde so the growing out process would look [...]
it looks nice especially when you dyed it gold!
I’m gonna do the same style, i just think its so simple but so different at the same time. And your face structure looks amazing with this style. I have a round face so i don’t know how it will look, but i’m hopping it will look good.
Does it look weird in a ponytail ? I’ve been really thinking about doing this for a long time and I just wanted to know how it would look up because I wear my hair up a lot .
Aline,
To be quite honest with you, in my opinion YES, it does look weird in a ponytail. The whole allure of the half shaved look is that the long hair down over your shoulder balances out the shaved look. If you were to pull it up, it loses its chic/hardcore look appeal. Moreover, with so much of your head shaved there wont be THAT much to put up and it might look sparse, depending on how much hair you have. When i shaved my head, I rarely ever put it up. I think also thats why you rarely see people with the shaved cut wearing it up (in pictures, music videos, etc especially). Who knows though–maybe you can rock it? Or switch up the regular ponytail into something different? I’d totally be interested in seeing what you do, if you end up doing it! Keep me posted (= Good luck!