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A history of the women's buzzcut
Brut America
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1/11/2022
"I don't want to be seen as this very stereotypical idea of a girl, a sexy girl."
More and more women are choosing to shave their hair off. Once seen as unfeminine, the buzzcut is now seen as a way to reclaim independence ... Here's why.
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00:00
This is a PSA to all the girls who want to shave their head do it do it do it do it now
00:08
Oh my god, it feels amazing. No, like I just want to headbang
00:21
Shave head is a woman still retain shock factor. There's not really much in hair and beauty
00:26
I would say that still has the real power to shop
00:37
So much of early history people shaped their heads male and female purely because there was a more hygienic option
00:43
So in the days before we had kind of proper plumbing and we had like widespread hygiene products shaving your head
00:49
It just made life easier and we talked about I don't know ancient Egypt and Greece and Rome, you know
00:55
Most people really would be shaving their heads. They would then probably wear a wig but not necessarily
01:01
You
01:20
When we talk about women having shaved heads, it's important to kind of differentiate I suppose between
01:25
Western society and elsewhere in the world after the French Revolution in France
01:30
some women
01:31
cut their hair really short in
01:33
Sort of in tribute to their friends and colleagues and people they knew who had lost their lives at the guillotine
01:39
And so we have this
01:41
short-lived trend called hair
01:44
one a la victim so
01:46
Inspired by like the victim basically when you were going to the guillotine you would have your hair cut off
01:50
So it made it easier for the blade to pass down. So it's kind of a gruesome trend that was done
01:56
To yes signify solidarity with those who'd lost their lives on the guillotine
02:00
That is pretty much the only time we see really really short hair on women prior to the 20th century and
02:07
Even then that was a very small trend outside of Western culture
02:11
Women shaving their heads particularly in Africa. It just tend to just be you know, it is a style choice
02:16
It's not considered such a shocking thing as we consider it in the West also in India women may be expected to shave their heads
02:24
You know when they're in mourning or it once they're married
02:31
You
02:41
It's kind of an act of subordination of humiliation
02:44
You know hair is so closely linked with ideas of femininity that shaving it off
02:49
Isn't just shedding someone of like their personality and their sense of self, but it's also
02:53
Humiliating removes any sense of individuality, which is why I guess we also see shaved heads and things like the armies or in prison
03:00
the
03:23
Start of the 90s we start seeing more women shaving their heads
03:26
You see more kind of I guess like indie singers or women in rock doing it
03:31
Which is when it's sort of starts to kind of seep through a little bit more into popular culture
03:34
GI Jane the Demi Moore film is always kind of touted as a great example of a woman shaving her head
03:40
Although obviously that was in relation to a role in the military
03:44
Nothing
03:55
They wanted me to grow my hair really long and wear mini skirts and all that kind of stuff because they reckon I'd look much
04:00
Prettier and all the stuff so I went straight around to the barber and shaved the rest of my hair off
04:15
It
04:17
Actually tells me she's spun completely out of control
04:20
She's mutilating her whole image
04:22
I think that was such an iconic moment for people of my generation and I mean now in light of everything that's come to pass
04:28
Everything we know about what's happening kind of view it a bit differently
04:31
But ultimately it's taking the power back and taking control of your own identity and saying I don't want to be seen as this
04:38
Pop icon. I don't want to be seen as this like very stereotypical idea of a girl a sexy girl
04:43
I want to do something for myself
04:58
People make a big deal out of it. They say like oh, you know, she was crazy. That's why but during that time she
05:05
Was postpartum after having two babies back-to-back
05:09
She
05:10
Had been hounded by the paparazzi and women can do whatever they want to do with their bodies. They can shave their head
05:15
It's not it's not a big deal
05:30
I think
05:31
Pandemic and any period of stress and anxiety and
05:35
Difficultness always leads to really interesting looks going on in fashion and beauty
05:38
We get a lot of exciting weird DIY fun things happening because people want to reclaim a sense of self
05:44
They want to do something creative
05:45
They want to feel like they're contributing something exciting to the world and being a bit different and like shaving your head is totally that
05:52
It's also why we saw so many like mullets and like crazy color happening during lockdown the shaved head
05:57
Particularly woman does still have so much
06:01
Social attachment to it this really taking ownership of yourself and it's also just like this
06:05
Literal shedding of a weight almost it's saying, you know, I want to remove this thing and I want to just start afresh
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