A history of the women's buzzcut

Brut America

"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.

Transcript

00:00This is a PSA to all the girls who want to shave their head do it do it do it do it now

00:08Oh my god, it feels amazing. No, like I just want to headbang

00:21Shave head is a woman still retain shock factor. There's not really much in hair and beauty

00:26I would say that still has the real power to shop

00:37So much of early history people shaped their heads male and female purely because there was a more hygienic option

00:43So in the days before we had kind of proper plumbing and we had like widespread hygiene products shaving your head

00:49It just made life easier and we talked about I don't know ancient Egypt and Greece and Rome, you know

00:55Most people really would be shaving their heads. They would then probably wear a wig but not necessarily

01:01You

01:20When we talk about women having shaved heads, it's important to kind of differentiate I suppose between

01:25Western society and elsewhere in the world after the French Revolution in France

01:30some women

01:31cut their hair really short in

01:33Sort of in tribute to their friends and colleagues and people they knew who had lost their lives at the guillotine

01:39And so we have this

01:41short-lived trend called hair

01:44one a la victim so

01:46Inspired by like the victim basically when you were going to the guillotine you would have your hair cut off

01:50So it made it easier for the blade to pass down. So it's kind of a gruesome trend that was done

01:56To yes signify solidarity with those who'd lost their lives on the guillotine

02:00That is pretty much the only time we see really really short hair on women prior to the 20th century and

02:07Even then that was a very small trend outside of Western culture

02:11Women shaving their heads particularly in Africa. It just tend to just be you know, it is a style choice

02:16It'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

02:24You know when they're in mourning or it once they're married

02:31You

02:41It's kind of an act of subordination of humiliation

02:44You know hair is so closely linked with ideas of femininity that shaving it off

02:49Isn't just shedding someone of like their personality and their sense of self, but it's also

02:53Humiliating removes any sense of individuality, which is why I guess we also see shaved heads and things like the armies or in prison

03:00the

03:23Start of the 90s we start seeing more women shaving their heads

03:26You see more kind of I guess like indie singers or women in rock doing it

03:31Which is when it's sort of starts to kind of seep through a little bit more into popular culture

03:34GI Jane the Demi Moore film is always kind of touted as a great example of a woman shaving her head

03:40Although obviously that was in relation to a role in the military

03:44Nothing

03:55They 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

04:00Prettier and all the stuff so I went straight around to the barber and shaved the rest of my hair off

04:15It

04:17Actually tells me she's spun completely out of control

04:20She's mutilating her whole image

04:22I 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

04:28Everything we know about what's happening kind of view it a bit differently

04:31But 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

04:38Pop icon. I don't want to be seen as this like very stereotypical idea of a girl a sexy girl

04:43I want to do something for myself

04:58People make a big deal out of it. They say like oh, you know, she was crazy. That's why but during that time she

05:05Was postpartum after having two babies back-to-back

05:09She

05:10Had been hounded by the paparazzi and women can do whatever they want to do with their bodies. They can shave their head

05:15It's not it's not a big deal

05:30I think

05:31Pandemic and any period of stress and anxiety and

05:35Difficultness always leads to really interesting looks going on in fashion and beauty

05:38We get a lot of exciting weird DIY fun things happening because people want to reclaim a sense of self

05:44They want to do something creative

05:45They 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

05:52It's also why we saw so many like mullets and like crazy color happening during lockdown the shaved head

05:57Particularly woman does still have so much

06:01Social attachment to it this really taking ownership of yourself and it's also just like this

06:05Literal 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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