You do you!
By: Gunanicaa Arun
Tags: Hairstyle, Indian Culture, Girls, Fashion, Lifestyle

Image Credits: parenting firstcry

It was a nice pleasant evening. My exams were over and I wasn’t going to do anything productive anyway, so after an episode of Peaky Blinders (I know, I’m late), I asked my dad if I could learn to drive. Now, if there’s one thing I’ve always been excited about, it’s me getting a driver’s license. Probably a childlike thing to say, but oh well it was always cool to me. Do you know how to drive a car? You got me ;) So my dad agreed and I was super excited. Little did I remember that I was stepping out of my house for the first time after shaving my head. Yes, you read it right, I had shaved my head a couple of days ago. So I left my house and this is what I got:

“Kadavule!(Oh god!) What have you done?!”

“Do you know what this means?”

“Do you have any sense?!”

These were the reactions my neighbour aunty had given me right after I got out of my house. To be very honest, I was indeed surprised she took it personally and got super angry at me. Never knew I was going to get a 30 min lecture from a woman who isn’t related to me, for cutting off my hair.

Traditionally, Hindus in India consider girls shaving their head as a bad omen, especially when it’s teenage girls(“Vayasu ponnu” as they call it :) ). Usually, people shave their heads either for a death occasion-a son must shave his head when his father dies or a woman must shave her head when her husband dies or people offer their hair to god and hope for good luck. Human hair is valued in India, be it as a product or an emotional attachment. Neither was there any bad occasion nor did I offer my hair to god. So why did I do it?

Well, simply because I just wanted to. For as long as I remember, I’ve always had the same hairstyle and wanted to try something new.

Quoting Coco Chanel, “A woman who changes her hair is about to change her life.”.

I guess I was too bored with my life? Haha. Anyway, the spark that made me take this decision was my brother. One morning he woke up and straight away went “My hair is so long, it’s annoying, I’m gonna shave my head”. And by afternoon he was done with it. That seemed so cool for me right there. He was irritated, chose to shave, shaved and went back to his routine. But of course, it wasn’t that easy for me to make a decision so quickly. So I asked for suggestions from my friends and I kept oscillating for about a month. The majority of them didn’t want me to do it, except two. Will never forget how excited they were about it! :P

Nevertheless, finally one Sunday, I decided I’m gonna do it. (Yep, exactly like my brother, all of a sudden) I told my parents and they were confused, they weren’t against the idea but they were not 100% sure either. I had to again ask my grandparents’ permission, my perima’s (Aunt’s) permission etc and hey finally they agreed!

Thanks to covid, my dad was my hairdresser. So my hair was mid-back length so we thought we’d cut it little by little just to see how I would look. We cut off my hair to shoulder length and further went on cutting them by a few inches every time and taking pictures along the way. The final step was shaving my head, there was no more going back. However I liked one of the middle stages and thought I’ll stick to it, but I wasn’t completely satisfied. Suddenly, all I could hear was the trimmers’ zzz noise, and boom I had no more hair on my head. I loved my look and was smiling ear to ear. Like every teenager would do, I took selfies and sent them to all my friends and was super excited about my new look.

I was curious to see how people would react and decided to post it on social media. There was a mixture of reactions, few people weren’t happy with what I did, but hey quite a lot of them shared my excitement and were super happy about it. I did get a lot of “Tirupati or Tiruttani?”(Religious places in India where people go to offer their hair to god). It felt really nice to see their reactions, especially to see how people liked me not for my looks but for who I am :)

Personally, I felt more unbound that I did what I wanted to and loved the new change. Plus, it’s just hair, right? It’ll grow back anyway. Moreover, I am super excited to see how I would look at each stage of its growth. I do miss my hair at times while looking at old pictures, but my excitement for my new look overtakes the missing feeling. If there’s something that your heart has been telling you to do, go for it, no matter how crazy it sounds to others. It sure is fun to try out something new ;) Cause if you never try, you’ll never know!