The Catharsis in Cutting Your Own Hair
Hair has always been an important element of self image, a perm or bleached hair making all the difference. Recently, various teens around the world and I have participated in a bizarre ritual meant to detach ourselves from our problems and, literally and metaphorically, remake ourselves. Girls chop off locks of their hair they’ve been growing for years or style them into bangs. Boys shave their heads or drive to the nearest salon for a perm.
The only rationale I could think of that would explain this phenomenon as black strands of my hair littered my bathroom floor was the untenable idea that cutting my hair would free me from something, upgrading me to a more confident and bold version of myself—Mandy 2.0.
Wanting to understand why the chemistry of my brain let me think choppy bangs would make me happier, I scoured the web and found a strong connection in the process of cutting hair and the exercise of catharsis.
Cutting hair is a physical process that provides immediate relief, making us assume that we will feel better immediately after doing it. It is an impulsive decision that seeds in our minds after undergoing an emotionally taxing event that we feel we have no ability to change, prompting us to look to our hair as a source from which we draw power and instant gratification from our problems. The brain subconsciously connects our outer image with our internalized emotional turmoil, prompting the idea that one element must affect the other.
For example, individuals with long hair who have just escaped a toxic environment or relationship may cut their hair to remove the hair that both literally and metaphorically weighs them down. The individual reduces the amount of product, time, and patience used to maintain their hair and channels away any past negative feelings, almost symbolically, in the hair that has been sheared off.
Overall, our hair is tied to a strong sense of identity and cutting it or letting it grow freely is a testament to how we feel about the authority we hold over our own lives. Cutting it, as mentioned before, provides immediate relief that may be desired in a desperate situation where an individual feels they have no control over the actions happening in their life. It dons a false sense of control, acting as a cathartic release for an impulsive urge to reclaim agency and power.
There is a large difference in the emotional toll between cutting your hair yourself and getting it professionally styled at a salon. The independence in an amateur haircut signals distress and desire for change and self-agency while the authority given to a barber is often and mainly concerned with physical and superficial ideals.
Though cutting one’s hair may seem to be a childish and reckless solution for releasing emotions, it can also be a healthy coping method that targets the only area of your body that doesn’t feel pain.
For teens, especially, hair cutting is an easy means to proclaim independence and empowerment whilst living in a society that imposes its expectations for the next generation without liberation.
