NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — “Being bald is sexy. It's an attitude. It's a luxury. It's a lifestyle.”
That's how Brennan Nevada Johnson, who shaved my head volunteers 14 years ago to open a video podcast she launched last November to demonstrate the benefits of choosing a bald look.
Sensual, confident and glamorous are not adjectives that are usually attributed to women with cropped hair. For centuries, many cultures have considered long hair a symbol of femininity, health and fertility. But more and more women are challenging this traditional beauty standard and finding strength by baring their heads.
“Once you do that, it brings all this confidence into your life,” Johnson, 34, said. “Any time you see someone bald and without a wig, just know that they have fully embraced themselves, and I think that's a really hard thing to do.”
Her initial decision to go bald was practical. Johnson played volleyball in college and discovered that the sweating she exhibited on the court was affecting the expensive relaxing hair treatments she frequently received. However, once she started shaving her hair, she was hooked. She was relieved to save money on trips to the salon.
Johnson now owns a New York public relations firm. The video podcast she posts on YouTube, “Bald and Crazy with Brennan,” was an attempt to fill the void of social media content that claimed that bald people especially women. She says she always thought baldness was sexy.
“It's such a fashion trend and it's a really powerful look,” Johnson said.
Other hairless women, either voluntarily or for medical reasons, also sought ways to support each other by attending conferences, joining “bald” groups and exchanging hair and scalp care tips.
“There's a whole community of us,” said Dash Lopez, a content creator who posts a weekly series of shaving videos called “Fresh Cut Friday.” “We need to talk about this because we really do find comfort and strength and beauty in what some people think is weird.”
Lopez said her family members complimented her on the long, curly hair she had growing. Some of her friends played with different colors and hairstyles, but Lopez said she didn't have the same freedom. And she didn't like detangling her hair or spending long days in the beauty salon.
As soon as she turned 18 and could cut her hair without permission, she cut her locks into a pixie cut. She then shaved it all off during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It makes me feel strong in the sense that I can step back from things that people put so much emphasis on,” Lopez, 29, said. “I'm not sitting here planning, 'Oh my gosh, when am I going to get my next color treatment?' It will cost me $300. Oh my gosh, I need to get my hair done before I go to this event.”
Lopez signed with a modeling agency in 2020, when brands wanted to showcase diversity, she said. At the time, being bald worked for her professionally.
“There was a value in quirks, and if you had a gap in your tooth, if you had a bald spot, if you had a face full of freckles, that's what the casting directors were looking for,” Lopez said.
She noticed that that changed last year when her modeling bookings decreased. “Let's be honest, in the modeling world the odds were stacked against me,” Lopez said. “I was 5ft 4in, 5ft 5in on paper, no hair.”
A client suggested she wear wigs to get more work. Lopez didn't want to do it or grow her hair. Her modeling contract has ended. She has since shared glimpses of her bald life on Instagram and TikTok, where some of her videos have been viewed millions of times.
“I feel strong in the sense that I make my own choices,” Lopez said. “I do this for my own empowerment, I do this for my own clarity, for a deeper understanding of what I value, a deeper understanding of what beauty means to me.”
Many women struggle with how they define beauty when they lose their hair due to conditions such as alopecia or during chemotherapy cancer treatment.
Felicia Flores, a flight attendant living in Atlanta, was diagnosed with alopecia in 2001. autoimmune disease This causes hair to fall out. Six years later, all her hair was gone. She originally wore wigs.
Then she came across a group called The Baldie Movement on Facebook. “These ladies really inspired me,” Flores, 47, said. “They really helped lift me up and empower me… and they were so confident in themselves.”
Eventually, in 2015, after a romantic breakup, she decided to stop wearing wigs and go bald. “I was tired of lying. I felt like I was hiding something. I felt like I didn't belong,” she said.
To uplift and inspire other women, Flores founded an annual conference called Baldie Con. The fourth drawing drew more than 200 visitors to Atlanta last month for a fashion show, guest speakers, jazz brunch and gala, she said.
Aicha Soumaoro, who works in Philadelphia as a nurse during the week and as a mechanic on the weekends, says some of her patients call her “sir” rather than “ma'am,” but she doesn't let it bother her. “This is new to them, bald girls.”
Soumaoro, 27, said that after she shaved her head, her mother told her that most men would not want to marry a woman without hair. Instead, she focuses on the compliments she received in public, including “You wear that with confidence” and “You have a gorgeous face.”
“Being bald is like a boost of confidence out of nowhere,” says Soumaoro, who gets her hair cut every Sunday. “It's like new skin, a new layer, a new personality. I just feel fresh. Like I've been born again.”
She also goes hiking on Sundays, enjoying the feeling of the cool breeze on her scalp. “Having that connection to the Earth is amazing,” Soumaoro said. “I feel like I can hear everything more clearly. It's like I'm thinking clearly when my head is bald.”
Tiffany Michael Thomas, an Atlanta-based performer known by the stage name Amor Lauren, shaved her head as a show of support as her mother underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer.
After his mother's death, Thomas continued to receive compliments from other women. She decided to keep her bald look.
“Once I started to really embrace it, I felt like I was unstoppable,” Thomas, 37, said. “I don't have anything to hide behind anymore… It forced me to deal with all my insecurities.”
If you're thinking about shaving your head, don't hesitate, says Thomas. Women tell her that they are worried that their head is not shaped correctly, or that they have a lump or scar. “Don’t hesitate to do it,” she said. “Do it while being afraid. Do everything in life just being afraid. The best way to overcome that fear is to actually do it.”
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