A Onda Careca (The Bald Wave)

On April 26, 1971, a Brazilian magazine, O Cruzeiro, published an issue containing an article with the title A Onda Careca. That translates roughly from Portugues to English to The Bald Wave. As you can see on the cover, there is a model with long blonde hair surrounded by four other models with shaved heads (actually very short buzz cuts). The article itself runs from pages four through nine, and features a photoshoot of eleven models with their heads shaved. They are featured in various outfits, including, of course bikinis. Some of the photos show the models before and after as a contrast. The entire photoshoot challenges one facet of the conventional wisdom about femininity and beauty: that a woman must have long hair to look feminine and beautiful. The article mentions that in the future (the author suggested the year 2000) women will have shaved their hair off, and that perhaps this will be some norm in the media. Obviously, we're not quite there yet. The article also describes the models' experiences of having shaved heads. 

It's an article that may be very much of the early 1970s, but also ahead of its time. Then again, a lot of how societies thought about the future were very forward-thinking. We didn't experience a bald wave by 2000, and we arguably have not experienced a bald wave yet. We have progressed to a point where if a celebrity like Halsey, Willow Smith, Charlize Theron, Joey King, or Doja Cat (among numerous others in recent months and years) are featured on the cover of a magazine or in a news article with a shaved head, it will get attention, but it's hardly controversial. And more women seem comfortable shaving their heads, or in the case of hair loss, being open about their baldness. We have female influencers on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok who are showing off their shaved heads, and describing their experiences. You can find plenty of recent blog posts by women and girls who have found the experience of shaving their heads liberating, and there are articles offering advice for women and girls considering shaving their heads for the first time, or how to maintain their shaved heads. Even the NYT had an article about women shaving their heads last spring. That's progress, and their example sets the conditions for what could be a bald wave in the near future. 

Photo credits: Indalecio Wanderley and Helio Passos