Here is a recent article in The Independent. I'll share a few paragraphs:
Her initial decision to go baldheaded was practical. Johnson played competitive volleyball in college and found the sweating she did on the court affected the expensive hair relaxing treatments she often had done. Once she started shaving off her hair, though, she was hooked. She was relieved to save money on salon trips.
Johnson now owns a New York public relations firm. “Bald and Buzzed with Brennan,” the video podcast she posts on YouTube, was an attempt to fill a void in social media content that affirmed bald people, especially women. She says she always thought baldness was sexy.
“It’s such a fashion statement, and it’s a really powerful look,” Johnson said.
(snip)
“It makes me feel powerful in the sense that I’m able to detach from the things that people place 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 appointment done? That’s gonna cost me $300. Oh my gosh. I’ve got to get my hair done before I go to this event.’”
Lopez signed a contract with a modeling agency in 2020, a time when brands wanted to showcase diversity, she said. Back then, being bald worked for her professionally.
“There was an appreciation for quirks and if you had a gap in your tooth, if you had a bald head, if you had a face full of freckles, that’s what casting directors were looking for,” Lopez said.
She noticed the tide shifting last year, when her bookings for modeling jobs decreased. “Let’s be honest, the odds were stacked against me in the modeling world," Lopez said. "I was 5′ 4″, 5′ 5″ on paper, no hair.”
A client suggested she wear wigs to land more work. Lopez did not want to do that or grow out her hair. Her modeling contract ended. Since then, she has shared glimpses of her life as a bald woman on Instagram and TikTok, where some of her videos have been watched millions of times.
“I feel powerful in the sense that I’m making my own choices,” Lopez said. “I’m doing it for my own self-empowerment, I am doing it from my own self-clarity, for a deeper understanding of what it is that I value, a deeper understanding of what beauty means to me.”
(snip)
“Once I began to really embrace it, it just made me feel like I was unstoppable,” Thomas, 37, said. "There’s nothing that I have to hide behind anymore. ... It forced me to deal with all of my insecurities.”
If you’re thinking about shaving your head, don’t hesitate, Thomas advises. Women tell her they’re concerned that their head isn’t the right shape, or they have a lump or a scar. “Do it without thought,” she said. “Do it scared. Everything in life, just do it scared. The best way to get through that fear is to actually do it.”
I'll add a few things. I've had this blog since 2008 and I've seen the shaved head as a choice for women go through variations in popularity and acceptance. I still remember reading articles about how the buzz cut and side shave were supposed to go completely out of style in 2011 (suggesting some cultural pushback at the time) only for those trends to persist. There seem to be resurgences in interest mid-decade last decade, and again this decade during and immediately post-pandemic. We may be going through one of those pushback eras again, as Dash Lopez alludes to. And yet those who embrace this style (the shaved head) by choice persist. If anything, I think the best ambassadors for this style are the very women who embraced it for their own personal reasons, irrespective of the various Instagram and TikTok trends.
