I Shaved My Head

After beloved community member Tom Bradbury’s sudden passing last month, fellow creator Courtney Capone urged Tom’s followers to take action in his memory with three motivational challenges. Challenge One: Whatever you've been procrastinating on, do it now. Challenge Two: Leave nothing unsaid. And Challenge Three: Write!

I’m happy to report that I have completed the first of these challenges. That's right— I finally took a plunge I have waited years to take: I shaved my head.

Okay, so I buzzed it. But at 3 millimeters, my hair is pretty much nonexistent. Bottom line: I have a lot less hair today than I did before.

This isn’t the first time my hair has gotten the chop. Back in 2013, I fell in love with Miley Cyrus’ short, rebellious hairdo, and, after months of deliberation, I made my way to the salon. The stylist was hesitant to oblige my request to cut my long, blonde waves, and I settled for a temporary pixie cut before heading back months later and having them shave off the sides.

Looking back, I can admit that it probably wasn't my best look. But I didn't care. Short hair was freedom. I loved how simple my daily hair routine became. My showers could be completed in under five minutes. I no longer spent hours curling and straightening my hair. And I got a real kick out of running my hands back and forth over the short stubs on my head.

But I wanted to go further. I saw a video of a woman buzzing off all of her hair, and I loved the result. From that point on, I had a dream of following in her footsteps and summoning the courage to go all the way.

The response from those around me was always the same: Don’t do it. You don’t have the face or head shape for it. I agreed; I always thought my nose was too big for me to pull off the fashionable Sinéad O'Connor/Demi Moore/Britney Spears look.

And when I started law school in 2017, it seemed that my years of prominent piercings and daring hairstyles were over; how many lawyers do you know with a nose ring? But I've decided to go in a different direction with my life, and distancing myself from the legal profession has allowed me to reclaim control over my own body and style.

The deciding factor was this TikTok sound, "a PSA to all the girls who want to shave their head," in which a woman urges all the girls contemplating the drastic hair change to "do it now," regardless of what anyone else has to say about it.

So I did. After years of waiting, I shaved my head.

And I love it.

I don’t have to style my hair. I can be ready to leave the house in under ten minutes. Men will (hopefully) leave me alone.

And, as I noted in the video’s caption, now I don’t have to pull those long hairs out of my butt crack. I hated that.

Honestly, I probably did look better with long, styled hair. But I feel so much more comfortable, confident, and free. Having no hair is liberation. It's bold, assertive, fearless. And the response from my friends and colleagues has been incredible. Even my family can't believe how well it turned out.

Truth be told, I bought the clippers before Courtney even set her challenge. I shaved my head the week Tom passed, as if his spirit was guiding me to follow my heart and do something I really wanted to do, other people's opinions be damned. I like to think he'd have encouraged me to ignore the naysayers and just do it.

But it was the wording of Courtney's story that caught me off guard. After I'd spent months mulling over a video vociferously urging me to "do it now," my fellow Vocal creator told me to "Do It For Tom" with a photo of a post-it note that read "The time is now."

For years, I’ve wanted to do this. And now, thanks to Tom, Courtney, and TikTok, I finally have.