I'll never forget the time I shaved my head. The major question everyone asked me was "Why did you do it?"

My response "Because I wanted to."

Somehow this answer wasn't enough. Then there was

"Why would you want to do that?" I didn't feel like explaining why I wanted something, I got the sick feeling some might argue with me, try to tell me I shouldn't want to shave my head, or that whatever "I really wanted" was something else and they wanted to tell me how to get it without shaving my head.

Mostly, I realized they didn't want me to shave my head, and somehow believed that their reality should bleed over to mine and I was wrong to have my hair that short. My that's a lot of shoulds.

One odd thing was, everyone asked me if I donated my hair during my haircut. I did, but mostly because supercuts offered to cut my hair for free if I gave my hair to charity. Suddenly, then I was a saint. I didn't shave my head because I wanted to, I sacrificed my hair for someone else. It was no longer "She shaved her head? Why would she do that?" It was now, "She donated her hair to charity" and my fashion choice turned into me just being the nice girl again.

I shaved my head because I wanted to, and happened to donate my hair out of connivence. But that wasn't allowed, instead I sacrificed my beautiful hair for someone else. That's a nice girl thing to do, it made more sense for people to frame it like that. I’m just being nice, rather than wanting something they didn’t understand for whatever reason. Because as a woman, that's what I'm suppose to be to them.

BTW your hair looks great! Thanks for writing this article. People are weird when you cut your hair.