What happens when a girl decides to shave her head?

"I arranged this bun, raised my wrists high, and skillfully picked out the black hair. It took a while to get it ready. I thought to myself, no wonder today's fashionable women advocate haircutism. It is really a cumbersome task for women to comb their hair. If you want to go out quickly but can't walk away, it's all the black hair that restrains you. In the past, people called their hair to be troubled silk. The word "worried" is indeed a defining word. Men's troubled silk can be cut off, and women's troubled silk can be cut off. Can’t it be cut off?”

——"Declaration", June 11, 1920

Every summer, when the sweat accumulated in her long hair makes her head swell, when her washed hair sticks to her body, and when the ends of her hair brush her eyes, nostrils, and mouth, Li Jing wants to cut her hair. Every time she did yoga, every time she practiced boxing, every time she was thrown by her own ponytail, Li Jing wanted to cut her hair.

She couldn't tell what was stopping her. Anyway, she had never had short hair in her 27 years of life, from childhood to adulthood, from school to work. As a child, she was dressed like a doll by her mother, wearing a tutu and beautiful braids. Growing up, she would wash her hair three times, using one shampoo the first time, another shampoo the second time, and conditioner the third time. She separates washing and blow-drying her hair. Putting the two together is "too stressful." Sometimes, she is too lazy to dry her hair, so she waits for her hair to dry while reading a book. Often her feet are numb and her hair is only half dry. Her hair caused her a lot of troubles, but she never thought she could "get rid of her hair."

At the end of last year, she fell in love with a girl while learning to skateboard. That girl also works in Shenzhen Science and Technology Park. She is small and has a short head. She asked the girl why she shaved her head, and the girl said she didn't think much about it and just shaved it off if she wanted to. Her indifferent attitude towards her hair made Li Jing realize that she could still treat her hair this way.

At the beginning of this year, Li Jing was lying in bed listening to "I need a doctor" sung by Eminem, Dr. Dre and Skylar Grey. Hearing a female voice singing like a cry for help, she made up her mind to go to the barber shop to get a haircut.

She clearly told the hairstylist to cut her hair short, and the hairstylist cut her long hair to the length of her ears. After asking again, Li Jing asked him to continue cutting her hair. Switching to clippers, the hairstylist asked again and again "Are you sure you want it to be this short?" 9mm, 6mm, 3mm, until Li Jing was satisfied with the shortest specification. For the first time, she used functional words like a few millimeters to describe a hairstyle, instead of using ambiguous words such as "to the collarbone," "thinned," and "to have a sense of air."

When she saw the person in the mirror, she was shocked by herself - it turned out that she was "very energetic". She touched her hair, which was prickly. Walking out of the barber shop, the wind blew on my scalp, "It feels like a new life. I haven't experienced this feeling since I was a child. It's so comfortable."

The person who had been living together for two years saw her new hairstyle and had a cold war with her for three days without saying a word to her. On the third day, the subject announced their breakup by moving out. The two had a very stable relationship before, had gone through the test of long-distance relationships, and were saving money together for the future. But the shared vision is no better than the hair. Li Jing can't help but wonder whether the love she once had was real or illusory? Is love based on hair? Is hair so important?

She has always been the one who compromises in love and will make all kinds of sacrifices to meet the requirements of her other half. But this time, the other party didn't even give her any room to compromise. Unlike other emotional problems that require speculation and guessing, the other party directly gave the final answer. Just like Cuntou, there was no cover-up, leaving Li Jing with nowhere to escape.

A serious relationship ended like this, making her question her decision to shave her head. So Li Jing put on a wig and hid her hair.

"The difference between men and women is just a natural physiological structure. Why do we put so much effort into artificial decoration? Let's think about it thoroughly. What are the obstacles if there is no difference between men and women?"

——"Republic of China Daily·Awakening", Volume 10, Issue 12, 1920

Wu Ya set three goals for herself during the summer vacation before entering college. The first was to learn to drive, the second was to learn a dance, and the third was to learn makeup. She's going to shine in college. The first goal is still in progress; the second goal was aborted. As an art school, Communication University of China has an indispensable shortage of students who are good at singing and dancing; she gave up on the third goal.

In a reflection class during the first semester of her freshman year, she heard the concept of "serving in the U.S. Army" for the first time. The teacher had never heard of this term and could not fully answer the students' questions. It was the night chat in the dormitory that made Wu Ya understand the meaning of "serving in the U.S. military." In a Korean comic sent to her by a friend, the heroine shaved her head in order to no longer be regarded as an object of appreciation by men and no longer dress herself according to men's preferences.

From then on, Wu Ya's view of the world changed 180 degrees. She agrees with the oppressive nature of beauty and is deeply concerned about resisting the "pink tax". Therefore, she was recommended by the system to the "Women's Short Hair Group" while browsing Douban. Many women shared their feelings about shaving their heads in the group, some good and some bad. "The disadvantage is other people's eyes, and the rest are all advantages." Wu Ya concluded.

Over the course of two months, she first cut her waist-length hair to her neck, then cut her short hair even shorter. The hairstylist designed her a Japanese actor's hairstyle - bangs in the front, and shaved the back almost to the ears using a ladder. Her mother said that her family was "like raising two little boys" - Wu Ya's younger brother is in fourth grade this year.

As her understanding of the situation of women gradually deepens, some things can no longer be concealed, such as the differential treatment of parents, such as the stereotyped requirements of parents for girls. Wu Ya has been a lively and outgoing person since she was a child. She loves to laugh, make noise, and talk. But when her parents introduce her to others, they always say, "Our daughter is quiet and she loves reading." At first, Wu Ya felt that what they said was wrong and that she had been said too much. She allowed herself to accept "this is who I am" and kept herself quiet in social situations.

At the end of April this year, her parents took her younger brother out, and Wu Ya was at home alone. Hungry and annoyed, she tossed and turned in bed unable to fall asleep. The more she thought about it, the more annoying her hair became. So she picked up the scissors. I still remember that her parents wanted her to grow her hair longer, but she didn’t cut her bangs and cut the hair at the back so that it was “like a barren moon surface, with pits and bumps.” This instead made up her mind. She originally planned to have her hair shaved off when she was in graduate school and further away from home.

The next day, she rode her bicycle through several alleys, found an inconspicuous shop, and spent 30 yuan to shave her head. After leaving the barber shop, smelling the scent of osmanthus and feeling the coolness of the wind blowing over her scalp, she "really wanted to cry" when she thought about the troubles lingering in her mind. When her parents saw her new hairstyle, they still said that it would be better to have long hair. The female friends were surprised, but when they heard her saying that she washed her hair quickly, they immediately expressed their understanding. Almost every woman has been "tortured" by long hair, but for most women, the most they can think of is cutting their hair short, and the option of shaving their heads does not exist at all.

More than a year ago, Wu Ya attended a dance held by her high school. She wore a scarlet velvet dress, high heels, and had her wavy hair curled for an hour and a half. Half a year ago, she insisted on wearing a skirt in the cold winter, and the skirt was tight at the waist. It made her uncomfortable, so she would secretly unzip her skirt during class and zip it up again after class; now, she wears a loose T-shirt and loose sports shorts, and her makeup is all covered in dust. She was "confused" while taking a shower. Her hair was washed in less than three minutes and there was no need to apply conditioner. Is this the end? It turns out that it takes her an hour to wash her hair, and her wet hair that is not completely dried often makes the exercise book wet.

Sometimes, she is mistaken for a boy. "Everyone thinks that men and women are like water and oil. They cannot mix. There is a huge difference. The length of my hair, which is just a few centimeters, changed, and I became a boy . It turns out that gender differences are so ridiculous. "Things," Wu Ya said, "the hair is like a lie."

Wu Ya did not want her family to become the typical Chinese family in movies that is silent and does not express love. She shared her thoughts on feminism with her father. His father believed that women’s status was much higher than in ancient times, so why can’t they Contented? Wu Ya argued hard, and her father asked her to find someone to get married as soon as she graduated from college.

"Women have four qualities, and they are allowed to live for one night. Now, if they ignore the bodies of their parents, cut their hair and disfigure their faces, and commit suicide like this, it is the so-called 'rebellion', 'foolishness', and something that is not tolerated in heaven and earth... Women's hair must be cut. If a woman has an arrogant heart, she will not follow her natural duties, and how can she be obedient to them? This is what is called a woman who is always in trouble with the customs, and who is unruly and unruly."

——"Republic of China Daily·Awakening", Volume 8, Issue 16, 1921

Long hair is one of the symbols of female identity. Female ghosts in horror movies always appear with disheveled hair, and those with short hair are not even qualified to be ghosts. In fact, Chinese women have only been allowed to have short hair for more than a hundred years.

After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the whole country was filled with a sense of panic of "subjugation of the country and annihilation of the race." The male elites of the late Qing Dynasty looked for the reason for the country's backwardness and found it in women. They proposed that "every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world, and every woman is also responsible." They regarded Chinese women as the cause of the country's weakness and a symbol of national backwardness. The subsequent New Culture Movement set off a wave of "democracy" and "science" in all areas of social life, and the liberation of the female body became the focus of attention.

The abolition of foot binding, breast opening, and hair cutting were all liberating women's bodies, but they were treated completely differently by the administrative authorities in the early Republic of China. Foot-binding, which "destroys human limbs and destroys human flesh and blood", is expressly prohibited. Abandoning the corset and letting the breasts breathe freely is a sign of a qualified mother. Hair cutting was not officially promoted at first.

The earliest collective hair-cutting operation for women took place in 1912 at Hengcui Girls' School in Hunan. Influenced by men's braid cutting, Zhou Xuqi founded a women's hair cutting club, but was rejected by the then Secretary for Home Affairs Liu Renxi. He believed that not only was there no precedent for women's hair cutting in history, but there was no such statement in the West. If "only women" were allowed to do so, The worries about the future of the world are also the worries about the customs of the Republic of China." In 1913, a female doctor in Hangzhou organized a hair-cutting party and was punished by the police for "dressing in strange clothes that hindered morale." In 1916, the Ministry of Education issued a circular stipulating that hair cutting and foot binding were not allowed.

The reason is that foot binding and Kaitian Ru are concerned about women's health and reproductive function. Foot binding and chest binding have made Chinese women weak and sickly for a long time, and a weak mother's body cannot give birth to a healthy baby, which will lead to the weakness of the country. The fundamental motive of male intellectuals calling on women to liberate their bodies is to “strengthen the country and protect their species.” Hair cutting is the only unofficial and mandatory movement in the women's body liberation movement. What makes women take action voluntarily is an obvious question - why can men cut hair but women can't?

The body is not just a physical body, and hair is not just hair. In his article "Soap", Lu Xun used the words of a fictional character to express the views of some men on women's haircuts at that time:

"You think, it's already very unsightly for women to walk on the street, but they still have to cut their hair. What I hate the most are those female students who have cut their hair. I simply say that soldiers and bandits still have feelings. But it turns out that they are the ones who are causing trouble in the world, and they should be dealt with very strictly."

From Confucian moral ethics to the Western scientific discourse of equality and the call to save the country and strengthen the country’s population, they are all “regulating” women’s bodies. Hair cutting, which cannot be summarized in a grand narrative, is a request made by women based on equality between men and women. It is not difficult to understand that it is not promoted.

After the May 4th Movement, the atmosphere demanding equality between men and women in society became more intense, and female students' haircuts reached a climax. In 1925, movie star Liming Hui debuted with short hair. Since then, more and more women have regarded short hair as a symbol of fashion, and short hair has become a symbol of beauty.

Whether women can cut their hair short is related to women’s struggle for control over their personal bodies. Men can have haircuts, why can’t women? This problem is still a problem today.

"A person with a complete personality does not care about 'being someone's someone'. He always wants to be an independent and sound member of society. When a woman is surrounded by the words 'mother' and 'wife', she will be taken lightly. Just cancel your personality."

——Ye Shaojun, "Women's Personality Problems", February 1, 1919

The moment I finished cutting, I lowered my head and experienced happiness. This is how Jiang Yi felt after having her hair cut off.

In the bathroom of her home, she first tied up her waist-length hair one by one, and then cut it off with scissors, getting shorter and shorter. The more she cut, the more "addicted" she became, until it was "almost like a bald head." It was the first time she had her hair cut, and there were uneven spots, "like steps," but she didn't care. Cutting her hair was not for beauty. That's why she didn't go to the barber shop. The hairstylist will definitely tell her, "This is not beautiful." She will lament, "Oh, your hair is all over the floor, what a pity." She will also ask her, "Do you want to wrap up the cut hair?" She didn't want to deal with boring nonsense - it was in order to get rid of the constraints of beauty that she had to cut her hair.

Throwing the bundles of long hair into the trash can and the short pieces of hair into the toilet and flushing them, Jiang Yi got rid of her restraints. Looking at herself in the mirror, her first feeling was novelty. For the first time in her life, she had the opportunity to take a good look at herself. From junior high school to high school, Jiang Yi always had bangs and long hair, and was used to "hiding herself in her hair." When she went to college, her hair became parted in the middle, and her long hair covered most of her face. She still "covered herself" with her hair.

Novelty is followed by joy, then uneasiness. The first time she went out with a shaved head, she repeatedly told herself: "Don't look at others" and "No one is looking at me." After a week, she stopped imagining how she looked to others and instead savored the comfort of the breeze on her scalp.

Her mother strongly opposed her cutting her hair, thinking that she wanted to be unconventional, rebellious, make her angry, and make herself look ugly. Jiang Yi asked her, "Am I beautiful when I have long hair?" Her hair is soft and thin, so she is not suitable for long hair. Mom replied: "At least you have long hair."

Mom said she was so ugly like this, who would like her? Like a prisoner in a labor camp, how do you find a partner? How to find a job? Jiang Yi said she didn't want the job that would reject her because of her hairstyle, and the other party agreed.

Her mother warned her not to think about being new and different. In this society, she has to be like other girls. Why should she create barriers to her own life? Why take a path that will be questioned by others?

Jiang Yi said that if something would affect others, she would be concerned. The matter of getting a haircut doesn't involve others, her body, or her hair at all. Why doesn't she have the right to make the decision?

Her mother thought she was trying to make excuses. She was not what a normal girl should be now, and accused her of being neither male nor female, neither fish nor fowl.

This was only the first time the two had an argument about inches.

The most intense quarrel between the two occurred when Jiang Yi was working part-time. After graduating from college, she couldn't find a suitable job for the time being. She was afraid that she would slack off at home, so she found a part-time job at Miniso.

My mother called me and asked if I had a job. Jiang Yi said no. Her mother asked her again if she had cut her hair again? This question aroused Jiang Yi's anger. She talked to her mother in the elevator for an hour and a half, until the mall closed.

She bluntly said that her mother's remarks made her feel particularly uncomfortable. She explained to her mother why wearing skirts and growing long hair were social disciplines for women. She was unwilling to give up her comfort for such meaningless things as beauty. "That was really the first time I told my mother what was on my mind," Jiang Yi said.

But my mother didn't listen at all. Mom said that all girls have long hair, that’s how all women came to be, and no one’s life was affected by it. She has lived with long hair for decades. Has her quality of life been reduced?

Her mother said it was impossible for her not to love beauty. She had been clamoring to buy skirts and tie her hair in pigtails since she was a child. How could she not love beauty? Jiang Yi said that when she was a child, she was just trying to please adults, which reflects the social discipline. Her mother refused to listen and said that she must have been influenced by someone to become like this.

The louder the noise, the more Jiang Yi felt suffocated. She ignored the people coming and going in the elevator and yelled into her mobile phone about society's discipline for women. She made up her mind to figure out the hair issue this time.

Jiang Yi hopes to tell her mother clearly, because her mother is deeply affected by it. My mother started dyeing her hair when she was a teenager and had plastic surgery in her twenties. Now in her fifties, she still pulls her hair out every day to see where the color has faded. Seeing Jiang Yi sleeping in an improper posture, she would lament that she should have been tied up with a rope to sleep when she was a child.

A colleague came over and told Jiang Yi that the door was about to be locked. She signaled for her colleague to leave first and that she would not take anything anymore. After leaving the closed shopping mall, Jiang Yi stood in the square and continued to argue with her mother. The two talked about their own things. Jiang Yi was a member of the debate team in college, and her mother's successful career was partly due to her eloquence. No one can convince anyone, but the more noisy they become, the more angry they become. Jiang Yi yelled into the phone: "Stop telling me that I am a normal person. I am not a normal person at all! Don't treat me as a normal person! You must remember that your daughter is not a normal person!"

The empty space amplified her roar many times. From then on, there was another "mad woman" in the world.

Afterwards, Jiang Yi received a job offer but did not tell her mother; on Women’s Day, she did not send a blessing message to her mother, “I thought you were worthy of Women’s Day? You are only biologically a woman, but you completely acted "I took on the role of a man"; on Mother's Day, she sent a message to her mother and the two parties reconciled. It's just that Jiang Yi made up her mind never to share any inner thoughts with her mother again.

"Although it is a trivial matter to serve men and women, it is a souvenir of the victory of men's power, so it must be reformed."

——"Republic of China Daily·Women's Review", Volume 15, Issue 1, 1921

After getting a haircut, "I somehow feel more courageous and powerful." Jiang Yi said that this is not because she looks more like a man, but "it seems like she is really starting to take off the things that society wants to put on women. Although It's just a haircut, but you are fighting against this seemingly unshakable society."

She has always been disgusted with physical contact with strangers. It turns out that when she encounters a male passenger with his legs spread apart on the subway, she will press her legs tightly together without touching him at all. Now, she has also started to spread her legs on the subway and touch each other's knees, but the other party won't let her go. She always wins. The other person pulled his legs back, and she spread them wider. Whenever this happens, "I feel very refreshed. Even though it's only a small space, I feel very refreshed."

When necessary, Wu Ya will spread her legs on the subway. Again, she always wins. If she were still wearing a waist-cinching skirt, she felt that she would definitely not do this. Facing the unfamiliar world, she has a little more courage. This is the change brought to her by Cuntou, but at the same time, she becomes less comfortable facing familiar people. If a classmate didn't recognize her because of her short hair, she didn't have the courage to go up and introduce herself and tell them, "I just had a haircut." "I think I haven't fully accepted myself as I am. I should be bolder," said Wu Ya, who had just shaved off her head for more than a month.

After wearing a wig for a while, Li Jing decided to take it off. She had slowly digested the fact of being abandoned. Colleagues in the company responded enthusiastically, praising her for her round head and how energetic she looked. The boss’s wife spent several minutes telling her how suitable she was for short hair. She does landscape design, and the clients she meets don't care about her hairstyle, but care more about her works.

Li Jing also had a confrontation with her mother, and the two of them also argued hoarsely. She detailed her mother's various practices and forced her mother to admit that she favored sons over daughters. Her mother finally cried and admitted, but Li Jing did not feel better. "My anger and sadness have not diminished one bit." So, she began to change herself. She wanted to find what belonged to her step by step, and she wanted to get rid of the things she shouldn't have to carry. So she learned to skateboard, practice boxing, and shave her head. This made her say goodbye to a relationship, and it also made her happy to say goodbye to this relationship. With the money she originally saved for dental surgery and myopia surgery, she enjoyed life to the fullest. The short hair forced her to face herself. She originally didn't have the courage, but "after shaving your hair, you really have no way to hide. You can only face your truest self."

(Li Jing, Wu Ya and Jiang Yi are all pseudonyms)

参考资料：周洪宇, & 周娜. (2016). 隐喻的身体:民国时期学校中的女子"剪发问题". 华东师范大学学报：教育科学版, 34(4), 7.张萌. (2020). 权力中的个体：近代女子剪发问题研究（1911-1937）. (Master dissertation, 陕西师范大学).王蕾, & 刘春. (2022). 民国时期(1919—1926)社会风俗,法律对女性身体的规训——基于"禁止剪发"告示的思考. 湖南师范大学社会科学学报, 51(2), 8.杨琳. (2018). 身体叙事的三重逻辑——以土地革命时期妇女剪发运动为中心的考察. 党史研究与教学(4), 8.张佳沁. (2020). 身体解放运动影响下我国女性服饰变迁研究(Doctoral dissertation, 江南大学).

— The End —

— Author: Snow —

— Editor: Zhao Si —

—The header picture is from the Korean comic "The Corsetless Diary" —

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