Written c. 1998 by Joan Juliet Buck, the editor-in-chief of French Vogue from 1994-2001:
Hair is time.
Women with short hair always look as if they have somewhere else to go. Women with long hair tend to look as if they belong where they are, especially in California. Short hair takes a short time. Long hair takes a long time. Long hair moves faster than short hair. Long hair tells men that you are all woman, or a real woman, or at the very least a girl. Short hair always makes them wonder. Short hair makes children ask each other –usually at the school-yard gate, when parents are late– “Are you a boy or girl?” Men married to women with short hair should not have affairs with women who have long hair kept up with many little pins and combs. Once you have cut your hair you have to remember to wear lipstick, but you can put away the brush, elastics, and the black barrettes in the form of shiny leaves with rhinestone hearts. When you cut your hair you lose a nose and gain a neck. A neck is generally better than a nose. It does not need to be powdered, except on extreme occasions. It does, however, need to be washed more often.With short hair you suddenly dislike the month of March, when the wind blows down the back of your neck. With short hair you begin to crave pearl necklaces, long earrings, and a variety of sunglasses. And you brush your teeth more often. Short hair removes obvious femininity and replaces it with style. When it starts growing out a little and losing its style, you have to wear sunglasses until you can get it to the hairdresser. That’s why you need a variety. Short hair makes you aware of subtraction as style. You can no longer wear puffed sleeves or ruffles; the neat is suddenly preferable to the fussy. You eye the tweezers instead of the blusher. What else can you take away? You can’t hide behind short hair. Your nape is exposed. Men put their hands around your neck instead of stroking your long locks. You can only pray they have friendly intentions. The backs of your ears show, your jaw line is clear to anyone watching, and you realize –perhaps for the first time– how wide the expanse of skin is between cheekbone and ear.
You may look a little androgynous, a little unfinished, a little bare. You will look elegant, as short hair requires you to keep your weight slightly below acceptable levels. However, the first time you wear a bathing suit with short hair, you will feel exceptionally naked. People who used to look straight at you will love you in profile. Short hair makes others think you have good bones, determination, and an agenda. The shape of your skull is commented on, so are its contents. They can pick you out in a crowd, and you can be recognized from behind, which can be good or bad. But your face is no longer a flat screen surrounded by a curtain: the world sees you in three dimensions.
Chase to the cut.
I’m slightly concerned about the references to washing your neck and brushing your teeth – I hope I do those things often enough already! I also have absolutely no intention of keeping my weight “slightly below acceptable levels”, whatever that means. But I am absolutely loving having very short hair.
I’ve had short-ish hair for quite a while now. Like many women I grew it a little longer for my wedding in 2009, but almost exactly a year later I bought myself a set of clippers and simply shaved it all off. Not as short as Agyness Deyn’s hair in the photo above – I cropped it down to a grade 8, which is about an inch long. Now I’m in the process of growing myself a sort of a mohawk – keeping the sides at about a grade 3, and leaving the crown to grow until I find myself bored of it.
The most frequent comments from other people have been “you’re so brave” and “you have a lovely-shaped head”, which is a bit of a weird one – I mean it’s not as though I had anything to do with the shape of my own skull! I have been surprised by the level of maintenance that’s required by having hair so short. It really needs to be washed every single day, whereas slightly longer hair often looks better on a day when it hasn’t been. I also find myself shaving the sides every couple of weeks, simply to keep it from looking as though I couldn’t be bothered. I don’t wear earrings or make-up any more often than I would have done before I shaved my head, and I’m not really fussed if passers-by can’t tell whether I’m male or female. Why do they need to know?
Also, Joan? I’ll damn well wear ruffles if I want to, short hair or not.