"Being bald is sexy. It's an attitude. It's a luxury. It's a lifestyle." That's how Brennan Nevada Johnson, who shaved her head voluntarily 14 years ago, opens the video podcast she launched last November to celebrate the advantages of choosing a bald look, reports the AP. Sensuous, self-assured, and glamorous are not the adjectives typically assigned to women with shorn hair. For centuries, many cultures have viewed long hair as a symbol of femininity, health, and fertility. But more women are defying that traditional beauty standard and finding empowerment by baring their heads. "Once you do it, it brings all this confidence into your life," Johnson, 34, said. "Whenever you see someone who's bald and not wearing a wig, just know that they have fully embraced themselves."
Her initial decision to go baldheaded was practical. Johnson played 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. "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.
Other women without hair, whether voluntarily or due to medical conditions, also have sought ways to support each other, attending conferences, joining "baldie" groups, and swapping grooming and scalp care tips. "There's a whole community of us," said Dash Lopez, 29, who posts a weekly video series of her shaving routine called "Fresh Cut Friday." "We need to talk about it because we do find comfort and empowerment and beauty in what some people think is weird."
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Felicia Flores was diagnosed in 2001 with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair to fall out. Six years later, all her hair was gone. Initially, she wore wigs. Then she came across a group called The Baldie Movement on Facebook. "The ladies just really inspired me," Flores, 47, said. She eventually decided to stop wearing wigs and embrace being bald in 2015, after a romantic breakup. "I was tired of lying. ... I felt like I wasn't myself," she said. Flores founded an annual conference called Baldie Con. Aicha Soumaoro, who works in Philadelphia as a nurse on weekdays and as a mechanic on weekends, said some of her patients call her "sir" instead of "ma'am," but she doesn't let it bother her. "It's new to them, girls that are bald." More here.
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