Fashion Victim: Maybe we simply want to be a cut above the rest

Dec 11 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

COULD women who cut their hair short be signalling that they don’t want to be attractive to men? That is the question doing the rounds this week, after agony aunt columnist and psychologist Dr Pamela Stephenson Connolly was asked by a reader whether there might be a connection between his wife’s drastic haircut just before their wedding and their sex life thereafter.

While Dr Stephenson Connolly, wisely, did not go so far as to say this was definitely the case, it sparked a tonsorial debate dragging in stars from Victoria Beckham to Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley.

As I see it, why a woman cuts her hair, grows her hair, dyes her hair, curls her hair or shaves her head is as personal to that woman as whether she prefers to wear thongs or big pants.

Her hairstyle could be down to anything from face shape to comfort to plain old fashion.

Of course, the old adage of washing the man out of your hair does sometimes ring true. Many a woman has come out of a failed relationship only to reach for the scissors or the dye. Yes, sometimes women decide they want an image transformation because they are going through a big change in their life. Sometimes they just want an extra half hour in bed in the mornings.

Sometimes they want to stand out in a sea of bouffanted blonde clones. And sometimes they do it because a film requires it – Knightley to portray a bounty hunter in Domino and Portman playing a bald freedom fighter in V For Vendetta.

As for Victoria Beckham, the only thing I believe she was signalling when she lopped off her hair extensions was a desire to garner more column inches.

When, 15 years ago, I ordered my hairdresser to sheer off my long blonde hair, it had nothing to do with inner turmoil or relationship woes, and everything to do with the fact that I wanted to look like Demi Moore in Ghost.

I didn’t suit it in the slightest, by the way.

I will concede that most men I know do find long hair sexier than short hair, but I can’t think of many that would have turned down Halle Berry when she walked out of the sea in Die Another Day, just because she had a crop.

I will also admit that, yes, a woman’s hair can be integral to how she sees herself (Britney anyone?). But it would be ludicrous to suggest that short hair means no-go.

It is as daft as saying that because I bleach my hair blonde (I know you assumed it was natural) I am declaring to the world that I am dumb.

I am not dumb.