Despite it being almost two years ago, the 19th of May 2015 feels like yesterday. It sticks in my mind because someone took a pair of scissors to my ponytail and then shaved my hair off.
And no, I didn’t have an illness that meant I may lose it anyway.
Although I get why to some this might be something they’d sooner try and erase from their memory rather than dredge up again, it was one of the most empowering days of my life.
It’s something I’m incredibly proud of doing, and I’ll be forever grateful for the experience.
(Picture: Leyah Shanks)
For the last four years since creating The Body Confidence Revolution, I’ve shouted at the top of my lungs to try and bring about change within the mainstream media industry. I know first-hand just how much its profit driven agenda can and does – deliberately – impact on self-esteem in a negative way.
The basis of my campaign has always been diversity and representation for humans of absolutely all kinds. Although the intersectionality of the body positive movement does its best to empower everyone, something that I don’t think is talked about enough is hair loss and baldness.
When looking for imagery of bald women in the media, the only material I could find was related to cancer patients. It got me thinking: what is it about baldness that is so undesirable?
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