10 Celebrities Revealed Why They Shaved Their Heads, and We Couldn’t Be More Proud of Them

Shaving your head definitely takes a lot of courage. Some of the stars featured in this article made this brave decision for a role in a movie, while others shaved their hair off to make a statement. But none of them regretted it, in fact, some even chose to make their new look their trademark.

We at Bright Side applaud these strong and confident women who remind us, once again, that true beauty doesn’t depend on your looks.

1. Jada Pinkett Smith

The Girls Trip star is struggling with hair loss, but she didn’t let her condition stop her from sharing beautiful photos on her Instagram account. “Me and this alopecia are going to be friends… period!” she wrote. “Now at this point, I can only laugh. I’ve been struggling with alopecia and just all of a sudden one day, look at this line right here. So it just showed up like that and this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide. So I thought I’d just share it so y’all are not asking any questions,” she said in a video.

2. Kristen Stewart

The Twilight Saga actress admitted she always wanted to get a buzz cut, and finally decided to take the plunge for her role in a new movie. “I’m doing a movie called Underwater and I play a mechanical engineer who is working on an oil rig on the bottom of the ocean floor, so for me it’s practical. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time for novelty’s sake, just because at some point in your life you want to be able to do that. It feels amazing — I just want to headbang all day!” she said.

3. Jessie J

The award-winning singer shaved her head on live television to help raise money for a charity called Comic Relief. She admitted that she wanted to keep her new look for a while: “I want to keep it like this for a bit, yes. I look like this on my album cover. I wanted to make a statement. I feel like there’s no point in shaving your head for charity if you’re then going to just grow it back the next day.”

4. Cara Delevingne

The actress shaved her head for her role as a cancer patient in the film Life in a Year. Although her managers were against her decision, Delevingne knew she needed to do it. “Before I even got the project, I said to the director, ‘I want to shave my head for it.’ My agents and managers were like, ‘Please don’t! Why would you do that?’ When it’s a part like that, especially when it’s about cancer, I needed to feel what it would be like to have no hair,” she said.

5. Natalie Portman

The Oscar winner famously shaved her head for her role in the movie V for Vendetta. “I was in character at the moment it happened. So, for her, it was a very traumatic experience. She is not choosing it. It’s being forced upon her as a pretty violent act,” she said. “In movies, we’re so spoiled. You can always do it again and this was not the case. I just tried to stay focused and do my best job with the one chance we had,” she continued.

6. Adwoa Aboah

The fashion model and activist explained her reasons for shaving her head in a moving personal essay. “After many years of hating my hair, I finally felt no attachment to it. I was empowered, and for the first time, I didn’t need to carry around a large plastic bag of products, and it doesn’t take me an hour to find all the hairpins after a night out. Now, I feel very comfortable, and I no longer panicked about looking different. I’ve grown up and I’ve learned to appreciate looking unique, and not having long, blonde locks…at last,” she wrote.

7. Lupita Nyong’o

The Black Panther star admitted she always had trouble accepting her natural hair. “I had my hair relaxed for most of my teenage years. The upkeep of relaxed hair is a commitment. I remember doing crazy things, like sleeping with my head above the headboard so that my curls wouldn’t get messed up for the next day. Once my dad joked, ‘Why don’t you just cut it all off?’ And a few months later, I went into the hair salon, and I said, ‘Let’s cut it off.’ It was almost a dare to myself: Can I live without hair? He shaved it right off. It was so scary but so liberating because I went completely bald,” she said.

8. Halsey

The “Now or Never” singer chose to shave her head to address the importance of her biracial identity. “Hair has also been a big indicator of racial issues in my life. It’s one of the ultimate symbolic struggles for women of color. Shaving my head was important to me because I needed to be able to prove that I could still love myself if I did it,” she said.

9. Amber Rose

The School Dance actress decided to shave her hair off, and her bleached blonde buzz cut became her trademark style for many years. She said her friends were against her decision to shave her head but she did it anyway: “My friends said, ’Please don’t do it, Amber, you’re gonna look crazy.’ And, of course, me being me, I rebelled against everyone and went straight down the middle at a barbershop.”

10. Amandla Stenberg

The award-winning actress admitted that shaving her head helped her accept herself.

“At first I had a very big, curly ’fro. It was me loving my blackness. As soon as I got tired of that [look] being my identity, I cut my hair shorter. I was curious about how that might affect people’s perception of my gender too, so I kept cutting it shorter and shorter. I wanted a hairstyle that felt less feminine. It was so freeing. This summer I came out as gay, and I must say, having no hair made me feel even more comfortable with my gender,” she revealed.

Do you think these celebrities look better with long or short hair? Would you be able to shave your head?

Preview photo credit Sthanlee Mirador/Sipa USA/East News, jadapinkettsmith / Instagram