In a week of beauty shockers (cough, Renee Zellwegger) the drastic chopping of one of our favourite heads of hair, Lauren Conrad, has caused something of a stir on the Grazia Daily beauty desk. When LC Instagrammed a picture of her freshly cropped angular bob just weeks after she wowed us with her flowing wedding locks, it triggered a heated debate about whether she’d done what so many women do after they’ve tied the knot and gone for ‘wife hair.’ Shorter, darker, or possibly a whole new look, it seems like getting married can be the cue to shake things up at the hairdressers.
We're all familiar with the trope of the broken-hearted girl who questionably lops off all her hair or goes for a new colour (brunette SJP in Sex and the City anyone?) after a traumatic break-up. The girl who has to do something, anything, to prove she's her own woman and mark a new chapter, and decides there's no better way to do so than by finally going for that pixie crop she's always been eyeing up. But what about the reverse, when after settling down into marriage, all of a sudden, you feel like you need to change your hair?
[Lauren Santo Domingo via Getty]
And she's not the only one to feel the need to have a chop after tying the knot - Modus Operandi founder, Lauren Santo Domingo also revealed she'd lost a few inches after settling down. She told Into The Gloss, 'I cut my hair right after I got married, three years ago, which I highly recommend. I think that whenever you have a change, a haircut’s good. You need to do something to change the scenery, in a way. I think it’s really important.'
Perhaps getting married carries some of the emotional upheaval of a break up - instead of losing somebody you care for, you become even more linked to them. Perhaps it's the loss of your single self, or the adjustment to a new territory. Or perhaps it's needing to find a new you, a married you, a different one to the one you were before you said 'I do'. Whether you just stick to trims, or go for a whole new 'do, it's worth considering just how much our hair ties us to our sense of self and the place we're at in our lives.
Would you save a drastic haircut until after you're married?