Since Everyone Has Shaved Their Head In Lockdown, Here’s How You Can Do It Too

‘Seeing so many women shave their heads in lockdown made me desperate to do it myself, it looks so liberating and seems like it suits everyone. While our social lives are so shit, it kind of feels like what’s there to lose?’

Sophie, 25 from Luton, is one of many women contemplating shaving her head. She’s wanted to do it since lockdown began and a spate of women began showing off their shaving skills on TikTok, but she’s still yet to take the plunge.

For many women, their hair can be both their prized possession or their greatest burden on any given day. Lockdown then, and the ensuing mandate to stay in the house at all times, seemed to provide a blissful escape for women to experiment with hairstyles they’ve always wanted to do but never felt confident enough – shaving their heads being one of them. Because, without strangers casting a doubtful eye or the fear of what friends, colleagues or family might say when we see them next, women were liberated to do whatever the hell they wanted with their body hair.

The trend of lockdown head-shaving was undoubtedly created, if not started, by one particular TikTok audio. ‘This is a PSA to all the girls who want to shave their head,’ the TikTok by @vampdivision begins. ‘DO IT. DO IT. DO IT NOW. Because you know what, in five years from now if you don’t shave your head, you can never say you shaved your head. You can never tell your kids you’ve shaved your head. Do you really want to look like a lame ass parent? No. Shave that fucking head.’

Over 11,000 videos using the exact same audio later, women everywhere seem to have found liberation in a fellow gen-z TikToker telling them exactly what they needed to hear. At least, that was definitely the case for Tatyana Cowell, who at just 17-years-old chose to take the plunge.

‘I shaved my head because I wanted to challenge myself to explore my confidence outside of my hair,’ she tells Grazia. ‘I hated the way that society made girls feel like they needed long hair to feel beautiful. So I wanted to show people that you can be beautiful no matter what length your hair was.’

Of course, the videos under the sound will tell you it’s no easy decision. Typically, the first few seconds of each video show a woman, obviously nervous, shaking as she grabs the scissors before chopping off a chunk of her hair.

‘I was very nervous before I did it,’ says Tatyana. ‘In the video of me doing it you can see tears in my eyes which was a combination of happy tears and nervous tears. I have had long hair my entire life so letting go of all of that was very overwhelming but right after I did it I felt phenomenal.’

‘I was so proud of myself for actually doing it,’ she continued. ‘As for the feeling of my hair itself it felt so cool. I couldn’t stop rubbing my head for a few days, and you definitely become more sensitive to temperature.’

And now, while she has to cut it more often, her hair takes little maintenance and she’s free to show off her personality with a variety of designs and colours. ‘Compared to maintaining long hair a shaved head is about a million times easier,’ says Tatyana. ‘You don’t have to do anything. I do choose to do new designs pretty often because they’re so much fun and I cut mine around every 10 days, because I like to keep it pretty short.

'But as far as physical activity it’s way better with a shaved head because your hair is never in your face or falling out of your ponytail. It just amazing.’

Looking at Tatyana’s range of shaved-head hairstyles, it’s hard not to be convinced to take the plunge yourself – as all the other women doing it have proven. In fact, singer Halsey noted the recent trend in head-shaving as one of her deciding factors to shave her head again. ‘When I was bald everybody was so damn mean to mean now every hot girl ever has a bald head does that mean I can go bald again or what,’ she tweeted days before posting a TikTok showing she’d shaved her head too.

‘I say if anyone is thinking about doing it they should definitely take that leap and do it,’ Tatyana says to the doubters. ‘It’s hair it grows back, so you might as well do it while you can!’

A step-by-step guide on how to shave your head

So how do you shave your head? Well, we spoke to Jay Lefevre, owner of Crown London hair salon in Crouch End, north London to get a step-by-step guide to shaving your head…

‘First of all, use professional clippers,’ he says. ‘Do not use cheap ones as the cutting blade quality will pull your hair and potentially damage the follicle. If your hair is long, chop most of it off with scissors first as the long hair will get tangled in clippers. You can even donate the hair to charity if it’s long enough!

‘If you can get someone else to do it for you, do that,’ he continues. ‘But either way, guide the clippers at a 90 degree angle to get a sharper edge. Make sure you lubricate or oil the clippers to ensure they have the perfect glide.

‘Use a comb to keep the hair level and start at the front of the head (the forehead) and work from the hairline backwards towards the top of the head. When going around the ears make sure to use the small trimmers and fold the ears down to avoid any crease, nicks and cuts.’

When you’re done, he also advises to double check for strays to keep it looking professional and if you can, invest in a neck trimmer to keep those neck hairs at bay. But finally ‘embrace your new bold look,’ he says.

Hey, if so many can be convinced to take the plunge from a TikTok audio, it’s about time you ticked it off your bucket list too.

Click through for all the best celebrity hair transformations in lockdown...