Why Women—like Rihanna—Are Cutting Their Hair Short

In the wake of the pandemic, salons report that women are flocking to hair professionals to receive their own short cuts. Among them? Rihanna, who recently visited her longtime stylist Ursula Stephen to trade her waist-length braids for a pixie. “I think when anyone decides to really make that chop, it [gives them] a sense of freedom,” said Ms. Stephen, whose salon, Ursula Stephen the Salon, is in New York.

After nearly a year of isolation, freedom is in high demand. Sal Salcedo, a hairstylist in Los Angeles, estimates that since reopening his salon, Nova Arts Salon, when restrictions relaxed, about 70% of his clients have asked for radical chops—up from around 50% pre-Covid. “As soon as they could, I had a lot of people reach out to me and say, ‘I want to cut it off,’” he said. Guido Palau, the New York-based hairstylist who’s responsible for model Kaia Gerber’s bob and the runway hair for brands like Prada, thinks the weight of Covid has inspired women to take more risks. “To chop your hair off isn’t such a big deal after what we’ve been through.”

The pandemic made many of us feel helpless. A hair transformation affords a sense of power. “After major world events, people want to take control. They want to do something different. And cutting your hair off, it just feels rebellious,” said Rachael Gibson, a London hair historian. She equates the current desire for cropped coifs with the bob craze of the 1920s when, after emerging from WWI, women got the vote and “rebelled against their parents’ generation.” Short cuts, she said, telegraph that “you have better things to do than sit and do your hair.”

While plenty of short-haired women have become pop-culture icons—from Linda Evangelista with her ’90s pixie to Zoë Kravitz with her recent, slicked-back ’do—a perplexing stigma still surrounds ladies’ clipped locks. Ms. Gibson attributes it to Western culture’s tendency to associate long hair with femininity and fertility. As late as the Victorian era, she said, a woman’s hair was essentially her husband’s property, worn pinned up most everywhere but the bedroom.

This stigma recently unsettled my college roommate, Nicole Sansone Ruiz. “I’m having an identity crisis,” she said over FaceTime. Ms. Sansone Ruiz, an academic who had grown out her hair while finishing her Ph.D. in London, recently moved to Philadelphia, and felt like a change. When she surveyed her friends, they told her that, at 34, she was at once too old and too young for a short cut. A drastic snip, they warned, might make her look matronly and stall her dating life. However, after a little nudging from me, she cut it anyway and sent me a selfie featuring her new pixie, accessorized with a beaming grin. “I feel better than I have in the last two years,” she said. “I look in the mirror and I see myself again.”

Miah Giavonni, a Los Angeles producer, experienced a similar self-discovery when she went from long braids to a pixie in December. “It feels the most like me,” she said. “I can’t hide from myself. I have to look in the mirror and embrace even the things I may have been insecure about.”

Ms. Stephen, Rihanna’s hairstylist, contends that short hair appeals to the restless because it flouts convention. “The norm is for women to have long hair. But when you [cut it]…it sends that message loud and clear that ‘I’m powerful and I break rules.’” That said, not every short style will look great on every woman. Ms. Stephen advises you consider your hair’s texture, what facial features you’d like to hide and highlight and be frank with your stylist.

She favors a pixie for those hoping to minimize their morning routine. “There’s no work to do. It’s a get-up-and-go type of style.” Meanwhile, women wary of brevity might consider a bob, said Mr. Palau, because it’s “still feminine,” classic and easy to grow out.

Confidence is key. While I can’t recall my precise 2007 post-bob reaction, I know why I discarded my ponytail: I wanted to move on from being an average college student in upstate New York. I wanted to reinvent myself—to start fresh. So I did. I can’t give my bob all the credit. But surely it helped.

A Trim History Of Short Hair

From the silent film stars of the 1920s to the multi- hyphenates of the 2020s, women have been boldly experimenting with cropped cuts for decades. Here, some memorable moments.

Josephine Baker, c. 1925

The trailblazing Jazz Age performer was said to have applied egg whites to her ultrashort hair to achieve a sleek, head-turning sheen.

Louise Brooks, c. 1929

The actress’s bob was emblematic of the fashionable flapper haircuts of the 1920s and ‘30s, which some historians say were inspired by Joan of Arc.

Audrey Hepburn, 1954

The actress and fashion icon helped popularize the pixie stateside after having her hair sheared on-screen in the 1953 film “Roman Holiday.”

Mia Farrow, 1967

Although she had already cut her hair short for “Rosemary’s Baby,” Vidal Sassoon did another staged chop of Mia Farrow’s locks for reporters to promote the film.

Winona Ryder, 1994

Ever the rebel, Ms. Ryder epitomized the ’90s grunge-tinged femininity with her pixie cut, which she wore equally well with pantsuits and party dresses.

Rihanna, 2021

The ultimate coiffure chameleon, the musician and entrepreneur swapped her long braids for a rebellious, playful pixie cut earlier this spring.