Hair: To Cut Or To Not Cut?

Last year, I made the pretty huge decision to cut my eternally long hair short.

Us models spend years growing up our portfolios, which gradually evolve as our careers do. We tend to find a ‘look’ that fits us, that helps us get work, and to which we inevitably grow attached.

I got my fringe cut by Danielle at Vidal Sassoon, who had scouted me, the day before I got scouted by Premier Model Management, barely 16. She gave me an ‘Isadora on top of an Isadora’, which roughly translates as ‘a mullet with a bowl haircut feel’. I was paid £15 for this privelige. They went on to dye it red and yellow, BRIGHT red and yellow, and my skin exploded with acne. It wasn’t pretty.

My first ever Polaroid with Premier.

This grew out into a curved fringe and layered haircut (an Aslan sorta vibe)

A test shoot the following year. 

I grew that fringe out at school but, after getting glandular fever and getting chubby cheeks and acne aged 19, I decided to cover as much of my face as possible and get a fringe cut again.

Aged 19

This was me at 19. I found this pic on my old Myspace and let me tell you, this pic led to a lot of friend requests from chaps ;-). The fringe got thicker as time grew on but this was it: my haircut. My look. And also my security blanket.

My hair has booked me so many jobs: the straight fringe with the long, thick hair lends itself to kohl-rimmed eyes, red lips, it can also go quite classic Hepburn with an up do and an eye flick. It’s just versatile, but it was also an enormous safety blanket for me. It hid my cheeks and jawline when I put on weight and felt ‘pouchy’, it hid spots, it hid my big ole forehead and it gave me a ‘look’ without having to try. I guess most of us ladies have had that ‘princess hair’ tendency and I constantly wanted mine longer and thicker. I was very emotionally attached to my hair, which is healthy, voluminous and needs very little maintenance.

The fringe + long hair often lent itself to a 60s look, but was great for any decade really. 

I was just growing it and growing it and it was getting crazy long! The only thing was that…I was losing a bit of weight from my dance classes, and, alas, getting older (sob).

By The Bartlett, for Libertys Mag

My hair was sort of…dragging down my face, and ageing me. Especially because I was going through quite a lot of stress and rapid weight loss, which really told on my face. So when Igor said that he was thinking I should get a long bob, there was actually no hesitation for me. I finished the jobs I had booked with long hair, and called up Taku at Brooks and Brooks with anticipation.

Was I scared? Amazingly, no! I guess I had just broken up with Theo, so it felt like a time of change, and I was just well up for the haircut! Bring it on! I’d actually always wanted a Pulp Fiction style bob and, I dunno. I’d had good innings with long hair, hadn’t I. And if it was really terrible, I’d grow it out.

Trouble was that, when I went for the big chop, Taku just gave me ‘slightly less long’ hair! It was a bit disappointing, but he was cautious that I’d get huge triangle head with my thick tresses. The fringe was a little short, the hair too long, and I was a tad deflated. I went in the next day to get it shorter but still – it felt like LONG hair!

The up side was that my hair was SO bouncy and SO healthy! 

When I booked two different catalogues, as well as Danone and Fat Face in a solid block of jobs, I needed a haircut beforehand, but my trusted Taku was on holiday. Someone else cut it – all wrong – but they finally cut the hair from my neck. It was getting shorter, at last, and was a definite long bob.

NOW we were getting somewhere. My best friend Shirley said she was really proud of me – that so many long-haired ladies are so attached to their length that they never really go short and grow it out ASAP after cutting. Well I was desperate for ever SHORTER hair!

And now we finish at the bob length. I went in to Taku after my last job when I had a little break, as my hair had been cut so unevenly by the other stylist, and said, “I want a BOB! Do it SHORT!” It was obviously by now that it was not going to go triangular, so he was happy to do it. I love it this short!

For M Life Yoga

Should You Go Short? 

Or go through any sort of big style change? Look at supermodels like Coco Rocha, who moves between long natural hair to short to shorter peroxide, constantly going through dramatic transformations. It can keep your career fresh.

The thing holding back most models from going short is the idea of having to get their book updated completely. And of losing regular clients who like your hair long. The thing that holds back models and non-models alike is the fear of change, of it not suiting you, of your security blanket being taken away and, perhaps, of not feeling feminine. We’re also told that the more versatile we are the better, so long natural hair is best, which does make a dramatic change feel like a real gamble.

So the portfolio update: yeah. That’s really annoying! Because I’ve been doing lots and lots of commercial shoots, which don’t tend to yield usable pictures for your book, my booker has had to crop into old pictures and pretend my hair is short. It’s very hard to get new pictures that make the agency go WOW when you’re older and commercial, and then when you do tests they’re all too ‘artsy’ for a commercial book. Also, you love some shoots and don’t want to say goodbye to them. So it is something to consider, but as long as you have updated polaroids and one or two new tests, the rest of your book will probably be old pictures ’til they’re edged out.

As for regular clients though, I wouldn’t worry. I had some regular clients, like The Mirror, book me again. They said that they felt as though they’d used me as much as they could with long hair, but that now it’s short they can rinse me all over again! M Life Yoga were really happy that they had a fresh look after years of booking me and even e-com regulars were cool about it, as it’s much easier to shoot with short hair. The chance is that yes, you may lose clients. But I have gained SO many more new clients than ever before this year. It’s like a career refresh.

And to anyone worrying about not feeling feminine, or safe, or making a big change. I always thought I’d be horrified to cut my hair short. That I’d have a little cry and miss swinging it around. But there was something immensely liberating about cutting it short. I’m lighter, my face is less shadowed, and it suits me! I’ll probably keep playing around with it at short bob to shoulder length hair. I feel feminine when I play with it and scrunch it up at the back to make it curlier (the waves have become even more defined now it’s lighter), or team it with red lips. And you know what? If I hated it then I’d just double my intake of silica and nuts and seeds and grow it back out.

Is cutting/changing your hair short career suicide? It’s certainly a risk. But the chances are that it will pay off and reinvigorate your hair, your image, your self-esteem and, well, you. And taking that energy into castings with you?

Magic.

Rebecca x

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