Trump wins and women cut off their hair after crying for days: ‘my hair says you can’t bring me down’
A New York Magazine article details a shocking response to Donald Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton: women are crying for days, cutting off their hair and making a statement with their hair style.
“I cried for three days,” Julianna Evans recalls. “I felt like it was the worst thing, politically, that ever happened in my lifetime. It was catastrophic.”
The article makes the ridiculous lead-in before quoting Evans again.
By Friday she noticed grays growing in, so she put on her big-girl panties and dragged herself to the drugstore. “Literally without thinking, I grabbed the Natural Black box by Garnier,” she says. “I was like, f** it! The election deadened my soul. I think I wanted to do something defiant to feel stronger.”
screenshot of video on a story of crying little girl
“When you see that much blonde hair on the floor, you know something is going on,” says Nicole Butler, creative director and master colorist at Daniel’s Salon in Dupont Circle.
“You have to live here to understand that we are immersed in politics every day,” Evans explains. “For many of us, with this election, it’s like your boyfriend dumped you in a really shocking way with no explanation and then moved in next door.”
She is resigned to fighting against what she sees as a mandate for sexism through her own style choices. “Now, I feel like my hair says you can’t bring me down. This misogyny will not persevere. The bumper sticker for me is, ‘I am woman, hear me roar.’”
George Washington University teaching instructor Dr. Kristian Henderson had been battling with her hair for years, but after the election, she finally took off her weave and cut it all off. “The election results felt like an attack on minorities, women, and marginalized people in general. Having long hair was my attempt to fit into society, so after the election, I felt a need to exert my ‘uniqueness’ and not tie my femininity to the length of my hair,” she says in the article.
The self described “minority in almost every way possible: immigrant woman of color and LGBQT person” Vegan chef Mya Zeronis added the hair loss to her classifications of victimhood: cutting her hair “to send a message to the Trump presidency.”
“I have clients who were so heavily criticized for not voting for the ‘right’ candidate, so they came in for a big change,” remarks Georgetown Salon & Spa’s Moore. “The way they style their hair is a message they can control.”
