Beyoncé infamously chopping off her long locks over a decade ago came from a place of rebellion.
Reminiscing about the pixie cut she rocked in 2013, Queen Bey admitted in an interview with Essence that she wanted her hair to symbolise her “metamorphosis” or “transformation at the time – the same period where her husband Jay-Z is speculated to have cheated on her.
“It wasn’t an aesthetic choice, but it was a very big emotional transformation and metamorphosis that I was going through,” she said, noting that she “didn’t have a particular style in mind.”
However, since “so much of [her] identity as a performer has been connected to flowing hair,” the highest-Grammy winner reflected, “Cutting my hair off was me rebelling against being this woman that society thinks I’m supposed to be.”
“It was a physical representation of me shedding the expectations put upon me. I just wanted it off,” she added.
Beyoncé – who had just become a first-time mother with her and Jay-Z’s oldest daughter Blue Ivy – mused that motherhood gave her the “liberation” and bravery to make the big chop.
However, there may have been another driving force: Jay-Z’s infidelity, to which he admitted in 2017 NY Times interview.
He even revealed that the pair – who now share three children – came very close to a divorce as a result.
As for Beyoncé, she looks back at her daring decision with pride.
“It was what I needed to do. And after that, I became super brave,” she said.