Alice Catherine

A lot of us rely on little safety blankets in life – even if we don’t always realise it. Some of us are more in tune with what makes us feel more confident, whereas others don’t notice until it’s taken away. For me, I tend to become reliant on the familiar – I’m naturally drawn to what feels comfortable, and not necessarily someone who chasers danger. On the flip side of that, I can be incredibly impulsive when it comes to making decisions that are either stressing me out – or that just feel exciting. Sometimes it’s my downfall, and other times I sit and wonder why I hadn’t made the change sooner…

One of my biggest security blankets (in terms of appearance) has always been my hair. My messy fringe and bun combination is something I never thought I’d be without. It took me ages to grow it after chopping it all off at university, and I vowed that I’d never go short again until much later on in life. However, here we are, a few weeks after my twenty sixth birthday, and the short hair is well and truly back. This time I’m embracing my natural curls, but the fringe will always be a part of my face. That’s not to say that I don’t wear my fringe off my face a lot of the time – whenever I’m at home, you can guarantee that It’s all pinned back and the questionable loungewear is well and truly on…

It feels liberating to have short hair – my whole life I’ve been told that ‘men tend to prefer longer hair‘, along with lots of other crap about longer hair being sexier and more ‘feminine‘. It’s absolute (excuse the french) utter bullshit when you really stop and think about it. These ideals that the society we are born into feeds us, and that we have to constantly remind ourselves don’t have to ring true for our generation or the future generations ahead…

Perhaps my hair was always a safety blanket because I felt it looked the way it was ‘supposed to’ – even though I barely wore it down because I hate the feeling of a thick mane of hair touching my shoulders. I knew it was there if I needed to prove a point, I had long hair if I felt like I wanted to fit in with that traditional ideal of being sexy and womanly…

I decided to cut it all off after edging shorter and shorter for the past few months – always wanting to hold onto the fact that I could scrape it all back in a bun. I’d been feeling a bit vulnerable about the way I looked after having way too much time to sit and dwell on those negative voices post operation. I’d had enough of relying on something that didn’t bring me joy, and decided it was time for a more drastic change. Since cutting my hair off, there has been a change in my attitude towards other decisions I’ve been avoiding – I’m not saying a haircut can change your life, but it can definitely mark the start of a new chapter… 

To me, growing up and existing on this earth, it’s important for me to keep pushing myself and those around me too. To keep challenging, to keep highlighting what I believe in, and to keep letting go of my safety blankets as I go along. No matter how small they might be, sometimes they have a positive knock on affect in other areas of your life…

So from me and my short curly hair that I’m well and truly embracing – go for that drastic change that you’ve been talking yourself out of for weeks. Take a risk, get that new piercing, book that holiday with the friend you’ve just met, wear the shoes your boyfriend thinks are ugly, live life for yourself, and cringe back at the bad photos later… 

Photographs by Catherine Booty 

Blouse – vintage (similar here)

Skirt – Baukjen

Sandals – Prada

Bag – vintage (similar here)

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