English version | Flower, gleam and glow

This is what Rapunzel sings about in the Portuguese version of the film Tangle (2010), as her long golden strands begin to shine to unleash the magic hidden in them. For this character, her hair is her power - but also her curse. And when she cuts it, her life changes dramatically. Isn't Rapunzel a simple allegory for our trips to the hairdresser? 

“Samson, the biblical figure who lost her power when Delilah cut her hair should have been a woman…" I read somewhere in a corner of the Internet when I was researching for this article. I don't agree. I mean, I do if the purpose is to fill the Bible with female characters remembered for their bravery and courage. But I don't agree if we are defining a woman's power by the length of her hair. Even because, from a very personal point of view, it is not when I stand in front of the mirror brushing (and detangling with some pain) my strings of hair that I feel powerful. The power, that warm feeling that runs through my whole body, comes when I sit down in the cozy hairdresser's chair and say: “Cut by the shoulders, please.” I know I'm not the only one. Rapunzel's long, luxurious hair may have been one of her most special attributes, but it was equally a curse that nourished the life of the person who kept her locked in a tower. Cutting her hair was, here, the most literal form of liberation we could demonstrate. And then there is the case of Mulan: the princess who cut her hair to match her appearance to that of a male - in her time, there was no greater synonym for power than being a man. Each case will have its nuances and justifications; however, they all touch on the point that transcends any fairy tale, the one that makes us quote Coco Chanel: “A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.”

“A hair transformation has so much behind it. People really come to the hairdresser to make a transformation, and the hair is very important too, it's part of this process of change,” says Rui Rocha, hairstylist and regular contributor to Vogue Portugal. “Over the years, I've realized that you create relationships with your clients, and that relationship is created because people identify with you, not just with your professional side. We're not close friends or family, we're a middle ground, so people are much more comfortable sharing [some] things with us." Because there, between the deafening noise of the dryers and the buzz of side conversations, we seem to enter another dimension. A dimension where four hours fly by as fast as mere minutes and nothing can affect us until midnight comes and we're out the salon door again. It is our moment, a moment where magic happens, and in this fairy tale analogy, the hairdresser is our fairy godmother.

In the heat of the moment, it all seems very simple. How many times have we said "I want to make a radical hair transformation" and then ended up not consummating that same decision? Rui Rocha believes that part of his role is to advise those who come into his salon, because the abrupt desire to change can often make us overlook important details. "When you make a big change in your look, you have to do a hair diagnosis. It's very important, especially when you have hair that is a little more rebel, more wavy," explains the hairstylist. In the same way, we shouldn't forget everything that comes afterwards, since many cuts don't end the moment we leave the hairdresser: "It's very important that I make my clients aware of the work they're going to have. There is all the work that has to be done at home after a transformation." It's precisely because he takes care of all these issues that Rui Rocha is so sure that those who leave his chair with a radical cut don't leave feeling sorry for themselves. They leave feeling relieved and ready to face a new phase in their life.

Although we may try to deny it, the truth is that a good cut - a cut that goes beyond "just the ends," - is rooted in a deeper place and often misunderstood until the moment we sit down in a hairdresser's chair. For Rui Rocha, there are many women who come to his salon with the feeling that they need to be other women, when, in fact, "they just want to be what they have always been", they simply don't want to please those around them anymore. It may seem superficial, but we must not forget that hair is connected to our nervous system and, consequently, to our emotions. There are many situations in our lives when we can observe internal changes mirrored in the state of our hair: changes in diet, the first menstruation, a pregnancy, or even when we lose someone dear to us. Cutting our hair is just another example in the middle of this list or, as Rui Rocha says, "it's a phase, a change that we really want to make in our life, even if we then let our hair grow back."

Translated from the original on The Fairytale Issue, from Vogue Portugal, published May/June 2022.Full stories and credits on the print issue.