Why did Sinead O'Connor shave her head?

On July 26, 2023, the world lost yet another musical icon forever - the gorgeous Sinead O'Connor. "Why great, what's so great about it?" - someone will ask. Well: a person's true charm comes from within, from their upbringing, thoughts and actions, attitudes and spirituality... Sinead was a very spiritually rich a human being. Even though she spent her entire career on stage in men's clothes and with a shaved head, she was a real woman from head to toe! All because she respected herself like no other artist.....

Many have wondered why O'Connor never didn't wear her hair longand dresses and heels and so on. "Trying to draw attention to herself," some people will say. "No, she didn't need it," others will say. And both will be right. equally. The shaved-headed singer did become a loud sensation in the music industry. But Sinead had her own, more personal and profound reasons, unrelated to fame....

"Mother did her best."

A future star was born December 8, 1966 in DublinIreland. It's no secret that Sinead's childhood was not a happy one - on the contrary: it was marred by her parents' divorce and the subsequent hell of living together with her mother, who suffered from mental problems and substance abuse... Her father left the family when Sinead was only 8 years old. At such a tender age, O'Connor was forced to experience how cruel and reckless sometimes the closest people can be....

Sinead's mother, Marie, was cruel to her children. She used to raise her hand against them for the slightest offense - indeed! Sometimes even I didn't need an excuse. And once she threw the children outside in the cold and they were forced to spend the night ... in the barn. As for Sinead, Marie constantly accused her of the fact that her father left them and went to another woman. The singer later confessed:

"She didn't care about us - she was in her madness, which she didn't seem to want to get out of. We didn't know what it was to bathe and wear clean clothes - as a child I wore the same clothes for two years that had never been washed..."

But all this is a preface, albeit a sad one. So why did Sinead shave off her hair? Well, it's all to do with mother - at least that's one of the reasons. Sinead's story is that her sister had a terrific red hair - "of incredible beauty" (as the performer herself claimed). But.

"Her mother was always scolding her about her hair - saying it was awful and she should be ashamed to be seen in public with it... As for me - as if to counterbalance that, she praised my hair. She pictured us in this image of "ugly daughter" and "beautiful daughter". I was uncomfortable with all of that. And that's why I decided to shave my hair off for the first time - so I wouldn't be part of that circus anymore!"

There's no turning back

However, when Sinead became teenagershe realized that having beautiful hair, and attractive appearance in general, can be very dangerous.....

"I realized early on what it is to be a woman in this world. There were moments when men pursued me and it ended in disgust... I've been through too much to realize that beauty is destructive. It's dangerous! I didn't want to be looked at as a piece of meat. I didn't want men to associate me with anything attractive. I wanted to be invisible, gray, unattractive... I didn't want to be beautiful anymore."

As a teenager, Sinead did go through a lot: an abusive and mentally unhealthy mother (who, by the way, died in a car accident when Sinead was 18), a cold father, stealing and skipping school, then a Magdalene Shelter - A "disgusting" (in the singer's words) place where cruelty and subjugation reigned. It was after this experience that Sinead hated all such places, and later, when she became a star, she publicly tore up the photo of the place Pope John Paul II live on the air! But more on that later....

After going through all 9 circles of hell, at the age of 20 Sinead went to London, where she began to develop her music career. However, everyone knows what is loved and appreciated in the music industry - and in any other show business: appearance. Thus, during another audition, a record company executive stated that O'Connor should . "grow my hair and change my image.". But despite her tender age, Sinead would not be silent. She turned and said:

"Let me get this straight: you don't care about the voice? It's important to you that I look like a doll you'd leave your wife for, right?"

From that moment on, Sinead promised herself that she would never "dance to the tune of labels" and "peddling myself.". That same day she went to a barbershop where she asked to have her already short hair shaved off. "Right under zero?!" - The barber asked in amazement. "Exactly," replied the girl in the chair in front of him coldly. Eventually this image of her became iconic and instantly recognizable.

"Being yourself means not playing the person they want to see in you."

Then, in the hair salon, O'Connor made her choice, and it had a huge impact on her entire subsequent career. With her shaved head, Sinead made a statement to everyone: "You are now bound to reckon with me!". And indeed: the music directors realized that with this performer they could only communicate seriously, without innuendos or other gizmos. She presented herself to the world as self-sufficient personwho doesn't need anyone's approval - and it's not just her haircut (or rather, her complete lack of hair).

When Prince tried to teach Sinead manners, they got into a fight. Live on the air. saturday night live the singer tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II to protest against the Catholic Church and its orders. She didn't think that fans would turn away from her, that she would turn into a "white crow" or anything else. She was herself, and you either accepted her as that or you didn't. "Being yourself means not playing who they want you to be," Sinead once said. And in that she was strong both as a woman and as an artist.