Why did Sinead O'Connor shave her head

On 26 July 2023, the world lost another musical icon forever - the gorgeous Sinead O'Connor. "Why magnificent, what's so magnificent 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 artiste.....

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."

The future star was born 8 December 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 health 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 firsthand how cruel and reckless the people closest to her can be at times....

Sinead's mother, Marie, was cruel to her children. She would raise her hand against them for the slightest offence - indeed! Sometimes even I didn't need an excuse. And once she threw the children outside in the cold and they had to spend the night ... in the shed. As for Sinead, Marie constantly accused her 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 wash and wear clean clothes - as a child I wore the same clothes for two years, which were never 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 an amazing 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 presented 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 this circus anymore!"

There's no turning back

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

"I realised 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 realise that beauty is destructive. It's dangerous! I didn't want to be seen as a piece of meat. I didn't want men to associate me with anything attractive. I wanted to be invisible, grey, unattractive... I didn't want to be beautiful anymore."

As a teenager, Sinead did go through a lot: an abusive and mentally unwell mother (who, incidentally, died in a car crash when Sinead was 18), a cold father, theft and truancy from 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 of Pope John Paul II live! 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 round 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 then on, Sinead promised herself that she would never "dance to the tune of the labels" and "peddling myself.". That same day, she went to the hairdresser's, where she asked to have her already short hair shaved off. "Straight to zero?!" - The hairdresser asked in amazement. "Exactly," the girl in the chair in front of him replied coldly. Eventually this image of her became iconic and instantly recognisable.

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

Then, in the hairdresser's shop, O'Connor made her choice, and it had a colossal impact on her entire subsequent career. With her shaved head, Sinead made a statement to everyone: "Now you're obliged to reckon with me!". And indeed: the music directors realised that they could only communicate with this performer seriously, without innuendos and 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 artiste.