The Buzz Cut; Midlife Crisis or A Reckoning?

Enjoyed this and want to let us know? Drop us a textWhen a fifty-year-old woman shaves her head, everyone assumes one of two things: midlife crisis or rebellion. In this episode, Danielle takes you through the real timeline — from the moment she first wanted to do it, the day her mum died, through a conversation in Turkey that cracked something open, to sitting in a barber's chair on her 50th birthday.It's not about hair. It's about grief, identity, beauty standards, and the moments we talk ourselves out of the thing we already know we need to do.KEY TAKEAWAYSGrief has unspoken rules about how "tidy" it's supposed to look — and shaving her head when her mum died would have broken themA friend's experience with alopecia universalis reframed hair as costume rather than identity, and reframed choice as something to actually useThe urge to shave her head became a hyperfixation in the lead-up — and she couldn't tell if that made it less real or more realThe moment of surrender came from getting tired of dithering, not from a big epiphanyFive weeks on, she's not rushing to grow it back — because the growing-back is often the real tell of whether the change was ever about anything at allFAQSWas this actually a midlife crisis?Danielle unpacks this directly in the episode — and lands somewhere more interesting than a straight yes or no.What made her finally do it?A conversation in Turkey with a friend who has Alopecia Universalis, nearly a year after she first wanted to shave her head when her mum died.Is she going to grow it back?Not yet, and possibly not for a while — she talks about treating it as a chapter rather than a one-off moment.REFERENCES / LINKSRelated episode: Carolyn's story on living with Alopecia Universalis Related episode: The Sausage Mincer of MidlifeCALL TO ACTIONSend Danielle your "How Are You Really?" questions at [email protected] — she reads every one.Share this with a friend who is ready to do something just for them regardless of what society says.