Clare Bowen Cuts Her Hair For A Moving Reason

People get haircuts all of the time, and in the celebrity world they don’t go unnoticed. Clare Bowen cut her hair for an impactful reason, and I couldn’t be more on board with her using her star status for good, especially when the message she's sending is all about accepting one another. There's definitely no harm in a short haircut or a positive outlook, so Bowen is basically killing the style game at the moment.

The Nashville actress explained the reason for cutting her extremely long hair into a pixie style cut in a moving Facebook post. As a four-year-old, she was diagnosed with nephroblastoma, described by the Children's Cancer Research Fund as "a mass of cancer cells that grow in kidney tissue," and spent time in the hospital with other children who were balding, undergoing surgery, etc. She mentions that they all felt as though they belonged because no one was ever teased about physical appearance.

Life in the White Palace (Granddad’s nickname for hospital) meant I got to grow up surrounded by children just like me. We were mostly bald, all tubed, taped, bandaged up and stitched back together. We were all missing parts, some obvious like eyes or legs, others more hidden, like lungs and kidneys. Those who still could, tip-toed around like little fairies because chemotherapy had destroyed the muscles in our legs and it hurt to put our heels on the floor. But we were all together, so no one's appearance came into question. No one got laughed at or teased. We were all we knew.

Her hair looks amazing, but it's her inner beauty that's really on display here. Her words describe a world without bias, and it’s a beautiful thing when you can be yourself without judgement, but, unfortunately, not all people are lucky enough to experience that.

I was really inspired when I heard a story about a little girl who said she couldn't be a princess because she didn't have long hair, and I wanted her, and others like her to know that's not what makes a princess, or a warrior, or a superhero. It's not what makes you beautiful either. It's your insides that count… even if you happen to be missing half of them.

Here's what her hair looked like before the drastic change.

While her long hair was beautiful, I prefer her new 'do because her short hair is for all of those princesses and warriors out there who don’t look like a stereotypical fairy tale character. She’s hoping that this haircut will make a difference, and so am I. Because hair will grow back, but “self-esteem takes a lot longer to grow back than hair.” Truer words were never spoken.

Bowen joins the ranks of other body positive celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen, Zendaya and Melissa McCarthy who are teaching women to be beautiful on the inside and to love themselves inside and out. She's aiming to prove that when beauty comes from within, appearance really is just appearance. And hair really is just hair.

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