Is Your Hair Holding Onto Bad Energy?

The post-breakup checklist is a cliché for a reason — it works. First, you have to meet up with friends to vent, preferably over drinks. Second, you have to re-download Hinge. And third, you have to chop off your hair. Get bangs. Get a bob. Get a buzz. Those are the rules.

Trashing your ex and looking for a rebound inherently make sense. But the reason so many people crave a major haircut after a breakup isn’t immediately clear. It could be as simple as wanting a new look, but on TikTok, creators are also talking about how hair holds energy, memories, and even trauma.

“Every time I leave a relationship I cut my hair,” read one comment under @defineyourglow’s viral video about how hair holds onto your stories. Another said, “Sometimes you have to cut it to release trauma and emotions” while another wrote, “I’ve always had long hair until I randomly cut it. I took off about six to eight inches, maybe more, and I felt something... a release. Liberated in a way.”

While cutting your hair to free yourself from old emotions might be going viral on TikTok, the connection between hair and energy has spiritual ties that go back millennia. Here’s what you should know about post-breakup bobs and the negative vibes that might be stuck in your strands.

The Spiritual History Of Energy & Hair

According to Mary Buckingham, a channeler, intuitive, and breathwork facilitator, hair has long been seen in many cultures as a medium that connects individuals to a higher consciousness. “In Native American traditions, long hair represents the sacred and one’s connection to mother Earth,” she tells Bustle. “In Egypt, long hair was connected to divine wisdom and [seen as a] conduit to the gods.” Similar views are found in Hinduism and Buddhism, which connect the head and hair to the crown chakra or the energy center associated with the self.

“In Eastern cultures, such as in China and India, hair is also often linked to life force energy or ‘qi,’ where maintaining long hair is thought to nurture one's vitality,” says says Kristie Tse, a psychotherapist and founder of Uncover Mental Health Counseling. “This belief connects with the notion that hair is a physical manifestation of our spiritual and emotional state. Each strand potentially holds an imprinted connection to our ups and downs.” It’s almost like a recording.

Why Hair Holds Energy (And Trauma?)

While hair holds a lot of spiritual significance, this idea also has roots in science. According to Sandra Kushnir, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder and CEO of Meridian Counseling, the concept that hair holds onto memories could also be connected to the fact that on a cellular level, our bodies really do store the effects of experiences — hair included.

“When someone says hair holds memories, they are referring to how our hair reacts to what we are experiencing emotionally,” Kushnir tells Bustle. “Hair texture, growth, and health is very responsive and reactive to stress and trauma, [so our] cortisol, and adrenaline turn on. Our bodies also burn up more calcium and B vitamins. And all of that affects our hair.”

If you were to look at a strand of your hair under a microscope, you would be able to see (judging by its texture and thickness) when you were stressed out or not getting enough nutrients. To erase the story and free yourself from those bonds, you may want a quick snip.

Is It Why You Want A Buzzcut After A Breakup?

On TikTok, creator @thedailyali says she’s been cutting her hair shorter and shorter for the past few months. “[I don’t really know what’s been going on, but] there’s just so much energy shifting, releasing, and balancing for me,” she said in a video with over 50,000 views. “There’s something so freeing about getting rid of hair that’s been weighing you down.”

Creator @theniecysarae also went much, much shorter, saying “2023 was a hell of a year for me.” To get rid of all the stuck and stagnant energy, she buzzed her head while voicing what she was letting go of — anxiety, stress, trauma, pain, heartbreak — and it caused an emotional release.

“I’m ready to feel free again, so this hair had to go,” she said in a viral video with over 35,000 likes. In her comments, one person said, “This is the best feeling in the world” while another wrote, “ I’m so proud of you. New start and new beginnings.”

Hair grows about half an inch per month, so when you think about it, very long strands could quite literally represent years of stored energy. According to Kushnir, cutting it off symbolically releases these old attachments and burdens.

The act of getting a haircut, she says, can also serve a cue to yourself and the world that you’re opening a new chapter of your life. If you’ve been going through it and need a new start, then cheers to getting a bob.

Studies Referenced:

Lopresti, AL. (2020.) The Effects of Psychological and Environmental Stress on Micronutrient Concentrations in the Body: A Review of the Evidence. Adv Nutr. 2020 Jan 1;11(1):103-112. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmz082.

Murphrey, MB. (2023.) Anatomy, Hair. [Updated 2023 Aug 14]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513312/.

Thom, E. (2016.) Stress and the Hair Growth Cycle: Cortisol-Induced Hair Growth Disruption. J Drugs Dermatol. 001-4. PMID: 27538002.

Sources:

Mary Buckingham, channeler, intuitive, breathwork facilitator

Kristie Tse, psychotherapist, founder of Uncover Mental Health Counseling

Sandra Kushnir, LMFT, licensed marriage and family therapist, founder and CEO of Meridian Counseling