IN AN EXCEPTIONALLY candid red carpet interview at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s grants banquet in Beverley Hills last week, Lena Waithe revealed why she chose to shave her head last month.
The 34-year-old, who created and starred in hit Netflix show Master Of None, told Variety that she had always avoided cutting her hair as she didn’t want members of the public to categorise her within the gay community.
Simply put, Lena, who got engaged to her girlfriend Alana Mayo in November last year, felt that having long hair protected her against certain labels, and ultimately helped her to secure acceptance with the wider public.
I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I felt like I was holding onto a piece of femininity that would make the world feel comfortable with who I am.
After elaborating on why she avoided cutting her hair for so long, Lena said she then realised that she couldn’t let external factors dictate how she presented herself to the world.
I think I thought for a long time, ‘Oh, if I cut my hair, I’ll be a stud, I’ll be—in the gay world, there’s a lot of categories—I’ll be a stud or I’ll be a butch,’ and I’ve always thought, ‘Well, no, I’m not that, I’m still soft,’ and I said, ‘Oh, I gotta put that down ’cause that’s something that is outside of me.’
The actress and producer, who made history for becoming the first black woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, said she refused to take heed of labels that could have been levelled at her in the weeks following her decision to shave her head.
And I said ‘I’m going to do it and I cut it and I felt so free, so happy, so joyful and I really stepped into myself. And if people call me a butch or say ‘she’s stud’ or call me ‘sir’ out in the world—so what? So be it.
Lena’s words really resonated with Twitter users in the days that followed her interview with Variety.
Lena Waithe just perfectly articulated how it felt when I shaved my head for the first time — the prescribed identities I needed to let go of so I could exist in the world the way I wanted to 🙌🙏
— Dana Herlihey (@danaherlihey) August 10, 2018
damn lena waithe is really calling me out on why I haven’t shaved my head despite wanting to do so for years
— disaster lesbian energy ✨ (@maggietullivers) August 10, 2018
