When a famous person adopts a radical new hairstyle it always gets people talking, and nothing attracts curiosity or comment more than a hairless head, especially when the scalp in question is female.
But the words "shaved" and "bald" tend to get bandied about on a regular basis these days, for haircuts that bear little resemblance to a bald head, haircuts that simply would not be described as shaved if they were on a man. If we want to be correct, a shave involves a razor and baldness always means a smooth scalp. Is it because we are so bound to the idea that women need long, luxurious hair that anything short of that is shaved? Is it just sensationalism on the part of the press? You make up your own mind.
For a clear comparison, here's an assortment of famous women who reportedly went bald at some point. Let's see who was bald and who was merely clipped?
Persis Khambatta (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) - Unmistakably a bald head. I would go as far as to call Persis the gold standard for celebrity female baldness. She had a smooth, bald, totally naked dome. They don't come much smoother than Persis was around 1978-79. Years later, it remains the image most closely associated with her
Britney Spears - She clipped her hair to the skin, but she stopped short of shaving it. Why, of all the dumb things Britney did during that period of her life, is cutting her hair considered the most insane? It's doubtlessly one of the most benign.
Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) - now there's a perfect storm. Somebody who already has an army of admirers, and is generally considered beautiful, gets buzzed for a movie role and rocks the style both on and off screen. There are definite parallels to Persis, and Portman probably did for the female buzzcut what Persis did for the shaved female head, but let's be perfectly honest. Natalie Portman did not shave her head.
Amber Rose - The platinum buzz does create an illusion of baldness from a distance, and she has cut it pretty tight to the skin on occasion, but she has a buzz cut, not a shaved head. As a model and celebrity girlfriend, she does seem to stir up controversy with her extreme do. I think she looks beautiful, if perhaps a little trashy.
Cassie, Rihanna et al - The single clippered side is interesting, definitely something different, but let's not kid ourselves. A buzzed side cannot possibly be called a shaved head or bald. Calling it either goes beyond exaggeration.
Sigourney Weaver (Alien 3) - Buzzed very close, but not smooth. I did admire her reaction to being asked to get buzzed for the role. She wanted more money. Now that is true professionalism. I can never make up my mind whether Sigourney looks good in a buzz or not, but then, I can never decide whether I find Sigourney attractive or not. Her appeal seems to change from one movie to the next, and I can never quite figure out why that is.
Maggie McOmie (THX 1138) - She might be up for debate. She did get a proper shave before shooting began, but she mostly sports varying amounts of stubble in the movie. I suppose McOmie counts as shaved, because she did really did get her head shaved clean.
Demi Moore (G.I. Jane) - Demi is another grey area. She didn't shave her head for the movie. She cut it with clippers on-screen, and spent the rest of the film just a bit of stubble, making her technically not bald. However, after she finished shooting the movie, she then shaved her head smooth on her own time, and appeared in public with a bald head. Pretty cool.
Bai Ling (Anna and the King) - A real shave, for sure. Bai Ling is another one who gets bonus points, since her hair was past her butt when she shaved it off, and she did it for a couple of scenes.
Joan Chen (You Seng: Temptation of a Monk) - Joan not only shaved, but we're shown a little lather-free straight razor shaving in this Hong Kong film. Chen's character, a sort of bounty hunter, poses as an initiate in order to infiltrate a temple where a fugitive general is hiding out as a monk. Chen shaved her head to set up the titular temptation. Again, a truly bald dome, and a pretty good movie too.
Samantha Morton (Minority Report) - Although she was was described by various sources when the movie was released as shaved or bald, Samantha Morton was clipped to about a quarter inch for the part of Agatha, a clairvoyant enslaved by the police of the future to report criminal acts before they occur. Clearly not shaved.
Annie Burgstede (Smallville) - A bald pate does seem like a natural course of action for somebody with an insane infatuation for Lex Luthor, but to actually do it, and do it for real, is a lot more than I would have expected of Smallville. I have to give props to any woman who would shave her head com completely bald for the final act of an hour-long TV show. Even more so in Burgstede's case, when it's a teen drama populated by unnaturally good-looking people, and she's going to be the bald loony sharing a scene with a long-haired Erica Durance. Very gutsy.
Virginia Hey (Farscape) - In Mad Max 2, she was the hottie with the crossbow and the big, golden 80s hair. And in the late 90s, she shaved her head bald to play an alien hottie (shades of Persis Khambatta there) in the science fiction series Farscape. Hey was already in love with the character when the subject of shaving her head came up, so she went for it. What is truly special here is the commitment. It's one thing to go bald for a part in a movie or a single episode, but it's a whole other level of commitment to do it for a series that might require you to stay bald for the better part of the next four or five years.
Linh Dan Pham and Simona Maicanescu (Dante 01) - Both actresses, and the rest of the cast had their heads shaved for this French science fiction film. Not exactly sure why this was, other than to give things a futuristic, dystopian look, and it was reminiscent of both Alien 3 and THX 1138.
Delphine Chaneac (Splice) - With all the digital tricks they employed to transform this charming French actress into a gene-spliced human-animal hybrid, you'd almost have expected them to simulate the bald head as well, but it's the real deal. Chaneac had no problem with shaving her head, and enjoyed being bald. And in spite of the somewhat unnatural nature of her character, Chaneac manages to be rather attractive, if somewhat creepy.
Robin Tunney (Empire Records) - Not a shaved head, but a very tight on-screen buzz cut with clippers for the role of a troubled teenager.
Judith Light (Wit) - Judith Light, from the 80s sitcom Who's the Boss, had her head shaved for the role of Prof. Vivian Bearing in this drama, as other actresses have done to star in many productions of Wit since it was first produced. A professional stage play is another potentially long-term commitment to baldness, and this was a dramatic change from the poofy blonde 80s hair we all remember.
Emma Thompson (Wit) - Emma Thompson was shaved for the role of Vivian Bearing in the HBO TV movie of Wit.
Sofia Vassilieva (My Sister's Keeper) - Sofia Vassilieva had her hair and eyebrows shaved off to play a cancer patient. Vassilieva said at the time that it was the least she could do for such a wonderful character, and that it allowed her to better experience what her character was going through. Contrast that to her costar, Cameron Diaz, who chickened out and wore a bald cap that gave her a bloated, lopsided alien head. And yet Diaz, looking like one of the Coneheads managed to capture headlines for her "bald" look. Weird.
There are, I'm sure, many more women, some more famous than others, who have shaved or buzzed their hair, either in public, on stage or screen, or in the media, but these make the point. If you know of any others, make up your own mind if they really shaved.
profile/Les-Campbell/268970>Les Campbell