The Big Chop

In many books, movies and even real life, cutting your hair is symbolic. In the legend of Fa Mulan, the heroine slices through her long locks with a sword so she can take the place of her father in battle. In past Chinese Society, cutting one’s hair is a symbol for banishment. Mulan risks being banished from everything she knows in order to take her father’s place in battle. In Song of Solomon, Pilate cuts her hair in order to signify breaking her ties with the past and all the social conventions. When she was younger, she went off to Virginia to find and be with other people, only to get cut off and abandoned because of the fact that she did not have a belly button. She gets fed up with this and rejects social norms altogether. She cuts her hair, refuses to marry the man she had a baby with, and did not wear what women during that time would usually wear. People today who do “the big chop” after having it long for a while do it because it makes them feel more in control of things. When everything in their life is spiraling out of control, they grasp one of the things that they can indeed control, and change it as they please. It is a form of starting over. Fa Mulan, Pilate Dead, and other people around the world all cut their hair in order to create a new beginning for themselves. By taking control of their hair first, it is a stepping stone for them to take control of their life.