A haircut can change a person’s appearance and even impact their confidence. That’s why some folks love experimenting with different hairdos. When it comes to women’s hair, there is sometimes a stigma associated with short hairstyles.

That’s exactly what this teenager found out when she got a pixie haircut. She didn’t expect it to cause controversy, but her stepmom had an extreme reaction and could not accept the teen’s new look. We reached out to the girl’s dad, who had a surprising update to share.

More info: Reddit

Teen girl’s hairstyle causes a big dramatic fight between stepmom and dad after stepmom says it ruined her image

Image credits: gpointstudio (not the actual photo)

The poster has a 14-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, and although his wife was initially worried about being a bad stepmom, she later managed to bond with the girl

Image credits: Aleksandar Andreev (not the actual photo)

The teen girl was tomboyish and hated looking after her shoulder-length hair, so her friend suggested she get a pixie cut, and her dad happily set up the appointment for it

Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)

The 14-year-old was happy with her haircut, but her joy vanished after her stepmom began complaining about it and saying that she ruined her image

Image credits: Mysterious_Raise_156

The dad only wanted to see his daughter happy and told his wife to drop the issue, but she kept making comments, and eventually, they stopped talking to one another

Throughout the story, the 40-year-old dad shared that his main priority was his daughter’s happiness. He had been the one to look after her ever since her mom abandoned her at birth. When he married his wife, she initially worried about being a bad stepmom. Later on, she and the teen began to hang out and visit a spa every Mother’s Day.

The poster shared that his daughter had shoulder-length hair and did not like putting it in ponytails or drying it every time. She wanted to get a pixie haircut and was elated when he booked the appointment. The problem occurred when his wife saw the teen’s new short hairdo. She got furious and said that the girl’s “image” was ruined.

This kind of fuss over a woman’s hairstyle and her identity is, unfortunately, more common than one would imagine. People often go out of their way to put short-haired women down, saying that it’s not feminine. Some of these ideas emerged after the 1920s when short hairstyles became popular and were associated with women’s liberation movements. 

Another explanation for why the stepmom was so pressed about the girl’s haircut could be the physical perception of women with short hair. Some studies have found that men tend to rate long-haired women as more attractive and describe them as healthy, independent, and intelligent. Short hair isn’t considered as attractive.

Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)

A simple pixie cut definitely shouldn’t spell out doom and gloom for a person’s future. To challenge the idea that long hair is more feminine and attractive for women, one lady conducted an experiment on Tinder and OkCupid. She surprisingly found that her short-haired profile got more matches and messages than her profile with a long-haired picture.

So it seems that, after all, hair is just hair, but to the person getting the haircut, it might be a statement that they want to make about their identity. Even Coco Chanel said that “a woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.” To understand if there was more to this situation, Bored Panda reached out to the post’s author, u/Mysterious_Raise_156, to see if he had any developments to share.

He told us: “Yes, there have been updates since everything took place. My wife did not come around to liking the hairstyle. We are in the process of getting a divorce. She had a strong reaction to the haircut because she’s against LGBTQ. My daughter did come out to me privately. My daughter was very open and honest about everything.”

Whether the haircut was a way for her to feel more confident in her identity or just a matter of convenience, either way, the teen felt a lot of relief and joy after getting her pixie cut. The OP also stated that the girl “plays soccer, and it will be easier for her to play without having to put her hair up in a ponytail.”

At this age, the teenager should be having fun with different hairstyles and experimenting with her look, instead of having to worry about her stepmom’s comments. People were also confused by the woman’s overblown reaction. Many commenters stated that hair is hair and it will easily grow back.

Why do you think the stepmom got so angry about the haircut? Let us know if you’ve got a different point of view about the situation.

Netizens stood up for the poster’s daughter and said that she was definitely old enough to make decisions about her hair

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