ICYMI, short hair is having a major moment, and it's about damn time. Jourdana Phillips landed her gig in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show after shaving off her long, brown locks and dying them blonde, and was one of three models who walked on Wednesday's runway rocking short, natural hair. Zendaya recently Instagrammed a photo wearing finger waves, and Amber Rose and Samira Wiley continue to be the short haired superstars of our dreams. But celebs aren't the only ones embracing their bald 'dos— women are taking to Twitter to celebrate their scalp-length locks, using the hashtag #baldandbadchallenge to show off how proud they are of their short hair.
The challenge asks women to post selfies of their buzzed heads to celebrate their beauty and badassery. Considering some of the other challenges the Internet has come up with (remember when people were trying to recreate Kylie Jenner's lips with Pringles tins?), it's nice to see people using their social media presence to celebrate something good for a change.
As subpar as 2016 has been (I still have a minor heart attack every time I think about the phrase "President Trump), it has been a pretty amazing year for challenging traditional beauty standards. We celrbated the first-ever plus size model on the cover of the Sport's Illustrated swimsuit issue, collectively decided that choosing to not to shave our legs is OK, and saw an increase of every kind of diversity (ethnic, gender, size) throughout the fashion and beauty industries. That said, there's certainly still a lot of work to be done until we can pat ourselves on the back and cry "inclusivity," the #baldandbadchallenge is a really beautiful step in the right direction.
Not only is the #baldandbadchallenge an amazing way for women to show off their cool, confident hairstyles, but it's also become an important message for cancer survivors, for whom baldness isn't necessarily a choice.
Despite what popular culture has been trying to convince us all for years, you don't need to have long, wavy hair to be beautiful. Beauty comes in all sizes, colors and hair lengths, and the #baldandbadchallenge is a really important reminder of that.
