This striking image of Nimue Smit, lensed by Santiago & Mauricio Sierra for W Magazine’s October issue just caught my eye. Duffy is the stylist behind this massive head of tresses.

Two weeks ago I sat down in my hair dresser’s chair and said “cut it off”. Blessed with incredibly thick, coarse hair, I’ve worn it long for several years now and well before the 2010 NYTimes article Why Can’t Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair?

My hair had become a burden, requiring time that I don’t have. The breaking point came during a massage the night before my beauty trip. On the floor with my masseuse, who introduced me to the world of Thai massage, I lay buried in my hair. Iman was trying to find my face, while I tried to disentangle myself.

I asked myself: “Anne, are you in there? It’s time to set you free again.”

Liberated within hours and back to my shorter-hair self in advance of opening our first GlamTribale pop-up store, I reaquainted myself with Joan Juliet Buck’s essay ‘On Short Hair’, published in American Vogue in 1988. Enjoy! ~ Anne

Hair is time.

Women with short hair always look as if they have somewhere else to go. Women with long hair tend to look as if they belong where they are, especially in California. Short hair takes a short time. Long hair takes a long time. Long hair moves faster than short hair. Long hair tells men that you are all woman, or a real woman, or at the very least a girl. Short hair always makes them wonder.