Hillsong United’s Taya Smith Explains New Hairstyle – Its all about the BUZZ!

How very quickly social media explodes with opinion, when someone in the public eye changes their appearance.

In an article by Clare Bruce at Hope 103.2 it’s not just pop celebrities who become the subject of mass debate over their style choices; high-profile Christian worship leaders are in the firing line too, it seems, judging by the response to Taya Smith’s recent short haircut.

After posting an image on Instagram of her new buzz-cut on April 6, followers of the Hillsong United singer unleashed a mixture of support and criticism. Many quoted Bible passages requiring women to have long hair; others responding to the critics with comments about culture and context.

Supporters pointed out Taya’s right to choose her own hairstyle without answering to others.

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In a recent catchup with Taya and her band mates, Hope 103.2 heard from the singer herself about why she went for the cropped look: her hair was simply damaged from too much bleach.

And as any woman knows when their long hair is dry and breaking off, a drastic cut is sometimes the only solution.

“It wasn’t spiritual,” Taya said. “I can’t lie: when you bleach your hair and you don’t necessarily take care of it in the best way it can damage. And I thought maybe I could just cut my hair. I joked with friends that I was just going to shave it…then I started thinking, ‘What if?’”

A before shot and shortly after, her cropped short hair… and then to the buzz cut (below)

Her bandmates were the first people she checked in with before getting the shave.

“I put it to our bass player and she checked the shape of my head and she said ‘yep’, and then I asked the guys, ‘What do you reckon?’—because they’re the style gurus,” she joked. “They were like, ‘Once you do it, that’s it, it’s not going to grow back straight away’. But I did it.”

Despite the pragmatic motivation for her haircut, Taya said it became a very liberating experience, despite the legalistic feedback from some Christians.

“It wasn’t meant to be spiritual but then it kind of was this freeing thing where, I was like, ‘Well hair grows back, people have opinions, but life’s too short to even care about that.’ 

It’s kind of given me a freedom to [think], ‘Well, I am who I am before God and that’s all that matters. So let’s do this.’ It’s actually been fun. [It wasn’t] spiritual but then it became that.”

Fellow singer Jonathan JD Douglass joked with Taya that she hadn’t learnt her lesson about caring for her locks: “You cut your hair because it was dying from bleaching it, and now you’ve done it again,” he said. “I’m glad you learnt from that!”

Coincidentally, around the same time (March 2017), Kristen Stewart revealed her new badass blond buzzcut and not only does it look amazing, but it “feels amazing,” too.

During an interview with the “Today” show, the 26-year-old actress revealed why she shaved her head and her reason is a simple one.

“It’s practical,” the actress said.

For her upcoming film, “Underwater,” Stewart will play a mechanical engineer who works on an oil rig on the ocean floor.

“I mean, I’m not going to be able to have touch-ups once they put the helmet on my head,” she noted about her new short ‘do.

The “Twilight” star is no stranger to dramatic makeovers, and Stewart says that if it weren’t for her upcoming movie role, she probably would have eventually shaved her head at some point.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time… because at some point in your life, you want to be able to do that.”

I don’t know about you but I’m seeing a pattern.

Conclusion:

But just to show I am not imagining things lets go back over the Taya interview to show why I’m concerned

“Many quoted Bible passages requiring women to have long hair; while supporters pointed out Taya’s right to choose her own hairstyle without answering to others.’  –And this is the spiritual quagmire we are now in, ‘everyone now does what is right in his own eyes’ 

‘Taya said it became a very liberating experience, despite the legalistic feedback’ – How dare those legalists find fault with our Taya!

It’s kind of given me a freedom… It’s actually been fun.  – Fun? All the while the issue has driven a divisive wedge through the body of Christ.

[It wasn’t] spiritual but then it became that.” The only way this is spiritual and fun is by putting off propriety and embracing worldliness.

‘…people have opinions, but life’s too short to even care about that.’ – Why should I care about others opinions, or what the bible says for that matter, its my life. Who cares if my weaker brothers and sisters have a problem with it, and are offended by it.

As a reply to one of those who felt that my previous article was too harsh, I wrote;

I have found a youtube clip and a recent article dated the 10 July 2017 outlining her hair challenges, but that is after some 4 months of conjecture and confusion all across Christendom as to why it was so short and cropped like it was.

If this is the reason, then why is she not letting her some 430,000 instagram followers and others know the possible reason for the stark change.

The number of people who have wondered why she cut her hair ran into the thousands.

Surely a simple note to everyone that her hair was needing to be revitalised, after too much blonding would have saved the day.

But instead we are left with this conjecture and speculation, and it is a confusion, when a woman looks like a man.

However I do note that her logo on instagram is a logo of herself with a microphone in her ear, with her new short cropped hair.

Shall we see what transpires over the next few months?

The question is, will she grow it back?

In the following video below, her hair is still quite short and cropped. Since this video it has got a little longer but now it’s an ashen blonde colour which means she has dyed it again…..