Changing our hairstyle to channel a new attitude isn’t exactly novel; pop stars do it all the time (see: Miley’s mullett ). But when the stakes feel higher than, say, boosting digital downloads, the effect can be particularly potent. For Castelar, losing her soft curls brought on a huge shift in energy. “Before, if people were coming to me for a piercing or even just a conversation, I felt my purpose was to bring this closeness and togetherness and light. Now, we need to be there for each other, but in order to do it, we need to be alone and that's a kind of toughness that we didn't need before,” she says. “I need to be stronger, and I feel like getting rid of the hair really helped that.”