Artist and mother, Lee Parent, of Belfast, was watching the 2005 movie, V for Vendetta with her husband last week, (the movie in which Natalie Portman had her head shaved for the role) when she turned to her husband and said, "Let's do this."

After some more back and forth discussion, her husband, Keith Maynard, got out the clippers and held them up to her temple.

"Then I went no, no, no, no," she said, stopping him. "I took the shaver in my hand and began inching it across my temple. I had to be the one to do it. So, once I got started, it was like: 'All right, here we go.' And I shaved a straight line down the center of my hairline."

Parent said she'd wanted to chop it all off for years, but was afraid of the usual things women fear when it comes to their hair: that it would make her lose her femininity, or that it would change people's perceptions of her.

"After having a kid, my body completely changed in a way that it's never going to go back," she said. "I'd been clinging on to the notion that I might not feel sexy or powerful, if I cut all my hair off," said Parent, 36. "I think I never did it before because I felt I had to lose 15 to 20 pounds to pull it off."

After it was all off and her dark brown hair lay in wisps on the floor, she said, "I think I said, "Holy sh--, but then I felt l moved through something. I felt both relieved and powerful at the same time. It's not a big deal."

For many women, their hair is a big deal, representing youth and eternal beauty. It can be a contentious topic, but a billion dollar hair industry has tapped into women's subconcious need to feel attractive. With models and celebrities in our faces 24-7 on TV shows, movies, magazines and Internet articles, long, luxurious hair (often augmented by strategically placed hair extensions) is the gold standard of female beauty-a message, society endlessly emphasizes to youngest girls through stories, myths and Disney movies.

Her daughter, Ayla, 3-and-a-half woke up in the middle of the night and Parent came into her room to check on her. Ayla was visibly upset when she saw her mother. "Mama," she said. "What happened to your hair?"

Parent had shaver's regret right then. "For awhile, I felt it was selfish of me to shave my head. My daughter is into princesses and long hair. But I just put my face to her face and told her, 'Mommy is still Mommy. I just always wanted to know what it felt like to have no hair."

That morning Parent took her daughter to school and when they walked into the room, Ayla announced to the class "Hey, my mom shaved her head!" So Parent took off her hat, squatted down and asked the kids if they wanted to feel it.The kids all glommed around her, rubbing the stubble on her head. "And that's when I could see Ayla had a moment of being proud," said Parent.

The public reaction once she posted it on Facebook was overwhelmingly positive. "I was suprised," she said. "I expected people to say nothing as in 'if you can't say something nice, don't say it at all.' " Asked if it mattered to her if people didn't like it, she analyzed that it was one of the reasons she'd done it, because she cared so much what people thought. "Now I can own the fact that this is what I wanted, regardless of what other people think."

One unexpected reaction has come from from a number of people who assumed she's done this because she was going through chemotherapy. To the people who have to shave their heads not out of choice, Parent offers a little insight. "I was surprised how beautiful I felt without hair. I stripped myself down so that all people see now is my face."

Kay Stephens can be reached at kaystephens@penbaypilot.com