Regardless of your motivation for shaving your head, you will be faced with a wide variety of reactions to your appearance -- both positive and negative. The reaction from your closest friends, family, peers, and coworkers will vary how drastic the change appears to them. Even if the reactions are mostly favorable, the longer your hair was originally, the more surprised those around you will be. Among strangers, you may expect plenty of stares and feedback ranging from admiration to expressions of disdain that betray beliefs in a variety of inaccurate stereotypes. If you are expecting one specific type of reaction from others, you will be in for a surprise (just as the above cartoon depicts).

Some of the negative reactions you may encounter might be due to a phenomenon known as expectancy violations. An expectancy is a belief about how things should and will be. Whenever those expectancies are violated, individuals tend to react negatively -- at least in the beginning. In the West, the association of hair (especially long) and femininity is still something of a cultural norm, and is the basis of many individuals' expectancies about how women will appear. A woman with a shaved head is going against that cultural norm, and hence violating expectancies regarding how she will and should behave.

Terror Management Theory offers another perspective on why some people may react negatively at the sight a bald woman. According to this theory, we get much of our concept of self-worth and personal meaning from the social customs and values of our culture. These values are important as a buffer between us and our sense of impending mortality, thus warding off anxiety. A person who diverges radically from one's value system represents a potential threat to the individual's sense of self-worth, and hence one may react negatively to the other person. Such is the case of a bald woman in the predominantly Judeo-Christian U.S. and Europe. Her bald head to some symbolizes a different set of values than they hold, and hence serves as a threat: hence the name-calling, jokes, and other forms of behavior that the bald woman might encounter from others. That sense of perceived threat is especially intense for individuals who are right-wing authoritarian (people who are hold extremely rigid and fanatical views when it comes to social customs and values): after all, what if she's a lesbian, or is highly independent, believes in a different religion, or is politically liberal/progressive? Of course if part of the motivation for shaving your head is to rebel against such authoritarian types, the very fact that you makes them feel threatened may serve as further encouragement to remain bald.

Not only are there culturally held expectancies, but also specific individual expectancies. Your friends and family may be accustomed to how you looked with hair, and when you suddenly show up bald, their expectancies concerning your appearance are violated. In reaction, some might express dismay; others curiosity (how else to explain the need of some people to rub your newly shorn head). However, within a fairly short period of time, most of the people in your everyday life will modify their expectancies and won't even think twice about your being bald. Hair or no hair, you are still the same person they already know and care for.

Just as you may wish for others to keep an open mind about you, you will need to keep an open mind about how others react. Whatever your reasons, how others perceive you is largely out of your control. You can control your own reactions, though. In a sense some progress has been made in that, if nothing else, society's conceptualization of what makes one attractive is being modified. Increasingly, it is just another hairstyle choice.