There’s A Reason This Girls Star Cut Her Hair (NSFW)

Apparently, not even a starring role on a beloved HBO show can make you immune to the siren call of the symbolic, mid-breakup hair massacre. Just ask Girls star Jemima Kirke, whose major chop in late 2015 had fans freaking out. (That topless video may have had something to do with it, too.) Following People’s report earlier this week that Kirke had split with her husband, Michael Mosberg, after seven years, the mother-of-two discussed the changes surrounding it — hairstyle and otherwise — in a new interview with Style Like U. “I was having a terrible moment with my husband in our relationship, and I was extremely hurt by him and extremely angry at him,” she explained, “and so I was feeling self-destructive. But for whatever reason I didn’t do anything self-destructive, really. I just cut my hair.” Sounds familiar, right?

As cliché as it is to make impulsive beauty decisions when times are tough, there’s more to it than just a tired trope. For many people — not just women — our self-esteem and self-image can easily become tied up in our hair, and so it’s natural to say “eff it” when we feel frustrated or like we’ve lost control. “I cut my hair because I felt like my hair was really one of the only things that made me feel pretty,” Kirke continued in the interview. “I felt like my hair was my go-to trick. I really believed for a while that without it I would be boring.” And that’s exactly when you know it’s time to get back in the driver’s seat — and if that involves snipping all your hair off over your bathroom sink, then so be it.