Willow Smith is one of the most acknowledged young talents in the industry, and rightly so. With her platinum-certified single Whip My Hair, which also earned the 11th position on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2010, she became renowned and highly commended at just the age of ten. What’s more is that she earned this fame all by herself, with her immensely admirable skills, and without her superstar parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith playing a major part in it.
Yet, it seemed that the young star found stardom a bit too much to take, and thus ended up shaving her entire head overnight for a strangely valid reason, with her celebrity parents finding out about this by the next day only.
Willow Smith Was Done With Stardom At Only Ten
Although Whip My Hair was Willow Smith’s first-ever single with which she made her debut in the music industry, the banger was also a huge breakout hit that played on numerous big and small platforms for weeks. Not only this, but it also landed her a supporting slot on Justin Beiber’s tour!
Slaying in every performance since then, the then-10-and-a-half-year-old superstar went on for nights until her last European gig, after which she declared to her father, Will Smith, that she was done and ready to go home.
The Bad Boys star, however, countered her declaration, reminding her that she wasn’t done yet because of the numerous performances that she had signed for in Australia that were yet to take place. But it seems the younger Smith wasn’t willing to comply with anyone’s wishes anymore, considering how she ended up taking a major step that left her entire family flabbergasted.
As per Will Smith’s 2021 memoir, Will, a few mornings later:
“Willow came skipping into the kitchen for breakfast. ‘Good morning, Daddy,’ she said joyfully, as she bounced to the refrigerator. My jaw nearly dislocated, dislodged, and shattered on the kitchen floor: my world-dominating, hair-whipping, future global superstar was totally bald. During the night, Willow had shaved her entire head. My mind raced – how was she going to whip her hair if she didn’t have any? Who the hell wants to pay to watch some kid whip their head back and forth?”
Regardless, what was done was done, and the young star was let out of her commitments, which followed with her not returning for three whole years.
The Reason Why Willow Smith Took This Sudden Step
Willow Smith always loved making music as it instilled a great amount of pleasure and joy in her life. But she gave up on it to take a break for a few years because she couldn’t bear with how she had no control over doing the thing she loved the most. Years after the incident, she told The Guardian,
“I felt like I had no control. That was the part that wasn’t cool for me. I felt so powerless. But because I was so young, I didn’t have enough experience for people to trust my opinions. So I just said, ‘I can’t do this.’”
Just like that, she gave up on singing to go on a hiatus for a few years, returning to her everyday life.
“[For] maybe two or three years, I wasn’t in the studio. I was just going to school and doing my thing, and that was really nice.”
However, as time passed, she realized that she missed making the thing that played a major role throughout her life – music.
“[Music] is a huge joy in my life. And I came to realize I love performing and recording. I just wanted to be steering my own ship.”
There and then, the now 22-year-old star decided to make her comeback and returned to navigating her way through all types of music that enthralled her. Today, Willow Smith is going very strong, rocking with her outstanding music taste delighting all her fans globally.
Source: The Guardian
