Lupita Nyong’o is embracing her natural beauty after debuting her newly-clean-shaven head.
On an Instagram image she posted Thursday, the Black Panther star wrote “Happy without hair! (Application for the Dora Milaje submitted!), referencing the all-female army in Wakanda.
The 40-year-old actress’ new look prompted hundreds of fans and fellow celebrities to weigh in the comments.
“Gorginaaaaa show me a better shaped head. I’ll wait…,” Conde Nast’s editor-in-chief Elaine Welteroth wrote.
“You just gave me more confidence to accept and embrace my current situation,” rapper Mia X wrote.
One commenter garnered over 100 likes for questioning those in the comments who weren’t as receptive to the Mexico-born star. “Why does everybody feel that hair defines a woman?” the commenter wrote. “Why does it even matter? Isn’t everybody on their OWN Personal JOURNEY in this life? Your Cut is bold, beautiful and fierce! Hair doesn’t define a person’s individual character anymore than race does. No matter what a person does it’s somebody that has to hate on THEIR Personal DECISIONS! Continue to be you because what you eat doesn’t make any of us crap! They need to get themselves some business!! #25YearsBald”
Last month, the Academy Award winner hinted that she was itching to change up her look after she posted a video of her cutting off her locks.
“I chopped off my sisterlocks! Here’s how I said goodbye. #sisterlocks #shorthair #newhaircut,” she wrote in the caption of the video.
“Time to let you go,” Nyong’o said in the video. “It’s sad, it’s oh so sad, you’ve been so good to me, you’ve been so thick for the first time in my life. I’m gonna miss you. Come back again, come back.”
Throughout her illustrious career, Nyong’o has never shied away from a new look. From short afros to hip-length natural styles, her cutting-edge style has continuously set the standard for the versatility of natural hair.
“Lupita’s hair is so beautiful and versatile,” the actress’ stylist Vernon François told Marie Claire last month. “A haircut like this can be rewarding, freeing, and exposing the nape is extremely flattering.”
