FOR YEARS Chelmsford mum Lucie Hartley has faced assumptions that she is gay simply based on the length of her hair, even wearing wigs in an effort to fit in.
But now the 28-year-old is taking a stand and shaving it all off to prove that regardless of gender or sexuality "what you look like should be nothing to do with it" and to raise cash for charity in the process.
"I'm not going to be told how to live my life. It's better to be happy in your own skin; it's your damn birthright as far as I'm concerned," said Lucie, a singer.
"I'm sure that there are other people who have been through what I've been through but who may not have the guts to say something. I've had to stand up for myself my whole life and it's only recently that I've found my voice."
Nicknamed 'BoyGirl' at school when she was growing up Lucie had always opted for the shortest hair her parents would let her get away with, but didn't face judgements on her sexuality until she left college as a teenager.
"As soon as I left people were asking 'Are you a lesbian, are you gay'?
"It was only then that the reality hit that apparently my hair was something to do with my sexuality," added Lucie, who even recalls attending a barbecue with her mum a few years ago and being asked if they were a couple.
"People are making a judgment before they even speak to you.
"Firstly, it's none of their business, and, secondly, how would they like it?"
Lucie, who has a seven-year-old son Rafe with her ex-partner, has even resorted to wearing long wigs after men she was interested in assumed she was gay.
But in an effort to weed out those who were interested only due to her longer locks, the mother-of-one would often wait until the end of the evening before pulling off her wig briefly to scratch an itch and await their reaction.
"It's great seeing some people's faces, you could tell who was just shallow," added bisexual Lucie.
Determined now, however, to "put her foot down" and prove that she's happy with how she looks, the 28-year-old will be having all her hair shaved off at The Red Beret pub, on July 31, with all sponsorship monies raised going toward Macmillan Cancer as part of their 'Shave or Style' campaign, a charity close to the Chelmsford mum's heart after losing her grandmother Joan more than a decade ago to the disease.
"Watching someone slowly disappear in front of you is something else.
"Everybody has the same feeling toward cancer, everyone just wishes it didn't exist," she added.
To sponsor Lucie go to https://www.shaveorstyle.org.uk/shavers/lucie-hartley/
