When a woman shows off her new haircut to her sister and tells her how free it makes her feel, repeatedly, she gets smacked down harshly.

Our family history is a big part of who we are. The experiences we have from a young age often define us for the rest of our lives.

That was seen in an interesting way in a post on Reddit. A woman came on to talk about her younger sister and how she was tired of hearing her talk about her new haircut.

Photos: Pixabay / Bessi

At the beginning of the post, she talks about how her father died when they were young. Her younger sister was three, and she had hair similar to her father's hair.

Fixated on Her Daughter's Hair

The mother seem to be fixated on the daughter's hair and would spend a lot of time every day maintaining it by brushing it. This is not something that they enjoyed as a fun mother-daughter project. It was excruciating for the young girl.

Until the younger sister was 13, the mother would style and wash her hair every day. She was never allowed to cut it or change the color.

The mother was so obsessed over the younger sister's hair that if someone even mentioned she should get it trimmed, they were kicked out of the house.

Photos: Pixabay / terribileclaudio

The older sister, who was the OP of the story, admitted: "Mom was controlling at times, but I thought we all knew it was because of grief and memory of our dad."

A Big Change Is Made

When the mother died, the younger sister immediately went out and got her hair cut 'incredibly short,' and she changed the color.

What do sisters do when they change their hair? In most families, they send a picture to their siblings, and that is just what this younger sister did.

She also captioned the picture: "Sharon (our mom) always said I was going to grow my hair down to my butt...Not anymore."

At first, the OP thought it was her sister going through a personal grieving process, but then she went on to say that the little sister mentioned her hair a lot. She talks about how angry her mother would be if she saw her hair cut short.

The Argument Begins

This went on for a while, but eventually, the OP told her (after five comments) that she should 'stop acting like her haircut was a big achievement.'

She went on to say that millions of people get haircuts and that her hair was important to Mom because it reminded her of their father.

The younger sister replied that she shouldn't be Sharon's doll or her father's replacement. She should be allowed to be her own person.

She also said if her sister couldn't respect that fact, she doesn't need to be in her life.

After this was posted on Reddit, many people came forward to offer their opinion. Overwhelmingly, they all thought the OP was in the wrong.

From the short story that the OP told, it was obvious that the younger sister did not think of the hours of torture she went through with the hair brushing and hair care as being a nostalgic memory.

Many commenters brought out that it was abuse and talked about how the OP and her younger sister grew up in very different situations. The fact that the younger sister calls her mom Sharon makes that obvious.

The consensus was that she should be happy for her younger sister and her newfound freedom. Cutting her hair was her way of being her own person, and that should be celebrated.