Heads were shaved in concentration camps, and head-shaving has been used as punishment, especially for women with long hair. The shaven head is common in military haircuts, while Western monks are known for the tonsure. By contrast, among some Indian holy men, the hair is worn extremely long.

The ethnically Manchu Qing Dynasty, beginning in the late 17th century China, ordered all Chinese citizens to adopt Manchurian hairstyles by shaving the front of their head and adopting aqueue.

Regular hairdressing in some cultures is considered a sign of wealth or status. The dreadlocks of the Rastafari movement were despised early in the movement's history. In some cultures, having one's hair cut can symbolize a liberation from one's past, usually after a trying time in one's life. Cutting the hair can be a sign of mourning. Yoko Ono famously cut her very long hair after the assassination of her husband John Lennon, saying "John loved my long hair, so I gave it to him".

Tightly coiled hair in its natural state can be worn in an Afro. This hairstyle was once worn among African Americans as a symbol of racial pride. Given that the coiled texture is the natural state of most African Americans' hair, this simple style is now often seen as a sign of self-acceptance and an affirmation that the beauty norms of dominant (northern/European) culture are not absolute.

Flappers in the 1920s cut their traditional long hair into short bob cuts to show their independence and sexual freedom. Hippies in the 1960s allowed their hair to grow long and largely unstyled in order to illustrate their distance from mainstream society and conformity, which at that time favoured short hair in men, and complex hairstyling for women.

The film Easy Rider (1969) includes the assumption that the two main characters could have their long hairs forcibly shaved with a rusty razor when jailed, symbolizing the intolerance of some conservative groups toward members of the counterculture.

At the conclusion of the Oz obscenity trials in the UK, the defendants had their heads shaved by the police, causing public outcry. During the appeal trial, they appeared in the dock wearing wigs.