#TBT: Felicity’s Infamous Haircut

In 1999, Felicity‘s second season, Felicity chopped her long (amazing) curls off. It was the haircut that people talked about for months (in some cases, years). Some people may have stopped watching all together (for a while, people said that execs couldn’t attribute the loss of viewership in season 2: it was either the move to airing the show on Sunday nights OR Felicity’s new pixie cut.).

The haircut was a tangible change that she could make in her life. The show itself was all about change. Felicity Porter (Keri Russell) graduates from high school and impulsively decides to go to college in New York City instead of med school in California as originally planned. She made that decision because, obviously, her dreamy high school crush, Ben Covington (Scott Speedman), was going to college in New York City. Pretty sure his inscription made every high school girl watching Felicity immediately pray that their high school crushes would do the same.

So Felicity moves to New York, starts college, and meets new people (hello, nice guy RA Noel played perfectly by Scott Foley). Her weekly letters back to her friend slash former French teacher, Sally, express all the feelings of doubt, excitement, sadness, and happiness that we all go through as we grow up. Then, Felicity has the epic Noel-or-Ben debate over the course of the show. We all watched with bated breath on who she would end up with (I was solidly #TeamBen and anti-Noel; although, on re-watching Felicity in my adult life, I am more like #TeamBean…but I’ll take a Noel for myself!). Spoiler alert: it’s Ben. But, back to season 2. Felicity has a new relationship with Ben, her relationship with Noel is weird, and she’s still struggling with her major (art versus medicine). With everything else in flux and hard to control, Felicity takes control of her hair.

Everyone has had a moment (or several) like that in life when everything around you is in flux and overwhelming. Sometimes, you just need to switch something up to make change tangible; and, sometimes, the easiest thing to do is to change something in your appearance–getting new clothes, coloring your hair, or, like Felicity, cutting your hair. Snip, snip.