When it comes to singers, no one beats Britney’s legendary The Bald and the Beautiful episode. But there are people in the entertainment industry who actually get paid to shave their heads. Some of them struggle to deal with the new look, while others embrace the opportunity to feel the wind caressing their bald scalps. The latest brave actress who agreed to let go of her hair in the name of film magic was young Millie Bobby Brown, a breakout star of Stranger Things series. To honor her and those who came before, here are 10 actresses who sacrificed their flowing locks for the sake of art.

Millie Bobby Brown

Netflix

Stranger Things’ wonder girl Eleven (or simply El) was a certified science-enhanced badass. And it took a real life badass to make this character believable and relatable. Spanish-born actress Millie Bobby Brown — who was 11 at the time of the filming — not only had to get rid of most of her emotions to play an enigmatic girl who brings a lot of troubles into a small town. She also had to say goodbye to her long hair. Luckily, it’s not the '80s anymore and thanks to the wonders of the Internet we can witness the moment young actress turned into El — just watch this video Millie recently posted on Twitter.

Judging by the kissing smiley face she added to that tweet, she was okay with the producers’ decision to make their little superhero bald. Will she have to re-shave her head for the upcoming second season of the hit show? We’re buzzing to know!

Charlize Theron

Warner Bros.

Miss Theron knows like no other that dramatic experiments with one’s appearance is not a fury road but rather a road to success. Her 2003 impressive transformation into real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster brought her an Oscar for Best Actress. And in 2015 she readily shaved her head and pasted her face with futuristic warpaint to become the unstoppable Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road.

Do you think Charlize was sad to let go of her golden locks? Think again. As she told Ryan Seacrest, she felt liberated: “I had two huge garbage bags full of hair products. It's so freeing.” 

Demi Moore

Caravan Pictures

A shaved head was one of the necessary looks for every '90s girl, yet somehow Demi Moore still managed to turn her buzzing experience into a sensation back in 1997, when she had to get bald for the titular role in G.I. Jane.

Maybe because she did it in front of the film crew, since the shaving scene was one of the key moments of the Ridley Scott girl power movie. Apparently Moore liked the process so much that years later she decided to share it with her daughter Tallulah and shaved her head, too: you can see the unconventional “mommy-daughter bonding activities” on Instagram.

Anne Hathaway

Universal Pictures

We wonder how high the eyebrows of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly would jump if Anne Hathaway’s Andrea stepped into her office with no hair in Devil Wears Prada? Anne Hathaway had to get a rough short haircut for the role of Fantine in the film adaptation of the Les Miserables musical.

While some actresses enjoy making a dramatic change to their appearances, Hathaway stated on multiple occasions that this decision did not come easy to her. “When I eventually looked in the mirror I just thought I looked like my gay brother,” she said at one of the film’s screenings. She’s been growing her hair back ever since and thanks to her striking eyes and huge smile can make any hairstyle work.

Elise Eberle

WGN

Eberle’s Mercy Lewis is arguably the most tortured character in WGN’s Salem series (third season is coming this Halloween!). Originally an innocent teenager, she was lured to the dark side by the local powerful witch bitch Mary Sibley, then lost her mind, became a killer and got her hair chopped off, while other witches of the cursed town were all allowed to keep their long locks.

No wonder she was eventually promoted to the series regular and became one of the most interesting characters on the spooky show.

Natalie Portman

Warner Bros.

For Natalie Portman V didn’t just stand for Vendetta — it also stood for very short hair. The scene where her character gets her hair shaved off was among some of the most impressive moments of the Wachowski-produced dystopian thriller based on Alan Moore’s comic book.

“She loved it and kept rubbing her head,” recalls director James McTeigue. She wasn’t the only one: you know you’ve made an impact on pop culture when there’s an indie band called Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head (it was later re-named to Brite Futures).

Sigourney Weaver

20st Century Fox

As Alien’s famous tagline read “In space no one can hear you scream,” we’d like to extend it and add “…or see your hair.” No wonder Sigourney Weaver, the star of the chest-bursting-aliens franchise, agreed to go bald for the third installment of the blood-thirsty saga in 1992.

We still consider this the pivotal moment in the story of Weaver’s Ripley becoming a proper menace to her nemesis from another planet. But when the re-shootings were needed and producers kindly asked Weaver to shave her head again, the actress wasn’t so pleased and demanded $40,000 for another date with a buzzer. The producers opted for a $16,000 bald cap.

Naomi Grossman

FX

While Jessica Lange definitely stole everyone’s thunder during her four-year-long run on American Horror Story, there was no shortage of other remarkable female characters and actresses. The one that really stood out was Naomi Grossman’s Pepper, who first appeared in the rundown halls of Season Two’s titular Asylum.

Her stint caused countless You Won’t Believe How This Actress Actually Looks articles and was so adored by the producers that they brought her back for Season Four. The transformation was a rather demanding one: each time it took three hours. Apart from shaving her head, Grossman had to wear a prosthetic nose, ears and teeth. Sounds more like Make-Up Artist Horror Story to us.

Toni Collette

Getty Images

Last year’s drama Miss You Already saw Australian actress Toni Collette taking on the role of Milly, who discovers that she has breast cancer and relies on her best friend Jess (Drew Barrymore) to get through the hard times.

The role wasn’t just emotionally demanding, it also required Collette to go bald, which was hardly anything new to actress — she once told The Wall Street Journal that she shaved her head five times throughout her 20s: “I did it once for a friend’s fashion show in London, and I did it in a Peter Greenaway film. The first time I did it, I turned 25 in Mexico and I walked past the barber shop and that was that. And I did it like three days after meeting my husband just to see if he could handle it.”

Cate Blanchett

Miramax

The long wavy locks of Galadriel from Lord of the Rings may be one of the most iconic Cate Blanchett looks, but she never shied away from a brave experiment. The actress always stated how she doesn’t like to wear wigs and prefers to play with her real hair instead.

Back in 2002 she shaved her head for the role in Heaven and declined a proposition to put on a bald cap. She’s been toying around with her hair ever since — this March she dyed her hair pink and in August she starred in Massive Attack video for “The Spoils,” where she was once again seen bald. But her hairdresser can relax: this time around it was just a cap!