If you google Karen Gillan the first auto-suggestion to appear is 'hair'. Karen gets a lot of online praise for her long, Celtic locks. There’s a Facebook group and at least three tumblrs dedicated to her ‘do', and as is often the way with famous ginger people, references to her trademark ‘ketchup-coloured hair’ inevitably creep into most of her profiles and interviews.  Her hair is her thing and the people love her for it. Which is why it's shocking to so many that she just shaved the whole lot off.

Gillan’s big bald reveal happened at the weekend. She was at Comic-Con in San Diego on a Q&A panel when she was asked about the character she’s set to play in the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy: ‘isn’t she bald..?’. ‘Yeah, she is’, Karen replied, ‘and I might have done something a little crazy’. She then proceeded to whip off her wig and look momentarily sheepish (almost self-conscious) as her bald pate reflected a thousand camera phone flashes, before gleefully tossing her hairpiece it into the cheering audience.

It’s considered quite a brave thing for a woman to shave her head, and sometimes it really is. But this is not one of those times – let’s not forget that Gillan is at Comic-Con to promote her film –  so we’ll gloss right over that and skip straight to today’s discussion point: why Karen Gillan got her newly shaven head all wrong.

As a former baldy (disclaimer: I was never fully bald, just a grade two) I can tell you that styling a buzz cut isn’t easy. Even if you love your Action Man head, your approach to beauty and clothing changes for a while. It happens in three stages and mine went to the tune of this:

Stage one: compensating (even though you said you wouldn’t) - weeks 1-3
You apply eyeshadow and two coats of mascara during the day, even for a Tesco run. Your eyebrow maintenance budget quadruples. Lipbalm gets upgraded to lipstick. Skirt hems get a little shorter. Earrings become important. You are drawn to floral motifs.

Stage two: skint experimentation - weeks 4-7
You’ve relaxed into it a bit now, so it’s skirts and dresses for only 5 days out of 7. You’ve learnt some hard lessons too (headscarves and hats are a no-no; the sad glances from strangers are just too much), but have happily discovered that printed garments look awesome with a shaved head. You have shopped accordingly and are now counting down the days until payday. A quick tally of eyebrow pencils in your toiletry bag reveals eight different shades plus an eyebrow mascara.

Stage three: business as pre-shaved head usual - weeks 8+
RELAX. It’s all flats, good t-shirts, boyfriend jeans and au-natural skin. The only real difference now is that you have Blink Brow Bar on speed dial and you’ve bought your own clippers.

So, using this very scientific scale (which is obviously indicative of how all freshly-clipped women acclimatise to their lack of hair), let’s break Karen’s look down. There's a lot going on: shimmery eye make-up, shimmery lipstick, hotpants, daisy t-shirt. Yeaaaah, she’s got stage one written all over her, people! Basically, she’s focusing on the falsely feminine stuff. Which is why she looks more like awkward teenager than a beautiful bad-ass bald woman.
 
Talking of beautiful bald women, now take a moment to picture the most amazing one that springs to mind (you’re imagining Sinead O’Conner circa 1990 aren’t you?). And let’s just think about what that actually means: bare face, amazing eyebrows – that’s all. Therein lies the problem with Karen’s recent look, and the hope for her bald future. She may not have got it right this time, but once she makes it to stage three, she’s got the pretty face to carry it. So expect a few more hair homage tumblrs in roughly 7 weeks’ time.