The Tool

Then we went to a room where they shaved us. And I remember seeing sitting there one of the people I knew with long hair and at that point half of her hair was shaven and half was still long.[…] And of course when you all of a sudden see you bald-headed, completely shaven, you look like monkeys.

Hana Müller Bruml

Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoner, deported in October 1944 and selected for forced labour.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi-occupied Poland, 1944

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Then when we were undressed, we were ordered, everybody was ordered to stand up on a stool, and they shaved us, they shaved our hair, and the private parts, and we looked, we couldn't even recognize each other once we were stripped, not only of our clothes, but of our hair.

Cecilie Klein-Pollack

Auschwitz prisoner, deported with her family in 1944 and selected for forced labour.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi-occupied Poland, 1944

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum


 

They called me a drug dealer and infidel. They said that I am not a man. One RSF officer ordered us to move the stones on the street. They beat me and cut my dreads [hair locks] with knives.

Ahmed (pseudonym)

Protester detained by Rapid Support Forces during the violent dispersal of the Khartoum sit-in on June 3, 2019.

Khartoum, Sudan, 2019

Human Rights Watch

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A man came, and he had some plastic bag, and he ran his hands through my hair, shaking my hair.And then he pulled out some of my hair, some hair from my beard, and he put it in a bag. . . .The most awful thing about the whole experience was how they were taking our pictures, and we were completely naked.Completely naked.It was completely humiliating.

Mohammad Naim

Afghan detainee held by U.S. forces at Bagram Air Base during U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.

Bagram, Afghanistan, 2003

Human Rights Watch

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​On May 6 Gurbanli, Rustemzade and I were [taken] to the prison warden’s room. Three men presented themselves as the employees of the Baku Main Police Station and told us that our heads will be shaven. When we said that the shaving is against the law, they said there is no law on that – it is just an order from top and must be executed at any cost. They openly said that it is an instruction from high officials. When we objected, around six or seven people, including prison officials grabbed our hands and mouths and forcibly shaved our heads.

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Turgut Gambar

Political activist detained following an unsanctioned protest and forcibly shaved by police while in detention.

Baku, Azerbaijan, 2013

Human Rights Watch

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After landing, they loaded us into a prison truck. Upon arrival, another „intake” began. I was ordered to strip naked. While undressing, they beat me again. Shaving my head was extremely painful. You couldn’t say anything — it would only get worse. While a woman shaved my head, a man punched me and shocked me with a taser.

After the shaving, during registration, they forced me to stretch my arms forward, do thirty squats, and shout „Glory to russia! Glory to the russian special forces!” — all while being beaten with tasers and rubber batons.

Pavlo Afisov

Ukrainian serviceman and defender of Mariupol held in Russian captivity for nearly three years.

Russian captivity, 2022–2025

Euromaidan-Warszawa

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Every time we arrived at a new place, we were examined by nurses. They checked our hair and made us strip naked. At the pre-trial detention centre, everyone had to undergo ‘sanitary processing.’ During this procedure, the men had their heads shaved, and the girls were very often threatened with the same. I was threatened too. But then one of the staff members called someone and said that I would be allowed to keep my hair. For another whole month, they harassed me and threatened that they would cut it off after all.

Viktoriia Andrusha

Ukrainian civilian and teacher abducted by Russian forces and held in captivity for more than six months.

Russian captivity, 2022

 

I was very worried that they would shave my head. For me, it was more frightening than dying. They would periodically threaten us with it. We were not allowed to braid our hair. We had no comb or shampoo; in Taganrog, we washed our hair with soap. And of course, it would stick out in all directions. Then they said that if they saw anyone with a French braid again, they would shave her head. They never explained why—perhaps they wanted us to look like some kind of monsters. But we kept braiding our hair anyway, and before inspections, we would undo the braids.

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Maryna Holinko

Ukrainian military medic held in Russian captivity after the defence of Mariupol and released in October 2022. 

Russian captivity, 2022
 

Gazeta.ua

 

 

Different times. Different regimes.
The same gesture of control.​​​