The Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Chris Daughtry—with certain obvious exceptions (we’re looking in your direction, Britney), it seems that shearing one’s locks can shorten the path to enlightenment.

Add actress Mena Suvari to the list of chrome-domed savants.

If, that is, savant means “someone who takes forever to discover something that’s blindingly obvious to literally everyone else in the world, including infants.”

The former American Beauty cheerleader chopped off her golden locks last year and discovered that—gasp!—people looked at her differently. Even in Hollywood, a town that’s not at all known for making superficial judgments.

“That was exciting to me, a psychological experiment. To me, it’s just hair, it grows back,” Suvari tells Fox News. “But people are going to look at it any way that they want to, and it’s sad that this industry and our society have gone to that level. It’s like all about how we can knock someone down. How can we tear someone apart?”

Mena Suvari: Shaving her head and learning hard lessons, so you don’t have to.