Pixie Dream Girls: Beyoncé Joins the Short Hair Club

Never failing to keep things interesting, pop star Beyoncé debuted a dramatic new haircut on Instagram late last night, and the more than 14,700 comments (so far) on the picture of her bob range from “amazing” to “YUCK !!!!” The striking new look has many precedents, however. Here’s a look back at stars who famously shed their locks, whether preparing for a new role or a new chapter in their lives.

Audrey Hepburn: The classic movie star dazzled viewers with her pixie cut in Roman Holiday (1953) — for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role — and Sabrina (1954). In the words of a New York Times reviewer, “Amid the rhinestone glare of the current glamour crop, she shines with the authenticity of a diamond.”

Mia Farrow: Legend had it that she got her long, blonde hair chopped off by Vidal Sassoon for a part in the 1968 horror film Rosemary’s Baby, and that her husband at the time, Frank Sinatra, reportedly “served her with divorce papers” after seeing her new look. But Farrow told the New York Times that she was sporting short hair as early as 1966; she experimented with cutting it off while working on the TV show Peyton Place and Ol’ Blue Eyes loved it. She even boasted a “closely cropped coif” for their wedding on July 19, 1966.

Halle Berry: The Monster’s Ball star got a pixie cut when she was about 18 or 19 years old to stand out at auditions.

Keri Russell: Producers of Felicity asked her to cut off her long curly hair in the middle of season 2 in the fall of 1999, and critics blamed the new do for the show’s drop in ratings. A WB exec reportedly said, “No one is cutting their hair again on our network.”

Natalie Portman: The Harvard-educated actress stunned movie-goers when she went bald for a starring role in V for Vendetta (2005). “Some people will think I’m a neo-Nazi or that I have cancer or I’m a lesbian,” she reportedly said when she debuted the look at Cannes.

Michelle Williams: In 2007, the Oscar-nominated actress started sporting a haircut inspired by Mia Farrow’s do in Rosemary’s Baby. Since then, she has worn short hair in memory of her late partner Heath Ledger.

Rihanna: The R&B star has been wearing super short hair as early as 2008. Last week, she revealed her latest cropped, curly do on Instagram.

Victoria Beckham: The wife of soccer star David Beckham has sported a variety of cropped hairdos throughout the years, including a pixie cut. She tweeted a picture of her latest bob on April 30, 2013.

Emma Watson: The actress best known for her role as the brainy Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films chopped off her dirty blonde locks in August 2010 and posted a photo on Facebook, reportedly symbolizing that her child star days were officially behind her. She even boasted a version of the boyish style on the October 2012 cover of Glamour.

Anne Hathaway: The brunette actress shocked viewers when she adopted a pixie cut in April 2012 for the role of Fantine in the film adaptation of Les Misérables (2012). “Cutting my hair reduced me to, like, mental patient-level crying. I was inconsolable,” she said on Live! With Kelly in July 2012. She was still sporting the short look as recently as June 2013 on the set of her new film Song One in NYC.

Miley Cyrus: In August 2012, the former Disney star made headlines for chopping off all of her hair and sporting a boyish cut. The decision changed her life, in a good way, she told The Toronto Sun last month: “There’s something about having no hair that screams being confident.”

Carey Mulligan: The mousy actress has sported the cropped look for Wall Street sequel Money Never Sleeps (2010) and has grown out her pixie cut into a bob for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (2013).

Elisabeth Moss: The Mad Men star showed off a bleached blonde pixie cut in May 2013 at the Crystal + Lucy Awards in Beverly Hills. As someone who has never liked doing her own hair, she appreciated the “low maintenance” aspect of the punk-rock style.