Will Smith Shares Willow Smith’s Decision to Shave Her Head While on ‘Whip My Hair’ Tour Because She Considered Quitting

In a recent documentary titled “Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood,” Will Smith shared a story about the time when his daughter tried to express her feelings of burnout to him, but he did not listen. As a result, Willow Smith decided to shave her head while in the middle of her worldwide tour to make a statement.

Will recounted that he and Willow were in Dublin, Ireland, when his daughter completed her performance of her single alongside Justin Bieber and announced that she was no longer interested in continuing with her music career.

“Hit record, 20,000 kids whipping their hair in Dublin, and she comes off stage, and is like, ‘I’m done, Daddy,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, baby, that was a great show!’ And she was like, ‘No, no, I mean I’m done! I’m ready to go home!'” Will said, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.

The “Fresh Prince” actor explained that he told his daughter she couldn’t quit because she had promised Jay-Z she would perform at least 30 shows.

“She said, ‘No, Daddy, you promised Mr. Jay-Z.’ And I was like, ‘Sweetie, I get it, but we promised as a family, and you have to finish,'” he continued.

Will said his daughter was disappointed he wasn’t listening to her feelings. He recalled the moment she looked at him, saying, “‘It doesn’t matter to you that I’m finished, Daddy?'”

“And I was like, ‘Well, yes, sweetie, it matters, but you can’t be finished.’ And she was like, ‘Oh, okay,'” he said.

Later, Will explained that after he and Willow arrived at their hotel, he noticed she had shaved her head the very next day.

“We go back to the hotel, and [her mom] had just left, so I’m there; it’s my first night of daddy duty,” he said. “And [Willow] came out the next morning, and she had shaved her head bald. In the middle of her ‘Whip My Hair’ tour, she had shaved her head bald. And it was like a magical moment. I was like, ‘Got it.'”

Willow has been open about her struggles with anxiety growing up as a child star.

During an episode of her podcast, “Red Table Talk,” which she hosts with her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow mentioned how “rough” her childhood was, considering her parents didn’t acknowledge the “emotional struggle” she was facing.

“It was rough,” Willow recalled. “I feel like when I was growing up, she [Jada] didn’t understand my anxiety. Because she, growing up, had seen her friends die. She had been through so much stuff that, like my issues to her, kind of felt like [smaller].”

Willow explained how “frustrating” it was to have her feelings dismissed as a kid; however, she learned how to work through those feelings with her mother.

During later conversations Willow had with Jada, the “Empathogen” singer revealed that she had also learned more about her mother’s perspective.

“Really recently, we had a talk, and she was like, ‘I never knew that I actually experienced anxiety,'” Willow shared. “And she was pushing it down and pushing it down for so many years. Like, she had no idea. So I kind of had to forgive her a little bit for being like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it, but like, it’s really not that bad.'”

While Willow was appearing on “The Jimmy Fallon Show,” the 24-year-old mentioned she was having a flashback of one of her childhood anxiety attacks.

However, when she was younger, she said the people around her didn’t see it as such. In fact, they referred to her episodes as a “tantrum.”

“They didn’t see it as an anxiety attack; they saw it as a tantrum,” she said. “Now, I look back and know it was an anxiety attack. And so when I’m in these situations now and have those flashbacks, I need to separate myself from the situation for a little bit and tell myself, ‘You’re not nine, you’re a grown a– woman.'”