Excusing myself to the bathroom to see what exactly may have been behind the not-soprepared- for startled reaction, a sigh of relief followed upon finding that everything was indeed, in place. Regaining my confidence and returning to the party, I couldn't help but pursue the shocked reactions of some and turned to face the "stunned" group.

Met with sympathetic smiles and slight feigns of fake indifference, one friend was bold enough to ask, "Are you OK?" as she rested a hand on my shoulder. "Um, yep, couldn't be better!" I replied, widening my eyes before thinking that everyone was a little crazy and heading to grab a drink and reconsider my choice of friends.

Walking into the kitchen, I was asked, "What are you going to do now?" Mystified I replied, "About what?" "Why breakingup of course."

Breaking up? What on earth was she talking about? Pinching my arm to see if I was in fact in a slightly-bizarre confrontationary dream, I was, as commonly is the case here, completely lost.

Judging from my reaction that my personal life was in fact intact, I proceeded to be told that a haircut can mean a whole lot more than a new do.

A common act of getting over someone after breaking up, is to cut o. your long hair. Wow, vastly different from my motivation of simply shedding my locks that I had worn in a similar fashion for more than half my life and that constantly evoked a completely inappropriate soccer-mom image – interesting that a haircut could giveaway your personal status.

Apparently it all started with Canto/Mandopop sensation Gigi Leung. The young songstress released a poignant track, Short Hair, in 1997 when she was 21, with the lyrics "I cut off my hair and cut off the connection with you."

Her first Mandarin release hit the mark with many, shooting her to fame and creating a cult following of girls keen to rid themselves of the past. Leung's rebirth approach returned in 2006 with her Cantonese Grown Up Short Hair coinciding with her much-publicized breakup with famous Hong Kong actor Ekin Cheng.

I have since learned that from ancient times, the saying San Qian Fan Nao Si, or 3,000 troublesome hairs, tends toward chopping off worries and woes and is why monks shave their heads in the search for existential freedom.

Men too are not lost on this notion, many nonreligious 20 and 30 somethings are shaving off their pasts to reveal shining bald scalps and a fresh start. Great idea. Reinvention is an entirely plausible concept this day and age and for me, an excellent way to mitigate the impending winter blues.