Actress Julie Tan shaves her head for new role as a social worker with cancer in local film

Local actress Julie Tan surprised everyone on Wednesday (Nov 29) when she suddenly reposted a video of her shaving her head on her Instagram Stories. She wrote: "Good goodbye to my hair."

Turns out, the 31-year-old former Mediacorp star had shaved her head for the upcoming local film Good Goodbye, a movie about palliative care. It stars Julie, Tosh Zhang as well as Andie Chen and Shane Pow.

The video shows the actress, who plays a social worker stricken by cancer in the film, giving two thumbs up and barely wincing when her hair is slowly shaved off. 

In an interview with Chinese media 8world, Julie shared that she didn't see shaving her head for the role as a sacrifice at all. Instead, she thinks she's just fulfilling her duties as an actress.

Julie went on to say that she took on the role without hesitation as she felt that it was an opportunity that was hard to come by. 

"It's such a good opportunity to shave my head bald, why not? I think I've always given people the girl-next-door impression. Now there's a role for me to appear on screen bald, it's really a rare chance," she said. 

When her mum and friends wondered if she would regret her decision, Julie only had one reply: "I've never done anything that I would regret!"

Julie now considers this as one of her biggest breakthroughs since starting her showbiz career in 2008. 

"I've tried playing ugly characters but this time I had to completely shave my head. This is something I would have never imagined," she said. 

Julie doesn't think she will miss her long hair at all.

"My personality is that I can let things go easily. To me, there's nothing in this world that I can't bear to part with. Life is not long, neither is it short, so the most important thing is to live in the moment and be happy," said Julie. 

How did she feel when she saw her bald head for the first time? 

"I really liked it. In fact, I feel like Julie Tan in her most original state now," she said. 

Another plus of having no hair? She saves a lot of time in the shower now.

While she used to take 20 minutes, she's now done in five.

This story was originally published in 8Days.