As the year ends, it is time to let go of whatever held you back and start afresh in the new year. A large part of New Year celebrations entail changing your look and doing something drastic and dramatic — that you had not previously done.

Singer Demi Lovato, for instance, has decided to shed a layer of locks to welcome 2022. The 29-year-old took to Instagram to share their new hairstyle: a chic buzz cut hairdo. Take a look here.

In the caption, they wrote, “#freshstart”.

The post is essentially a montage of a few photographs and videos that are FaceTime-recorded. Lovato’s new look comes many months after they came out as gender non-binary, updating their pronouns to ‘they/them’.

Earlier this year, the singer — who had chopped off their locks, wearing a bleached look that they debuted in November 2020 — had said it feels “more authentic to who I am”. They had appeared on The Ellen Show to promote their documentary, ‘Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil‘, speaking about the time they realised they had to “let go of” long hair while recovering from an eating disorder.

“I feel so free… more authentic to who I am. And I also feel like I used to hide behind my hair, especially, you know, I have talked all about my past — being in recovery from an eating disorder. And I used to use my hair to hide behind. And it would cover my body… And so, when I started doing all this work on myself, I thought what is something that I have been holding on to my whole life that I need to let go of…,” they told host Ellen DeGeneres.

After coming out, Lovato had spoken with Jane Fonda for Fire Drill Fridays livestream about accepting their gender identity, saying, “After years of living my life for other people, trying to make myself smaller for the patriarchy — they run the industry, they are at the center of everything…”