If Rihanna wanted to shave your head, would you let her? If your answer is a resounding yes, you have at least one thing in common with dancer Mette Towley. Last week, N.E.R.D, the funk hip-hop band fronted by Pharrell, dropped their music video for their comeback single "Lemon," featuring none other than Bad Gal RiRi. The video opens with the singer—wearing a sleek fringed bob, silver chain necklace and Raf Simons' "Nebraska" sweatshirt—wielding clippers in a hotel, giving pause with a laser-like stare into the camera before shaving off Towley's cloud of natural curls. The there's-no-turning-back-now transformation plays into the video's "no one ever really dies" theme (a play on the N.E.R.D acronym) by suggesting: If you want a new lease on life, radically shearing off your lengths is a fruitful first step.

"It was a once in a lifetime experience,” says Towley, a member of Pharrell's dance squad since 2014. "There weren't multiple takes. I only had one head to shave." Believe it or not, it wasn't the 26-year-old Minnesota native's first beauty transformation. At 15, she transitioned her hair from straightened back to its natural kinky texture. “I was done spending hours trying to maintain a look that wasn’t me," she recalls. "It was the first time I really took ownership of my body." She'd go on to spend the next decade diligently nurturing her curl pattern, flexing its versatility by wearing a halo of glossy ringlets or a picked out afro. “With all the love and care I'd given my curls, I surprised myself with how ready I was for the cut,” she says. “Afterwards, I put my hair in a bag and took it [home] with me from set--I couldn't just throw it away!” Still, the dramatic hair shift has been liberating for Towley as a performer: “I’ve never felt a stronger sense of femininity,” she explains. “I have a very womanly physique and I love the juxtaposition with the buzz cut. My body [has a] whole new silhouette.”