Miley Cyrus Says the Public Judges Her Well-Being Based on Her Hair

There’s a lot more to Miley Cyrus’ hair than meets the eye.

On Wednesday, December 2, the 27-year-old was on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, to discuss her new album Plastic Hearts. During the interview, the former Disney Channel star opened up about the public’s perception of her well-being based on her hairstyle.

“My hair is some sort of reflection for my sanity, my sexuality, my sobriety,” she told Howard Stern. “The public really makes my hair, I guess, the kind of monitor of how I am doing.” For instance, she said when her hair would be long and blonde people would assume she was sane. But when she had it painted or grew out her armpit hair, they’d assume she was doing drugs.

But the “Wrecking Ball” singer recognizes that this type of mentality manifested from her start as Hannah Montana. “It’s really not [the public’s] fault that they associate my hair and my identity and my well-being so closely,” she said. “Because basically, we drilled that into their brains for 8 years of a series.”

That’s not the only thing that the show affected. She revealed that she also struggled with self-worth following the hit series. “Some of my audience was so attached to a character, which wasn’t me,” she said. “So, then that does a lot of psychological stuff, where it’s like, ‘Am I valuable as myself?’”

After all, she noted that the entire premise of the show is that when she’s herself no one cares about her, but when she’s all dolled up with long blonde hair as a pop star, the public loves her.

“That’s a lot to put on a kid — to go, ‘When you’re yourself, no one gives a fuck.’ But then when they go and kind of groom you to look like something else, something that you’re not, and you’re really young, and it’s a lot of makeup and, you know, wigs and all this stuff, it does something psychologically.”

Keep scrolling to check out Cyrus’ epic hair evolution. From edgy mullets to long, highlighted waves, the star is definitely not afraid to change things up and try everything out.

Listen on Spotify to Get Tressed With Us to get the details of every hair love affair in Hollywood, from the hits and misses on the red carpet to your favorite celebrities’ street style ‘dos (and don’ts!)