Beyoncé was ready for her renaissance back in 2013 when she chopped off her long locks for a stylish pixie cut, and now, she’s explaining why she made the major hair transformation at the time.

“I remember the day I decided to just cut all my hair off. I didn’t have a particular style in mind. It wasn’t an aesthetic choice, but it was a very big emotional transformation and metamorphosis that I was going through,” she told Essence magazine in an interview promoting her new hair-care line Cécred, which launches Tuesday (Feb. 20) on Cecred.com. “So much of my identity as a performer has been connected to flowing hair. Cutting my hair off was me rebelling against being this woman that society thinks I’m supposed to be.”

“Something about the liberation of becoming a mother made me want to just shed all of that,” continued the star, who welcomed her and Jay-Z’s first child, daughter Blue Ivy, in January 2012. “It was a physical representation of me shedding the expectations put upon me. I just wanted it off.”

The superstar went on to say that at the time, her hair was luscious and long, and that her longtime friend and hairstylist wasn’t exactly excited about her decision. So naturally, she took matters — and her hair — into her own hands. “I just got the scissors and chopped it off. It was very intentional. And it was what I needed to do,” Bey revealed. “And after that, I became super brave. It was the first step to many more audacious decisions I made in my life and my career that have led to who I am now.”

That was one of several hair memories that the 32-time Grammy winner, who has more gramophones than than any artist ever, shared with the magazine. The “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer revealed that she also struggles with psoriasis on her scalp.  “The relationship we have with our hair is such a deeply personal journey,” she said. “From spending my childhood in my mother’s salon to my father applying oil on my scalp to treat my psoriasis — these moments have been sacred to me.”

She later added in the interview: “Hair is our lineage — it’s our family story.”

See Beyoncé’s Essence cover below: