Tia Mowry Shows Off Her 'Bittersweet' Haircut: 'Exciting Start to a New Era'

Mowry is letting go of the past with a big chop

Tia Mowry is feeling fresh!

The actress, 44, just showed off a big chop to her 11.9 million followers and gave a heartfelt message about change and releasing negativity.

In her five-part photo dump, Mowry gave a look at her new hair change from nearly every angle: a shaggy pixie cut that's shorter on the sides and longer on the top, with some strands falling just above her eyebrows.

The first pic shows her in layers of gold jewelry, sparkly eyeshadow, and a flowy green, blue and yellow outfit as she poses for a selfie with rolling hills in the background. She followed that photo with one of her squatting in the mirror wearing a star-embellished blazer, one of her relaxing in a bathrobe, another of her in the blazer and finished it off with her sprawled on the floor of her closet in sweats and giant hoop earrings.

Mowry captioned the photo set with a message about how liberating a haircut can feel. "There's something so bittersweet about a nice chop. It feels like a release of old memories, both good & bad, but also an exciting start to a new era."

She continued by writing that with the cut, she is "ready to embark on this chapter of my journey, and everyone knows that there's nothing more monumental to mark it with than a fresh cut 💇🏽‍♀️."

Fans in the comment section both praised the new look and agreed that her energy feels different. They left notes like, "This looks good on you, ma'am!" and "Your energy radiates through the screen! You look soo happy; continue on your journey, mama! ✨💗" and "I definitely agree! A fresh chop sheds it all, and you look AMAZING, babe! 😍😍😍.”

Hair is a special love for Mowry, who started her own hair care brand in January this year. 

4U by Tia, which is available at Walmart, is an inclusive haircare brand that is clean, sustainable and made with all the products every naturalista will recognize.

"I take pride in this is a formula that works for hair textures ranging from 2A to 4C," she told PEOPLE. "It was important for me to simplify my hair care routine or just the routine in general when it comes to curly hair. I have three different textures in this house. My daughter has a different hair texture than I do, and so does my son."

"But growing up with curly hair, the routine has always been so incredibly overwhelming," the mom to son Cree, 11, and daughter Cairo, 4, continued. "You would have eight different hair care products for all of the different individuals within the household, and I wanted to simplify that. It was really important for me to create a formula that works on all hair textures."

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In addition to having the lived experience of a woman of color with curly hair plus her decades-long tenure in the entertainment industry, Mowry knows firsthand what it's like to be underrepresented in the hair and beauty space.

"I feel like women of color and just women that looked like me with our hair texture weren't always celebrated, a part of or included whenever it came to beauty; it was always leaning more towards European standards," she told PEOPLE.

"I remember going to school, and I was picked on when it came to my hair; I was told that I looked like Buckwheat...They would call my sister and I Buckwheat twins. Oh, They would say that 'Oh, your hair is frizzy,' or 'Your hair is greasy,' or 'What's that white stuff in your hair?' Even when I got into my 20s after Sister, Sister, when I would audition, I wasn't getting roles because costume director[s] said my hair was a distraction."

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