And tragically, I don't remember this ever being reported in the US at the time.
She was largely portrayed as a vapid attention-seeker and it was as if the head-shaving was just like... one of her "wild and crazy" acts.
Now, this was the mid-80s. Media was so much more centralized. I was a kid, and all you really had was the news bites that were served to you.
Theoretically some enterprising kid/person could have really researched her, but out of the zillions of things I could have been doing at the time I wasn't aware of any reason to think more deeply about her.
As an adult I did so and man, that was a strong woman. The "You're Wrong About" episode about her is a wonderful place to start.
And, yet, some guy on some talk show said about her something like "It's kind of arrogant. If she didn't look like Audrey Hepburn, she wouldn't have done it (shaved her head). It's a form of bragging: Look how beautiful I am!"
It’s interesting, I remember people mildly freaking out about it as well. But I also remembered them freaking out even more about the bald lady in Star Trek TMP in 1980.
As a kid each event was a bit startling for a moment and then I got used to the idea quickly. I learned at a young age that old people freaked out a lot about things that didn’t matter. Coincidentally it was also the era of Boy George, Motley Crue, and endless things for parents to have fits about.
By the time SOC took off I could hardly bother to be bothered about her hair.
It was reported, but... it was the 80s. Essentially, nothing was on-demand. If something was reported but you didn't catch the news that day... you missed it.
