Part of the reason that scene (and the movie as a whole) had such an impact is because it was the result of actor Sanaa Lathan shaving her real hair and experiencing the freedom of baldness in time with her character.

The film, as Lathan said in an interview, is really “about falling in love with yourself. It's about the first love you have and need to have with yourself.”

After the return of Clint and a marriage proposal, which Violet accepts, Clint becomes one of the final pieces in Violet's evolution. Just before a pre-wedding party where Violet is to meet Clint's parents he asks her to change, to “do something with her hair” because he needs the evening to be perfect.

That one incident sets a series of life-changing experiences and realizations in motion. First, she meets Zoe (Daria Johns), a precocious little girl who loves her own nappy hair and calls Violet on her pretension. Then, the fragile woman is devastated when the Tiffany-boxed gift she receives isn't a ring after all.