There's a sweet true story behind the short haircuts in Medium's sixth season

The bond between TV mom and daughter goes further than the screen, at least in the case of Medium's Patricia Arquette and Sofia Vassilieva. Arquette's a support system that Vassilieva learned she could count on for more than just inspiration as an actress. Case in point: When the younger actress was cast in the 2009 tearjerker My Sister's Keeper, the role required her to shave her head to play the cancer patient at the heart of the movie.

That's a difficult ask of a 17-year-old girl, as Vassilieva was at the time, but Arquette showed her some solidarity to help her through the moment. She shaved her head, too, and that's why when Medium's sixth season started, both actresses sport drastically shorter haircuts than they had at the end of season five (fans know that season's cliffhanger gives a plausible reason why Allison's hair required a chop, too).

Arquette, of course, is the perfect role model, having changed her looks so often for varied roles she took on as a young actress herself, starting in the 1990s. However, in an interview with Ellen, Arquette admitted she was a little hesitant to cut her hair, too, but even more, her real-life daughter vociferously protested it. Just six years old at the time, her daughter's logic was classic (and a little priceless): "She just thinks it’s pretty and long.”