While talking about all this, Anya kept looking into Charlie's eyes, afraid that Charlie would hate her.
People are often like this: when you have an unhappy past, even if the root cause of that sin isn't you, you still feel inferior all the same, afraid that your honesty will make others despise you.
Just like at school, she clearly only had short hair, she had never told anyone about her past, and yet she still kept getting mocked and hurt.
As for the short hair, Anya was afraid of having her hair ripped out. Once, someone really did rip her hair out, yanking it from her scalp, with blood and all. So she cut her hair short.
