DALLAS • Irish singer Sinead O'Connor (left) had long hair when she was young. Speaking on the Dr Phil talk show on Tuesday, the 50-year-old recalled that her sister "had the most glorious hair" when they were children.

"But my mother took it into her head that my sister's hair was ugly and horrible and disgusting.

"When I had long hair, she would introduce us as her pretty daughter and her ugly daughter. And that's why I chopped my hair off. I didn't want to be pretty.

"And it was dangerous to be pretty, too, because I kept getting... molested everywhere I went."

But O'Connor's record label asked her to revamp her looks when her music started to make waves in the late 1980s and early 1990s, USA Today reported. It wanted her to grow her hair out and don skirts.

She put her foot down, telling the show's host Phil McGraw: "I didn't want to be sold on that. If I was going to be successful, I wanted it to be because I was a good musician. Plus, I came from an age of protest singers."

She also spoke about her depression.