Hair Decorations



Any decoration a character (almost always a young girl) wears in her hair—bands, clips, flowers, ribbons, tiaras, you name it—to make herself look younger and cuter. A grown woman wearing one looks childish, though a character with Rapunzel Hair might be able to get away with cool-looking decorations; a male character (regardless of age) wearing one looks silly (and, of course, his sexuality will be called into question). Thus, with exception to the Boys Love Genre, where cute young guys can wear barrettes or hair clips, or when Real Men Wear Pink is in play, this is a Usually Female Trope.

Mostly used in anime, where the author usually has Only Six Faces, but the relatively mundane setting doesn't call for the more outlandish Anime Hair or even nonstandard Hair Colors; the next best way to distinguish heads is by having the girls wear their hair up with increasingly iconic accessories. Especially prevalent if the main character has brown hair. They're also commonly paired with Girlish Pigtails.

The type of hair decoration also tells you something about her age. Double-orb hair clips and Alice bands are usually worn by preschool girls, while middle- and high-school students prefer ribbons. A particularly common decoration is a ribbon tied into a huge bow. This is more common for elementary or middle school children, and usually signals innocence. (Although this is sometimes subverted by The Lucy).

Sometimes this overlaps with Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: you know it's a girl because she has hair decorations. Naturally, she'll be cuter.

Occasionally part of a Nice Hat, Frills of Justice, and/or Pimped-Out Dress.

Compare Pink Means Feminine, Long Hair Is Feminine.

Anime & Manga

 * Chibi Maruko Chan: When Maruko dresses up, she will often wear a ribbon tied into a bow in her hair.
 * Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura and Tomoyo (see the picture).
 * In one episode, Toya gives The Mirror card disguised as Sakura ribbons for her long hair, since even though Sakura had short hair, he could see through the disguise. The ribbons then appear on the card's artwork.
 * Mazinger Z: Sayaka Yumi always wore a pink headband. It was pretty iconic.
 * A common trait of the Ojou is wearing a hairband. Examples include Akiha, Yukiko, and Tomoyo (pictured above).
 * Hamtaro: Laura Haruna with her 2 yellow hair clips.
 * Lucky Star has Kagami and Tsukasa with ribbons and a bow, respectively.
 * Suzumiya Haruhi: Haruhi's yellow or orange ribbon. She used to change hair decs daily (as well as wearing her hair loose on Monday, and adding one tail/bun/braid/whatever for each subsequent day of the week) until Kyon remarked on it; the next day, she came to school with the yellow ribbon and much shorter hair, a look she's kept from then on.
 * Haruhi's ribbon is a notable sticking point for the gender swapped version of the show—some artists make it into a Hachimaki like headband or a pair of headphones, while others just leave it as is, with the Hand Wave that he is eccentric.
 * Kyon's sister also has some.
 * Yasumi's smiley-face hairpin may be the strangest hair decoration in the series yet.
 * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: Nanoha and Fate trade ribbons at the end of season 1. It's quite cute.
 * Hayate and Reinforce II also have matching ribbons around one lock of hair at the left temple. It's also worth mentioning that Reinforce II was literally born wearing it.
 * Hayate keeps her ribbon into her mid-20s. Seeing as how she's ...you tell her she can't wear it at that age.
 * The Swiss Family Robinson Flone Of The Mysterious Island. Flone wears an exotic flower.
 * Sailor Moon: Tsukino Usagi, Chibi Usagi and Chibi Chibi all wear Odango orbs and tiaras in their Sailor forms. Super Sailor forms throw in barrettes. The manga had the barrettes from the beginning.
 * Not to count Kino Makoto and Aino Minako. Mako-chan has a cute jeweled hair tie, and Minako has a red bow (which even has a backstory of its own). Naru always wears her green hairbow, and in the manga, most of Usagi's classmates are distinguished by their hair ties. (The extraterrestrial-investigation-club leader from Rei's school resembles Asuka with small red hairbows. The Sailor/Amazoness Quartet from the manga are an extreme case, as their hair decs (and hairstyles as well) are practically improbable.)
 * Pokémon: Misty has a red-double-orb decorated single pigtail; Dawn not only wears a hat, but also sports three yellow triangular hair clips. And if these two let their hair grow for the next ten years then up the size of their apparel by an order of magnitude they may hope to compete with the hair dec Power Level of Sinnoh champion, Cynthia.
 * In Nanaka 6/17, Nanaka wears a side ponytail with a double-orb elastic after a head trauma causes her to think she's 6 years old again.
 * The Prince of Tennis: An and Sakuno wear either heart-shaped (the first) or flower-shaped (the latter) hair clips. Tomoka ties her pigtails with double-orb pins when not in school, and so does Narumi Iijyuin in the anime.
 * Axis Powers Hetalia: Several of the females wear something in their hair. Hungary has her pink flower (representing Lake Balaton), Taiwan has plum flower-shaped pins, Seychelles uses red ribbons, Belgium and the sisters Ukraine and Belarus use headbands, Liechtenstein has a single blue ribbon, Monaco has a big purple bow, Wy has a red flower. Vietnam occasionally is drawn with flowers in her ponytail.
 * One of the almost nonexistent male examples is Norway, who uses an cross-shaped hairpin along with his Nice Hat.
 * Another is Noto-sama, whose ponytail is detachable.
 * Himaruya once said of Belgium's early artwork: "She also originally had no ribbon, though Himaruya noted that the design would have been innovative as it is rare for his female characters to lack hair accessories". As well, an early draft of Liechtenstein reportedly had her ribbon replaced with a headband.
 * Several of the Nyotalia girls also wear something in their hair: Japan has a yellow chrysanthemum or pink sakura flower, America wears star-shaped barrettes, England has X-shaped pins, Canada wears maple leaf-shaped barrettes and ties her pigtails with white ribbons, Austria has round purple pins, Romano wears a headband much like Belgium's except it is pink, Spain has some kind of flower, and Korea has a red or pink bow tied around her braid.
 * Hidamari Sketch: Yuno's own X-shaped hair clips are her defining physical characteristics, often serving to symbolize her in the anime. Miyako was surprised to find out that they aren't hereditary. One time, when they went to the pool, Yuno wore a bathing cap, but when Sae removed it, she went back to get her clips. And at the bathhouse, when she removed them to wash her hair, Miyako put them on and got Yuno to look at her newly-X'd hair.
 * Nazuna's hairbeads, which apparently jingle.
 * Minami-ke: Part of what makes Mako-chan such a cute girl is the hair clip in "her" hair. Proof that this trope is not limited to actual girls.
 * Almost everyone from Shugo Chara with a Guardian Character has a hair decoration which transforms to show a character change. Amu Hinamori, for example, wears an X-shaped barrette which changes to match whatever Guardian she's using. The boys of the series are not immune.
 * Air Gear: Kururu's hair is absolutely littered with bobby pins, as well as a large X-barrette.
 * Speaking about X-shaped decorations, in Umisho the main heroine wears a pair of them. For some reason, they are light enough to fly in the wind.
 * Asuna from Mahou Sensei Negima. Especially in the flashbacks.
 * Setsuna uses a hair tie to achieve her distinctive half-bangs side-tail look.
 * Chao wore Odango, while Ku Fei uses... something, to achieve spiky twin-tails. Also, Kaede Nagase, Yue Ayase, Satomi Hakase, and the Narutaki twins.
 * Altough not a girl, Negi has his hair bound with a ponytail. He seems to have have abandoned this in his later appearances though.
 * The ponytail magically comes back when he's not in Raiten Taisou mode. No, really.
 * Serial Experiments Lain: A side-tail tied with an X-shaped knot is Lain Iwakura's probably most prominent feature.
 * Azumanga Daioh manga: Aversion—Sakaki thinks Chiyo looks awfully cute in a plaid bow she wears once. She desperately wants to be cute herself, but when she does an Imagine Spot about what this would look like, she realizes her fierce aura is too overpowering.
 * In the anime, when Chiyo says that her present for her 10th birthday was ribbons, Sakaki imagines Chiyo in ribbons (and a pink dress) and has her usual reaction to cute things. She also imagines herself in ribbons, to the effect described above.
 * Ojamajo Doremi: Doremi Harukaze has a music note pin in one of her Odango, but it's Hana-chan who shines in this trope from the time she's introduced. Even when her magical crystal hairbands shatter in Dokkan, Hana has a new pair that has wing-shaped decs (she even puts a spare on Pao-chan... a male, mind you).
 * Yotsuba is cute enough normally, but when she adds bunny hair ties to her pigtails while dressing up for a festival, the Moe is turned Up to Eleven.
 * Yakitate!! Japan: Azuma's signature hair band (another male example).
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh!! (the manga and the first anime), Miho has her hair tied back with a ribbon. In the manga, she is nicknamed "Ribbon" because of it.
 * Bleach's Orihime has two blue flower shaped hairclips that were a gift from her dead brother Sora. Ichigo's little sister Yuzu also wears barettes.
 * Miyako Shiba used to tie her hair with a black ribbon.
 * A rare male example also features: Byakuya. Though you'd have to be suicidal (or Kenpachi) to question his fashion sense/sexuality.
 * Some female Arrancars have either this, or Hollow masks that look like hair decs. I.e: [[media:cirucci 4027.jpg|Cirucci Thunderwitch]] or [[media:vlcsnap-000011 1691.jpg|the girls from Harribel's fraccion]]
 * Post time-skip Yachiru now wears a skull and crossbones in her hair.
 * Project A-ko: C-ko wears daisy barrettes in her hair.
 * Ouran High School Host Club: Renge has a giant bow on her head that makes her stand out from the rest of the girls, though it doesn't really make her cuter, just more Renge.
 * A few times in the manga, the twins wear hairpins in their hair to pull their bangs back.
 * Hayate the Combat Butler: While not her cuteness, definitely her femininity, Hinagiku's hair clip. Also shows her devotion to her parents.
 * Nagi's twin-tails also are a form of cuteness, to the point that she's been threatened twice because of them, and Saki looks decidedly unnerved when she's forced to take her place.
 * Athena uses both Princess Curls and a black ribbon on her hair.
 * Izumi and Fumi use hair decorations to point out their cuteness, as well as their air-headedness.
 * Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Okay, they're really nerve clips but she wears them all the time, even out of uniform.
 * Shinji only wears his while in the plug suit, but they accentuate his already feminine appearance even more.
 * Then there's Rei. And Mari who also wears her headband-esque clips at all times.
 * Hime-chan's Ribbon is about... well, okay, but she does get a ribbon, and she does look cuter while wearing it.
 * Miki Noda of GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class wears different hair decs every episode. At least.
 * Naruto has Sakura, who wears the Konoha headband like a ribbon (and had a ribbon when a child), and Ino, who exhibits a little hair slide in Shippuuden.
 * Fruits Basket: Tohru is fond of wearing ribbons in her hair, as is Motoko. Kagura also wears them occasionally.
 * Male example of sorts: Ritsu. Though he DOES dress up as a girl.
 * Chika of Ichigo Mashimaro.
 * Various Tenchi Muyo!! girls get in on this. Most memorable is Sasami, with her pigtails and orb thingies.
 * Soul Eater: Evans subverts the stuffing out of this trope by regularly wearing a girls' headband... and rocking the look.
 * Kafuka of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei almost always wears a distinctive yellow ribbon in her hair. It's been noted that without their hair styles, most of the girls would look practically identical. In Kafuka's case, it's more like Every Girl Is Scarier With Hair Decs.
 * Mariah from Beyblade wears a pink hair ribbon which is tied in a way that makes it resemble cat-ears.
 * Finnian ("Finny") of Black Butler is a rare example of a male character wearing small barrette-type things in his hair. It seems to highlight his innocence, or something like that. Before you start mocking his sexuality, just remember he can
 * Miaka of Fushigi Yuugi always has hair decs in any appearance with her Odango, but she usually uses pink ribbons, which play an important role in the manga.
 * Eureka, from Eureka Seven, always wears a hairclip on her at the beginning of the series and as a child in the movie.  at the end of the series.
 * Koboshi from Pita-Ten wears cat ear hair decorations.
 * Misha also has some cute bunny-shaped decs.
 * Hild from Ah! My Goddess - the amount of decorations and ornaments in her hair are stunning, and make her look even MORE beautiful. Her daughter seems to copy this aspect of her.
 * Ukyo in Ranma ½ wears a big white bow in her hair.
 * When She Cleans Up Nicely, Akane adds ribbons to her looks.
 * All the main characters from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun have some kind of hair decoration. But Uiharu Kazari definitely tops them all - she basically wears a bouquet for a hairband. (Her younger self apparently only wore a flower or two, but it's grown since then.)
 * In Attack No. 1, the easiest way to distinguish which girl is which is by their headbands or bows. Kozue wears a yellow headband with a bow on it. Midori has a blue headband.
 * Similarly, in Aim for The Ace!, Reika has an enormous pink bow, the captain has white barrettes, and Kyoto has large orange bows holding back her terrible Princess Leia-esque buns.
 * Not even Katsuhiro Otomo is immune - Etsuko, the little girl who is the protagonist of Domu: A Child's Dream, hold back her curly hair with two clips, reminding the audience that she's only a child but one that can save them.
 * Old-school manga heroine Honey Honey wears an enormous pink bow on her head.
 * Nabari no Ou: Raimei ties her hair up with ribbons, and Juuji wears a distinctive hair clip shaped like a shuriken. Raikou wears protective charms, ribbons, and at one point a hair bauble with hearts on it in his hair...though it's not like his sexuality wasn't already under question anyways.
 * Future GPX Cyber Formula: Asuka wears a hairband in the earlier series, and in the later series Satsuki wears a bow on her side ponytail.
 * Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: At least once, almost every female, regardless of age, (and in certain moments, regardless of actual gender) wear some kind of hair dec, be it clips, ribbons, scrunchie, or barrette.
 * Rurouni Kenshin: Kaoru has her hair ribbon. By the end of the manga
 * In one omake a rescued girl tie Kenshin's hair with a bow, a lady passing by says it suits him.
 * Tiff/Fumu from Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.
 * Kurumu from Rosario + Vampire is almost never seen without her frilly tiara.
 * All of the Rozen Maiden dolls.
 * Madoka Kaname in Puella Magi Madoka Magica spends her time in the morning choosing which ribbon she's going to wear on her hair to make herself attractive. Her friends even lampshade it.
 * Mami Tomoe has a flower hairpin in her hair..
 * Of a less spoilery form, all the other girls have this. Homura has a hair band, Sayaka has a few hair clips, and Kyoko has a ponytail ribbon.
 * Prétear is one of the only series that gets away with having a distinctly heterosexual male character wearing a dec, though it manifests in the shape of a large, tube-shaped bead and clasps around his ponytail in back. Later, it is revealed that every Leafe Knight possesses one of these "communicator beads" to some varying degree of size and placement.
 * This trope is one of the reasons some viewers was convinced that 'Pidge' of 'Voltron Force' the dub of GoLion was really a girl, the other being 'his' friendship with the space mice.

Comic Books

 * Ghost girl Talia of Brody's Ghost wears several hairclips, including one with a skull and one with a heart.
 * Gwen Stacy's headband.
 * Mary Jane from Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies comics wears a red or black bow.
 * The Reboot version of Legion of Super-Heroes' Shrinking Violet wore a headband with a violet in it. Kinetix wore one with a Legion logo.

Films -- Animation

 * In Kiki's Delivery Service, Kiki wears a rather impressive red bow.
 * Also, Chihiro in Spirited Away has a small band to tie back her hair. Later, she replaces it with a sparkly one that Zeniba says will protect her because her friends made it for her.
 * Coraline has a dragonfly.
 * This is popular with the Disney Princesses. In chronological order; Snow White wears blue and red headbands each with a bow on top, Cinderella has a white headband with a bow on it, a silver headband, and a white crown, Aurora has a black headband and tiara, Ariel has a white pearl barrette, large blue bow tied into a ribbon, and tiara, Belle has a blue ribbon and gold band, Jasmine has blue, purple, and gold crowns with bands tying her hair, Tiana has a white feather and silver, green, and gold tiaras, and Rapunzel has flowers and a tiara.
 * Tangled: Rapunzel is a Moe Moe Genki Girl all the time, but the few scenes where she wears flowers all over her carefully multi-braided Rapunzel Hair are just made of sheer adorableness.
 * Fifi, the main antagonist from the direct to DVD sequel of Open Season, "Open Season 2". Despite wearing a cute blue bow on his fluffy head, Fifi is a neurotic and slightly unhinged poodle who didn't intend to let Weenie go back to the wild with Boog and Eliot without a fight. Also he's a male.

Films -- Live Action

 * In Heathers, a red hair accessory passes from owner to owner, symbolizing transfer of power among the girls.
 * Matilda: Matilda always wore a hair ribbon that she tied into a bow.

Literature

 * Gloria Thogsdaughter, one of Susan Sto Helit's classmates in Soul Music, wears ribbons in the school colours. In her beard.
 * Lady Sybil Deidre Olgivanna Vimes née Ramkin has literal hair decorations in the form of interchangeable wigs; her actual hair being burnt off at some time previous by her pet swamp dragons.
 * Alice, who thanks to the Tenniel illustrations is famously associated with, well, the Alice band.
 * In Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge is frequently described as wearing Alice bands and other hair ornaments not at all suited to a woman of her age. It's part of her sickly-sweet projection.
 * In the web-novel Domina, Akane has a number of beads hanging from her ponytail. The significance of this has yet to be addressed.

Live Action TV

 * On The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sarah relates a story from her youth of frequently going to a drugstore with a friend from a slightly richer family with a single dollar to buy hair clips, barrettes and other bits of pretty for the friend's long hair.
 * On Cheers, Woody Boyd's girlfriend wore a plain-colored headband that emphasized her youth and innocence in every sense of the term.
 * On Beakman's World, all of the assistants' hair is riddled with adornments. Beakman even took a rubber band needed for an experiment right from Josie's hair once.
 * Vala Mal Doran on Stargate SG 1 tended to wear her hair in a pair of tails, or at least had sparkly clips or a tiara. Compared with actress Claudia Black's neat little braid as Aeryn Sun in Farscape, the difference is impressive.
 * It should be noted, however, that this does not make her any more innocent.
 * Blair on Gossip Girl was known for her headbands during the first two seasons, and it was even lampshaded by Serena, who ripped off one during a fight once, and Dan.
 * Quinn Fabray on Glee seems to have a fondness for wearing cute clips and headbands along with her sundresses, contributing to her Seemingly-Wholesome Fifties Girl look.
 * Rachel also has a fondness for headbands. She even wrote a song called "My Headband". It wasn't very good.
 * And you can't go without mentioning Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds. That woman's hair is like a Christmas tree. Quite possibly a nod to her youthful optimism and general eccentricity.
 * Would Philip from Kamen Rider Double count? He uses binder clips and bulldog clips.
 * Emily from Skins is never without a tiny adorable bow in her hair throughout S3 (precisely co-ordinated with the rest of her outfit, including her knickers at one point when she goes skinny-dipping), except when she's pretending to be her twin sister Katie (at which point she combines their two signature styles with a giant, garish leopard-print bow).
 * Marian from Robin Hood often wore a curved hair pin...she used it as a dagger on a couple of occasions.
 * Miranda Sanchez from Lizzie McGuire is known for this. There's even a montage of her wearing various decs in one of the Zoog Disney Fourth Wall Mail Slot Ad Bumpers (said bumper is not on YouTube as of this writing).
 * In Doctor Who, Zoe always wears an Alice band. Miss Kelly in The Seeds Of Death goes one better, with something resembling a coffee cup attached to her ponytail.
 * At the end of the Swedish TV series Dårfinkar & dönickar,
 * In My Princess the Korean live action drama, plucky heroine Lee Seoul always has an awesome hair clip, headband, or barrette.
 * Guinevere from Merlin often wears flowers in her hair.

Video Games

 * Female goblins have a few hairstyles with skull decs in their hair. It's pretty damn cute.
 * Most of the very large cast of Touhou, or at least the ones without nice hats. Some of them go one better and wear both nice hats and hair decorations, like Marisa and Nitori. For some examples:
 * Nitori, Komachi, Kisume and Shinki use double-orb fasteners for their pigtails.
 * Marisa, Sakuya, and Hong Meiling all have ribbons for their braids, as does Orin for her twin braided ponytails.
 * Yukari's long, full-bodied hair is usually managed by tying the ends together with a set of ribbons.
 * Reimu, Cirno and Utsuho have a single, large ribbon centered on the back of their heads.
 * Youmu and PC-98 Alice have a smaller ribbon placed off-center of their head.
 * Suika has a large ribbon and a cube chained to her hair.
 * Mokou and Rumia have paper talismans (Ofuda) tied in their hair.
 * Justified in Mokou's case because it seems these talismans stop her hair from burning because of her own fire spells.
 * Sanae has a Frog hairclip and a Snake decoration thing coiled around her hair. They represent the two goddesses she serves under (Suwako being the frog, and Kanako being the snake).
 * Newcomer Hatate has a pair of ribbons for her twin-tails.
 * Many girls in the Dept. Heaven games—particularly the girls of Riviera: The Promised Land. Each of them has a hair decoration of some sort; even Malice offers a hairband as an item drop once.
 * Headbands and other headgear show up now and then in the Final Fantasy games. The most important decorations, however, don't usually show up on the character models: Those ubiquitous little Ribbons that confer immunity to Standard Status Effects (and quite a few non-standards, as well).
 * All three girls in Final Fantasy VII wear noticeable hair decorations, both in-game and in character art.
 * Ritz from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a hairpin while the sequel's female protagonist Adelle has a bow.
 * How can we forget Rikku's hairstylings from FFX-2?! Beads and headband and braids galore! Yuna has her fair share of hair doo-dads, but Rikku's take the cake.
 * Serah Farron, of Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 wears a pink or black jeweled hair tie to hold up her side ponytail.
 * Yoshitaka Amano laughs at the idea that this trope is Always Female:
 * Cecil's design in Dissidia Final Fantasy, true to his Amano origins, has a headband and beads in his long, pretty hair.
 * Not only Cecil, but almost every character has some sort of bead in his/her hair, even if they weren't there in Amano's original designs. And if by any chance they don't wear them in their head the beads will be in the character's outfit, this applies to Nomura's designs such as Tidus or Sephiroth
 * Final Fantasy VI has Edgar, with not one but two pretty blue ribbons in his hair.
 * Do feathers count as hair decs if they're actually growing from Kuja's scalp?
 * Talking about ribbons, these accessories protect against all status ailments in the games where they appear.
 * The Persona series seems to like this trope. In Persona 3 we have Aigis with her... headband/headphone thingy, adorable Maiko and Yuko's hairclips. As well as Metis in the follow up to P3. Generally if the girl is not a main character, she will have some kind of hair decs.
 * The female main character option in Persona 3 Portable has her XXII hair clips, which are an alternate numbering of The Fool Arcana.
 * Then in Persona 4 we have Nanako's ribbon hair ties, Yumi's single clip, Margaret's and Yukiko's headbands. Despite her hair clips, Hanako is not an example—see for yourself.
 * In Super Smash Bros., most Pokémon can be pimped with ribbons, hats, and other head accessories to help tell them apart.
 * Several of the Presents in the Katamari Damacy series act like these. Interestingly, there's no gender boundaries, so you can have the Prince or any of the male Cousins running around in pretty rainbow ribbons.
 * Not only do girls in the Luminous Arc series wear various kind of headgear and hair accessories, but you can also buy and equipt some of them with ribbons as armor.
 * Eternal Sonata: March and Salsa have their bunny ear decorations.
 * In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, several of the Kokiri girls have hair decorations.
 * Zelda herself wears bows or feather-like hair decorations in some of the more cartoony games. In Twilight Princess she has ribbons wound around her braids in an ornamental, possibly significant fashion.
 * Mega Man: Roll has a simple green ribbon bow in her hair.
 * Coco Bandicoot from the Crash Bandicoot series wears a ribbon or a flower in her hair depending on the game.
 * Tess from Jak and Daxter has a pink hairband.
 * Several characters from the Soul Series (mostly of the "cute girl" variety, such as Cassandra, Talim, Amy, Xianghua, Seung Mina and Tira) wear various hair decs. While not of the "cutie" sort, Taki and Sophitia also wear them, though obviously not to the same effect. Setsuka's hair decorations are the most elaborate in the series, especially in SC III, where her hair is piled up on top of her head in a geisha/oiran style, held in place with various ornamental clips and combs.
 * In Fire Emblem 7, Nino has a blue hairband while Ninian wear a sort-of diadem with two big white decs.
 * Don't forget Priscilla's feather clip!
 * The three Pegasus sisters (Florina, Fiora and Farina) wear slim headbands. Also, Rebecca wears a yellow band.
 * Sharlie Lunoille uses hair decs.
 * In Animal Crossing: Wild World, Blathers's little sister Celeste wears a big pink bow. (Though these would be feather decs instead of hair decs...)
 * Paula, from EarthBound, wears a large red ribbon in her hair. She can also equip a range of ribbon accessories.
 * The Mr. Saturns wear ribbons as well, although it's impossible to tell which ones are female and which aren't.
 * Lip from Panel de Pon has a blue double-orb hairclip on her ponytail and a big pink bow on top of her head.
 * Enslaved: Odyssey to the West has Trip use a robotic dragonfly as a hair decoration. When resting, it stays perched tucked behind her ear, and its wings look like feathers.
 * Several female characters in Pokémon wear hair decorations too. Erika has a red headband, Whitney has a yellow pin, Jasmine wears two orange orb hair ties, Roxanne has her pink bow, Candice has a blue clip and hair bands, and Skyla wears a blue flower shaped barrette.
 * The three Kanonnos all have hairbands and season-appropriate attachments to complement their pink hair: a tulip (spring) for Kanonno, a coconut tree (summer) for Kanonno Earhart, and a maple leaf (autumn) for Kanonno Grassvalley.
 * Tooty from Banjo-Kazooie has her hair in pig-tails.
 * Ribbon from Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards has a bow on her hair.
 * Flora, Professor Layton's adopted daughter, is never seen without her hair tied back in a dark pink ribbon.
 * Doctor Judith Mossman in Half-Life 2 has a large, plain hair clip on the back of her head.

Visual Novels

 * Maya Fey, a young Spirit Medium from the Ace Attorney series, wears orb-shaped jewels in her hair, which could be considered her trademark, seeing how she doesn't even take them off whenever she changes out of her usual Kimono (in the games, as well as in official artworks, except for a single, rather old, picture, where the orbs are replaced by fluffy ribbons). Also, supporting character Maggey Byrde wears hairclips, which complement her cute face.
 * In the ef visual novels, every single one of the heroines has some kind of hair dec. Miyako? Great big yellow bows. Kei? Headband. Chihiro? Hair clips. Mizuki? Little hair ribbons. Yuuko? Big fat white bow.
 * Fate Stay Night: Rin Tohsaka has a bow for each of her trademark pigtails.
 * Sakura Matou has a single red ribbon, and Saber ties her hair with a blue one.
 * Tsukihime: Most of the major girls have something. Akiha has her hairband, Hisui and Kohaku have a bonnet and a big ribbon respectively. Ren has an even bigger ribbon.
 * Going into Melty Blood, there's Sion and her Nice Hat and Miyako with her hair ribbons.
 * Kanon's Ayu is never seen without her hairband; in addition to being a visual identifier, it also functions as an extremely important plot device.
 * Most girls from Clannad wear hair ornaments; most notable are the mirrored clips of the Fujibayashi twins, Fuko's purple ribbon and Kotomi's hair baubles.
 * Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Satoko wears a headband.
 * Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Beatrice has a rose, Lambdadelta has bows, has baubles, Maria has a crown.
 * Many of the girls in Tokimeki Memorial use different kinds of hair decs. In the first game, main heroine Shiori collects them, so if you give her clips and ribbons you'll get quite the brownie points with her.
 * And in the Girl's Side versions of said games you get brownie points with your date-guy if you wear his preferred type of (hair) accessory.
 * Yo-Jin-Bo's Hatsuhime keeps her Hime Cut tied back with a big red bow.
 * Eien no Aselia gives some ribbons to Lemuria to make her stand out more. She's the most normal looking girl among the cast after Kyouko.

Web Comics

 * In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, Jean is defined visually as the Girl Next Door partly by the ever-present barrette in her hair. She loses it in the course of one adventure, and Bob finds and returns it to her. Her response is, "Thanks, Bob. I... Well, I feel off-model without it."
 * Anne from Coga Suro 2. Given that the only time she's ever been seen without a hairband of some colour is  she is most definitely cuter with it by default.
 * Hello Cthulhu certainly springs to mind.
 * The Woobie Hannelore from Questionable Content wears a pink hairband in one comic, boosting the urge to glomp to dangerously high levels.
 * Megatokyo: Piroko, Yuki, Miho? Well, probably all of them, really.
 * Toni from Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name wears an X barrette.
 * Jacquline from Samurai Princess is known for wearing for wearing a fish shaped hair pin which has become a fan focus for that character.
 * Eerie Cuties got two so far. Layla wears an emotive skull hair clip. Moe succubus Chloe wears a Cat Eared Headband covering her little horns.

Web Original

 * Many of the OS-tans have some sort of iconic hair ornament in most of their incarnations. In particular, the "XP"-shaped barrette of XP-tan comes to mind.
 * Whateley Universe examples: Geomancer and Generator at Whateley Academy. They're both high school freshmen, although Generator looks like she's about eleven. Geomancer likes ribbons in her hair. Generator likes sparkly hairclips. But they've been weaponized.
 * In her review of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, The Nostalgia Chick wore cute little bows along with her usual pigtails. The fact that the review was heavy on her own brand of Nerd-Rage is probably just a coincidence.
 * The Cat, from That Guy With The Glasses, never appears on camera without her signature headband with cat ears attached.

Western Animation

 * Applies to the majority of cute female characters in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Even Gadget's goggles may count -- she certainly doesn't wear them for their practical utility. One of the main differences between her and Lahwhinie is that the latter is wearing a flower in her hair. On the other hand, Gadget is seen wearing the very same flower instead of her goggles in two other episodes.
 * Molly from Tale Spin.
 * Tomboyish pigtailed farm girl, Dot Hugson from The Oz Kids wears two blue bows that make her even cuter. See here
 * In The Simpsons, baby Maggie wears a powder-blue bow. Lisa sometimes wears a red bow for formal occasions.
 * Blossom of the Powerpuff Girls wears a bow and a hairclip.
 * On The Fairly OddParents, Trixie wears a purple headband, while Tootie wears two hairbands to keep her pigtails up.
 * Hey Arnold!: The reason Helga wears her pink bow is that Arnold told her that he liked it.
 * Giggles and Petunia from Happy Tree Friends.
 * Little Audrey herself.
 * Jazz in Danny Phantom has a headband. Considering the trope itself describes it as girls wearing it to "look younger", it is an ironic choice that Jazz would wear one when she claims she's "an adult stuck in a teen's body". Of course, learning to embrace her childhood while she still can IS part of her Character Development.
 * Starlee Hambrath, of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward wears a headband, which is itself decked out with two small disks attached at each side, making it look somewhat like a pair of goggles.
 * Obligatory Avatar: The Last Airbender example: Toph's headband. Also, to some extent, the clips that hold Katara's hair loopies together.
 * Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes wears a band in her hair for a ponytail, turning her into an adorable little psychopath.
 * Daphne, and now Velma, from Scooby Doo.
 * Suzie (simple pink hairband), Mimi (pink hair ribbons) and Nancy (lilac baubles) in The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan.
 * Diana in Martin Mystery.
 * All the Ponies in G1 of My Little Pony had a ribbon on their tail. Megan, the Token Human, had a pink bow too.
 * In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Applejack's kid sister Apple Bloom wears a big pink ribbon in her hair. Also, Princess Celestia and Luna wear status-appropriate tiaras. Some of the Gala dresses Rarity makes in "Suited For Success" include these; Rainbow Dash's comes with a laurel wreath, Rarity's comes with a tiara, and Fluttershy's includes flowers in her hair.
 * Lil of Rugrats wears a pink bow in the only lock of hair she has. She occasionally trades it with her brother Phil to pretend to be him - they can still be distinguished from each other, if you look closely, but the only real distinction is that he wears shorts under his duckie smock and hers is a dress.
 * Isabella from Phineas and Ferb wears a pink bow in most of the episodes she appears in, while Candace's friend Stacy usually wears a blue ribbon in her hair.
 * Creepy Child Suzy Johnson, the manipulative little sister of Candace's boyfriend Jeremy, wears two blue bows in her hair.
 * Pepper Ann wears a blue scrunchie in her hair for her ponytail.
 * Recess: Spinelli wears red bands (ribbons if the episode calls for it) in her hair for her pigtails, and Gretchen wears pink baubles in her hair for pigtails, and has worn a pink bow on one occasion.
 * On 6teen, Caitlin always wears a pink butterfly hair clip. This may possibly be to show that she's supposed to be the biggest girly girl in the group.

Real Life

 * Though she does not wear them often, Mallory Ervin (Miss Kentucky 2009-10) wore flowers in her hair for her official Miss America portrait.
 * Very much Truth in Television in the Victorian Era, according to this post.
 * Melanie Laurent's page picture.
 * Varsha Vinod combines this with Badass Adorable.