Show the Forehead



Everybody likes bangs, right? They make it easy to distinguish hairstyles from the front, they're easy to draw, and they are good for all kinds of dramatic effects.

Not always. Some people prefer to keep their hair slicked back. Some people think bangs are childish. Some people are control freaks who have to have every hair glued firmly in place against their scalp. And some people just find pieces of hair falling in front of their eyes to be ticklish, distracting, or annoying. What do these people do?

Well, if they have long hair, they pull it back in a tight tail or bun, to keep it from getting in the way. If they have short hair, they cut it short enough on top that it doesn't fall down across their forehead. In either case, they are determined to Showthe Forehead that God gave them.

This doesn't apply to people with afro hair or bald, but for characters who would have bangs, but decided to slick them to the back anyway.

If the said forehead is extremely big, it's Forehead of Doom. This hairstyle could also be part of Shonen Hair, or feature a Villainous Widows Peak.

Anime & Manga

 * Taiki aka Sailor Star Maker from Sailor Moon. The fact that she/he is one of the few main characters without bangs is probably the reason his/her forehead is exaggerated to Forehead of Doom levels in fandom. There's even dōjinshi out there by a group called Tapioca Musume that highly exaggerates Taiki's forehead to the point that his/her forehead is bigger than his/her body.
 * Klaus from Hayate the Combat Butler.
 * Renko from Kujibiki Unbalance (the OVAs).
 * Madoka Midou from Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko. Yohko frequently jokes about the size and shinyness of her forehead.
 * Denmark, Germany, Thailand and Netherlands in Axis Powers Hetalia. Denmark is more of a Boisterous Bruiser, but for the other three it applies. The latter two is also once or twice drawn with bang.
 * Ritsu "Ricchan" Tainaka of K-On! fame, except on very rare occasions (during said occasions she instead showcases Blinding Bangs).
 * Yui, on the other hand, has a forehead complex. After accidentally cutting her hair too much, she lets the other girls give her different hairstyles to cover it up. When Mugi ties up Yui's hair to show her forehead (which Ritsu approves of), Yui starts to cry and talk about how mean Mugi is.
 * Seiji Yagiri from Durarara.
 * Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami from Sanctuary and the majority of the characters for that matter since they try to portray Yakuzas and Politicians who need to look that way.
 * Chang Wufei from Gundam Wing, in the painfully-tight-ponytail variant.
 * Takasu Ryuuji from Toradora shows his forehead on some occasions.
 * It's actually a minor plot point in Naruto that Sakura wears her hair in such a way to show off her forehead--her frenemy Ino styled it that way with a ribbon to teach her to have confidence in herself and her Forehead of Doom.
 * Run from A Channel has this as a prominent feature.
 * Slicking his hair back marks Aizen's transition from his kind-hearted mask to his true self of a Magnificent Bastard Big Bad.

Film

 * Maruti/Hanuman from The Return of Hanuman, showing his forehead marking.

Live Action TV

 * This is a common feature of Star Trek aliens, since they tend to be of the Bumpy Forehead variety. Pushing their hair a little back allows for that particular trait to stand out even more. The most obvious example is Worf and the Klingons, but it's present in most of the other species as well.
 * Angela in The Office almost always has her hair either in a ponytail, a bun, or very tight french braids.
 * Veronica in Better Off Ted always has her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. One episode featured her letting her hair down to seem more accessible and soften her image a bit. But she ends up deciding she prefers not putting people at ease and goes back to her previous style.

Video Games

 * Montblanc from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII, and Final Fantasy Tactics a 2. As shown above, he is seen with a large forehead, if compared to his body. It "shrinks" as time passes.
 * Also Mewt Randell as a Prince in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
 * Mustadio from Final Fantasy Tactics and his possible relative Balthier (who originally came from Final Fantasy XII).
 * The title character of Phoenix Wright.
 * Apollo slicks his bangs into two spiky "demonic horns", or so the Judge says, and gets ridiculed by various people (mostly the prosecution) for his showy forehead. He's even earned the nickname "Herr Forehead"!
 * Luxord of Organisation XIII from Kingdom Hearts II has very short hair compared to the ridiculously long styles of the other members.
 * Vergil in the Devil May Cry series wears his hair slicked back. When it falls over his face he looks exactly like his twin, Dante, whose own hairstyle borders on Blinding Bangs.
 * Millia Rage of Guilty Gear pairs this with Rapunzel Hair in most artworks.
 * Zack Fair changes his hair to this partway through Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII to show that he's gotten serious. However, he seems to still have a single, long strand of hair hanging in front of his face at all times.
 * Katakura Kojuro from Sengoku Basara slicks his hair back as a sign of self-control. When he gets angry, it tends to become more disheveled.
 * Yai in Megaman Battle Network, who has her hair in two braids with the forehead showing prominently. In the anime adaptation, Mega Man NT Warrior, she even says she's proud of her big forehead, as it shows off her intelligence (big brain, you see).

Web Comics

 * In Everyday Heroes, the mask that Summer wears to block her Eye Beams also doubles as a handy hairband.

Western Animation

 * Most of the characters from  ~Avatar: The Last Airbender~ , just to name a few.
 * Air Nomad nuns are not bald like their male counterparts, but apparently shave part of their hair off so that their tattoo is still visible.
 * Sam from Totally Spies, probably because she's the smart one.
 * Code Lyoko manages to combine this with Forehead of Doom. Especially notable with Odd and Sissi.
 * Bebe from South Park.

Real Life

 * Taken to an extreme in medieval Europe, some women would pluck hair from their hairline to make their forehead look bigger.