Peek-a-Bangs



Common in modelling as well as fiction, this is when a person's hair intentionally covers one of their eyes. Sometimes it's just for style, while other times it might function as an Eyepatch of Power, or cover a disfigurement such as horrible scarring or a blind eye (in which case its removal may serve as The Reveal).

It frequently serves as some kind of symbol:


 * To show that the character is sexy and seductive
 * To show that the character is shy and demure
 * To show deception or concealment
 * To show vulnerability, by acting as a fragile shield or barrier, i.e. the character is an Emo
 * To represent a veil:
 * Wedding veils: as a signal that this is the serious Love Interest, particularly when the male lead is a Casanova, this combined with a stunned look on the Casanova often means that he has finally fallen, and wedding bells are in his future - if he doesn't die first that is.
 * The veil separating God from Man (see the Jewish Temple): implying the person behind it is mystical or supernaturally knowledgeable, maybe even a messenger from God.

In real life, the style is called "peek-a-boo", or more recently, "Emo bang", and was popularized by actress Veronica Lake in the 1940s (who was asked to change it when it proved impractical for women working in factories during the war).

It may only happen for one scene, or it may be a permanent feature of a character. May be a consequence of Slipknot Ponytail. If the style sticks through all sorts of action, it veers into Improbable Hairstyle territory.

A person with this hairstyle may also be victim to some of the same jokes as characters who actually have only one eye, such as lacking depth perception. A common emo hair style for males also features this and calls it emo fringe.

Contrast Hidden Eyes, where a character's eyes are temporarily in shadow to indicate a change in emotional state -- this is usually a more permanent effect and can mean many things.

If both eyes are covered by the locks, then those are Blinding Bangs. For the real use of hair in a Scenery Censor situation, see Godiva Hair.

Anime & Manga
""Why is this banana on my head?" "I'm in luck! This gel keeps my hair pointing upwards!""
 * Joe Shimamura/009 of Cyborg 009. Occasionally, however, both of his eyes are shown.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh!!, Pegasus's hairdo hides the Millennium Eye that allows him to steal souls and read minds. He still has it that way after losing the eye; it fills in for an eyepatch.
 * Trowa from Gundam Wing. Noin has a slightly smaller case.
 * Lin from Ghost Hunt has one of these, which seems to signify that he's being standoffish and reclusive from the others, although it doesn't go away after he warms up.
 * Koyomi from Bakemonogatari is sometimes depicted in this way.
 * Allelujah Haptism of Gundam 00. The eye covered switches sides when his Super-Powered Evil Side takes control.
 * With each personality, it takes on a different meaning. Nice Allelujah gets the emo style, and psycho Hallelujah gets the deceptive style. This is especially evident when he becomes a total Badass by slicking his hair back and removing this trope.
 * Fakir's hair in Princess Tutu sometimes appears this way. It was combined with a Slipknot Ponytail moment in the first season finale.
 * Hatori from Fruits Basket, but it's because he's blind in one eye.
 * Another Fruits Basket example is Utoani Arisa, or at least when she was younger.
 * Deidara from Naruto. His hides a scope on his left eye used for long-range observation,
 * Ino has this in after the Time Skip.
 * And the Mizukage has one as well.
 * Nagato had Blinding Bangs up until Jiraiya trained him, and after that point had these.
 * Also, the Raikage's bodyguard Darui.
 * Chad from Bleach. Kira Izuru has the emo variety.
 * Graham Spector from Baccano, complete with his Improbable Hairstyle.
 * Kan'u Unchou from Ikki Tousen.
 * Seiji / Sage from Samurai Troopers / Ronin Warriors.
 * In .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet the Vagrant A.I. Morté has this.
 * Sanji from One Piece has his left eye hidden behind his hair even in his childhood flashbacks. Whether he actually has a left eye has been the subject of debate, though Word of God states that he does, in fact, have a perfectly functional eye hidden beneath his hair.
 * Sanji's eye being covered has actually become a Running Gag in the series. For example, he was once held upside down, where his hair would not be able to cover his eye. The speech bubble covered it instead.
 * And after a Time Skip, Sanji's left eye is revealed, but now his right eye is covered.
 * Now it makes a lot of sense why he'd cover them up.
 * Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock both has an Eyepatch of Power and has his hair covering said eyepatch. It's two eye-covering tropes for the price of one.
 * Gurren Lagann's Viral has the emo variant.
 * André from Rose of Versailles loses the use of one eye roughly halfway through the series, and subsequently covers it up with his hair for the remainder of the series. Perhaps unusually, he does experience problems with his sight as a result of this, which becomes a plot point later on.
 * D from Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual has one long lock of hair that covers her right eye. This is sort of intentional, as her right eye doesn't look anything like a normal eye (and is possibly non-functional), and it would seriously creep people out to look at it all day.
 * Iroha Tsuchiura from Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!
 * Lucy of Elfen Lied has one eye covered by her hair, though not
 * Lily C. Sherbert from Galaxy Angel II.
 * Ichimoku Ren from Hell Girl. Of course, he does this because his covered-up eye can be transplanted anywhere, essentially giving him the ability to see anything at any time. For extra Badass points, the eye can be visible or invisible at his whim, so in addition to being able to see whatever he wants he can scare the everliving hell out of whoever he needs to scare. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), Ren appears to have little desire to abuse his abilities, this doesn't stop the Fan Fiction writers.
 * Ginko from Mushishi. He's got an empty/black eye under it. This is a secondary result of his transformation into an atypical White-Haired Pretty Boy.
 * Similarly, the title character of GeGeGe no Kitaro lost his left eye as a baby, and combs his hair over the empty socket.
 * Shin Kazuyama from Area 88 borrows his hairdo from Leiji Matsumoto's Yamato (Kaoru Shintai started out as a Matsumoto assistant).
 * Speaking of pilots with peek-a-bangs, Rei Fukai from Sentou Yousei Yukikaze has this. This befits his attitude and his slightly unhealthy obsession with his CO his own fighter jet.
 * Chimera from MAR has hair covering the conglomeration of eyes on the side of her face.
 * Gourry, Zelgadis, and Zangulus from Slayers.
 * Nodoka from Mahou Sensei Negima started out with Blinding Bangs during the first chapter, but eventually moved into this.
 * Precia Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Flashbacks show that she only had this after she went evil and insane.
 * Izumi from Martian Successor Nadesico.
 * Count D and his grandfather from Pet Shop of Horrors.
 * Ryoko Takeuchi from Blue Seed.
 * Nagomi in Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka.
 * Ikumi Kaidou from GaoGaiGar has his hair covering half of his face at all times. This foreshadows the fact that he's much more important to the plot than he initially lets on.
 * Since Palus Abel has the same hair, presumably Kaidou's fa- er, moth- parent Abel has it too.
 * Given that Soldato J also is afflicted with this trope one could argue that its a trait of everyone from their homeworld.
 * Seras Victoria spends so much time in volume 7 of the manga Hellsing with one of her eyes covered by her hair that she looks like a cyclops. This, of course, occurred at the same time that she Took a Level In Badass.
 * Since she was also recovering from a double dose of Eye Scream at the time, it is quite possible that the concealed eye hadn't healed yet while hidden...
 * Dr. Black Jack. Oddly enough, it's not there to cover the nasty-looking scar on his face. Normally it happens when he's pretending to be greedy and extort money from someone in order for them to come to some kind of realization.
 * Suzushiro Isuzu from The Mikos Words and The Witches Incantations.
 * Miata from Claymore. It accentuates her Ax Crazy status.
 * Kirche from Zero no Tsukaima combines this trope with Dark-Skinned Redhead.
 * Hazuki from Ojamajo Doremi, obviously showing shyness.
 * Xerxes Break from Pandora Hearts is missing his left eye under his hair. Cheshire also has this kind of hair.
 * Fullmetal Alchemist: Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong, Alphonse Elric's body, and occasionally Ling Yao . The first anime has Russel Tringham.
 * Van Fanel from Vision of Escaflowne is a partial/borderline example: his hair isn't styled in any way and often just falls over his eyes in general, but it tends to cover one eye completely more often than not. Where it really fits, though, is in meaning, as Van hits both the "vulnerability" and the "serious Love Interest" categories
 * Lag Seeing from Letter Bee hides the spirit amber that replaces his left eye with one of these; also functions as a hair version of the Eyepatch of Power.
 * Black Butler's Ciel Phantomhive's bangs are more dense over his right eye which usually has an Eyepatch of Power over it to conceal his Deal with the Devil contract with Sebastian.
 * In the manga, Freckles  has bangs that fall over a majority of one side of his   face to cover
 * Muraki in Yami no Matsuei, possibly to mask his glass eye.
 * Sheer/Mihasa, the female space pirate from Dinosaur King's time travel arc, has this over her left eye.
 * Washio from Busou Renkin has one. Since he is so Badass, it probably functions like an Eyepatch of Power.
 * Mikoto Urabe in Mysterious Girlfriend X is sometimes this way, and sometimes has Blinding Bangs, and is more antisocial than shy.
 * In Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, Kiri Komori has one, and it is often played for comic effect: "I've only been opened by Sensei before," and Don't open it!
 * Maze Megaburst Space has Gorgeous.
 * James in From Eroica with Love is an example of this. His bangs do not consistently cover a particular eye. While one may point out that his hair may signify his emotional behavior and duplicitous nature, his hair style is also supposed to be reminiscent of the hairstyle worn by Jimmy Page in his younger years.
 * Tobias, Nando, and Sir Aaron from Pokémon, as well as the game characters listed below.
 * Vicious from Cowboy Bebop. Interestingly, besides making him look pensive and brooding (and, ok, sexy as hell), his bangs usually flop over his left eye--the same eye Spike lost in an accident.
 * Mikael from Tenshi ni Narumon has his left side of face always covered with bangs, even though his left eye is still oddly visible. But a translucent hair is kinda a standard in this series.
 * Taki in Captain Tsubasa. Levin and Pascal as well.
 * Jun from Working.
 * Don't forget Souta's sister Izumi.
 * Chaos, the evil second-generation Angeloid from Sora no Otoshimono, has this hair style (until she is ).
 * Leon Earnhardt from Future GPX Cyber Formula SAGA and SIN, although both of his eyes are shown.
 * Gilbert from Kaze to Ki no Uta.
 * Casca's and Serpico's bangs do this from time to time in Berserk, since they have the most pronounced bangs.
 * Played for Laughs in Vandread. The resident Bishonen Duero wears long hair covering his right eye at all times. In the second season finale, Parfeit sneaks up on him and briefly brushes his hair aside, exclaiming "I knew it!" with a content smile. Too bad the audience only sees him from behind in that shot.
 * Lingyu Bao of Cynthia the Mission's hair covers his left eye.
 * In Saint Beast, many characters have the style, but Cassandra's bangs are the likely the only meaningful version, obscuring his face and represent his guardedness.
 * Atori in Noein has long blond hair covering half his face. The dub's Hilarious Outtakes poke fun at it:

Comics -- Books

 * Marvel Comics villainess Viper wears her hair over one eye. Like Dr. Blight (see below), this is to cover scarring on that part of the face.
 * Talia al Ghul, a love interest of Batman.
 * Throughout her numerous looks, one of the stable features of Joseph Michael Linsner's Dawn is her hair always covering her right eye.
 * To the point where, when her lover brushes her hair out of her face, he's genuinely surprised that she has a right eye.
 * X-Factor's Oracular Urchin Layla Miller. After escaping from a future mutant concentration camp where prisoners get an M branded over one eye, she steals a wig to cover her brand.
 * Jane in Insane Jane has this sort of hairstyle in scenes that take place in the present day,, though it's difficult to say whether she styles it deliberately for this reason (she's kind of extremely delusional).
 * In Australian comic Platinum Grit, Nilson Kerr's right eye is never seen.
 * Oyuki from the Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures has this. The only time she ever showed both eyes was in a flash-forward to her in her twenties.

Films -- Animation

 * Violet in The Incredibles did this for most of the movie (showing shyness in her case). The last few scenes show her with her hair back, symbolizing the fact that she's come to terms with herself and is more open now.
 * Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon. They're over her left eye when she's the toughened Viking, and away from her face when she starts warming up to Hiccup, most notably
 * Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
 * Kate's sister Lily in Alpha and Omega.
 * Sasha La Fleur in All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 during her song "Count me Out" stands at a strange angle, giving her one of these. In this case it's a wedding veil.
 * Smitty (a four-armed slug-like monster serving as one of the two janitors) from Monsters, Inc..
 * Peg from Lady and the Tramp.

Films -- Live-Action

 * When Peter Parker gains the evil symbiote costume in the film Spider-Man 3, one of the first things he does is brush his hair down over one eye. Oh sure, he does lots of other mean stuff -- like telling Ursula to make him cookies, with nuts! -- but that's your first big clue that he's going over to the dark side.
 * Mui from Shaolin Soccer starts out as a shy girl with hair covering most of her acne-ridden face. Towards the end, she shaves her head when she joins as a replacement goalkeeper and turns out to be Beautiful All Along.
 * The Ring: Sadako for the Nightmare Fuel variant.
 * "The Bad" in The Good, the Bad, the Weird, who is The Dandy and has an anachronistic "J-pop" look.
 * Star Spangled Rhythm ridiculed Veronica Lake's hairstyle in song, along with Paulette Goddard's sweater and Dorothy Lamour's sarong. The musical number's punchline was a "peek-a-boo bang" on the face of Adolf Hitler, who is blamed for dictating the fashion.

Literature

 * Shadowy Severus Snape, in the Harry Potter books, often hides all or part of his face behind his "curtains" of long black hair.
 * Asher in the Anita Blake books has beautiful long golden hair that usually covers most of the right side of his body.
 * Ciri from The Witcher series starts wearing her hair like this in Tower of the Swallow . Most men interpret it as simply sexy.

Live-Action TV

 * Peter Petrelli from Heroes. First season, at least. It grew back in Season 4.
 * Peter's haircut in Season 2 had to be written in because Milo Ventimiglia hated the long hair so much that he chopped it all off after filming of Season 1 was completed. He had to wear a wig in flashback sequences and when the show was cancelled, he shaved his head.
 * Cameron of The Sarah Connor Chronicles uses this sometimes; Summer Glau said that she had to deliberately train herself to not do "human" actions like brushing her hair out of her face during fight scenes, which sometimes leads to one side of her face being obscured after a battle or action sequence.
 * And speaking of Summer Glau, this was also deliberately invoked in certain scenes in Firefly and Serenity where her hair was used to obscure parts of her face during some of her less-than-lucid scenes.

Video Games

 * Rosalina in Super Mario Galaxy.
 * Though she did not have one as a little girl in her storybook, however.
 * Lulu from Final Fantasy X.
 * Illua from Final Fantasy Tactics A2
 * Leon Kennedy from the Resident Evil series is pretty much notorious for this.
 * Gannayev from Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, possibly symbolic of his deep-seated and carefully hidden fear of letting someone see who he really is.
 * Lumine and Layer in Mega Man X8. Layer has them over both eyes, but her eyes are visible during certain reaction shots.
 * Pandora from Guitar Hero has this in some of her outfits.
 * Angel Starr, Matt Engarde and young Mia Fey in Ace Attorney. In Angel Starr's case, she swishes her bang over to the other eye whenever her mood changes from sweet to bitter. In Matt Engarde's case, with his hair down, he seems enthusiastic and innocent.
 * Mia Fey meanwhile flicks the hair out her eye just before making a particularly effective point in court.
 * Lucia in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
 * Nailah has this as well in Radiant Dawn. This is because she is able to turn other people to stone from the eye's gaze.
 * Sialeeds from Suikoden V.
 * Lucia in Devil May Cry 2.
 * Tear Grants from Tales of the Abyss.
 * Sniper Wolf in Metal Gear Solid. This drew snarky comments in The Last Days of Foxhound.
 * Zexion from Kingdom Hearts. Not an example of vulnerability or being emo, like many seem to think. Instead, it's to show his deceptive and manipulative nature. This is also shown in his title: "The Cloaked Schemer"
 * As well as Fuu(jin), replacing the eyepatch worn by the original version (which would probably look out of place on a kid).
 * Alma from F.E.A.R.
 * Mitsuru Kirijo of Persona 3. She even lampshades this in her Victory Pose.
 * The male Main Character has the emo hair variant.
 * Pokémon Gym Leaders Falkner, Cress, and Flannery, and Champion Cynthia. Some Pokémon may appear to be this way (Gardevoir, Staraptor and Darkrai in particular), but they're perfectly symmetrical from the front.
 * Shouldn't that be Pokébangs?
 * Actually, in the 10th movie, in Pokémon: Battle Revolution, and in its trophy in Brawl, Darkrai's right eye is completely covered. Although, for some odd reason, in the hand held games its right eye can be seen clearly in its back sprite.
 * Gilliam Yeager from Super Robot Wars and related franchises. He has something to hide in every appearance, although at this point his biggest secret is that he's had so many appearances in different continuities, all being the same Gilliam.
 * Lemon Browning also sports this look, and sure enough turns out to be . Incidentally, the other UAURC, Wodan Ymir, manages a similar look by losing half of his mask in his final scene.
 * Certain hairstyles for female draenei and orcs, and for male draenei and blood elves, in World of Warcraft. The male styles are actually referred to in-game as the "emo".
 * Many hairstyles in City of Heroes cover one of your character's eyes.
 * Some of the hairstyles in Rock Band cover up one of the character's eyes, most obviously the Emover and the Femover.
 * Hanako from Katawa Shoujo hides the burn scars on her face behind her bangs.
 * The King of Fighters: Iori Yagami has this, as he's somewhat of a tribute to Yashiro Nightow's character designs. NOT Emo either, as he predates the fad by several years (his debute game was in 1995).
 * Kratos Aurion in Tales of Symphonia, although whether it's the "deception" or "vulnerability" variant depends on whether you're asking a fangirl.
 * Also Pronyma.
 * Rao from Okami.
 * When is leading you through the temple,
 * from Brutal Legend. She avoids Blinding Bangs with the aid of a pink hairclip that holds the other half of her bangs in place.
 * from Sakura Taisen V. She normally doesn't wear her hair like this, but.
 * Marina Wulfstan from Valkyria Chronicles sports these, along with an Idiot Hair.
 * Mr. R from Boy Love Game Kichiku Megane only ever shows his right eye thanks to this trope, even in scenes where the camera angle changes. His usage of it qualifies as deception/concealment.
 * Sis from Alpha Protocol.
 * Yuina Himoo, the resident Mad Scientist of Tokimeki Memorial.
 * Lucia "of the Ice and Fire" Rinanore in Mitsumete Knight.
 * Pleinair from Disgaea.
 * Vincent in Catherine, though only for a time after
 * Ghirahim sports Peek A Bangs in The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword to make him look more Bishie and to emphasize his evil, regal demeanor.
 * Captain Schwann in Tales of Vesperia, in contrast to.
 * Ashley's new look in Mass Effect 3 replaces her Prim and Proper Bun with this.

Web Comics

 * Nimmel Feenix from Dominic Deegan had his right eye slashed to uselessness, so he combed his previously slicked-back hair in such a way as to cover it up. His hair also covers terrible facial scarring.
 * He likes to lift his bangs and show his eye when he's being Badass (or at least trying to be).
 * His most recent appearance ended with an Important Haircut, exposing his entire face.
 * El Goonish Shive
 * Raven is a male example. Which, like many other, can become a female example at the drop of a hat (but still with the peek-a-bangs).
 * Noah in is another male example. Though frankly, female Noah wouldn't look all that different.
 * Also, in a recent EGS:NP comic, Tedd, as a female. Many viewers didn't realize at first that Tedd was female. This led into another comic, where Tedd, now male again, berated the viewers for not noticing he was female. This only made it funnier, as his hair was still the same, so some viewers didn't notice that he'd changed back to male.
 * Rain, from the webcomic Rain has these.
 * One of the (as far as is known) unnamed regular customers in Unshelved. I believe Dewey has made a few scathing remarks about it from time to time.
 * Ardam from Adventurers!, as well as everyone from his hometown.
 * Ash from Misfile. In this case, the eye can be seen through the hair.
 * Agent 32 in Cheer!. When we finally see the covered eye, there's a nasty scar going over it.
 * The Operator in The Easy Breather also uses this hairstyle to hide a scarred face.
 * Both eyes are visible through the hair, but Daisy Archanis in Last Res0rt often has one. It's not always covering her face, but it's there enough.
 * Sadako of YU+ME: dream.
 * Sal Walters of Its Walky, symbolizing her incapacity for introspection and subsequent lack of perspective. When she goes through a spurt of character development and learns to see things from other points of view, she goes back to having two eyes.
 * Geilen from Garanos is shown with these after.
 * Faith from Alone in a Crowd wears her hair like this, although the reason for it (if any) has not yet been specified.
 * Bay from Sailor Sun, likely symbolizing her discomfort with living as a girl.
 * Lifolei of Juathuur, a scary, scary woman.
 * In Nerf Now, Demogirl has this in place of Demoman’s eyepatch.
 * This is Darren Blake's hairstyle in The FAN.
 * Hiro of Overlord Academy has the entire right side of his face completely obscured by bright blue bangs, leading one to wonder how he can see well enough to use the scope of that sniper rifle.
 * Monica of Wapsi Square has this style sometimes. it is quite noticeable in the first panel here.
 * Ginger from Ginger's Bread.
 * Sister Iceland from Scandinavia and The World.
 * Rage, from Wright As Rayne, sports some Peek-a-Bangs, serving to make him look slightly mysterious and stoic.
 * Saves-a-Fox from Goblins.
 * Drummer and metalhead Ashley from Soul Symphony
 * Margo in chapter 34 of Gunnerkrigg Court.
 * Shan'rekk from Prophecy of the Circle
 * Taisei of Sakana usually has Blinding Bangs instead, but sometimes one of them peeps out, depending on what makes the expression work. The reason for the concealment is that his eyes are naturally set in a particularly crazed expression at odds with his inherently friendly personality, so he grows his hair out to keep from putting people off.

Western Animation

 * Captain Planet's Dr. Blight had this hairdo, and hers covers horrible facial scarring.
 * Alpha Bitch from Chaotic has this hair style as well.
 * Nicky from Pepper Ann.
 * Gordon Gibble has this hairstyle, of the "deception" variety.
 * Jun from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
 * Terra from Teen Titans, as symbolism that she was working for Slade. (The eye her hair covers is the one that, in Slade's case, is missing. The first sign that she was actually The Mole.)
 * Although she only has one big eye, Leela's hairstyle in Futurama covers one half of her eye and is meant to suggest this style.
 * Debbie from The Wild Thornberrys, which is more or less simply part of her outfit.
 * Pete White of The Venture Brothers is a male example. It's fitting for a guy whose tastes are stuck in The Eighties. He was even designed after the singer of the Human League.
 * In the anime parody episode of Dexter's Laboratory, Dexter finds himself in a fight early on against a kid with this hairstyle.
 * Marie Kanker from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy wears her hair in the emo finge style.
 * Desiree from Danny Phantom.
 * Dolph from The Simpsons.
 * Carmen in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego??, when she's not wearing her signature fedora.
 * Jimmy Two-Shoes: One of the members of Runny and the Nosebleeds.
 * Fluttershy from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.
 * In MMMystery on the Friendship Express, Rarity starts wearing her mane over one eye a bit into the episode..
 * Fifi from Tiny Toon Adventures.
 * Talia in Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Batman Beyond.
 * Carrie from The Amazing World of Gumball.

Real Life

 * Actress Veronica Lake, as mentioned above.
 * Michael Jackson, sometimes.
 * Singer Gabrielle has been known to do this as one of her many ways of hiding her lazy eye (she has also used sunglasses, hats, and an eyepatch to cover it).
 * Aaliyah. Rumor has it she had a lazy eye.
 * Asagi, vocalist for the Japanese band D, always has his right eye covered.
 * Ian Watkins of Welsh band Lostprophets wore a particularly painful example. Thankfully it's now short again.
 * Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.
 * Bassist Alex James of Blur, sometimes.
 * Jimmy Page