Expository Hairstyles

Generally, the most important things an author wants to communicate to an audience are the things that are difficult to instantly demonstrate, such as a character's role in the story, personality, moral character, or whether the author wants the audience to sympathize with them.

Often as a visual shorthand, the writer uses the character's appearance to symbolize those characteristics. In animation, a common practice is to use Hair Colors, or the color and shape of the eyes. However, another technique that has several useful advantages is the style and length of a character's Hair Tropes. For one thing, it's relatively easy to implement in Live-Action TV as well as animation. It's also convenient for characters who undergo lots of character development as you can give them an Expository Hairstyle Change or Important Haircut.

Note: while Hair Tropes are all tropes that have to do with hair, this is specifically a supertrope of cases where hairstyle is used to represent personality, not simply to look interesting or help you tell the characters apart.

Compare Stock Costume Traits, where a character's costume indicates profession & status.

Female Tropes / Subtropes

 * Bald Women: Often found in Sci Fi, these characters tend to represent empowerment through transcendence.
 * Braids of Action: A single long braid or a pair of braids, used to indicate an Action Girl.
 * Boyish Short Hair: Short unkempt or spiky hair, often used to indicate Tomboy types, and action girls.
 * Girlish Pigtails: Hair tied into sidetails that stick out the sides indicate youthfulness or immaturity.
 * Hime Cut: Combination of a female with perfectly straight bangs, noticable sidetails, and long hair in back indicates an Ojou.
 * Mega Twintails: Outrageous Girlish Pigtails twirled into Princess Curls indicates a character who combines the two types.
 * Odango Hair: Two spherical buns worn at about 45 degree angles on the side of the head, sometimes with ribbons and/or cloth covers. Indicates the character is either Chinese, innocent and polite, or when worn with twintails, a Tsundere.
 * Power Hair: Short hair reaching the jawline, parted in front and coiffed expertly so it never crosses in front of the face, used to indicate an Iron Lady.
 * Prim and Proper Bun: Hair tied in a single bun at the back, indicating a neat, prim, proper, and organized woman of authority, who is typically conservative and tight laced.
 * Princess Curls: Curly sidetails on female characters often indicate royalty or being of (or formerly of) high status.
 * Rapunzel Hair: Very long hair (past their hips) that flows like a cape is often used to indicate a dramatic character from a wealthy a background.
 * Regal Ringlets: Corkscrew curls as a sign of a character being upper class.
 * Short Hair with Tail: Combining the femininity of long hair and the Action Girl / Tomboy implications of short hair.
 * Tomboyish Ponytail: Wearing a ponytail not intended for elegance indicates a Tomboy or The Ladette.
 * Tomboyish Sidetails: short hair combined with the sidetails of a Hime Cut, indicating a character with a tomboyish, non - girly, or unique personality.

Male Tropes / Subtropes

 * Badass Long Hair: Manly AntiHeroes with long hair tend to be more badass than they look, especially if they often carry a sword.
 * Bald Black Leader Guy: The combination of dark skin and baldness indicates an often mysterious, heroic authority figure, often the Big Good.
 * Bald of Evil: Bad guys are often completely bald.
 * Braids of Barbarism: Horny Vikings and other barbarians.
 * Go Nagai Sideburns: Sideburns that look like a flame indicate a Hot-Blooded character.
 * Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Long hair used to emphasize the character's status as a Bishonen.
 * Wild Hair: Shaggy, unkempt, long hair, often with a bushy beard, used to symbolize that a character is close to nature.

Unisex (same implications for both genders) Tropes / Subtropes

 * Bald of Awesome: When hair loss isn't a sign of a character's lack of youth, health, or morals, it's a sign of awesomeness.
 * Blinding Bangs: A mop of hair that obscures the eyes, usually used to indicate that a character is dumb, a Shrinking Violet or The Stoic.
 * Delinquent Hair: Unnatural hair color or styles used in a more realistic setting to denote a Delinquent, antisocial, or rebellious individual.
 * Good Hair, Evil Hair: When this supertrope is used specifically to distinguish heroes and villains.
 * Hair Antennae: Two locks of hair that stick out above the head, resembling an insect's antenna, used to indicate The Ditz.
 * Horned Hairdo: A hairstyle that looks like horns is usually a sign that the character is up to no good.
 * Idiot Hair: A single lock of hair that sticks traight up, indicating a foolish, naive, or mischievous.
 * Peek-a-Bangs: Hair covering one eye, used to indicate a character who is either seductive, deceptive, shy, or angsty.
 * Quirky Curls: Characters with completely curly hair (not just Princess Curls) tend to be energetic, quirky, rebellious and/or eccentric.
 * Spiky Hair: A combination of wild, cool, and Badass, though often not to the same extent as Badass Long Hair.
 * Villainous Widow's Peak: A distinct point in the hairline in the center of the forehead indicates a villain.