Badass Long Hair: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A trope popular during the age of the [[Nineties Anti-Hero]], when Heroic or Anti-Heroic men with long hair were considered [[Badass]]. These days it isn't as prevalent as it was then, but for a while it seemed every [[Action Hero]] had hair down to at least their shoulders. Usually their long hair was tied back into a ponytail (loose, flowing hair was usually the sign of the grunge bully, but not always), or else was worn in the classic mullet style (or a [[Hime Cut]]).

 

 

Coupled with [[Wild Hair]], this is very common among [[Wild Child]] characters, if only because they've never had anything to cut their hair with, or any reason to do so for that matter. [[Samurai]], who traditionally grew their hair long and wore it either in a ponytail or a ''mage'', are also likely to be this.

See [[Prehensile Hair]] when it's the [[Weapon of Choice]].

 

* Sesshomaru from ''[[Inuyasha]]''. A lot of men in that show have long hair, [[You Fail Logic Forever|but Sesshomaru's is longest]], [[Insane Troll Logic|so he's the most]] [[Badass]].

** A ''proper'' list: the eponymous character Inuyasha, Koga, and Naraku.

** Don't forget Negi's father Nagi as well as Kotaro.

* Edward Elric from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''.

** Pip and Luke count as well.

* Several male ninjas in ''[[Naruto]]'' have long hair, noticeably Jiraiya (who uses it like a weapon), Orochimaru, Shikamaru, Neji, Deidara, Inoichi and Itachi. After the timeskip, Choji has this too.

* Shiryu in ''[[Saint Seiya]]''.

** Also Tyki Mikk in later chapters, even though he eventually cuts it back short.

* Alex Rowe in ''[[Last Exile]]''.

* Ray from ''Beyblade'' is the most obvious offender. Even more badass, considering he always keeps it wrapped in a white cloth, making it resemble a white tiger tail.

** Also, China, of the ponytailed variety.

* Duo Maxwell from ''[[Gundam Wing]]''.

** Erza, Ikaruga, Mirajane, Urtear and Evergreen as well.

* ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'': Rosiel, Sevothtarte, Astaroth, Lucifer, Arachne, and Uriel.

* [[The Sociopath|Agon]] from ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' is a [[Smug Snake|villainous]] [[Jerk Jock|variant]].

* Definitely [[Psycho for Hire|Squalo]] from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]''.

* In ''[[Yami no Matsuei]]'' this trope is implemented in an interesting way with the humanoid forms of shikigami. You see, the length of a shikigami's hair is actually an indicator of how powerful they are, so the most badass ones end up with [[Rapunzel Hair]].

** Mousse. Sure, he may be as blind as a bat, but he can kick some ass.

* Luca from ''[[Saint Beast]]'' when he lets the [[Rapunzel Hair]] down.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Superman]]'' played with this trope. Right after he came back from his "death", he wore a mullet that he often tied back into a pony tail. He cut it just prior to his marriage to [[Secret Keeper|Lois Lane]].

** This was used in ''[[Kingdom Come]]'', during those portions where the 1996 modern DCU was shown.

*** Actually the fact that Evil!Supes was wearing the classic costume while Original!Supes was in black made it trivially easy to tell them apart.

** Supes looked downright awesome with a mullet. The [[Dork Age|problem]] was ''Clark'' having one.

*** [[Red vs. Blue|Hey! I told you that's still not cool! That will never be cool!]]

* Gambit, Longshot, and Bishop of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]. The latter is a rare black example of this trope.

** Omega Red as well.

*** Though recently the good doctor's gamma mutation has stablized, meaning he can cut his hair however he likes. It does remain permanently green, though.

* Jackie Estecado of [[The Darkness]]. For the Videogame adaption they cut his armor, pointing out that his "civilian" look was awesome enough on it's own, this likely had something to do with it.

 

== Film ==

* Randy "The Ram" Robinson of ''[[The Wrestler]]''.

* Mel Gibson wore his hair in a mullet in the first three ''[[Lethal Weapon]]'' movies before finally bowing to modern hairstyles in the fourth.

* Steven Seagal wore his hair long all of his films except the one in which his character was required to have short hair, ''[[Under Siege]]'', in which he played an active duty Master Chief Petty Officer in the Navy.

* Jean-Claude Van Damme sports a powerful mullet in ''[[Hard Target]]''

* [[The Joker]] in ''[[The Dark Knight]]''.

* [[Rambo]] (especially in the third part).

* Cameron Poe in ''[[Con Air]]''.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Qui-Gon Jinn.

* Another [[Action Girl]] example: Maid Marian in ''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]'' fights Robin in hand to hand combat, and then is shown to have waist-length curly hair.

* Antonio Banderas in ''[[Desperado]]'' and ''[[Once Upon a Time In Mexico]]''.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Tarzan]]. No barbers in the jungle.

* [[Conan the Barbarian]].

* ''[[The Elric Saga]]'': Elric of Melnibone.

* Anyone as badass as ''[[Snow Crash]]'''s Raven has earned the right to wear hair like this.

* Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape.

* Roshaun from [[Young Wizards]].

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': An enforced trope with the Dothraki. All warriors wear braids with bells in them that mark notable achievements in battle. If you're defeated in battle, you must cut your braid off. Thus, the longer and louder the warrior's braid, the more [[Badass]] he is. The main Dothraki leader in the first book, Khal Drogo, sports a braid that trails past his waist. He's never been defeated.

* ''[[The Icewind Dale Trilogy]]'': Drizzt Do'Urden wears his white hair long.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Duncan MacLeod in ''[[Highlander the Series]].'' He always kept his tied back in a ponytail, at least in modern day. During flashbacks he occasionally had short hair, and occasionally wore his long hair flowing loose, depending on the time period. Averted in the final season, where Duncan got an [[Important Haircut]] (possibly because Adrian Paul was tired of the ponytail).

* Eliot from ''[[Leverage]]'' is [[The Big Guy]] and has slightly-below-shoulder-length hair; usually it hangs loose but he occasionally pulls it into a ponytail, especially when he knows he's about to get into a fight.

* Lorenzo Lamas in ''[[Renegade]]'' (1992-1997).

* [[Dog the Bounty Hunter]]

* Jax Teller and Opie Winston on ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'', although Opie usually conceals his. Since they're both [[Badass Biker|BadassBikers]] they got [[Badass Beard|BadassBeards]] to go along with it, Jax as of season 3.

* Not as extreme as some examples, but in ''[[Smallville]]'' [[Big Bad|Lionel]] [[Magnificent Bastard|Luthor]] started out as one of these. As he got more and more obsessed and evil his hair got longer; by Season 3 it fell at least to his shoulders. His [[Important Haircut]] at the end of the season marked the beginning of his [[Heel Face Turn]]; fortunately, it did not induce [[Badass Decay]]. The alternate, still-evil Lionel from the last two seasons has 'our' Lionel's badguy-days hair cut.

* Ronon Dex of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''.

* Tyr Anasaze from [[Andromeda]]. Most badass on the crew, longest hair on the crew. {{spoiler|Until season 4. The one where he died.}}

* Deputy Tommy "Hawk" Hill in ''[[Twin Peaks]]''.

* Wild Bill Hickok in ''[[Deadwood]]'', as was truth in television.

 

== New Media ==

* Gackpoid, the purple-haired samurai from [[Vocaloid]].

 

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** In particular, [[Edge]] and [[The Undertaker]] both combine it with the previously mentioned [[Badass Longcoat]]. In fact, 'Taker even has a fairly [[Nice Hat|awesome hat.]]

** Justified, the hair was intended to hide a wrestlers face (to protect kayfabe) when they were telling the next sequence of moves to their opponent, and it also assists in selling certain moves that require the wrestler to avoid contact with the mat to keep themselves from getting a legitimate injury.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The [[God-Emperor]] of Mankind.

** Eldrad Ulthran, Chief Farseer of Craftworld Ulthwe.

 

* Most ''[[Castlevania]]'' protagonists, and some ''an''tagonists, have this.

** All of the [http://images.wikia.com/castlevania/images/e/ef/Belmonts.png Belmonts] have longer hair except for Reinhardt Schneider (second from the right in the picture).

** Soma Cruz

* Some ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' protagonists fit into this, although it's mostly villains, with [[Final Fantasy VII|Sephiroth]] probably being the most famous example.

** And later would be ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'s'' Girouette (Zero's [[Expy]]) and Vent (as of ''ZX Advent'').

* Aribeth and Nathyrra in ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'', possibly Elanee and Shandra in [[Neverwinter Nights 2]], definitely Gann in Mask of the Betrayer, and potentially the player in all of them.

* Nephi from ''[[Black Sigil]]'', already a [[Badass Longcoat]], has long flowing green locks.

* ''[[Yo-Jin-Bo]]'' has Muneshige, whose hair is up in a ponytail (which [[Slipknot Ponytail|inevitably comes down]] in his Good ending), and Bo, whose hair is very long and sleek and (by his own admission) [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|quite feminine]].

* Kain from ''[[Legacy of Kain]]''. He has not changed his hairstyle in over a thousand years.

* [[Bayonetta]] and Jeanne count. Mostly since their hair contains their power and is used to manifest their powers and demonic summons. Including a demon who PUNCHES GOD'S SOUL INTO THE SUN! Can't get much more badass than that

* Gulcasa of ''[[Yggdra Union]]'', ''[[Blaze Union]]'', and ''[[Yggdra Union]]'' has [[Fiery Redhead|bright red hair]] [[Rapunzel Hair|that goes down past his knees]], and the man is a [[One-Man Army]] you ''[[Beware the Nice Ones|do not]]'' want to piss off. The symbolism of his long hair goes further than just badassery, though; he was abused as a child, and keeping his hair as long as it is shows that no one can ever pull it or use it to restrain him now that he's grown up and become powerful.

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' has a ton of examples of this trope, and most of them are of the myrmidon/swordmaster class (the series' internal [[Ur Example]] is [[Fire Emblem Akaneia|Navarre]]). Probably because they critical hit often and their critical hit animations are particularly flashy.

* From ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' we have Keiji, Mitsuhide, Yukimura, Nagamasa and Kotaro.

* ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]''. And ''[[Samurai Warriors]]''. Combined, there are too many to count.

* The Arishok of ''[[Dragon Age II]]''.

* [[Street Fighter Alpha]] gives us Ken Masters. We mostly remember him with shoulder-length hair, but in the Alpha continuity his hair was down to his back.

** Apparently, [http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/File:Sagat-young.png Sagat] had quite long hair when he was young. (Protip: the big "ponytail" is a part of his ''mong kon'' headband, but pay a little more attention you'll see that he ''also'' has a normal ponytail.) In the actualy storyline, however, Sagat is the owner of a [[Bald of Awesome]].

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* Brock Samson of ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' wears his hair long.

** Hank Venture [[Invoked Trope|wishes he was a badass]], and has grown his hair out during the fourth season.

* [[Samurai Jack]] has very long hair that he keeps bundled up into a samurai's topknot. When it comes undone, you are about to have an [[Curb Stomp Battle|asswhooping]].

* [[Big Bad|Van Kleiss]] of ''[[Generator Rex]]''. Rex has even made a few comments about it here and there.

 

== Real Life ==

* [http://tinyurl.com/237py22 Cormac Neeson] of The Answer.

* Claudio Sanchez of [[Coheed and Cambria]]

* [[Jim Butcher]], though not anymore

* [[Neil Young]]

* Crazy Horse

* Trace Adkins

* [http://www.youtube.com/user/aronra?blend=2&ob=4 AronRa].

* The male citizens of Sparta were required by law to have long hair. The father of Spartan law, Lycurgus said that "long hair adds beauty to a good face, and terror to an ugly one." Before battle, the Spartans would carefully comb and braid their hair, partly to keep it out of the way, but also because braids added extra protection against blows to the head.

* Secular knights wore their hair long and tended to be clean shaven. [[The Knights Templar]] [[Averted Trope|averted]] this by [[Bald of Awesome|shaving their heads bald]] and [[Badass Beard|growing long beards]].

* Magglio Ordoñez, formerly.

* Troy Polamalu. His long hair has become iconic in the city of Pittsburgh.

* Wild Bill Hickcok

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Badass]]