Important Haircut: Difference between revisions

[[File:mulan4.jpg|link=Mulan|frame|[[Took a Level in Badass|And then she grew a backbone.]] ]]

 

 

When a character cuts off his or her hair, it often symbolizes a rite of passage or bout of character growth. A princess striking out on an adventure, or a new recruit at boot camp, for instance. Hair is something that takes time and effort to grow, so parting with it voluntarily can be a powerful act.

 

 

In many religions (Western Christianity, Ancient Egyptian religion, and others) priests and/or monks cut/shave their hair. The cutting of one's own hair is also a part of Buddhist mythology, specifically something done by Siddhartha himself early on in his path to enlightenment, so anime examples might draw from this as an allusion. There are also some cultures, including Native American and many Asians, where a person would cut his or her hair as an act of grief, disgrace, or even rebellion. Furthermore, prisoners and psychiatric patients commonly have their heads shaved, often to prevent the spread of lice, but sometimes also [[Traumatic Haircut|as a demeaning measure]].

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Sket Dance]]'', both Himeko and Switch in their respective Backstories, each for his/her own reasons. Tsubaki also makes such a decision when appearing as a minor character in Bossun's backstory.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': Usagi's hair grows exponentially when she is revealed as the princess in the manga. It is eventually cut back to normal length. In the anime, she almost gets a sorrow haircut upon Minako's suggestion when Mamoru is taken hostage, but the [[Monster of the Week]] apparently makes her forget that she was in the beauty shop for a new 'do.

** There was a similar event with Chiyo-chan, where she wears her pigtails down, but is otherwise the same.

* Ninamori from ''[[FLCL]]'' cuts her hair at the end of the 3rd episode.

* Another male example: Ginta shaves his head to apologize to Miki after he accidentally breaks her heart in ''[[Marmalade Boy]]''. Meiko also suggested Miki cut her hair before they saw that Ginta had, but Miki laughed it off; back then, her hair was much too short already.

** Echoing the above incident, when Yuu leaves Miki (apparently for good, {{spoiler|after finding out he may be her half-brother}}), Miki's efforts to overcome it include cutting her long hair into a pageboy style and piercing her ears.

* When we first meet Casca from ''[[Berserk]]'' she has close-cropped short hair symbolic of her [[Lady of War]] persona. In a flashback to her earlier days before joining Griffith's Band of the Hawks, she had long hair, meaning that she probably cut it off soon afterward. After the events of the Eclipse where she {{spoiler|gets raped by Femto and [[Go Mad from the Revelation|Goes Mad From The Revelation]]}}, Casca has let her hair grow long again.

** Additionally, Farnese, {{spoiler|when she joined Guts on his journey, cut her own hair short as a sign of humility and apology for everything she did to him and Casca.}}

* In ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', Eureka gets several hairstyle changes reflecting... other changes about her. Her hair is cut in the episode Acperience 2, and grows back in Acperience 3.

** Talho also trims her normally unkempt hair as part of her complete outer (and inner) makeover in episode 30.

* Yozora of ''[[Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai]]'' sheers her long locks after an incident with a firework, and getting a bucket of dirty water dumped on her to put it out. The important part of this is {{spoiler|her short hair finally brings Kodaka around to realizing, she's his [[Forgotten Childhood Friend]], Sora.}}

* In ''[[Katanagatari]]'' Togame suffers this, at the hand of {{spoiler|Nanami}}.

 

== Comic Books ==

* When the Civil War finally begins, [[Nikolai Dante]] cuts his hair short (off-panel) to represent his acceptance of the Romanov name. During the Amerika storyline, he finds a poster of himself from his swashbuckling days, and the toll the years have taken on him become painfully apparent.

* One of the gags in ''[[MAD]]'' magazine's "A Mad Look at Hair" features a guy in a business suit bringing a gorilla to a barber; in the next panel, the gorilla, now shaven, is on a football team.

 

== Film ==

* The opening credits for ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' consist of a montage of all the <s>maggots</s> new recruits getting shaved in preparation for basic training.

* The transformative moment in ''[[The Legend of Billie Jean]]'' is when Billie Jean hacks off her hair. She goes from a long blond beauty to an avenging rebel.

** More soberingly, Putter does the same thing out of defiance after her mother hits her.

* The protagonist of ''[[Cthulhu (film)|Cthulhu]]'' (2007), shortly after arriving back in his hometown, shaves his head similar to his estranged father. As this happens early in the movie I'm not sure exactly what it was supposed to symbolise, though it's apparently a case of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]—the actor had shaved his head for another role, yet was playing a college professor).

* In ''Frida'', Salma Hayek's titular character gets drunk and cuts her hair in reaction to her marriage failing and then creates a well known painting of the event.

* In ''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]'', Geena Davis's character has an Important Haircut (while also dying it blonde) after we've seen the Charly Baltimore personality completely take over (or appear to) and the Samantha Caine personality disappear (maybe).

 

== Literature ==

* Many religions have prohibitions or rules in regards to hair. In literature, the most famous example is probably the Biblical Samson, whose parents were visited by an angel who allowed his barren mother to become pregnant if she would abstain from unclean meat and alcohol and never cut the child's hair or shave him. This essentially constituted a pre-natal initiation into a Jewish ascetic cult, and this super out-of-proportion before-birth devotion granted Samson the mystical power of invincible strength, allowing him to become one of the judges who were leaders of Israel. The major part of his story is a negative Important Haircut that eventually results in his blindness and death, making even the inversion of this trope [[Older Than Feudalism]].

** Isaiah 15:

''Everyone's head is bald and every beard is cut off. ''

* In the ''[[Babysitters Club]]'' series, Mary Anne has one when her father stops being overprotective of her.

* In ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' (the original story) the mermaid's sisters give the sea witch their hair in exchange for a knife that will grant the mermaid her tail back.

** Of course, it later turns out that the haircut wasn't his real reason for the trip.

* Happens to a few characters in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, where one section of the world puts a lot of stock in the length and style of women's hair. Two examples: In the first book, the hero gives Rachel (previously little more than a slave, with her hair deliberately chopped up) a haircut evening out her locks after she runs to freedom. In the second book, the Mother Confessor (who, as the de facto ruler of the land, has the longest hair around) has her hair chopped off before she's sentenced to be executed.

* Also, in ''[[Narnia|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', part of the tragedy of Aslan's sacrifice was seeing him with his mane cut off. Without it his majesty disappeared and he looked like simply a large cat.

** ...which would seem to [[Unfortunate Implications|suggest]] that a ''female'' lion wouldn't have had much majesty to begin with.

* In ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'', Cao Cao chops off his hair to impress his men after transgressing against a rule that had execution (by decapitation) as its punishment. Calling it an attack on the head, his men were doubly careful to avoid breaking the rules when they saw that the highest ranks were still subject to punishment.

** Subverted by Zhao Fang. When Cao Xiu questions Zhao's motives for defecting, Zhao threatened suicide. After being stopped from killing himself, he cut off his hair as a pledge. Zhao's defection was fake, though, and Cao Xiu would end up severely defeated in battle.

* Subverted in ''[[Honor Harrington|In Enemy Hands]]''. Honor's brutal [[State Sec]] captors think giving her a clipper-cut is inflicting yet one more humiliation on a woman condemned to hang. Unfortunately for the 'black-legs', Honor deliberately wore her hair that short throughout most of her earlier career and only grew it out during her time in 'exile' on Grayson; she finds their resulting consternation a little funny, and is actually more worried that they're not feeding her enough.

* In [[Ben Elton]]'s novel ''Dead Famous'', Sally, a contestant on a ''[[Big Brother]]''-style game show, expresses a desire for an Important Haircut and cuts and dyes her hair while staying in the house. It turns out to be a ''very'' important haircut, because {{spoiler|the show's producer planned to murder one of the girls to boost ratings, and "pre-recorded" the scene for all five female contestants. Sally was the first target but was not killed because she no longer looked like the fake Sally on the videotape.}}

* In ''[[The English Patient]]'', Hana cuts her hair after she starts working as an army nurse.

* In the short story ''[[The Gift of the Magi]]'', Della has her long, beautiful hair cut and sold to get enough money to buy a Christmas present for her husband.

* In the book ''Adorable Sunday,'' the title character Sunday [[Embarrassing First Name|poor kid]] cuts off her hair so her [[Stage Mom|mother]] will let her stop being a child model.

** Venus does something similar in ''Venus and the Comets.''

* In ''A Farewell to Arms,'' Catherine mentions wanting to cut her hair off after her fiance died. She decides to cut her hair shorter later in the book for no particular reason, though This Troper's English teacher suggested that this, taken with the above, was [[Foreshadowing]] {{spoiler|her own [[Death by Childbirth]]}}.

* In Kij Johnson's ''Fudoki'', the main character, a Heian court lady, regards it as a liberation from oppressive ceremony when she's finally elderly enough to retire to a monastery. Even though her attendants initially only cut off a symbolic few inches of hair (because it's servants who wear theirs shoulder-length), she feels relieved by the lightening of weight as well as the meaning of the haircut, and intends to chop it all off once she leaves.

* In the ''[[Pern]]'' novel ''Nerilka's Story'', Nerilka shears off the long hair that was her one vanity before leaving her life as a Lord Holder's daughter to work as an anonymous healer's assistant in the plague tents.

* In ''[[A Rose for Emily]]'', Emily cuts her hair after her [[Overprotective Dad]] dies.

* In the second season of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]],'' Captain Janeway ditched her librarian bun. This was less about symbolism and transition, and more about looking less ridiculous.

** Likewise Kes ditched her bobbed wig for long flowing locks, but that was probably to save Jennifer Lien from having to spend hours getting those pointy ears stuck on.

** More recently, {{spoiler|Chief Tyrol's}} shaved head is used as a sign of his {{spoiler|gradual mental descent.}}

** Starbuck's haircut at the end of "Torn" was contrasted with Colonel Tigh's draining of a bottle of booze: Both had been valued crewmembers that had lately [[Heroic BSOD|turned unpleasant]], so Adama had to chew them out. Starbuck then puts on a clean uniform, cuts her hair, and goes to apologize to a family she had offended. Tigh just gets dirtier and drunker.

* In ''[[Breaking Bad]]'', Walt's decision to shave his head rather than deal with the hair loss from chemo coincides with a truly phenomenal [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: at the end of the episode in which he goes bald, he {{spoiler|uses a bag of crystal meth to gain entrance to the den of a druglord who had just hospitalized his partner... then ''blows up the room'' with what he reveals to be, in fact, fulminated mercury}}. [[Took a Level in Badass]], indeed.

* Peter Petrelli, in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', has his floppy fringe cut off while Sylar is attempting to remove his brain. This could well be in response to repeated requests (by not only other characters in the show, but also fans and the actor himself) for him to cut his hair.

** Elle later adds to this by giving him a more complete hair cut. Claude would be proud.

* Used in the second season of ''[[The L Word]]'' when Shane gives the newly-out Jenny a short haircut.

* In ''[[NCIS]]'', Gibbs grows a neat, somewhat disturbing moustache after returning from his [[Ten-Minute Retirement]], then shaves it off when he returns to his old self.

* On the "Game Night" episode of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Barney (in his hippie past) gets dumped and gives himself an important haircut and shave.

** Also, between Season 1 and Season 2, Lily leaves and comes back with her trademark red hair dyed black. This was a decision by the actress unrelated to the show, but the creators felt it fit the character, who had just undergone a breakup and other major life changes. The hair remained the same after she got back together with her ex, though.

* In ''[[Deadwood]]'', Mr. Wu cuts off his queue to show his commitment to America and his alliance with Al Swearengen. He later begins wearing western style clothes as well.

* [[The Colbert Report|Stephen Colbert]] had this done on him to prove he'd really gone through (a little) basic training to Commander General Odierno. When Colbert hesitated, ''President [[Barack Obama]] '''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|ordered]]''' Gen. Odierno'' to do it.

* On ''[[Iron Chef]]'', when Kandagawa challenged Sakai for the Millenium rematch battles, he espoused a new philosophy about Japanese cuisine changing (if not quite modernizing - he was a strict Japanese traditionalist chef in his earlier appearances) in order to survive in the 21st century. Embodying this change, he shaved his head to remind him of his new commitment. His perfect, sweep victory over Sakai was a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

{{quote|'''Kaga:''' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|May I touch it?]]}}

 

 

* Almost done in ''[[Ace Attorney]]: Investigations'' with Lauren Paups. One of her 'upset' animations is pressing a pair of scissors to a lock of her hair, on the verge of cutting it. She never does, of course. But compare the short, choppy hair she has tied back with her long, curling locks in front, and you can imagine how often this has happened before.

* Similarly, in ''[[Kanon]]'', Ayu's hair has grown long {{spoiler|in a coma}}; {{spoiler|not long before she awakens, Yuuichi gives her her headband}} and Nayuki cuts her hair to look like the Ayu that the viewers know.

* ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'', in the Kyou OVA/Kyou route of the game, when Tomoya calls Ryou out to {{spoiler|break up with her and apologize for falling for her sister}}, instead Kyou comes in Ryou's place, but her hair was already cut short, thus making her fool Tomoya until she utters his name.

* In [[Katawa Shoujo]], {{spoiler|Shiina Mikado aka Misha}} chops off her long hair in a very tomboyish cut. It's important because {{spoiler|this happens only in Shizune's route, and Misha cuts it over [[Love Hurts|her feelings of inadequacy and jealousy]] [[Matchmaker Crush|over Shizune and Hisao's relationship]] -- because [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|she loves Shizune]] and feels out of place now that Hisao is her boyfriend, despite Misha's own care for him.}}

 

== Webcomics ==

** Susan dyed her hair and had it cut after finding out about her father.

** And there's {{spoiler|Nanase, who cuts her hair really short. Not so much an important haircut as it is an important ''complete makeover''. Nanase gets another one when her magic is temporarily run out. Her hair goes completely black.}}

* Collin of ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'' has to dye the blue streak from his hair whenever he visits his hated parents. Not exactly a hair cut, per se, but it probably still fits.

* Done twice in [[Abstract Gender]]. First, right after the transformations, where Ryan cuts his hair shorter to feel more like himself. He then does this again after discovering he now likes guys and is worried about losing his identity.

** ''Inverted'' recently, with {{spoiler|the ever strange Miho}} growing about a foot and a half of hair in no more than a week. And her personality seems to have changed as well...

* ''[[Red String]]'' loves this trope.

** Miharu's characteristic blond hair is the result of one of these - her friend Reika had her hair lightened (though not bleached) at the same time, symbolizing the strengthening of their friendship and their new lives at a new school. Miharu got ''another'' one when she was expelled from that school and had to let her hair go black again, symbolizing the subsequent identity crisis she suffered through. Then she bleached it ''yet again'' over the summer, symbolizing trying to reclaim her identity. As the comic still hasn't moved past summer break, it's to be seen if she changes her hair again.

** {{spoiler|Hanae}} did this in Chapter 45. In this case, {{spoiler|she was trying to make a point to her mother that she was serious about her lesbianism.}}

** Also happens at least twice to Kat. First, towards the end of Chapter 29, when Kat finally makes her peace with what she learned about {{spoiler|Jeanne and Diego}} and trims her [[Beard of Sorrow|locks of sorrow]]; Second, in Chapter 32 when she returns from summer holidays with a new style - and a chip on her shoulder after {{spoiler|Annie ran away to the Gilletie Forest without telling her}}.

** In Chapter 51 {{spoiler|Annie too}} cut her hair. This one was a part of rather ill-conceived {{spoiler|magical surgery}}, however.

* Felix in ''[[Queen of Wands]]'' usually sports long, bright blue hair; he cuts it and gets rid of the dye when {{spoiler|the baby comes}}.

* [[Derelict (webcomic)|Derelict]] [http://derelictcomic.com/?strip_id=33 here]

* [[Roza]] [http://www.junglestudio.com/roza/index.php?date=2007-05-09 The horse's tail]

* Inverted in [[Drowtales]] - when Vaelia is no longer a slave and becomes Ariel's servant and guardian, she gets hair extensions. This is justified because short hair on women is a telltale sigh of slavery, even without a slave collar. Long hair on a human in Drow world would cause anyone to have a double-take.

* The Weaponmaster in [[The War of Winds]] does this to himself because he expects to die in the next battle. The act is a warrior tradition from his homeland acting as a symbol of his slavery to fate.

 

== Web Original ==

** Katara's Fire Nation disguise includes a topknot. She looks like an exotic dancer. Most Avatar costume changes are treated like 'duh, we needed new clothes, we are wearing them,' in a distinct aversion of [[Only One Outfit]] ''despite the fact'' that in the setting the characters usually do have access to about one outfit at a time, but this gets a little highlighting since it involves wearing the colors of the enemy.

** {{spoiler|Azula's}} haircut is the sign that {{spoiler|she is coming unhinged due to paranoia and mistrust.}}

* In the transition from ''[[Justice League]]'' to ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', [[Green Lantern]] John Stewart, like Sisko before him, shaves ''his'' head and grows a goatee. Whether this is a deliberate reference to Sisko is unknown. Unusually for a male character, Stewart's Important Haircut immediately follows his traumatic break up with Shayera.

* The completion of Anakin's training as a Padawan and his becoming a Jedi is signified in ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'' when Yoda slices off Anakin's braid with a light saber in a Jedi Knighting ceremony. Later Anakin has it sent to Padme, who keeps it in a small jewelry box.

* Some cancer patients choose to symbolically shave their head even after their chemotherapy is done, or alternatively, keep it short if it had been longer before.

** Friends and family of female cancer patients can shave their hair in support.

* Clair of Assisi managed to convince her family that she had really decided to be a nun when she took off her veil and showed that she had cut her (beautiful!) hair short.

* French Revolutionaries cut their hair short to show opposition to the long haired wig wearing aristocracy. Many pro-French members of the Society of United Irishmen copied the hairstyle for moral support, and were nicknamed 'Croppies' after their hairstyle.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Native American Mythology]]

[[Category:Hair Tropes]]