Letting Her Hair Down: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Often, when a female character is particularly serious or uptight, her hair will be serious and uptight too -- [[Prim and Proper Bun|pulled back in a tight bun, or something of that sort]]. When said woman gets a love interest and starts to loosen up a little (as such characters almost inevitably do), she will start wearing her hair down, or at least in a looser style.

See also [[Important Haircut]]. Compare [[Slipknot Ponytail]], where one's hair goes ''au naturale'' because they are being badass, and [[Wild Hair]], where it is normally worn loose. Also compare [[Shaking Her Hair Loose]] when the hair is dramatically undone on camera.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

* In the first ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime, First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, normally seen with an efficient, no-nonsense bun, finally takes her hair down in the very last episode to visit wounded comrade [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|Roy Mustang]].

** In the manga, she takes her hair down when she gets a day off.

* No-nonsense Dr. Chiba in ''[[Paprika]]'' wears her hair in a neat bun; we only see it down when she's asleep or {{spoiler|in the process of transforming into her free-spirited dream avatar Paprika.}}

** Lenalee has done this several times, too, before she gets an [[Important Haircut]].

* Played very unusually in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. Originally, {{spoiler|Homura}} has her hair done up in twin braids, but eventually lets it down. This doesn't signify her becoming more relaxed in the slightest, though; in fact, it marks her transition ''into'' being serious. So you could say it's inverted, only it's also played straight, because the character was previously shy, so it signals a growth in confidence. On the other hand, it also seems to represent the loss of her innocence. So it's hard to classify where this one lands.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Nightfall from ''[[Elf Quest]]'' can't be described as uptight by any stretch, but she does keep her long brown hair under a headscarf except in her most intimate moments.

 

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Loaded Weapon 1]]'', Destiny Demeanor is introduced wearing glasses and her hair up in a bun. When she lets her hair down, she is replaced with an obviously different actress. Colt's reaction? "You should always wear your hair down."

* Done by serious librarian Evy in ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy]]''. She is played by Rachel Weisz, so also a [[Hot Librarian]].

* Played in reverse in ''[[Pleasantville]]'': Jennifer starts out with her hair down, but becomes ''more'' serious as the movie goes on, and pulls her hair back at about the same time as she discovers literature.

* A variant is seen in ''[[The Incredibles]]'' with Violet. She hides behind her hair for most of the movie, but when she gains confidence in herself and her powers, begins to wear it back.

* Jennifer Lopez's character in ''The Wedding Planner''.

* ''[[Our Man Flint]]''. After she's lured Flint to her apartment, Gila does this to signal to him that she's in the mood for love.

* In the beginning of ''[[The Invisible]]'', Annie goes the full tilt and has her hair in a tight ponytail, combined with a hoodie with the hood up. As the story progresses, and she becomes more sympathetic of a character, the hood comes off, and her hair comes down.

* Lena in [[The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants]] after she steps out to spend time with Kostas to show that she's now open to love.

* Twice inverted in [[Tangled]], since it was after a long time with Flynn that she put her hair up, and let it back down {{spoiler|after returning to Mother Gothel}}.

* Other Disney examples include:

*** Also, at the end of the sequel, the crown Mulan wore to her wedding to Prince Ji Ki actually falls off her head when she kisses Shang.

* Aunt Polly in [[Pollyanna]].

 

== Literature ==

* Hester Prynne lets her hair down during her secret forest rendezvous with Rev. Dimmesdale in ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''.

* In ''[[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn]]'', Francie's mother won't let her get a fashionable bob because a woman should have long hair as her "secret" beauty that only her lover/husband (well, presumably Katie means husband) gets to see when she unpins it at the end of the day.

 

== Live Action TV ==

 

** Seven of Nine also wore her hair down in later episodes when she was doing social experiments in the holodeck. She'd immediately pin it back up when reporting for duty.

* Pam Beesly in the later seasons of [[The Office]] when she finally gets together with Jim

* In [[The BBC]]'s recent adaptation of ''Ballet Shoes'', Emilia Fox's frail Sylvia always has her hair up in a scraped-and-elaborate-yet-somehow-also-messy-and-careworn bun until she's shown beginning to fall for her lodger, Simpson, when suddenly her hair is in a loose plait. When Sylvia finally marries him, her long hair is down altogether under her veil.

* Chlo Granger briefly goes "high-bunny" in ''[[Waterloo Road]]''.

* In ''[[Cheers]]'', Lilith letting her hair down led to Frasier kissing her for the first time.

* Det. Dani Reese from ''[[Life]]'' wore her hair pulled back in Season 1. In Season 2, she wears it down, reflecting her new, considerably more relaxed, attitude towards Crews.

** More like "considerably more sexualized role [[Fan Service|for the audience]]"...

* Invoked in an episode of ''[[Better Off Ted]]''. When Veronica is told that she is too intimidating, she starts wearing her hair down as part of an attempt to be more approachable, and hates it. When told that Phil is falling in love with her new, more positive self, she even sighs and says something like, "This is why I keep my hair up. It maintains distance."

* In ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' episode "The Maternal Congruence", Leonard's mother Beverly, who is generally cold and emotionless, does this after she gets drunk and starts to feel sexual attraction.

* ''[[Degrassi]]'' character Holly J starts out with her hair in a tight ponytail at all times, letting her hair down once in a failed seduction technique on resident hottie Blue. As she becomes more comfortable with people, and stops being the [[Alpha Bitch]], she slowly moves to less uptight hairstyles. Season 9 she wears a series of cute functional hairbands, finally in Season 10 she moved to her hair being unadorned unless for practical reasons for whatever activity is going on. Other characters have done the switch to hair down for [[Beautiful All Along]] reasons.

* Inverted on ''[[NCIS]]''. When we meet Ziva, she's a wild, seductive, crazy, Israeli, ninja assassin. Her hair is also absolutely wild. As she becomes more friendly, open, and relaxed, her hair is also tamed somewhat. She's no less badass with her hair in a ponytail, but a little less . . . crazy.

* ''[[Modern Family]]'' Alex does this in the Season 3 episode, "After The Fire" to appear sexy to a group of nerds giving Luke and Manny a hard time and make them stop.

 

* The first line in Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night" goes "Take the ribbon from your hair/Shake it loose and let it fall.... Played for humor when he and Miss Piggy performed it on ''The Muppet Show'' and the Ray Stevens cover.

 

== Theatre ==

 

* In ''The Rainmaker'', it takes a [[Con Man]] to convince Lizzie that she's beautiful with the pins taken out of her hair. (Her joyful exclamation of "is it really me?" became the title of one of the songs in the musical adaptation, ,''110 In The Shade''.)

* Ilse in ''[[Spring Awakening]]'' (when played by an actress with long hair). In the first act, when she is living with her strict family, she wears her hair in two braids. In act two, after she runs away to live in an artist colony, her hair is down.

* One community-theatre production of ''[[Ragtime]]'' had Mother wearing her hair up in a very staid sort of style in Act I, then wearing it loose in Act II after moving to Atlantic City (and meeting Tateh, whom she falls in love with {{spoiler|and eventually marries [[Death of the Hypotenuse|after her husband dies]]}}).

 

* [[Fiery Redhead]] Aika from ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' normally wears her hair in two noticeably stiff braids. She lets it down whenever she's sleeping or grooming, and it looks much softer and prettier.

 

* In one ''[[Least I Could Do]]'' storyline, Rayne pursues a woman simply because she wears glasses and he wants to complete a mental "Sex Bingo" card. Issa demonstrates how pathetic Rayne is by getting the woman to [http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20040122 do this], completely infatuating him. After beating up his friend Mick to try and impress her, Mick is upset...[http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20040130 until she does it again].

 

== Web Original ==

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* At the beginning of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "The Main Event", as the girls wake up from their sleep, we get to see [[Redheaded Hero|Blossom]] with her hair down.

 

 

[[Category:Hair Tropes]]

[[Category:Letting Her Hair Down]]