Long-Haired Pretty Boy

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For your hair is long...
Scattered over your cheeks, full of desire;
And you have white skin from careful preparation,
Hunting after Aphrodite by your beauty,
Not exposed to strokes of the sun...

Pentheus describes Dionysus, Bacchae

How do you make a Pretty Boy even prettier? Give him long (shoulder-length or longer), flowing tresses of glossy hair. Bonus points for wearing it loose, no matter how impractical this may be.

If he's not the type for just sitting around looking pretty he might also be a Badass Long Hair. Villainous versions are likely to also be a White-Haired Pretty Boy. A lot of these fall under Viewer Gender Confusion (for some people), because Long Hair Is Feminine (if the confusion occurs in-universe, it's an example of Dude Looks Like a Lady). Related to Rapunzel Hair.

Examples of Long-Haired Pretty Boy include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • Not that there's anything "Pretty Boy about him, since he's a big muscular dude, but The Mighty Thor deserves a mention for his long blonde hair. He ain't called Goldilocks for nothin', true believers!
  • Ditto for Doc Samson.

Film

  • The Lord of the Rings: Legolas in the film adaptation is a live-action example of this trope.
    • Even more surprising for the Lord of the Rings movie, since Legolas is primarily a bowman-- which would definitely conflict... particularly since the only thing keeping his hair from getting tangled in the bowstring, is a small braid over his right ear.
    • Most (if not all) elves in The Lord of the Rings movie are this.
  • The Man in the Iron Mask: Philippe/Louis.
  • Don Juan Demarco: The eponymous character, played by Johnny Depp.
  • Yoshi in Bunraku fits this trope to a T. Not surprising, since he's played by Gackt.
  • In Mad Max 2: the Road Warrior, the character Golden Boy might count, being the (boy?)friend of Wez and having, by comparison, a rather handsome face and long, flowing, blonde hair.

Literature

  • Every male character from the Anita Blake series.
  • Every male character from the Merry Gentry series.
  • Roiben from the Tithe novels by Holly Black. Another elf...
  • Prince Roger McClintock
  • Elric of Melnibone.
  • The Lion in Winter: King Philippe
  • Possibly teenage Mowgli in The Second Jungle Book.
  • Fablehaven has Bracken, who is tall, willowy, youthful, and has long, soft silver-white hair.
  • Vanyel Ashkevron from Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth universe. Also Firesong.
  • Pick a male Tolkien's elf. Any male Tolkien's elf. Except Cirdan and Mahtan (who are long-haired, but don't look like pretty boys).
  • Numair from the Tortall Universe. There is definitely overlap with Badass Long Hair, especially in the second book in which he turns a man into a tree.

Live-Action TV

  • The Groosalugg from Angel falls under this trope, until he and Cordelia go on vacation, and he cuts it short... And familiarily...
  • Duncan MacLeod from Highlander, until season 6 when the actor got tired of it.
  • In Criminal Minds, Reid[2] had longish hair in the earlier seasons but it was shoulder-length in season five. Later on in the season, Reid got a haircut. Crowning Moment of Funny when the team sees Reid's new hair.

Hotch: What? Did you join a boy band?

Music

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

Theatre

Video Games

Web Comics

Web Video

Western Animation

  1. Grell Sutcliff doesn't actually count because Word of God has "confirmed" her to be a trans woman. YMMV on whether or not that's true, though.
  2. Bonus Points for his in-series nickname being Pretty Boy.