Pixie cut

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Winona Ryder showing off her pixie cut in 2008. (Photo by Eric Weiss, licensed under CC-BY.)

The hairdo for women who think that a Bob Haircut is too high-maintenance, the Pixie cut is a crop cut, generally short on the back and sides of the head, slightly longer on the top, with very short bangs. It's named after the mythological pixies.

The most famous pixie in the 20th century, Disney's version of Tinker Bell, adds a Prim and Proper Bun to her pixie cut hairdo.

While considered to be a feminine hairdo in Real Life, a pixie cut is often an indicator that a fictional character is a tomboy; it's a low-maintenance haircut that doesn't get in the way of being "one of the boys".

Compare with Boyish Short Hair and (as already mentioned) Bob Haircut. Anything shorter would be either a buzz cut or Bald Women. Contrast with Long Hair Is Feminine.

Examples of characters with Pixie cuts include:

Anime and Manga

Fan Works

Film

Live-Action TV

Music

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

  • It's Victorian-era and modern folklore that says pixies wear their hair in pixie cuts.

Web Comics

  • Haley wore a pixie cut for a short time in The Order of the Stick, after getting a Traumatic Haircut.
  • Ivy Collins, the protagonist of webtoon The 101ˢᵗ Heroine, which along with her tomboyish personality and her Penny Among Diamonds situation in the Royal Consort Contest makes her contrast even more with the long-haired princess she has to compete against.

Western Animation

Real Life