Important Haircut: Difference between revisions

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]].

 

 

However, an important haircut can also be positive, such as changing one's style after a breakup.

 

 

See also [[Beard of Sorrow]], [[Dye or Die]], [[Expository Hairstyles]], and [[Fan Service Pack]].

** 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.

** In the same series, [[Shaggy Dog Story|a whole episode is dedicated to minor character Mifuyu]], who cuts her hair after realizing that she will never gain Sachiko's favor.

* 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.

** When young, [[Ill Girl|Anju Kitahara]] had long hair, but when she returns to Yuu's life she's already cut it real short.

** Also spoofed: Miwa has shoulder-length hair which he wears loose, and once he tricks Meiko into believing he has cut it short by tying it in a ponytail.

** Spoofed again when Tsutomu, as the series's [[Butt Monkey]] and [[Ted Baxter]], has to shave his head after losing a bet to Ginta.

** Oddly enough, in one flashback after the timeskip that shows Sakura training with {{spoiler|Tsunade}}, her hair has grown back to its pre-Chunin Exam length, but it's short once again in Part II.

** Later in the Chuunin exams, during Sakura's fight with Ino, Sakura mocks Ino by saying she's the one putting too much emphasis on her looks now. Ino gets pissed off and cuts off her hair with a kunai right there... and actually uses the discarded strands as a tie rope to keep Sakura in place and use the ''Shintenshin no Jutsu/Mind switch Jutsu'' on her.

** In the Konoha Gakuen Den feature set in a [[High School AU]], Sakura's [[Important Haircut]] in this universe (shown in the ending sequence this is based on), is initially thought to be the result of a breakup until Ino produces photos that reveal that {{spoiler|Sakura had laid down on the grass and accidentally got gum in her hair}}.

* Two different characters in ''[[Simoun]]'' give themselves the same [[Important Haircut]] at different dramatic moments, with the second one echoing the first, and one of them later follows up with an ''additional'' [[Important Haircut]]. Also, another pair of characters have a set of Important Hair Clips.

** Oh, and now [[Took a Level In Badass|has both control over the cool ship's weapons and a willingness to use them]], lets not forget that.

* In the second episode of ''[[Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge]]'', Nakahara Sunako cuts off the bangs that obscured her face and blocked her view of "the bright creatures" in a dramatic scene. She then almost immediately suffers from [[The Nose Bleed]], now that she can see the tenants.

** Kouga, the [[Big Bad]] of the ''Zanpakuto Unknown Tales'' filler arc, had one as well. {{spoiler|In this case the hair wasn't important, it was the fact that it was connected to a hair adornment connected with his noble family, which he was disgusted with.}}

* Kenji Harima of ''[[School Rumble]]'' gets several haircuts as the series progresses - from a mustache and goatee to bearded to clean-shaven and partially bald. All of it done for [[Cannot Spit It Out|Tenma]].

** [[Badass Normal|Shishido Ryoh]] is kicked off the Hyoutei tennis club after [[Pride Before a Fall|an embarrassing]] [[Break the Haughty|defeat]], and then sets out to get back on the team through [[Training From Hell|ridiculously harsh training]]; finally, he cuts off his long hair in front of the team's manager, Tarou Sakaki, as a symbol of having become a different person (Atobe Keigo, the captain of the team, says "This guy hasn't lost" after the haircut [[[[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] as a way of endorsing him).

** Atobe himself (the series' most popular rival]]) arrogantly vows to shave his head if he loses his match against Echizen Ryoma... which of course he does, because Ryoma is the main character and Atobe had promised to shave his head ''in public'', with lots of witnesses. Since Atobe is unconscious by the end, Ryoma shaves his head for him. This devolves into a joke, as a lot of things do in Prince of Tennis, when several chapters later, Atobe shows up with his hair intact (although muttering about his beautiful hair) and no explanation for it has been given, which has caused [[Epileptic Trees|the fans to heavily speculate about it]].

*** This was played differently and somewhat more like an [[Important Haircut]] in the OAV's: Atobe is actually conscious and sub-regular Haginosuke Taki asks Ryoma to cut ''his'' hair instead. Ryoma seems to consider the offer but Atobe rejects it, swipes the razor from Ryoma's hands and cuts his own hair right there. {{spoiler|In the last OAV series, Atobe * does* really use a wig.}}

** Kabaji, Atobe's long time friend, also cuts his hair short after Atobe's loss. He cuts it even ''shorter'', practically in a buzzcut.

** When he was Inui Sadaharu's doubles partner, Yanagi Renji from Rikkaidai had chin-length hair in a pageboy style. Four years later, when they meet again, he has cut it much shorter. It's hinted he did so after the end of his first year in Rikkai: a picture taken when he, Yukimura and Sanada were titulars in their first year shows Yanagi with long hair. And if you take a close look at the picture, you'll notice that the actual Rikkai subcaptain Sanada has his hair longer and more messy than he does in the present, and that Yukimura used to have two long bangs while keeping the rest of his hair fairly short.

** And * again* , [[Team Mom|Oishi Syuichirou]] changes his hairstyle ''every'' year in all canons. The first one is theorized to be an [[Important Haircut]] that came when he became a regular in his second year in Seigaku: his formerly messy hair became a simple buzzcut.

* Fay in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' somewhat subverts this by letting his hair grow ''out'' and into a ponytail to emphasize that he's taken a darker turn and developing cracks in his [[Stepford Smiler]] persona.

** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife|a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives [[Lampshade Hanging]] even going as far as for one character to [[No Fourth Wall|break the fourth wall,]] [[Double Standard|more so than anyone else.]] [[Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance|Even when there's a clown, a triclops, a green pointy-eared man with bulging muscles (Yes, even more than Piccolo), and a pink genie on the same team roster.]]

* Aika in ''[[Aria]]'' ends up burning her hair at a cookout in one episode after she intentionally grew it out long to be similar to Alicia, whom she idolizes. After this, she switches to shorter hairstyle, and several episodes are spent on her getting used to it. It's not until Al, her crush, compliments on her that she feels satisfied. Her hair stays this way into the next season.

* ''[[Now and Then Here and There]] '' provides a rather tragic example of this trope. After being repeatedly raped and assaulted at Hellywood, Sara manages to kill one of the rapists and escape into the desert where she proceeds to cut her hair short (despite the fact that she's American and shouldn't appreciate the symbolism).

* In ''[[Slam Dunk]]'', the main character Hanamichi Sakuragi shaves his head as self-punishment after being the cause of the Shohoku team's loss against Kainan. And before him, Hisashi Mitsui cuts his own hair to symbolize his redemption. Later, Haruko Akagi also cuts her hair short after realizing that her crush towards Rukawa is a hopleless one..

* In ''[[Dirty Pair]]'' (Flash Series), Lady Flair gets her long hair shot off as she makes her heel-face turn.

* Prior to setting out for the climactic battle of ''[[Weiss Kreuz]] [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|Gluhen]]'', Aya uses his own katana to cut off the waist-length braid he'd grown between series.

** The epilogue of the original series shows that Sakura, who had previously [[Expository Hairstyle Change|grown her hair out]] in the hopes that it would appeal to Aya, has gone back to her previous bob cut.

* In the manga ''[[GetBackers]]'', {{spoiler|Kazuki}} chopped off his [[Rapunzel Hair]] {{spoiler|to express his determination to rescue Fuuga and 'get back his lost time'. The scene took up one full page, so that ought to classify it an important haircut.}}

* In the manga ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'', Chrono's braid is cut off during a duel with {{spoiler|Remington. This symbolizes Chrono learning to control his temper, which serves to be a key in later battle.}}

** According to author's notes, [[Gender Flip|Female!Japan]] used to have long hair in a [[Hime Cut]], but once she broke off her 200-years long isolation, she cut it shorter to prove that she could now interact with the rest of the world.

* The lead character of ''[[Kaze Hikaru]]'' has already cut her hair at the beginning of the series [[Sweet Polly Oliver|to join the Shinengumi]], but Okita Souji remarks on the depth of her sacrifice.

* In the manga ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'', known as ''[[Hana Kimi]]'' for short, Mizuki cuts her hair in the first few pages because she wants to disguise herself as a boy. This is to sneak into an all-boys' school as a student so she can get close to a student athlete she admires. The gender-reversal is so key to the plot that the reader does not actually get to see Mizuki with long hair. When she is depicted cutting it, her head is not shown until after she has cut it short. later, Mizuki is shown in a flashback taking place before she cut her hair, but some clever art tricks are used so that the sight of her with long hair is again denied.

** And male lead Akiyuki's grows out after he gains complete control of his powers.

* Gets a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade hung on it]] in the dub of the OVA of ''Master of Mosquiton'' when Inaho cuts off her ponytail to signify her search for the [[MacGuffin|O-Parts]] and Mosquiton, the [[Genre Savvy]] vampire, complains about her doing "the hair-cutting thing."

* In the [[Kino's Journey]] prequel movie/episode "life goes on", Kino has her long hair cut into the shorter style seen throughout the series as the result of it being stained with blood from the first person she killed.

* In the [[Moral Event Horizon]] of ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', Tamahome's hair is cut off by Suboshi's weapons.

** Nuriko {{spoiler|cut his hair off when he found out he had feelings for Miaka}}

* In ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'', Nia's hair is cut by two bullets from Yoko's sniper rifle the episode after she decides to shun her previous life. Unlike many cases, this time the accidental cut doesn't give a clean cut at all, and she has Yoko clean it up, [[Character Development|showing that they finally trust each other]].

* ''[[Narutaru]]'' has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut {{spoiler|after the death of Hiro-chan}} and she also cuts her father's hair.

* Somewhat subverted in [[Boys Love]] manga ''Doushitemo Furetakunai'' in which Shima cuts his hair shorter to signify that he renounces any hope of keeping up his relationship with Togawa only to have Togawa calling him out on it so that he ends up going back on his resolution. Shima at one point reflects that girls tend to cut their hair when they're dumped thus acknowledging the validity of this trope.

* After {{spoiler|accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|stuck as Hibino Hikaru]]}}, Erika from ''[[Hime-chan no Ribon|Hime-chan No Ribbon]]'' cuts off her gorgeous, [[Rapunzel Hair|extrememly long]] blonde hair so that she can [[Twin Switch|impersonate Hime-chan]] at home and school until they can find some way to {{spoiler|reverse the transformation}}. The next time we see her after she goes back home, her hair has grown out to shoulder-length.

* While only shown for a moment in a 'growing up' montage [[MAR|MAR's]] Ginta gets his hair cut at one point during his first trip into the Shuuren no Mon.

* ''[[Sakura Gari]]'': Masataka gives one to Souma to signify {{spoiler|his [[Missing Mom]] Abigail's definitive passing, and Lord Saiki's acceptance of such a fact}}.

* Subverted in ''[[Wandering Son]]'': When formerly depressed [[Transsexualism|trans-girl]] Nitori cuts her hair short, everyone thinks she's decided to be a boy after all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the ''female'' model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in ''[[Rosemary's Baby]]''). It's used as a plot point though, it shows how much she's growing out of her androgyny.

* ''[[Kaitou Saint Tail]]'' kept her long, red hair down as Meimi, but kept her hair in a pigtail as Saint Tail. At the end of the manga series, after she'd quit being Saint Tail, she cut her hair short.

* In ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', both Rin and Akito get important haircuts. {{spoiler|Rin has her long hair hacked off by Akito when she's locked up. In this case, the [[Traumatic Haircut]] is symbolic for both of them. Akito is enraged and hates long, black hair because it reminds her of her mother, Ren (A [[Complete Monster]] [[Smug Snake]] who abuses her daughter constantly, and in fact is the one who manipulated Rin to act against Akito which is what got her caught in the first place); Rin, meanwhile, wears her hair short for the rest of the series and it symbolizes how [[Character Development|she is calmer and eases up on her determination to break the curse]] (which was pretty much driving her to an early grave, due to her being an [[Ill Girl]]). Akito gets an inverse at the end, when she grows her hair out to symbolize how she's free to live her life as a woman, rather than forced to hide her identity and pretend to be a man.}}

* In ''[[Corsair]]'', Ayace cuts off [[Long-Haired Pretty Boy|Canale's]] hair instead of killing him as requested, leaving the severed hair at Canale's family mansion (now on fire) as symbol of his old life and encouraging him to move on and live.

* ''[[Pandora Hearts]]'': {{spoiler|Leo}} gets one in Retrace 61.

* In the ''[[Sukeban Deka]]'' OAV, Saki rejects the advances of a classmate by saying that she hates guys with long hair. In response, the boy whips out a set of clippers and shaves himself bald right there in front of her. He doesn't graduate to love interest, but he does become one of Saki's allies.

* Perhaps in an inverted example, in Book Two of the manga ''[[Ooku]]'', Abbott Arikoto {{spoiler|grows his hair out when he breaks his vow of chastity}}

** The protagonist of ''Vitamin'' by the same mangaka cuts her hair in the last chapter, to show she's become more confident.

* Franky from ''[[One Piece]]'' cut his hair to a buzz cut after the [[Time Skip]], but can revert to his old style or change to a new one by pressing his nose for more than three seconds.

* The very opening scene of the pseudomanga ''Shutter-Box'' depicts the romantic lead cutting the blue dyed streak from his hair before going off to drown himself.

* When [[Superman]] came [[Back From the Dead]], he had shoulder-length hair (worn in a ponytail as Clark). During the preparations for his wedding, he had it cut to its previous length.

* Nightwing grew a ponytail during ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|New Titans]]'', and lost it by accident in an early issue of his solo series, giving him a distinctive look he maintained for some time.

* In the ''[[Elf Quest]]'' comics, when her lifemate is killed, the usually mild-mannered Clearbrook slices off her waist-length braid and drapes it over his dead body, then turns into a revenge-mad [[Mama Bear]] for a while. Centuries later, when she's back to her normal serene self, we see her hair has grown back. [[Word of God]] explicitly labels her hair as a symbol of her sexuality, which she was unable to experience fully while mourning her lifemate.

* After an extended period offworld and [[Body Horror|near-transformation into a predatory alien]], Storm of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' steadily veered away from her serene [[Friend to All Living Things|nature-loving]] [[Technical Pacifist]] [[Team Mom]] persona to the point of stabbing a woman in the heart during a duel for rulership of the Morlocks. This culminated with her showing up to Wolverine's wedding in leather pants, a matching tube-top with vest, and a mohawk (her clothes and much of her [[Rapunzel Hair|hair]] were burned earlier that week, but less jarring salvage options were available even in Tokyo).

* [[Y: The Last Man]]. Agent 355 cuts Yorick's hair after the traumatic events in "Cycles".

* The [[Silver Age]] origin of Lex Luthor is that he [[Face Heel Turn|turned evil]] after [[Superman|Superboy]] accidentally made his hair fall out. Really. (Oh, okay, there's some stuff about pride and betrayal and destroyed experiments, but the baldness is the important thing.)

* Thunder from ''The Outsiders'' loses her distinctive blonde wig and grows out her hair during the One Year Later jump in [[The DCU]]. It's later revealed that the team has gone underground and that she's in a same-sex relationship with teammate Grace. Make what significance of that you will.

* Lisa from [[Funky Winkerbean]] lost her hair ''twice'' in the strip's run. First, a building fell on her and her head had to be shaved for brain surgery. Then there was the cancer.

* ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'' - Kathy's [[Important Haircut]] came after getting over the loss of Shade and becoming romantically attached to Lenny. The editor confessed in the letters page that she had also gone through several hairstyles of her own while getting over emotional pains. Kathy returned to long, natural hair while pregnant with Shade's child {{spoiler|and since she was murdered not long after, that's how she's always remembered}}.

** And then there's Shade himself, who gets a new haircut every time he {{spoiler|dies}}.

* The [[X Wing Series]] comics show that Wedge Antilles and Soontir Fel, the two Corellians who are second only to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, respectively, in [[Ace Pilot|piloting skills]], both had very long tied-back hair when they were young. Wedge apparently had his cut after his parents were killed, since his next-set appearance of only a few years later has him with short hair. Soontir's hair is entirely shaved off when he's signed into the Imperial pilot academy. Major changes for both of them.

* In ''Ball and Chain'', Mallory cuts her long hair short in a vain attempt to convince herself that she's over her impending divorce. And we do mean ''vain''. The first thing she says when she's finished is "I hope he... I hope ''I'' like it. I do. I like it."

* Parodied in ''[[Shoot'Em Up (film)|Shoot Em Up]]'', where the protagonist spots a mook with a ponytail, comments on how much he hates middle aged men with ponytails, then shoots it off of his head.

* Also parodied in ''[[Coming to America]]''; Prince Akeem goes into a barber shop and asks for a "real American haircut". The barber whacks off Akeem's ponytail with one snip of his scissors. "That'll be <s> ten bucks</s> eight dollars."

* Mickey Knox of ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' shaves his head before his interview with Wayne Gayle.

* A rare example of one as a character introduction: In ''[[Seven Samurai]]'', we first see Kambei as he shaves his head to disguise himself as a priest and take care of a hostage situation. This event inspires some farmers to hire him to take care of some bandits.

** Which is in fact a total subversion: the scene is deliberately solemn and slow, ritualistic even... Something portentously portentous is happening. It turns out to be a mere disguise, in other words ''a cowardly ploy'' when compared to your usual Charge of the Light Brigade tactics common to samurai movies at the time - he just doesn't care about that, and ostensibly doesn't care about all the hair subtext and symbols either. Kambei (and most of the Seven) will keep on gunning down samurai tropes throughout the movie.

* In [[Willow]], Willow's wife Kaia lops off her braid and gives it to him as a keepsake near the start of the movie.

* In the film of ''[[Stardust (film)|Stardust]]'', Tristan gets a haircut from Captain Shakespeare, symbolising his change from village shop-boy to romantic adventurer. Oddly, this involves him having ''longer hair'', to Tristan's visible surprise.

* Jim of ''[[28 Days Later]]'' shaved and cut his hair at Frank's place, just about when he stopped being the baby of the team and became competent and sure of himself.

* In ''[[Empire Records]]'', Deb comes to work on the day the movie is set, goes into the bathroom, and shaves her head.

* In ''[[Shanghai Noon]]'', the antagonist Lo Fong cuts off Chon Wang's braid, which is a very important status symbol to an Imperial Guard to the Emperor of China. Without this braid, he would not be allowed to return to China on punishment of death, and so because of this, his primary objective changes and he starts to embrace the "Western world".

* ''[[Sunshine (film)|Sunshine]]'' (2007). After a fight with a fellow crewmember, engineer Mace shaves and cuts his hair short to show that he's going to focus on the mission from now on.

* In ''Hostage'', our hero played by Bruce Willis starts out as a stressed out big city hostage negotiator with a full, bushy beard and long, unkempt hair. In the second scene he is now a small town police chief who is a stickler about the dress and deportment of his officers; he is clean shave, head and face, having left the insanity of his former job behind.

* Susanna from [[Legends of the Fall]] did this {{spoiler|before she shot herself}}.

* ''[[Kingdom of Heaven]]'' specifically the [[Directors Cut]]. Sybillia, Queen of Jeruselum cuts her hair {{spoiler|when she renounces her throne after she mercy kills her son before he suffers and dies from leprosy like her brother.}}

{{quote|'''Murphy''': Two days ago we looked like Jesus Christ. [[What Were You Thinking?|What the fuck did we cut our hair for]]?<br />

'''Connor''': Yeah that's right. I dunno, [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time|just seemed like the thing to do at the time]], though, didn't it? }}

* In ''[[The A-Team (film)|The a Team]]'', after breaking B.A. out of prison, the others give him a razor but he simply cuts his hair short rather than into his usual mohawk as he now rejects the violence it represented to him. Later, after he accepts that violence can be right and necessary, this shift is emphasized by the dramatic reveal of the mohawk's return.

* In ''The Candidate'', one of the first signs that Robert Redford's principled-liberal-insurgent title character is starting to get co-opted by the system is when he gets a haircut.

* 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).

 

* 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 Holly Black's ''Valiant'' Val shaves her head on a train shortly after catching her boyfriend cheating on her with her mom.

* Niall in [[Wicked Lovely]], albeit in the backstory. He cut his hair really short after the whole 'getting raped and tortured by dark court fey' thing, for the three reasons of (according to [[Word of God]]): Irial liked his long hair, and Niall blamed Irial for everything to begin with; So as to not hide the scar on his face; and because long hair is a good 'handle' to hold someone down. When he became Dark King he let his hair grown again to signify getting over it.

* In the [[Jacqueline Wilson]] book ''Double Act'' Ruby cuts her hair (previously the same as her sister Garnet's) to show that she no longer wants to be a twin.

* 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 short story that is a prequel to [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s [[Heralds of Valdemar|VowsAndHonor]] duology, Tarma's hair is cut off by her Goddess to show that she has been accepted as Swordsworn.

== Live Action TV ==

* A great deal of fuss was made when the title character of ''[[Felicity]]'' cropped her mane of curls between seasons.

** Subverted however in that the haircut doesn't signify any real change. Buffy cuts it after Spike compliments her hair -- Buffy recently had sex with him for the first time and is regretting her decision, but is back for round two before the episode is over.

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

* In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', at approximately the same time Ben Sisko was promoted from Commander to Captain, he shaves his head and grows a goatee. (Actor Avery Brooks was initially forbidden from appearing with a shaved head, which had been a trademark of his [http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0027068/ long-standing character in another series]. Eventually, it was evidently decided that the actor had transcended the earlier part.) Also, about the same time Kira Nerys is promoted from Major to Colonel, her hair goes from short and boyish to shoulder-length.

* 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.

* Lorna Dickey in ''[[Waterloo Road]]'' gets hair extensions. And then kills herself.

* In the first episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'' season three, "My Own American Girl", Elliot decides she is sick of being a pushover and decides to reinvent herself by cutting her hair to shoulder length, using a lot more makeup and wearing sexier clothes. She tones down the look in later seasons however.

* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' actually used this trope as an essential part of its story in the fourth season. The season premiere had Xena seeing a vision from the future in which she and Gabrielle were crucified. Gabrielle had short hair in the vision, and sure enough, toward the end of the season Xena was forced to throw her chakram through Gabrielle's hair to beat the episode's villain. Both of them realized afterward that it now looked like it did in the vision, though that didn't stop Gabrielle from keeping it that way for the rest of the show's run.

* Lionel Luthor has his head shaved at the end of "Covenant", the season finale of the third season of ''[[Smallville]]'', while we're shown his son choking to death on poisoned wine and Chloe Sullivan being blown up. The dramatic effect was somewhat lessened the next season, when it turned out that they had both miraculously survived, and one of the attempted murders hadn't even been committed by Lionel.

* 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.

* In ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', flashbacks show Veronica with long, blonde hair. When the show begins, after Veronica is raped and her best friend is murdered, she wears her hair short.

* In the season 3 finale of ''[[True Blood]],'' Tara cuts her hair short because she "needed to make a change".

{{quote|'''Eric:''' The new me. You like?

'''Bill:''' I do. Very much. }}

* Sally Draper cuts her hair in season 4 of ''[[Mad Men]]'', it turns out creepily similar to her Betty's and emphasises the parallels of their characters.

* An episode of ''[[Chicago Hope]]'' featured a teenaged boy who had been raised as a girl. After making a pass at his (female) best friend he went home and chopped off his long hair to try and pass as a boy.

 

 

== Music ==

* [[Metallica]] experienced a backlash from their fans when they cut their hair prior to the release of 1996's ''Load'' (after a pyrotechnics accident forced James Hetfield to cut his, possibly out of solidarity). Guitarist Kirk Hammett has stated that "Metallica is all about music, not the length of our hair." During Alice in Chains' ''MTV Unplugged'' performance (which Metallica attended), bassist Mike Inez wrote on his bass guitar, "Friends Don't Let Friends Get Friends Haircuts..." However, the line was in fact just a ''[[Friends]]'' reference and the relation with Metallica's new haircuts was coincidental.

* Garbage singer Shirley Manson cut her trademark red hair short and dyed it blonde after splitting from her husband in 2001.

* Alanis Morrisette was known for her waist length brown hair and shocked the world when she cut it short, recreating the chop in her video for "Everything".

* Amy Lee gives herself one in the video for "Everybody's Fool".

* The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song "Almost Cut My Hair" concerns a hippie/counterculture type who nearly gets his hair cut to avoid being harassed by the cops, but ultimately changes his mind and decides to be true to himself by "letting my freak flag fly".

* Invoked by many black rappers and a few R&B artists that were known to sport cornrows. It's usually a sign that their music is about to take a more mature and down-to-earth (but usually less imaginative and interesting) turn. The reasoning behind this is that cornrows are seen by some as a symbol of childhood attachment and immaturity, as many black mothers would braid their children's hair into cornrows if it was too wild and unruly.

* "Straight Lines" by [[Suzanne Vega]] is about one of these. Unless it's [[Driven to Suicide|not]].

* The character in P!nk's ''F ckin' Perfect'' video gives herself a haircut before she pulls her life together.

* [[Katy Perry]]'s character in her [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuwfgXD8qV8&feature=channel Part of Me]

 

* A ''[[Rugrats]]'' episode was about Chucky's first haircut.

* At the end of the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' episode "Birthmark", Raven cuts her hair, which had grown out like her father's (fittingly, this happens after Raven's father tells her via a vision that she will help him bring about [[The End of the World as We Know It]]), back to its normal length. The haircut seems to symbolize her taking back control of her life, reclaiming her humanity. The same haircut presumably happens in "The End, Part 3". Her hair grew out again when she regained her power (which she used to defeat her father for good), but when we see her again back in Titans tower, her hair is back to normal length again. However, we never actually see her cut her hair in this episode.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': To demonstrate that she's [[Hidden Depths|not just shallowly obsessed with her own appearance]], [[Spoiled Sweet|Rarity]] chops off her own tail-hair to give to someone else as a gift.

* After Thugnificent of ''[[The Boondocks]]'' {{spoiler|loses all his wealth}} he chops off the two huge Mickey Mouse afro balls on the side of his head.

** Kerensky: Hair. (Russian Republic)

** Lenin: No Hair. (Soviet Union)

** Brezhnev: Hair.

** Andropov: No Hair.

** Medvedev: Hair.

** Putin: No Hair.

* Since the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty required all men to keep their foreheads shaved and the rest of the hair long on the pain of death, cutting the braid was thus a symbol of rebellion--and to the Manchu, treason. When the Manchu era ended, this happened en masse for all of China, though many would keep their braid out of sheer habit.

** Same went for the Japanese and their top-knots.

** The history of the modern version of the mohawk haircut is also military. Paratroopers; having their hair grown a bit since joining the force, would cut the sides, leaving the mohawk before going to battle. The tradition was copied from the Native Americans.

* Who can forget Benedictine monks with their [http://fromla2la.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/300px-tonsure_fx_tr.png?w=300&h=278 distinctive tonsured hairstyle]?

* [[Patrick Stewart]]'s [[Bald of Awesome]]? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXOK-ZVJMaU Began as an Important Haircut.] He [[Prematurely Bald|started losing his hair]] at nineteen, thought life was over, was mortified and wore hats all the time, until a Hungarian theatre friend who was a judo black belt snuck up behind him and pinned him screaming to a chair while his wife chopped it off.

* In Japan, it's a trend for girls to cut their hair short after getting rejected from a love confession. So they cut their hair as a sign that they got over it and moved on.

* Getting their hair "bobbed" or cut short was a rite of passage and symbol of independence for many flapper women in [[The Roaring Twenties]].

* Within weeks of wrapping the last ''Harry Potter'' film, [[Emma Watson]] traded her character's shoulder-length hair for a short pixie cut.

* 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.

* Women in the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints are taught to prize their long hair (along with always obeying their husbands and never trying to "control" them with complaints and jealousy over the other wives) so one of the first things female escapees do after leaving is get a sylishly short haircut.

* In the middle of the nineteenth century female members of [[wikipedia:Nihilist movement|the Nihilist movement]] in Russia cut their hair short. Ironically, many male members had long hair.