Good Hair, Evil Hair: Difference between revisions

[[File:evil_level_of_beard_8043evil level of beard 8043.jpg|frame]]

It used to be that things were simple: [[The Hero|The Heroes]]es had faces smoother than a baby's bottom and [[Villains]] had long, thin, oily moustaches to twirl after tying the [[Damsel in Distress]] to a [[Chained to a Railway|set of train tracks]]. Then along came the grizzled [[The Drifter|Drifter]] with his five o'clock shadow, [[The Gunslinger]] with his proud beard, and other [[Anti-Hero|Antiheroes]] who broke out of old archetypes. Thanks to these brave pioneers in the fight for facial follicle freedom it's been okay for heroes to have beards, villains to be clean-shaven, and [[Anti-Hero|Antiheroes]] to blur the lines. However, much like superhero costumes there are still guidelines for who can get away with what.

By default [[Heroes]] tend towards clean shaves, whether it's because of artistic inertia or simple cultural popularity is up for grabs.<ref> It is worth noting that the last United States President with any facial hair whatsoever is William Howard Taft, meaning our last century of Presidents has been clean-shaven.</ref> Sometimes movies made in countries or/of eras that are friendlier to facial hair have a higher number of heroes and extras with beards and mustaches, though it is still very common to find anachronistically clean shaven male main characters. A full, thick, and above all '''well trimmed''' beard is almost always a sign of the good guys (Dwarfs, Santa, mentor characters, etc). [[The Obi-Wan]] often has one. You will never, ever see a good character with a [[Yellow Peril|Fu Manchu]] mustache, nor one with a pencil thin moustache, unless you are watching an Errol Flynn movie, or in fact any movie from the 1930s or 40s. [[Perma-Stubble|Stubbles]] are an exception, as they're usually a sign of [[Anti-Hero|Antiheroism]] and [[Badass|Badassitude]]itude.

Whether a woman's hairstyle is good or evil depends on when the show was filmed. The good hairstyle of 2009 -- long2009—long, sexy, but not too smooth -- wouldsmooth—would have been seen only on a [[Complete Monster]] (like Cruella Deville) fifty years earlier. In contrast, the bad hairstyle of 2009 -- big2009—big, teased, with floofy bangs -- wasbangs—was the good hairstyle of 1985. The implication is that heroines are slaves of fashion while villains are dowdy and out of date.

* Belgarath of the ''[[Belgariad]]'' has a neatly trimmed beard. His "brothers" (fellow disciples of the God Aldur) also have beards -- longbeards—long and wispy for the twins Beltira and Belkira, and unkempt birds-nest for Beldin.

* ''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'' had Magnum himself -- Tomhimself—Tom Selleck's mustache is legendary.

* Gordon Freeman of ''[[Half-Life]]'' fame mixes the mentor's full beard with a more compact cut when battling oppression and [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s.

* Ra's al Ghul -- OneGhul—One of [[Batman]]'s arch-nemeses.

* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' played this one straight: Elan's evil twin Nale sports a goatee -- andgoatee—and Haley, being [[Genre Savvy]], suspected he was evil well before it was actually revealed for exactly this reason. Nale later takes advantage of this by {{spoiler|cutting off his own goatee and sticking it to Elan's chin with Sovereign Glue}}. Nale also later admits he sports a goatee in honour of this trope, saying it is not just for show, it is a part of the Linear Guild's whole evil opposites theme.

* The [[media:5347938491_a3bd08fc54_z_1_90885347938491 a3bd08fc54 z 1 9088.png|kitten pictured on the picture of Horace Horsecollar]] helping with [[Disney Theme Parks|Disney California Adventure's expansion]] has a nose that looks like this kind of moustache. [http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110210033456/disney/images/e/e6/5347938491_a3bd08fc54_z.jpg Here is a bigger picture].