Traumatic Haircut: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Jewelry, [[Unlimited Wardrobe|vast wardrobes]], and [[Beauty Equals Goodness|facial beauty]] are not the most prized possessions for some societies and individuals; instead, it's... [[Hair Tropes]].

 

 

A minor subtrope [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|involves hair being the source of a hero's powers]] (or in modern tales, an emotional anchor) that when cut off renders a hero [[Weaksauce Weakness|vulnerable and powerless]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In the ''[[Peach Girl]]'' manga Momo is bullied by a trio of Kairi's fangirls. They tell her that she doesn't deserve Kairi and force her to the ground while holding a lighter to her hair, telling her unless she signs a treaty (saying that she'll stay away from Kairi) then they'll burn all her hair off. Thankfully, Kairi rescues her, but not before the girls manage to singe a bit of Momo's hair.

* While Sakura ''does'' cut her own hair to escape an enemy at one point in ''[[Naruto]]'', she is considerably annoyed that she had to. Still, she keeps it short afterwards.

** Ino cuts her hair as well afterward, but this becomes [[Batman Gambit|a component in one of her jutsus]].

* In the manga version of ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', {{spoiler|Akito cuts Isuzu's long hair while attempting to kill her slowly and painfully by starving her in a private room in the Sohma estate. It's strongly hinted that she did so because Isuzu's long hair reminded Akito of her [[Abusive Parents|abusive mother]], Ren, who wears her hair exactly that way ("Long black hair... like that woman... it makes me so sick!"). It doesn't help that Ren actually asked Isuzu to do something for her with fake promises and ''that'' is when Akito caught and captured her.}}

** Not that it stopped her from giving both Ranma and Ryoga an [[Armor-Piercing Slap]] before she left, though. To be fair, ''both'' of them [[Hit Me Dammit|told her to hit them]] in between the apology round.

** After this, we're also introduced to principal Kuno, the father of Tatewaki, whose weapon of choice is a pair of hair clippers. We learn that in previous times, his favorite obsession was shaving his son bald (an obsession still burning, and one that now affects all the students in the school), and this is something that has [[Dark and Troubled Past|left deep scars in Tatewaki's heart.]] Traumatic haircut indeed.

* Both played straight and parodied in the ''[[Rose of Versailles]]'' manga; first parodied with Andre's reluctance to cut his hair for a disguise (and Oscar's mockery of him for this), later played much more tragically with the imprisoned and condemned former Queen [[Marie Antoinette]].

* Subverted in the Arlong arc of ''[[One Piece]]'': Hachi receives a [[Close-Call Haircut]] in a swordfight, and howls with rage...for two seconds until he shrugs, saying it's just hair and it'll grow back. But later played straight with {{spoiler|Brook}} in the Thriller Bark arc: a zombie {{spoiler|powered by his shadow}} threatens to cut {{spoiler|his [[Funny Afro]], and Brook panics}}, since {{spoiler|it ''[[Dem Bones|can't]]'' grow back, and he needs it for Laboon to recognize him}}.

* In ''[[Basilisk]]'', Yashamaru gets his long hair cut off during a battle. {{spoiler|The same one where he actually ''dies''.}}

** A funny example is the fact that Allen and Kanda threaten to shave the other's head. During a sparring practice they wagered their hair on the outcome.

* In ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'', Scar Chain manages to rig the slot machines so that Minatsuki doesn't have to lose any body organs, but just cut her hair short.

* In ''[[Claymore]]'', Clare and Teresa were both originally proud of their long, black hair. The process used to give them their powers turns their hair platinum blonde. Clare also is forced to cut her hair during training. Also, {{spoiler|Clare accidentally cuts off a lock of Galataea's hair while rescuing her from Agatha, who's holding Galataea hostage. Much indignation ensues.}}

* The manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' shows that Chrono's hair was worn long as a child up until a battle right after what would have been his coming-of-age ceremony. During the battle his [[Rapunzel Hair]] is burned off to the shorter, jagged cut that he wears the rest of the time (in his [[Sleep Mode Size|true form]]). It seems pretty symbolic of Chrono losing his innocence, particularly since the battle marks the start of the trauma that eventually leads to him becoming a [[Failure Knight]], if not downright developing PTSD (it's also worth noting that when he meets Rosette and Joshua in his [[Sleep Mode Size]], his previously short hair has grown long again, possibly hinting that he ''regains'' some of his innocence by spending time with the children).

* In chapter 43 of ''[[Desire Climax]]'' Hayato does this to Mio after kidnapping her, cutting her long hair shorter.

* Eureka indirectly suffers this in episode 19 of ''[[Eureka Seven]]'' by the Scab Coral.

 

* And... A modern [[Superman]] comic had [[The Joker|Joker]] show up with a chemical which causes mass hysteria because... It makes them bald.

 

 

== Film ==

** The scene is also meant to mirror the discussion of scalping earlier in the film, so the message becomes rather [[Anvilicious]]. Somewhat justified as in feudal Japan only monks, who made a vow of poverty, shaved their hair. To be bald was therefore to display a lack of status and wealth.

* ''[[Shanghai Noon]]'' has Jackie Chan's character lose his long pony tail when Chon (Jackie) and Roy (Owen Wilson) are captured by the princess's kidnapper, Lo Fong; he cuts Chon's hair off, knowing exactly what this means for him if he should try to return (see below under Real Life for how significant this would be).

* ''[[Waterworld]]'': The Mariner (Kevin Costner's character) to Helen.

* As noted below, US Marine recruits are forcibly shaved when they arrive at basic training. This was depicted in ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''.

* In ''Vamos a matar, compañeros'', Vasco cuts Lola's hair as punishment for allegedly sleeping with a foreigner. Later in the movie, {{spoiler|we find out he kept the lock of hair, and gives it back to Lola to apologize and declare his love to her.}}

* Used in ''[[Play Misty for Me]].''

* During the [[Extended Flashback]] that takes up most of the length of ''[[Hiroshima Mon Amour]]'', the female protagonist (who is French) describes how her head was forcibly shaved as punishment for an affair with a German soldier during [[WW 2]].

* Similarly, the Irish lead character of ''Ryan's Daughter'' has her head shaved after an affair with a British soldier.

* Una and, later, Bernadette in ''The Magdalene Sisters''. Might also have happened to Crispina, who has an uneven haircut and is unstable enough that she might have tried to escape like the others.

* In ''Amy & Isabelle'' the mother Isabelle discovers that her daughter Amy had slept with her teacher and suffers a momentary breakdown because {{spoiler|she had also slept with an older man as a teenager and that man got her pregnant with Amy}}. In a fit of rage she hacks off Amy's beautiful long curly hair. Later near the end of the movie she takes her to the hairdressers to have it tidied up.

* Happens in the [[Lifetime Movie of the Week]] ''She Fought Alone''. After reporting the [[Jerk Jock]] who raped her, the heroine becomes the school outcast and one night a group of her classmates surround her in an alley and cut off chunks of her hair. [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished|It's barely noticeable once the heroine slaps a baseball cap on top of it]].

* In ''Hitcher in the Dark'', Daniela (Josie Bisset) is drugged by the man she's getting a lift from and wakes up to find he has cut off all of her beautiful long blonde hair and also dyed it brown so that she now looks more like his mother.

* Happens to the protagonist's little sister in ''Remember Me.'' the [[Alpha Bitch]] invites her to a supervised birthday party, and the girl thinks the bully wants to be friends now, so she goes. Then while the adults are busy, the bully and her [[Girl Posse]] gang up on her, hold her down, and chop off her pigtails. [[Papa Wolf|Her brother, father, and the brother's roommate are not happy.]]

* In ''[[The Brady Bunch Movie]]'', jealous Jan dreamt about cutting Marcia's hair in her sleep. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for Jan, Marcia still looked nice afterward, so her ego didn't get damaged at all.}}

* In [[Bent]], as is custom for the prisoners in concentration camps, Max has his stylish hair shaved off.

* ''[[The Crying Game]]''. Dil. {{spoiler|The last thing she wants to be is a boy again}}. The only way Dil agrees is that Fergus insists that he's doing it for love; she still cries as her hair is cut.

'''Dil''': Girl has to draw the line ''somewhere''. }}

 

== Literature ==

* In ''Shards of Honor'' by the same author, this trope is used as a chilling prequel to a real rape (plus additional [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture]]), when the sadistic psychopath bad guy cuts off a lock of Cordelia's red hair and plays with it.

** More terrifying when you realize it wasn't her he really wanted to torture, it was her fiancee.

* The story "The Nutcracker Coup" by [[Janet Kagan]] is about aliens with hedgehog-like spines down their backs. It was a deeply shaming punishment to have these spines clipped. When one of the aliens befriended by the protagonist (a junior member of the human diplomatic staff) had it done, the protagonist told her that someone once cut her hair off to shame her, but she dyed the remnant bright red and gloried in it. The clipped aliens are inspired to put beads on their spines and walk tall, which angers those who clipped them, but they don't care.

* In the second book of the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, Kahlan gets her hair lopped off when she's sentenced to execution. This is one of the more obvious examples, as in a good chunk of the series' world, a woman's hair is directly and explicitly tied to her status, and Kahlan has the longest locks around. She also lops off a bit of her own hair. That doesn't ''sound'' awesome, but Confessors are magically incapable of cutting their own hair, as part of an enforcement of the status symbol. A Confessor who cuts her own hair suffers debilitating pain. In part because of that knowledge, Richard realized that Kahlan really did love him {{spoiler|despite putting the Rada'Han on his neck and sending him to the Palace of the Prophets}}.

** In the Celeste series, Celeste's mother cuts Celeste's hair while she is asleep, in order to force her to dress as a boy and {{spoiler|assume the identity of her dead twin brother.}}

* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''

** The talking horses Bree and Hwin must have their tails cut short to disguise themselves as packhorses. Bree is especially annoyed and tries to delay his entry into Narnia so that he won't undergo the shame of being seen with a ragged tail by the rest of his kind.

** In ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'' where the White Witch has [[The Messiah|Aslan]] tied down and his mane cut off before executing him. He is revived.

* In ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', the narrator witnesses Mr. Brocklehurst's visit to Lowood School, where he admonishes a girl named Julia for having curled her hair, saying that she is giving her soul over to Satan, she will burn in hell for idleness and vanity, and demanding that it be cut off as soon as possible - never mind that Julia's hair is naturally curly. Jane protests about that, only to end up getting her long hair cut off too.

** In more than one adaptation, ''all'' of the Lowood girls get their hair forcibly cut as a part of their "mortification".

* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'': played half-straight half-inverted in the case of [[Magnificent Bastard|Jarlaxle]]. In drow matriarchal theocratic society hair style reflects status. So, how guy can show he's not in the system, without being either [[Rule-Abiding Rebel]] or simply punished and ordered to reverse? By changing indicator state to "undefined". He shaved his head -- [[Take That]], clergy.

* In the [[Sherlock Holmes]] story ''The Copper Beeches'' a woman Violet Hunter is offered a position as a governess with a three figure salary on the condition she cut off her beautiful hair quite short. It turns out {{spoiler|they were really hiring her to impersonate their daughter who had been ill with a [[Brain Fever]] and her hair had to be cut off}}.

* Self-inflicted example in ''[[The Red and The Black]]'' - The [[Villain Protagonist]] "tames" his [[Tsundere]]/[[Yandere]] (she alternates between being a snooty aristocrat and acting lovey-dovey, and is batshit insane) love interest, and to show fealty to him, she cuts her hair brutally short.

* The Ancient Greek playwright Menander had a play titled ''Perikeiromene'' which translates as "Girl who has her hair cropped". This refers to an incident prior to the action of the play, where the hero suspects his mistress of infidelity and shears her hair as punishment.

** Also happens in L.M. Montgomery's ''Anne of Green Gables'', because she {{spoiler|attempts to dye her hair black, but it comes out greenish.}}

* In the book ''Circle Of Blood'' by Alane Ferguson, the book's victim is found dead with her long braid cut off beside her. It later turns out that {{spoiler|her killers were members of the cult she escaped from, and cutting off her hair was their way of stealing her beauty.}}

* ''[[The Deed of Paksenarrion]]'': This may ring a bit hollow given the rest of the terrible stuff that follows (including actual rape), but a shaved head is one of the first things to be done to Paks during her three days of [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]. The act invoked the (more lawful) established practice of ''tinisi turin'' ("shorn sheep"), [[Insignia Rip Off Ritual|a punishment for military criminals]].

* Happens to a rape victim in ''Almost the Truth'' by Margaret Yorke. It's played on repeatedly throughout the book: she uses it as evidence of physical assault in court, her hairstyle is referred to many times even after it's grown out, and {{spoiler|her father thinks about the incident often (since he didn't witness the rape) as he decides to take revenge on the rapist.}})

* In ''The Devil's Arithmetic'', Hannah, Rivka and the other Jewish women have their hair cut off as they enter the Concentration Camp. The men also have their sidelocks cut off and the movie version shows the Rabbi with his beard cut off.

* The short story ''Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' by F Scott Fitzgerald ends with the title character chopping off her sleeping cousin's hair as revenge for convincing Bernice to get a haircut, which is not only highly unflattering but due to the mores of the day all Bernice's male admirers now think of her as "loose."

* In 'The Outsiders' by S. E. Hinton, the main character, Ponyboy, is attacked by socs and they attempt to cut his hair (long hair was his emblem of greaser status) when they try to, he begins screaming and fighting to be released. However, in later chapters he is forced by circumstances to both dye and cut his hair. Ponyboy and Johnny also discuss how judges force convicted greasers to get haircuts as a way to break them.

* In one of the [[Babysitters Club]] spinoff "little sister" books, Karen hates the short haircut she gets (mainly because she didn't ask for it to look like that) and tries various methods to make herself look nicer again, including repeatedly going by more "glamorous" names. Luckily her hair is growing back by the end of the story.

* Kid-friendly example: In ''How to Survive Summer Camp'' by Jacqueline Wilson, Stella has a very short haircut which she hates and makes her the victim of bullying from the other girls at a summer camp she attends. She explains that she'd gone to have a new hairstyle for her mother and stepfather's wedding, but when she tried to demonstrate that she only wanted a small amount cut, the hairdresser misunderstood and duly sheared her hair down to bristle.

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', when {{spoiler|Ivy is kidnapped by Denarians and tortured}}, this trope happens.

* [[Harry Potter]] gets his untidy dark hair chopped off by his aunt, all except the bangs ("to hide that horrible scar!") However, being a wizard, it grew back overnight, though Harry lost the entire night's sleep over the fear of getting laughed at more.

* Happens in ''Becky's Horse'', by Winifred Madison, when Becky's sister Mimi {{spoiler|tries to dye her hair blonde and it comes out greenish.}} She has it cut, and stops being vain about her hair.

* In ''Junie B. Jones is a Beauty Shop Guy'', the six-year-old heroine is pretending she's a hair stylist and experiments on herself. Her dad takes her to a beauty parlor for a neatening trim from an actual one.

* Ehlana gets a drawn-out version during the [[Elenium|Tamuli]]; each message her kidnappers send to Sparhawk include a lock of her hair. By the time Sparhawk catches up with them, she's been shaved bald ... which shouldn't have been necessary, there weren't that many messages. Her kidnappers may have taken extra for the trauma value.

* In the novel ''Pretty Is,'' Erin sneaks up on her ex-best friend [[Alpha Bitch|Kayla]] in the middle of the night and cuts off her long golden hair.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* In an episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' with an [[Inferred Holocaust]] example, Daniel Jackson lost his long floppy hair with no explanation (and kept it that way for the rest of the series' run)... coinciding with waking up the prisoner of [[The Vamp|someone]] who actually ''had'' raped him once before.

* In the first arc of the third season of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', there was a subplot about rapists cutting the hair off the girls they raped.

* Two episodes of ''[[The X-Files]]'' featured a necrophiliac serial killer obsessed with women's hair, which he would cut from his victims' bodies.

* British soap opera ''Hollyoaks'' had a storyline in which Amy Barnes was abused by her boyfriend, including him hacking off her [[Rapunzel Hair]] because he thought it made her look childish.

* In ''[[Rome]]'', Servilia of the Junii is knocked from her litter and is beaten, stripped naked, and has her hair cut with a dagger as an act of revenge from another character. The entire experience is clearly very traumatizing to her, and she spends several days recovering.

** In the book ''[[The Big Four]]'', {{spoiler|he actually shaves his mustaches, when impersonating his imaginary brother Archille. [[Fan Wank|Some fans]] [[Wild Mass Guessing|theorize]] that because his mustache would not have been able to grow back afterward, the shaven man must really have been Archille...}}

* In ''[[Salute Your Shorts]]'', Budnick is briefly persuaded to let his love interest shorten his hair. But as he is led to the barber chair, he imagines it as an electric chair. After a few dramatized snips, he can't take it anymore.

** Season 16 had the opposite case in Molly. The [[Diana Ross]] weave in the makeover episode irritated her scalp so much she was actually ''euphoric'' when she got her cut.

* In ''[[Sherlock Holmes And The Leading Lady]]'', Holmes cuts off part of Watson's mustache (over Watson's protests) so that he can impersonate Holmes' valet.

* In the ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode "The Barber", Jerry shaves the head of his [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]] Newman as a form of revenge.

* The reality series ''That'll Teach Em'' saw modern teenagers go to a 1950s style boarding school and on the first day, the boys had their hair cut into a short back and sides. The most memorable transformation was Brennon Gunston, a rocker with long blond hair who looked like a different person after getting it cut off. He ended up never finishing the series and left early on. Also the girls had to wear their hair in pigtails at the school but none of it was cut off.

* ''The Amazing Race'' used this as a Fast Forward challenge (a chance to get a big jump on other teams) twice; the first time, both team members who discovered it were professional models, and skipped back to the regular race rather than seriously damage a part of their professional image. Second time around, the guy in the couple was already bald, so it fell on his wife to bite the bullet. She went for it, and karma rewarded the team - they won the big million-dollar prize.

* Played for laughs in [[Scrubs]]. Throughout the series, there are flashbacks to the two male leads' stay in college, all of which feature Chris Turk with an afro. In the last one, frustration over lost tickets to a basketball game causes Turk to start tearing his hair out in handfuls. At the end of the flashback, JD mentions that this is the reason Turk keeps his head shaved in the present.

* An episode of ''Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' had Robert E. and Grace being terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan. In one attack, a group of Klansmen surround Grace and hold her down while they cut her hair off.

** The protagonist gets all his long shaggy hair hacked off down to the scalp at the start of episode two when he is purchased as a gladiator to make him look more presentable. Overlaps somewhat with [[Important Haircut]] as it is the first part of his induction as a gladiator as well as one of the steps the Romans use to [[Break the Haughty]].

** Pops up as part of a [[Bait and Switch]] in the second last episode of season 1. When it is revealed {{spoiler|Naevia and Crixus have been sleeping together, Lucretia is seen attacking Naevia savagely in her chambers and asks for a servant to bring her a knife. Naevia is not seen for the rest of the episode implying she has been killed but she appears at the end scalped before being sent away from the ludus. Crixus gets his revenge in the next episode}}.

* In the third season of Beverly Hills 90210, Brenda imagines doing this to Kelly after having found out that Dylan cheated with her all summer while Brenda was in Paris.

 

* In the music video for [[Paramore]]'s "Misery Business", a girl with a long, blonde plait has her braid cut off and presented to her by the bad girl. The blonde is horrified. The bad girls gets what's coming to her, though.

* Happened to [[Metallica]] in 1996, resulting in their record "Load".

 

 

== [[Myth and Legend]] ==

* One elaborate [[Norse Mythology|Norse myth cycle]] is touched off by Loki, god of being a dick, cutting off all of Sif's hair. This is part of Loki's eternal nettling of Thor, Sif's husband. The act has greater meaning because Norse societies punished unfaithful women by cutting their hair short. In some stories, it's implied that Loki ''raped'' Sif and then cut off all of her hair. Some time after the entire dispute is resolved and Thor is paid off, Loki gets really drunk and tells everyone that Sif seduced him. No other trickster god is near the [[Magnificent Bastard]] Loki is. Long story short: [[Just-So Story|now we get earthquakes]].

 

 

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** The ritual for becoming a [[Death Seeker|Slayer]] in dwarven society implies shaving your head except for a huge mohawk and dyeing it orange, so that anyone can see at a glance your disgrace.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Penny Arcade]] [[Colon Cancer|Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness: Episode One]]'' features Gabe cutting a lock of ''beautiful'' blonde hair from one of the Bosses.

 

 

* Chel in ''[[Alien Dice]]'' has her waist-length hair cut when she is kidnapped. Soon after, she breaks a mirror to make a knife so that she can cut her hair further (removing a rat-tail that the kidnappers left) and re-assert her independence and control.

* Charlie and Tom in ''[[Khaos Komix]]'' are attacked by a mob of their schoolmates after Charlie shows up in school in a girls' uniform, and during the beatdown, Charlie is [[Sadistic Choice|given a choice]]: either she cuts her hair, or the ringleader's boyfriend vaginally rapes Tom.

* In what may be a rare male example, Bumper in [[Dominic Deegan]] becomes keen to genuinely hurt the eponymous seer after Dominic's actions result in Bumper losing his topknot.

* In ''[[Strays]]'', [http://www.straysonline.com/2012/01/page-202/ Meela's brother cuts her hair over her objections]. She wants to go home. He wants them to pass as brothers instead of a brother and sister, which is how their enemies are looking for them.

* April in College Roomies from Hell has her hair cut after she kills another character.

* In ''[[Samurai Princess]]'' Jacquline gets one of these.

 

== Web Original ==

 

 

* In a ''Madeline'' movie, ''Lost In Paris'', a child labor ring used haircuts as a threat to keep them in line. [[Kick the Dog|Tthe girls have to use their own hair to make lace afterward.]] Madeline does end up getting a chunk of her hair cut off in the climax, but [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished|it's fine again in the ending.]]

* The deranged barber, Freaky Fred, from ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' is very prone to lock raping when he's feeling particularly... [[Catch Phrase|naaauuuughty]].

** In "The Mane Event" Bubbles and Buttercup accidentally pull out a huge chunk of Blossom's hair while playing with it, and their attempts to fix their mistake were less than successfull, making her look like she lost a fight with a lawn mower. She eventually gets revenge on the other two by butchering ''their'' hair. [[Reset Button|It's all back to normal next episode.]]

* ''[[The Simpsons]]''

** Lisa gets a large wad of gum in her hair and people spend the rest of the episode trying homespun recipes to get it out (honey, peanut butter, etc). Finally she gives up and goes to a barber, who tells her he understands how important a girl's hair is. Cue the next shot, where he's just shaved that part of her head. {{spoiler|And then next shot, where Lisa has a nice hairstyle. "I look like a real person!"}}. Then Lisa goes outside and immediately Nelson goes "Haw haw!" at her; she sticks a bobble-hat over her head to hide her cool new hairstyle, suddenly and inexplicably ashamed of what she had liked just moments before.

** In a season 4 episode, during a flashback, two-year-old Bart, jealous of all the attention Lisa is getting cuts off all her hair. "Who's cuter now?"

** In the episode "Simpson Tide", Homer tries to avoid getting his head shaven after joining the US Navy Reserve. He isn't successful and is left holding the few strands of hair in his hands.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''

** At the beginning of the second season when Zuko and Iroh are forced to go on the run from Azula, they are required to cut off their ponytail and top knot to hide the fact that they are Fire Nation from the Earth Kingdom populace they intend to hide amongst. Although they are cutting off their own hair, the gravity with which the act is performed (combined with the obvious cultural relevence of the hairstyle since virtually every Fire Nation person is seen to have it) makes it clear that the act is a symbolic acknowledgement of the fact that they will never be able to return to their homeland.

* Averted (or ignored, either way it's notable) in ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', where normally, as noted below, a samurai would kill himself if he lost his topknot. For Jack it just turns him into a [[Badass Long Hair]].

* In an episode of [[Rugrats]], Chuckie had to get his hair cut. Since he's two and a coward, he didn't want one. It didn't help that Angelica terrified him into believing that a hair cut involves having every one of his hairs pulled out by the roots.

* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' - Hank and his friends have to get their heads shaved after Bill infests them with head lice.

** In the third season opener Luanne gets her hair burned off in the propane explosion, she actually spends most of the season with short hair until it eventually grows back to it's previous length.

** Also it appears all the new recruits Bill shaves are often crying when he does so. Ironically the people in line laugh at the one crying, despite the fact the same thing will be happening to them soon.

* Near the end of [[Total Drama Island]], [[Alpha Bitch|Heather's]] hair is forcibly shaved off. She is not pleased. Afterwards, she spends the entire second season bald and the third season with her hair only partially grown back. Also in the third season finale Sierra gets her hair burned off in the plane explosion.

 

 

** The [[Important Haircut]] variant is common to all branches. Army recruits have the "barely there" shave until the end of Basic. Also called 'peeling your scalp'. Drill sergeants intentionally invoke this trope as part of your introductory hazing. The more hair you arrive with, the more malicious glee they, and the barber, take in rubbing your nose in it.

** Female Officer Candidates in Navy OCS get an [[Important Haircut]] upon enrollment. They have their hair shorn down to less than two inches; this is singular in the US military, where most of the time women are required only to wear their hair off their collar and out of their face. Male OCs get the typical "high and tight" described by the Marine above. Females entering the U.S. Naval Academy also receive this haircut.

* The Qing Dynasty was ruled by the Manchurians, who forced the Chinese to shave their foreheads and have a ponytail, called a queue, which became the stereotypical hairstyle of the Orient back in those days. Losing the ponytail was not only a loss of honor, but also punishable by death.

** As such, you can imagine why people were frightened when they heard stories about sorcerers or secret societies traveling about stealing queues.

* Back in the day when the Rastafari were persecuted in Jamaica, cutting off their dreadlocks was a common nasty trick the police would do to them.

* During [[Genghis Khan]]'s rule of Mongolia, he sent envoys to attempt to open trade with a neighboring nation. Even after being rebuked with violence, he tried again and did not retaliate until his envoy had his beard forcibly shaved as a method of humiliation, and was sent back home. Khan then declared war. [[Badass|And proceeded to wipe the country out]]. The Mongols took the concept of diplomatic immunity very seriously and humiliating or mistreating an ambassador in such a manner was tantamount to a declaration of war.

** It's worth noting that in Japan, if a woman is raped she's considered dishonored and unfit for marriage, and will most likely commit suicide. Or move to another, more lenient country and cut off all contact with her friends and family. At least, that's the way things used to be.

** Not just the women. If a samurai lost his topknot in a fight it was considered far worse than losing his head, and he'd have to commit [[Seppuku]] to regain his honor. The movie "Hara Kiri" explores this and other samurai rules of honor in depth (and the hypocrisy in which the rules were often applied).

* Chinese general [[wikipedia:Cao Cao|Cao Cao]] once violated his own orders when he carelessly allowed his horse to trample some crops; legend claims that he actually ordered himself beheaded, but his officers protested the order and he merely had his head shaved as a symbolic "beheading."

* Cutting the hair of a Sikh, who for religious reasons do not cut their hair or shave (although they wear turbans, so people in public never actually see their hair), can be considered a hate crime, because of the significance of it.

* A law in Wisconsin makes it illegal to cut a woman's hair.

* In the African American Community, a black woman cutting off her long, so called ''good hair'' is considered a tragedy.

* The kings of the Merovingian Dynasty that ruled the medieval Frankish Empire traditionally had long hair. When the last Merovingian king, Childeric III was dethroned by his mayor of the palace, Pepin the Short, he was sent to a monastery and tonsured, thus symbolically deprived of his royal powers.

* Patients about to go through chemotherapy for cancer will often shave their hair before hand, as the treatment is notorious for losing hair. This is often (and understandably) traumatic for the patient (ESPECIALLY if the patient is a woman) and for the family and friends, because it really confirms the patient's illness. It's not uncommon for family and friends to also shave their heads in solidarity with the patient.

* In Argentina there was a show called ''El Último Pasajero'' (The Last Passenger) in which two groups of teenagers in their last high school years competed for a graduation trip for the whole class division, which is a tradition between Argentinian students. One of the games, and the most viewed, consisted in a member of one team selecting someone from the opposite team, normally a pretty girl with long hair, in order to get him/her a horrible haircut. The teen could refuse but [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|their classmates made that choice rather difficult, by insisting and treating the girl as a traitor if she didn't acced to the task]]. Most of the girls who acceded to cut their hair ended up crying.

* A vital stage of nuclear [[Decontamination Chamber|decontamination]] is shaving off not just hair on the head, but ''all hair everywhere on the body'', because radioactive particles often cling to hair, and the only way guarantee that it's been removed to prevent further harm is to shave off all hair, as well as removing and burying all clothing and jewelry which is also contaminated, and scrubbing all skin with a rough brush to remove flakes of skin that are also likely contaminated.

* Peter the Great of Russia, as one step of modernizing his empire made all state officials shave their beards off. For those who especially resisted he would come himself and cut their beards off with an axe [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|with his own hands]].

* In Chile, a 14-year-old schoolgirl wearing [[Rapunzel Hair|two very long]] [[Girlish Pigtails|and noticeable braids]] is questioned about it by her teacher. She doesn't pay attention, so the teacher forcibly takes her to the teacher's room and cuts them off. The poor girl is traumatised, the parents are understandably '''pissed off''', and the case reaches public attention.

** A 15-year-old boy with hair past his shoulders [http://www.elpinguino.com/noticias/107451/Apoderada_denuncia_al_Liceo_Sara_Braun_por_cortarle_el_pelo_a_su_hijo went through a similar situation.]

* In the book ''Siblings Without Rivalry'', the authors recount an incident of this that happened to one of the members of their support group for parents trying to improve their parenting techniques. The parent in question had curly hair that she was proud of, but her sister was jealous of. As a result, the parent's mother took her to the barber and had all her hair cut off.

* A couple of years ago, in [http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2010/01/the_trimet_barber.html Portland, Oregon,] there was a guy who sat behind women on the bus and cut off their hair or put glue in it.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Long Hair Is Feminine]]

[[Category:Hair Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]