History Main / CompressedHair

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''[='s=] Yukari Yakumo normally has hair that's [[DependingOnTheArtist usually depicted]] as waist-length; for her appearances in the 2D fighting games ''Immaterial and Missing Power'' and ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'', she somehow manages to tuck all that hair up under her trademark cap without a single loose strand. Of course, [[RealityWarper Yukari]] views space and physics the same way a bored toddler views a lump of plasticine, so this isn't a stretch for her.

* When [[ComicBook/MalibuComicsStreetFighter Chun-Li]] undoes her OdangoHair, it's at [[RapunzelHair waist length]].

* Depending on who's drawing him at the time, {{Wolverine}}'s flared mask could concievably contain his distinctively flared hairstyle (they're rarely drawn to actually match up, flaring-wise - in fact, the haircut came a while after the mask; he's never unmasked in his first appearances). The muttonchop sideburns are a different matter - some artists don't even bother to draw his mask covering the parts of his jaw where there's hair when he's unmasked. And how does his hair stay so distinctively flared when he keeps wearing a mask over it?

** The popularity of sock buns and hair donuts to make short hair look like it's a neat and tidy bun has resulted in the average person expecting that a bun of the same size as the most common hair donut will contain shoulder length hair. Depending on thickness and how tight the bun is, that could easily be knee length hair in there.

* Hats with a fitted hatband and then a floppy section--such as newsboy caps or muffin hats--have a surprising amount of room for hair. Top hats, unsurprisingly, also have a lot of extra space inside. Hats designed to hug the head--such as baseball caps or cowboy hats--typically do ''not'' have room for hair. (If you bought an oversized one that you ''could'' fit your hair inside, if you ever tried to wear it with your hair down it would be so loose it would fall off.)
* Some marching band uniforms require girls with hair past their shoulders to tie it back and shove it all inside their hats somehow. If it won't fit, it can be tucked down the back of the jacket.
** Even with a loose bun it's not that hard to fit it all into a marching band helmet. Though some girls probably still have to cut their hair if it's really thick and curly.

* In ''Anime/{{Mobile Suit Gundam 00}}'', Princess Marina Ismail is guilty of this when she goes on a world tour to negotiate a solar power generation system. How she keeps her [[RapunzelHair butt-length hair]] rolled-up is anyone's guess.

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' TheMovie had Juri and Utena's character designs altered significantly. While Juri's hair has always been insanely elaborate, the volume of hair she fits in a simple fencing helmet (full French curls plus RapunzelHair that extends almost to her knees) is just ridiculous. Utena, by contrast, actually has character sketches that show how her relatively more modest length of hair could in fact be braided tightly enough to manage hiding it under her hat. Of course, when she takes her hat off it's not braided at all...

* Washu from ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' seems to be a master at this given various scenes.
** Though considering she can use the power of SCIENCE to alter her very age at will, compacting her massive pony tail is hardly impressive.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', [[BikerBabe Sherry [=LeBlanc=]]] does this when she first meets [[BadassBiker Yusei]].

* Samus from ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' certainly qualifies. This may be a reason they cut her hair in ''Other M''.
** Between the Morph Ball mode and her 200+ missiles, keeping a ponytail underneath her helmet is a minor trick.

* It takes no time for ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' to fit her waist-length hair under a helmet, even if it's automatically popped on her head by a gadget.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Xmas Story", in a scene parodying ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi'', Zoidberg, Amy (whose hair could easily lend itself to this trope), and Hermes are all wearing hats. Zoidberg offers Amy a set of combs, only for her to take off her hat and reveal she sold her hair to a wigmaker so she could buy a set of combs for Hermes. "Oh, the irony," says Hermes, who also reveals he sold his hair to buy a third set of combs for Zoidberg. Zoidberg thanks Hermes for the combs, then takes off ''his'' hat to show he now has Amy and Hermes's hair, exclaiming "Finally, I look as pretty as I feel!"

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' episode "Royal Pain," the title character manages to contain the entirety of her knee-length hair within a swimming cap.

* Allura of ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' has really long, wavy, flowing hair, but is somehow able to keep it all in a small bun. It's even more jarring when she wears a helmet. However, this may be justified, as her species are able to partially shapeshift, so she could be making her hair shorter or less thick.
** Also, Lotor. He has long hair down to his waist and is somehow able to fit it all neatly under his helmet, and he doesn't even tie it. Again, he may be able to partially shapeshift due to being half Altean.

* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150216222800/http://www.dreamweaverbraiding.com/braids/lhknot.htm This hairstyle.]]
* There is a Speedo long hair swim cap out there, [[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FGZSNI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=longlockshair-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000FGZSNI sold on Amazon.com]]. Given that whoever is seeking to buy this wants to actually fit all their hair in that swim cap and for said cap to actually fulfill its purpose, that swim cap most likely fits this trope.
** Even a regular Speedo silicone swim cap will accommodate over two feet of straight hair of average thickness, if it's braided and coiled.
* Just braiding hair that's long enough to be braided can compress it to a small degree. However, as the number of strands in the braid goes up, so does the amount of compression of the hair that is braided. Braiding is especially good for achieving CompressedHair if the hair is braided tightly, like Jeri Ryan did to act in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
* Any Sikh man wearing a turban. All Sikhs are required by religious obligation to abstain from cutting any of the hair on their bodies, ever. This requirement results in [[RapunzelHair impressive lengths of hair]]. Since Sikh men are required to wear turbans, they are putting hair at least two feet long into that turban.

* Some people with long hair [[AlwaysFemale (usually women and girls)]] who wear their hair up and then [[LettingHerHairDown let it down]] will sometimes get comments from people who are surprised to learn just how long their hair actually is now that it's down.
** If your hair is straight, it may be surprisingly compressible, even if it's long. A lot of period hairstyles (and, famously, Princess Leia's double-buns) actually require extra padding or hairpieces, or sometimes backcombing and a lot of hairspray, to produce the volume of hair required. (A great many photos you see from the late 19th century, for example, are achieved like this- nobody admitting to wearing it, but Great Britain imported ''thousands of tons'' of ''hair'' in this period.)
** Basically, how easy this is varies quite a lot from person to person depending on how thickly their hair grows and how thick the strands are.
** Wavy/curly hair often looks MUCH more voluminous than it actually is, so braids or buns will compress it dramatically.
* Braiding hair will usually reduce its ''length'' by about one-third, because it goes from a straight line to a wave. A "French braid" (one which starts at the top of the head and adds strands of hair along its length as it goes down the skull) will actually leave a tunnel in between the braid and the skull. A surprisingly long length of braid can be fed up into this tunnel and out of sight, resulting in hair which is waist-length or longer being transformed into a smooth form-fitting helmet of hair with nothing left below the nape of the neck. Only a couple of pins, combs, or hairsticks to keep the hair from slipping back out is required to maintain it.
** Note that it takes a fair amount of time to create such a braid (although less than you might think) and almost as long to get it back down and flowing free again. And if the hair was originally dead straight, it will have a distinct wave if it's been tightly braided for any significant length of time.

* Anyone who's ever worked in theater and was required to wear a wig has developed some impressive tricks to hiding their hair. Between pins, braids, coils, and caps, it's possible to hide quite a bit of hair under a wig. Watch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSHB0ai4878 this video]] through to the end to see how much hair Creator/KristinChenoweth hid under her Sally Brown wig.

* The popularity of sock buns and hair donuts to make short hair look like it's a neat and tidy bun has resulted in the average person expecting that a bun of the same size as the most common hair donut will contain shoulder length hair... depending on thickness and how tight the bun is, that could easily be knee length hair in there.

** Marge Simpson occasionally manages to fit her [[BeehiveHairdo enormous beehive]] under incredibly small hats (although she's usually content with just letting them sit atop her hair instead).
** [[MetaGuy Comic Book Guy]] gets a bit of this in an episode as well. When Bart is haggling with him over trades, he offers to throw in his "man-scrunchie". Tied back, his hair seems to be your typical balding-guy ponytail. But once unleashed, it flows with volume and sheen worthy of Salon commercial.
** And when the school staged a fake ceremony knowing Lisa will confess she cheated on a test to Comptroller Atkins who is awarding the grant money. The fake Atkins [[LatexPerfection unmasks]] turning out to be Otto complete with his hair, hat and headphones.
** In a flashback we see Sideshow Bob wearing a pretty small hat when he accompanies his brother to a casting to be in Krusty's show. When Krusty tries to show how the pie in the face gag is only funny if the victim has dignity, the pie causes Bob's hat to fall and his well-known, and ridiculously big palm tree-like hair, to spring out.

* The female lead of the short-lived Creator/EdwardWoodward series ''Series/OverMyDeadBody'', Jessica Lundy, pulls off a motorcycle helmet to reveal ''very'' long and lush hair in the open credits to the show (seen [[https://youtu.be/XitHaVw_lj0?t=354 here]]).

** In a flashback we see Sideshow Bob wearing a pretty small hat when he accompanies his brother to a casting to be in Krusty's show. When Krusty tries to show how the pie in the face gag is only funny if the victim has dignity, the pie causes Bob's fat to fall and his well-known, and ridiculously big palm tree-like hair, to spring out.

* Ron Delite of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' fame has hair that resembles [[AnimeHair cinnamon buns]]. Fans often wonder how it could possibly fit in [[spoiler:his Mask De*Masque mask]].

* [[http://anitasnotebook.com/2012/02/mystery-of-the-old-school-fro-solved-unzie-the-albino.html Unzie the Albino]], an New Zealand aborigine who toured with Barnum and Bailey, was capable of fitting a gigantic puffy afro under a top hat. You might not have wanted to sit behind him in the theatre either way.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' just loves this trope. Zuko's Season Three shaggy [[EmoTeen emo boy mop]] can be tied neatly into a topknot; Katara's slim braid disguises hair so thick it is wider than her shoulders (which is actually realistic as her hair is wavy, and thus looks bigger than it actually is); Azula's little topknot/hair antennae combo, when let down, reveals waist-length locks, and Toph's modest bun is revealed to be a veritable afro when not properly done up; and in a reversal, Sokka's [[InsistentTerminology warrior's wolf tail]] implies hair about shoulder-length, but when untied is barely level with his chin, and it's in a sort of wedge cut that would really be impossible to get into any semblance of a wolf tail.

* Matsuri of ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' has hair that sticks out wildly and goes halfway down his back, but somehow it ties up into a little tuft.

** Male inklinga have ponytails, however many of the hats have their tentacles neatly hid under the hat. Female inklings have their 'hair' visible constantly though.

->''"Where the heck does all that lovely blond hair ''go'' when he's not in EX Mode?"''
-->-- '''Wiki/ThisVeryWiki''' on ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Kain Highwind]]'', ''[[Characters/Dissidia012FinalFantasyWarriorsOfCosmos Characters page for]] [[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy]]''

* The female lead of the short-lived Creator/EdwardWoodward series ''Over My Dead Body'', Jessica Lundy, pulls off a motorcycle helmet to reveal ''very'' long and lush hair in the open credits to the show (seen [[https://youtu.be/XitHaVw_lj0?t=354 here]]).

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' features [[{{Seers}} Hwaryun]] pulling this off twice, with two degrees of implausibility; managing to seamlessly fit her below waist-length hair in a helmet [[spoiler:while going as Yuto]] in Part 2, and underneath a ''skintight latex hood'' in Part 1... ''somehow''.

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' features [[{{Seers}} Hwaryun]] pulling this off twice, with two degrees of implausibility; with managing to seamlessly fit her below waist-length hair in a helmet [[spoiler:while going as Yuto]] in Part 2, and underneath a ''skintight latex hood'' in Part 1... ''somehow''.

* ''Anime/HanaukyoMaidTai''. Cynthia keeps her hair loose, but on the very same head under the very same cap Grace keeps the very same hair, without changing the volume of the cap itself.

** In "Escape From The Pie Folk" her mother's long hair is styled into a