History Main / ExpositoryHairstyleChange

* The LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek ''Amy & Isabelle'' uses Amy's hair as a clock to show the stage of her and Isabelle's relationship. In flashbacks, Amy is shown with a beautiful head of long curly hair. In the present, it's cut short. Flashbacks later reveal that Amy had an affair with her teacher, and Isabelle cut the hair off in a fit of rage after she discovered this. Later in the movie, after mother and daughter have sorted out their issues, Amy is taken to the hairdressers to have the haircut tidied up.

** Naevia was given a TraumaticHaircut at the end of Season 1 as punishment by Lucretia and thus sported short hair in Season 2. By Season 3, both to show that time has passed and to mark her change into a DarkActionGirl, the hair is longer.

* There are several examples in ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', but the one that fits best is Ken from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02''. As the Digimon Kaiser, his digital avatar has his hair two-toned and spiked, not too dissimilar to his dead older brother Osamu, whose reputation Ken has spent the last couple of years trying to live up to. During his MyGodWhatHaveIDone scene, his digital avatar breaks apart and he returns to his real appearance, with his hair returning to its natural state of being chin-length, straight, and solid blue. On the long run, it ends up symbolizing not just his HeelTurnFace, but that he's accepted that he can't replace his brother and will now be himself.

* A LOT of examples in ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', but the one that fits best is Ken from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02''. As the Digimon Emperor, his digital avatar has his hair two-toned and spiked (and probably not accidentally similar to his dead older brother Sam, whose reputation Ken has spent the last couple of years trying to live up to). During his MyGodWhatHaveIDone scene, his hair changes along with the rest of his appearance to its natural state of being chin-length, straight, and solid blue, which also symbolizes that he's accepted that he can't replace his brother and will now be himself.

** Also, Kippei Tachibana dyes his hair blond after the Fudomine team qualifies for the National Tournament. He used to dye it years ago, but stopped doing so after a traumatic incident [[spoiler: where he almost [[EyeScream blinded]] his best friend.]] He retakes the dye part [[spoiler: in the Nationals.]]

** [[TheFixer Rogue]] used to have a [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair blue]] [[EightiesHair mullet]] in 2023. In 2077, her hair is still long, but it looks more like a classical cut, and is [[SilverFox grey]], to show that she's matured into the "Queen Of The Fixers".

** Tedd [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1846 cut his hair and changed its color to pink]]. He affirms it's a way to own and [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1847 embrace his own girliness]] (meaning that he no longer is ashamed of his androgyny) but also because he's rebelling[[note]]maybe at his dad's negation of exposing magic to public eye[[/note]]. However, because Tedd used magic to color his hair, [[spoiler: it made it all the more noticeable when Tedd's hair turned back to its natural [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair purple]] the very same evening, due to the color-changing spell getting counteracted by a GenderBender spell. This lead to some major revelations about Tedd's capabilities.]]

See GoodHairEvilHair for when this trope is used in conjunction with a HeelFaceTurn or FaceHeelTurn. NonconformistHairDye might come into play for someone experimenting with rebellion or leaving it behind.

** Susan was born blonde, but began dyeing her hair blue-black after discovering her father having an affair with a blonde woman. However, her angst-induced magical awakening in Hammerchlorians changes her hair to blue-black permanently, [[spoiler: as a hidden reserve of magical power she can use in a pinch]].
** During Sister 3, [[spoiler: Ellen's hair turns permanently green after exposure to energy from the exploded Dewitchery Diamond (which may or may not have been dragon magic). Downplayed, since she uses a transformation watch in public to look like her old self, since her eye color changed too. Lampshaded, since the comic was drawn in black-and-white gradient during the reveal, so the color change had to be pointed out by the characters.]]
** Deconstructed and reconstructed in "The Legend of Diane". Diane gets her long hair cut chin-length after Sister 3, but even she isn't sure exactly why she did it at first. She looks so different that people talk about her in the hall without realizing she's there. Flashbacks and discussions with her inner child reveal that Diane originally grew her hair out to be more attractive to boys so she could date them, and became more of a jaded GoldDigger as she went on. Her recent style change was a subconscious effort to look more like her hopeful and optimistic 12-year-old self again. The severe cut later grows out to a more natural shoulder-length as she adjusts.

** [[spoiler:Aizen's removal of his glasses]] and slicking back of his hair demonstrated to the audience that yes, he was now the BigBad. This incident is also thought to have contributed to his FanNickname of "Evil Superman".

* Between the two seasons of ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'', Hei goes from clean-cut and capable of passing for a university student to "[[FanNickname Hobo Hei]]", with PermaStubble and WildHair. Since he was extremely badass to begin with, this is a sign that all has not gone well for him during the year or two of TimeSkip.

* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' has a version of this: [[FanNickname Fauxlivia]] always wears bangs, even when she's pretending to be Olivia, and Olivia only wears bangs when she [[spoiler:has been brainwashed into thinking she's Fauxlivia]], and stops wearing them when she gets back home.

** Deconstructed and reconstructed in "The Legend of Diane". Diane gets her long hair cut chin-length after Sister 3, but even she isn't sure exactly why she did it at first. She looks so different that people talk about her in the hall without realizing she's there. Flashbacks and discussions with her inner child reveal that Diane originally grew her hair out to be more attractive to boys so she could date them, and became more of a jaded GoldDigger as she went on. Her style change was a subconscious effort to look more like her hopeful and optimistic 12-year-old self. The severe cut later grows out to a more natural shoulder-length as she adjusts.

** When a magic user gets burned out from using too much magic, their hair turns temporarily black to indicate they can't access their magic. This is attributed to Magic's flair for the dramatic, and is such a common occurrence that sudden "unexplained" hair-color changes are a medically-recognized condition. [[spoiler: This occurs to Nanase at the end of Sister 2, and partially after the Not-Tengu fight in Family Tree. Ellen, for some reason, burns out blonde in Family Tree.]]

** During Sister 3, [[spoiler: Ellen's hair turns permanently green after exposure to the exploded Dewitchery Diamond. She uses a transformation watch to avoid suspicion, since her eye color changed too. Lampshaded, since the comic was drawn in black-and-white gradient during the reveal, so the color change had to be pointed out.]]

** When a magic user gets burned out from using too much magic, their hair turns temporarily black. This is attributed to Magic's flair for the dramatic, and is such a common occurrence that sudden hair-color changes are a medically-recognized condition (though the supernatural cause is not). [[spoiler: This occurs to Nanase at the end of Sister 2, and partially after the Not-Tengu fight in Family Tree. Ellen, for some reason, burns out blonde in Family Tree.]]
** Tedd [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1846 cut his hair and changed its color to pink]]. He affirms it's a way to own and [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1847 embrace his own girliness]] (meaning that he no longer is ashamed of his androgyny) but also because he's rebelling[[note]]maybe at his dad's negation of exposing magic to public eye[[/note]]. [[spoiler: Taken UpToEleven when Tedd's hair turns back to its natural [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair purple]] the very same evening, due to the color-changing spell getting counteracted by a GenderBender spell, leading to some major revelations about Tedd's capabilities.]]

** Deconstructed in "The Legend of Diane". Diane gets her long hair cut chin-length after Sister 3, but even she isn't sure exactly why she did it at first. She looks so different that people talk about her in the hall without realizing she's there. Flashbacks reveal that Diane originally grew her hair out to be more attractive to boys so she could date them, and became more of a jaded GoldDigger as she kept dating dumb boys. Her style change was a subconscious effort to look more like her hopeful and optimistic 12-year-old self. The severe cut later grows out to a more natural shoulder-length as she adjusts.

** During Sister 3, [[spoiler: Ellen's hair turns permanently green after exposure to the exploded Dewitchery Diamond. She uses a transformation watch to avoid suspicion, since her eye color changed too.]]
** Diane gets her long hair cut chin-length after Sister 3 to deal with the family revelations that happened during that arc. She looks so different that people talk about her in the hall without realizing she's there.

** Averted, or rather ignored with her husband, though. Marshall's hair tends to stay the same in flashbacks, which was quite noticeable when it was comparatively long in season 4.

** Susan was born blonde, but began dyeing her hair blue-black after discovering her father having an affair with a blonde woman. However, her angst-induced magical awakening in Hammerchlorians changes her hair to blue-black permanently, [[spoiler: as a sudden reserve of magical power she can use in a pinch]].
**

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Tedd [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1846 cut his hair and changed its color to pink]]. He affirms it's a way to own and [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1847 embrace his own girliness]] (meaning that he no longer is ashamed of his androgyny) but also because he's rebelling[[note]]maybe at his dad's negation of exposing magic to public eye[[/note]].

See GoodHairEvilHair for when this trope is used in conjunction with a HeelFaceTurn or FaceHeelTurn. NonconformistHairDye might come into play for someone experimenting rebellion or leaving it behind.

See GoodHairEvilHair for when this trope is used in conjunction with a HeelFaceTurn or FaceHeelTurn. Not related to KaleidoscopeHair, despite that being about changing hair colors.

** When Eikichi is actively trying to charm girls, he changes his hairstyle and [[{{Megane}} wears glasses]].

* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' has identical twins Hikaru and Kaoru who parody this by dyeing their hair pink and blue wanting to be seen as different people. They really did it because they were bored, and even faked a fight to make it convincing. Played straight by Hikaru later in the manga when he dyes his hair darker after him and Kaoru really ''do'' have a fight [[spoiler:over their feelings for Haruhi]]. This is a huge step in character development for them, as they permanently want to be seen as separate people (although still Host together) – they even move into their own bedrooms.

** In the seasons 1, 2 and the beginning of 3, Hordak keeps his (dyed) blue hair spotlessly combed backwards,representing his rigid, no - flaws stance.Since the explosion in "Huntara", however, he gets it loosenly pulled aside as Entrapta’s free-spirit influences him. He keeps it like this even after [[spoiler: Catra made him think that Entrapta betrayed him.]], hinting that he never stopped thinking of her, although he has forbidden his subordinates to say her name, and his hair gets more and more disheveled as he sinks on a spiral of pain and revenge. After having been brainwashed and forced by Horde Prime to be a standard clone once more, Hordak's hair is bleached and combed backwards again, but [[spoiler: after he shoots Horde Prime in the last episode, one strand of hair gets loosen as he gets his true self back.]]

** Post-timeskip, for whatever reason (it was only just over a year) just about ''everyone'' has changed their hairstyle, including some odd ones like Shinji's diagonally cut bangs, for example. Almost the only one who hasn't is [[BaldOfAwesome Ikkaku]].

* John Stewart changed his appearance from short black hair, to [[BaldOfAwesome a shaven head]] and goatee in between the ending of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' [[spoiler: in the last episode of which, he broke up with Hawkgirl]], and the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited''. The first thing Shayera says to him upon meeting him again, apparently for the first time since the end of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' is:

*** Clone medic Kix has, for no explained reason, grown his hair out into the "regulation" clone trooper haircut from his previous (almost) BaldOfAwesome.

** In the seasons 1, 2 and the beginning of 3, Hordak keeps his hair spotlessly combed backwards,representing his rigid, non-admitting-flaws stance.Since the explosion in "Huntara", however, he gets it loosenly pulled aside as Entrapta’s free-spirit influences him. He keeps it like this even after [[spoiler: Catra made him think that Entrapta betrayed him.]], hinting that he never stopped thinking of her, although he has forbidden his subordinates to say her name, and his hair gets more and more disheveled as he sinks on a spiral of pain and revenge.After having been brainwashed and forced by Horde Prime to be a standard clone once more, Hordak gets his hair bleached and combed backwards again, but [[spoiler: after he shoots Horde Prime in the last episode, one strand of hair gets loosen, symbolizing the return of his personality.]]