History Main / ImportantHairCut

* Rebbe Akiva, one of the greatest Jewish sages, owed everything to his wife who did all in her power so that he could learn Torah -- including cutting and selling her own hair.

* Sachiko from [[Fanfic/Danganronpa52DespairFromTheHeart Danganronpa 52: Despair From the Heart]] cuts her hair short after the fourth case, where her LoveInterest Haruto died.

* Inverted by [[Series/JonAndKatePlusEight Kate Gosselyn]], who got hair extensions following her divorce from Jon.

* Music/MichaelBolton ditched his wavy mullet hairstyle in favour of a more shorter haircut in late 1997.

* ''WebVideo/{{Dad}}'': Daughter cut her hair just to impress her crush, Griffin, who happens to like short-hair. She doesn't seem too happy with her new style, but did it anyway, just to make sure he likes her.
* ''Series/TheCryOfMann'': Jouglat chops his hair off messily with scissors when he decides he's going back to the war. [[note]]spelling intentional[[/note]] His mental state not doing well, he does it while staring intensely at a mirror, and leaving large chunks behind.

In many religions (Western Christianity, Ancient Egyptian religion, and others) priests and/or monks cut/shave their hair. Roman Catholic nuns also tend to cut and maintain their hair short under their veils when they enter the nunneries. The cutting of one's own hair is also a part of Buddhism, 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 Asian ones, where a person would cut his or her hair as an act of grief, disgrace, or even rebellion. In the Confucian tradition, hair (like the rest of your body) is considered a gift from your parents and may not be damaged without a good reason. Furthermore, prisoners and psychiatric patients commonly have their heads shaved, often to prevent the spread of lice, but sometimes also [[TraumaticHaircut as a demeaning measure]].

-->'''Elan''': You know, I had just assumed that your short hair was somehow symbolic of your character growth.\\

* Lenny Kravitz cut off his iconic dreads during the ''5'' era and sported a short afro since then (though he straightened his hair during the ''Baptism'' era).

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': After escaping from Damijana to the Zareen Empire and leaving their old life behind, Jeimos shaves their head bald due to their long curly hair being too much to maintain.

* Music/DojaCat shaved her blonde hair to a buzz cut in late 2022, in order to distance from her image as a pop rapper.

* Creator/NDStevenson cut his hair short in 2021 just prior to coming out as transmasculine.

* Music/Ozzy Osbourne decided to shave his head and grew something similar to a military-style buzzcut after Randy Rhoads’ sudden passing in 1982.

* Creator/JAMIErightmeow cutting his long hair short and updating the avatar used in his storytime animations to match was the first sign that he was transitioning from female to transmasculine non-binary in 2020.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', Chapter 15 shows Red's first haircut, ever. (Owing to her [[TheFairFolk fairy]] heritage, she didn't even know that hair ''could'' be cut.) She's convinced that it's not just symbolic, but that her old long hair that won't [[AnimeHair stick up]] is actually the [[IncrediblyLamePun root]] of all her problems.

* Inverted by Creator/EddieIzzard as she grew out her hair not long before coming out as a trans woman in early 2021.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' puts a twist: Lucia being given a TraumaticHaircut [[spoiler: and barely averting being hanged]] marks a significant turning point for ''Elincia'', who goes from TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask to TheHighQueen.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': After escaping from Damijana to the Zareen empire, Jeimos shaves their head bald due to their long curly hair being too much to maintain.

-->-- ''Webcomic/InsideOut''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In the episode "Thanks to Them", Hunter gives himself a haircut when he realizes his hair [[TraumaButton too closely resembles that of his past abuser]], [[BigBad Emperor Belos]]. Willow later helps him clean it up in a [[IntimateHaircut surprisingly tender moment]].
** In “Through the Looking Glass Ruins”, Amity, with the help of her siblings, cuts her hair into a bob and have it dyed purple, despite knowing that it’ll get her in a LOT of trouble with [[AbusiveParents their mother]]. This shows that Amity is continuing to break free from Odalia's toxic influence and wants to grow as her own person rather than go with what her mom wants.

* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', Chloe Cerise has traveled throughout the train with her long red hair flowing free -- because the scrunchie that kept her braid together got blown off when the train arrived to pick her up -- which ends up getting her trouble when the Organ Man grabs it and is about to chop her head off. However, Chloe has a paper bracelet Lexi gifted her, and he uses his paper powers to fold it into a knife to cut it. Not only does it save her life, but this is also coming off the heels after a horrific series of events in regards to the Unown back in Vermillion City and the realization that Chloe herself needs to change. The next car Chloe enters has her hair styled into side-swept waves and even dyed with blue streaks, signaling that she's ready to make the effort to change and go home.

* The Kenny Young and the Eggplants song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHyTN_Q34FM Randolph Got a Haircut]] portrays this trope in an almost cosmic sense, crediting the titular coiffure with the end of structural unemployment and a resurgence of indie music, not to mention improved climate.

* [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] had his long hair and beard trimmed during his tenure as [=SmackDown=] General Manager, though they grew to their familiar length by the time he got back into action. At the very end of 2019, he reverts to the hairstyle he originally had in his early career, which was basically an accident made during a TraumaticHaircut segment where they cut off too much and had to even it out.

* Literature/TheBible, Isaiah 15: Hair is shaved as a mourning rite.
-->''Surely in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;\\
Surely in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.\\
They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, even to the high places to weep\\
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;\\
Everyone's head is bald and every beard is cut off.''

* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', it's possible to shave off the PlayerCharacter's [[GoodHairEvilHair huge mustache and mutton chops]]. While the game does not explicitly say anything about the significance of this, and mostly leaves it up to the player to decide what is, it is easy to read it as the Player Character making a deliberate break with the past. It should be noted that the player character isn't quite sure that shaving is the right call after doing it, but thinks he might look younger (along the lines of a Thought elsewhere in the game that allows the player character to figure out that, [[spoiler:since he's only 44]], he still has time left to recover from his nihilistic alcoholism). The player character remarks that his look now seems like "a normal cop", and if the player asks Kim to comment on his new look, he says the player character should have kept the beard because it covered up more of the damage, which implies it's an attempt to [[BeneathTheMask drop his Mask]] of being a hedonistic {{Disco}} [[LifeOfTheParty party animal]], and be honest to himself about [[TheAlcoholic what he is]], [[HardboiledDetective the job he has to do]] and [[AddledAddict what he's done to his body and brain]].

* A not-just-symbolic example: in the ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' universe, the Nerazim officially and literally cut themselves off from the Protoss race by cutting off their "nerve-appendages": thick, hair-like fibers at the back of their heads that connect the Protoss to a sort of communal mind-link. The Khalai Protoss eventually do this as well in ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid Legacy of the Void]]'', whereupon [[spoiler: Amon corrupts the Khala, turning the Protoss into his slaves; the Nerazim, and some Khalai Protoss before the corruption sets in, cut their own nerve cords off and do the same for every Protoss they can. Karax even commands his assistant probes to do the same with the zealots in stasis aboard the ''Spear of Adun'', and while Rohana retains hers to better study Amon, she eventually trims herself as well.]]

* Almost done in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' with Lauren Pups. One of her 'upset' animations is pressing a pair of scissors to a lock of her hair, on the verge of cutting it. She never does, of course. But compare the short, choppy hair she has tied back with her long, curling locks in front, and you can imagine how often this has happened before.

* 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]]?

* The organization [[http://www.locksoflove.org/ Locks of Love]] makes vacuum-sealed hairpieces (basically, specially-made wigs which only the wearer can remove) for children suffering from long term or permanent hair loss from donated hair. [[note]]They do not, as many believe, provide them to cancer patients. Chemotherapy causes short-term hair loss, and because of the vacuum seal, the hair prosthesis cannot be worn during regrowth. Instead they provide these children with synthetic wigs.[[/note]] In this case, the significance comes largely from what's ''done'' with the hair, as well as how long it takes to grow (each donation needs to be at least ten inches long).

** In “Through the Looking Glass Ruins”, Amity, with the help of her siblings, cuts her hair into a bob and dyed purple, despite knowing that it’ll get her in a LOT of trouble with [[AbusiveParents their mother]]