Line #78 Main/HairMemento


1	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5407f09b_e4df_455e_98fb_d97ed773bc20.jpeg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Take it, you cutie.]]
3	->''"I took something else to remember her by instead. A lock of that red hair."''
4	-->-- '''Dunk''', ''Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg''
5
6	A character gifting another a lock of their hair usually signifies love: everybody loves their hair, so cutting even a tiny part of it for someone else is like a small sacrifice, signifying that you would perhaps do greater things for the ones you love.
7
8	Our hair is also thought of as a living part of our body, so having a lock of hair from a loved one can help you remember them. This can soon become a TragicKeepsake if said loved one has passed away, for example.
9
10	This trope can occur in several variants. In the first, two characters are saying goodbye. They don't want to forget each other, and there are no cameras around to make a PreciousPhoto. In this case, a character (usually a woman) will cut a lock of her hair, so the other can remember them even miles away. This is rather spontaneous. This is a [[ItWasAGift farewell gift]], and sometimes TheLadysFavour.
11
12	In a second variant, a character (again, usually a woman) cuts a lock of her hair to give as a gift. This is more likely to be prepared, as in braided or made into something else, like a bracelet. In this case, this gift celebrates the friendship or love between the two characters. This and the former example are both the complete opposite of CreepySouvenir, despite hair being a part of the body.
13
14	In a third variant, a character will cut a piece of another's hair (with or without their knowledge or consent), to again, help them remember. This variant may overlap with StalkerWithACrush, and by extension CreepySouvenir. A variant is for one schoolchildren to secretly cut another kid's long hair or braids as a mean prank. This may be done in the classroom by a student seated behind the targeted person.
15
16	Since most men in fiction sport short hair, the hair in this trope is almost always [[AlwaysFemale a woman's]]. Of course, if a man has long, flowing locks of hair, he too may have hair cut off.
17
18	TruthInTelevision, as it was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_jewellery popular]], especially in the [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian Era]], to keep items of jewellery containing a piece of a loved one's hair, especially after said person has passed away. Hair was considered to be a living, remnant part of that person, making it more sentimental than, for example, a portrait. Parents may take locks of hair from their baby to put in an album as a keepsake.
19
20	SubTrope of PrizedPossessionGiveaway. Compare CreepySouvenir.
21	-----
22	!!Examples:
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25	* In the sixth episode of ''Anime/ElCazadorDeLaBruja'', [[StalkerWithACrush L.A.]] cuts some of Ellis' hair in her sleep and makes a small doll out of it. Several times he's seen brooding over it.
26	* ''Manga/MusukoGaKawaikuteShikataganaiMazokuNoHahaoya'': Cochrane and Byakuren are a pair of brother-and-sister ChildSoldiers serving under Crown, a demon fighting to create a nation for their kind. When Byakuren is [[spoiler:killed in battle]] another demon, Kewpie, makes a bracelet out of Byakuren's hair and gives it to Cochrane. As the arc progresses, the [[spoiler:loss of his sister]] sends Cochrane headfirst over the DespairEventHorizon, and, [[spoiler:after he fights and is subdued by Zeke]], he decides all he wants to do at this point is be with Byakuren. He [[spoiler:jumps off a damaged building]] only for the bracelet to [[spoiler:snag on a piece of rebar, which is initially depicted as Byakuren grabbing his arm to catch him]]. The bracelet holds on and prevents Cochrane's fall long enough that, by the time it breaks, Kewpie is able to dive in and save him from certain death. Afterward, the boy can only [[spoiler:cry and ask why Byakuren won't let him go to her]].
27	* ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'': When Prince Raji orders Shirayuki brought to him as a concubine after he hears of her rare and striking red hair, she takes the night she was given to prepare to cut off her ponytail and leave it with a letter saying that if he wants her hair he's welcome to keep it, before fleeing the country.
28	* ''Manga/WastefulDaysOfHighSchoolGirls'': Hisui "Majo" Kujou makes bracelets of her own hair for her friends to show appreciation for their kindness and friendship.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Books]]
32	* ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'': "The Prisoner of White Agony Creek" shows that Scrooge's most prized possession is not any of his money or treasures, but a lock of hair from Goldie O'Gilt. Though unlike most examples she didn't give it to him, he cut it off while saving her from a bear.
33	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': In the "Sisterhood" arc (''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' #508-511), Madelyne Pryor and her female-only Sisterhood attack the X-Men in San Francisco so she could find a lock of Jean Grey's hair that Wolverine kept for himself as a memento (during this period, Jean Grey was dead since ''ComicBook/NewXMen'' #150 (2004)).
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
37	* ''WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings'': When Kubo's village is attacked by his two aunts, his mother uses her magic to send him away. As he flies off, he grabs a strand of her hair. [[spoiler:During his battle with his grandfather, Kubo uses the hair and the string from his father's bow as replacement guitar strings. He then strums them to cast a powerful spell that renders the Moon King mortal and amnesiac.]]
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
41	* ''Film/VegasVacation'': Wayne Newton gives a lock of hair to Ellen Griswold.
42	* ''{{Film/Willow}}'': The eponymous character's wife gives him a braid of her hair before Willow sets out on his adventure.
43	* Parodied in ''Film/DuckSoup'' when Firefly (Groucho Marx) asks Mrs. Teasdale for a lock of her hair.
44	-->I suppose you would think me a sentimental old fluff, but... would you mind giving me a lock of your hair? [...] I'm letting you off easy. I was going to ask for the whole wig!
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Literature]]
48	* ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'':
49	** Marilla owns an amethyst brooch with a lock of her mother's hair in it; it's her most prized possession.
50	** After Anne accidentally gets her best friend, Diana, drunk on currant wine (Anne thought it was harmless raspberry cordial), Diana's mother forbids the girls to play with each other ever again. When Diana tells Anne this, Anne asks her for a lock of her hair to remember her by.
51	* ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'': In ''The Devil's Novice'', Meriet is found to have a lock of a girl's hair among his possessions, and it's burned by the HolierThanThou Brother Jerome. Meriet goes berserk and attacks Jerome in response. Later Cadfael discovers it's not hair from Meriet's SelfProclaimedLoveInterest Isouda but his future sister-in-law Roswitha, who's something of TheTease. He gets over her in the end.
52	* ''Literature/TheChrysalids'' is set in a post-apocalyptic society where any congenital anomaly is seen as the devil's mark and the affected person is cast out. When Sophie, a young girl with an extra toe on each foot, is forced to flee with her parents after her secret is discovered, she gives a lock of her hair to her friend David (the story's narrator) for him to remember her by. However, this becomes a TragicKeepsake, as David's father forces him to betray her, and she and her parents are subsequently captured, though David is assured that this happened by chance.
53	* ''Literature/TheGooseGirl'' revolves around a princess betrothed to a distant land who carries with her a charm from her mother the queen as a safety amulet, only to lose it halfway through her journey and have her servant take advantage of her. Depending on the version, the amulet is either a talisman, a napkin with drops of the queen's blood, or a lock of the queen's hair.
54	* ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart'': Lancelot is on a quest to find Guinevere. As he's tracking her, he comes upon a place where she combed out her hair. She left behind her comb with a strand of hair still caught in the tines. Lancelot is so overcome with emotion he nearly {{faint\|InShock}}s. He picks up the hair and decides -- apropos of nothing -- that it has {{panacea}} properties. The combo of reverence and attributing healing powers to it is reminiscent of the treatment of religious relics, which were big at the time (12th century). By treating her hair like a relic, it implies he [[LoveIsLikeReligion regards Guinevere as a saint]].
55	-->''He lays [the strands] in his bosom near his heart, between the shirt and the flesh. He would not exchange them for a cartload of emeralds and carbuncles, nor does he think that any sore or illness can afflict him now; he holds in contempt essence of pearl, treacle, and the cure for pleurisy; even for St. Martin and St. James he has no need; for he has such confidence in this hair that he requires no other aid.''
56	* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' novel ''[[Literature/StarWarsBloodline Bloodline]]'', a box of Princess Leia's treasured possessions contains a lock of hair. The prequel novel ''Literature/LeiaPrincessOfAlderaan'' reveals this to belong to Kier Domadi, Leia's FirstLove, who [[spoiler:tragically died when they were teenagers. She took a lock of his hair as a keepsake before he was buried.]]
57	* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': When Galadriel could think of no gift for Gimli, she asks him to name his desire. He asks for one strand of her hair as a token of her legendary beauty and of renewed friendship between elves and dwarves, as she had spoken respectfully of his fallen homeland. She gives him three and warns her fellow elves to never again call dwarves grasping or greedy.
58	* Discussed in ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment''. [[SweetPollyOliver Polly Perks]] disguised herself as a boy to join the army, and keeps her long cut hair in her pack. When it's stolen, she's worried that the thief could use it as evidence. Her friend suggests claiming that it's a memento from a girl back home, to which Polly protests that mementos like that are usually a lock, not a whole head.
59	* ''Literature/TheRapeOfTheLock'', one of the seminal works of English literature, is all about mocking this trope, treating the cutting of a small curl of hair as [[SeriousBusiness the most heinous of crimes]]. (And by the way, the title refers to [[HavingAGayOldTime the old meaning of "rape" as taking something by force]], so get your minds out of the gutter.)
60	* ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'':
61	** Edward owns a ring that has a lock of his secret fiancee Lucy's inside it. Upon discovering it, Mrs. Dashwood asks about it. Since she doesn't know about Lucy, she suspects that it's from Edward's sister (and Mrs. Dashwood's daughter-in-law) Fanny. Edward goes along with this, albeit guiltily.
62	** Marianne has given Willoughby a lock of her hair. Upon getting engaged to someone else he returns the hair.
63	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Inverted -- every time the wildling skinchanger Varamyr Sixskins rapes a woman, he takes a hank of her hair to remember her as a CreepySouvenir.
64	* In the second book of the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, Kahlan gives Richard a lock of her hair after she forces him away in a BreakHisHeartToSaveHim way. For added value, she cuts off the hair herself, which, for a Confessor, means terrible pain.
65	* ''Literature/TheSunneInSplendour'': While Anne Neville is in sanctuary to escape her brother-in-law's plots, the brother-in-law's brother [[UsefulNotes/RichardIII Richard of Gloucester]] gifts her with a locket and she requests a lock of his hair to keep inside it. He obliges right before riding off to deal with a Scottish rebellion for his oldest brother, the king. Anne and Richard eventually marry.
66	* ''Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg''. In "The Sworn Sword", Lady Rohanne wears her hair in a single long plait which she plays with coquettishly while flirting with Dunk. At the end of the story, after much BelligerentSexualTension between them, Dunk refuses her offer of a fine steed but cuts off her plait so he'll have something to remember her by.
67	* ''Literature/ThisSideOfParadise'': As an indicator of his [[TheCasanova Casanova]] tendencies, the charming and handsome Amory Blaine ends up collecting the locks from numerous girls during his high school years.
68	* Several times in the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
69	** In ''Cetaganda'' an example of the second variant: A beautiful [[{{Transhuman}} haut woman]] gives a coil of her own hair to Miles Vorkosigan as a gift, to remember her by. (Haut women pride themselves on having extraordinarily long floor-length hair that is never cut.) She isn't in love with him, and confesses she doesn't even really know what her gift signifies, but Miles certainly made an impression on her (and her on him).
70	** In an example of the third variant: In ''Barrayar'' a man who has been brainwashed into acting as a rapist and torturer (then later for political reasons brainwashed into forgetting everything he did) manages to keep some of the hair of one of his victims (for whom he had developed an intense obsession) which he uses to partially counteract the forced amnesia "therapy".
71	** In an even more horrific example of the third variant: In ''Shards of Honor'' a high-ranking military officer (the "employer" of the man in the above example), a vicious sadist and rapist, cuts a lock of her very distinctive red hair from his would-be victim, with plans to use it to torment the woman's lover (one of his brother officers) by taking it out and playing with it "quite casually, at the Staff meeting".
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
75	* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': The series 2 episode "[[Recap/BlackadderS2E3Potato Potato]]" offers a third-party variant, when Captain Redbeard Rum is eaten by cannibals and Edmund & co. save his beard as a memento for Nursie, who'd agreed to marry him. She declares that she'll "wear it always, to remind me of him."
76	* ''{{Series/Borgia}}'': In one episode, Lucrezia's new friend Pietro, sent to cheer her up after her [[spoiler:pregnancy]], has to go to Venice to visit a sick family member. As a parting gift, Lucrezia offers him a lock of her hair.
77	* In the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS3E21TheFirstChangDynasty The First Chang Dynasty]]", Troy agrees to join the Air Conditioning Repair Annex in exchange for their help in rescuing his friends from Chang. As [[SuddenDownerEnding he says goodbye to his friends at the end of the episode]], Britta (with whom there has been some mutual attraction with Troy hinted at in the prior few episodes) gives Troy a lock of her hair as a keepsake. The rest of the group grumbles and scowls, lampshading how the gesture is more creepy than anything else to modern audiences.
78	* In [[Recap/DrQuinnMedicineWomanS03E29 the season 3 finale]] of ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'', it is revealed that Sully kept a lock of his late wife's hair, which he has woven into a lock of his own that he has grown out.
79	* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell]]", Annorax had, using time incursions, [[FakeBetterAlternateTimeline accidentally]] made his wife vanish from existence. All he had left of her was a lock of her hair, which he preserves in a stasis container so it won't be effected by his attempts to change the timeline. As his vessel is destroyed, he watches helplessly as the container breaks and the hair vanishes from existence.
80	* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' has an odd example. [[BookDumb London]] falls in love with the heir to a rival hotel (a la ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''). At one point they start exchanging gifts, and Maddie suggests that a lock of London's hair would be romantic. London then proceeds to rip out her hair extensions to give as the gift.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Music]]
84	* Music/TheBlackCrowes: "She Talks to Angels" makes allusion to this with the following verse:
85	-->''She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket\
86	She wears a cross around her neck\
87	They say that the hair was from a little boy''
88	* In "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Music/LeonardCohen, there are these three lines sung by the lyrical subject:
89	-->''Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair\
90	She said that you gave it to her\
91	The night that you planned to go clear''
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Video Games]]
95	* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate2'': An old enemy of Jaheira carries a lock of her hair, though in this case, it's because it's a part of the SympatheticMagic he uses to curse her during her personal quest and the spell would fail without it. The lock is lootable as an item after killing him, meaning the trope can be invoked by the PlayerCharacter if you choose to hang on to it for the rest of the game (doubly so if you also choose to court Jaheira).
96	* ''VideoGame/PandorasTower'': Elena lets Mavda cut a piece of her hair so the latter can attach it to the Oraclos chain used by Aeron. This not only strengthens the bond between Aeron and Elena even when they're a long distance apart but also lets Aeron know about Elena's well-being while he's in the Towers.
97	* ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'': A lock of hair was used to create a ring of bestial friendship. [[spoiler:This CursedItem will cause the animal to run in a rampant rage.]] Eirikk received it from his potential lover, and used the ring to enchant an owlbear as a means to impress the lover and to further gain control.
98	* ''VideoGame/TalesOfLegendia'': Realizing that his LoyalAnimalCompanion Giet may one day turn wild, Moses Sandor decides to leave him in the Quiet Lands. Before bidding his partner farewell, he cuts a bit of his own hair and Giet's fur to make each into an accessory to remind them of each other.
99	* The ''VideoGame/Persona3'' character Aigis can't give her boyfriend organic hair, as she is a robot. However, she wants to fulfil the emotional meaning of this trope, so she gives him a screw of hers that a previous battle burnt beyond usability. She also assures him that she won't be defeated like she was then, because [[ThePowerOfLove her resolve is stronger now]].
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
103	* In Amane's route in ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'', she gives Yuuji a handmade doll with some of her hair sewn inside that he hangs onto well beyond the events of the story. When their grandchild tells Amane that Yuuji handed it down to her, Amane can only chuckle nervously since [[spoiler:she used her pubic hair]].
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Webcomics]]
107	* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Sigdi Thundershield carried a lock of [[BattleCouple her husband's]] beard with her on missions. It was the [[TragicKeepsake only part of his body]] available after his HeroicSacrifice, so it was [[DueToTheDead consecrated and buried]] in the family tomb.
108	* Ursa-Dra from ''Webcomic/InvinceaAndTheWarriorsFromHell'' entrusts Hadinn with a lock of her hair as he leaves Natanahal.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Western Animation]]
112	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime:''
113	** According to "His Hero", [[PrecursorHeroes Billy]] once saved a DamselInDistress from the evil Fire Count "with such bravery/That she offered him her hair".
114	** In "To Cut a Woman's Hair", a balding wicked witch blackmails Finn into getting her beautiful hair from a princess. Finn goes around asking all the princesses he knows for hair (without being allowed to explain why), and they all think he's asking for TheLadysFavour and get all flirty.
115	** "What Was Missing" reveals that Finn keeps a piece of Princess Bubblegum's candy hair and sometimes touches it.
116	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E18AStarIsBurns A Star is Burns]]", Homer feels inadequate compared to their houseguest [[WesternAnimation/TheCritic Jay Sherman]], so he tells Marge to leave him for Jay and cuts off a piece of her hair to remember her by.
117	-->'''Homer:''' It's just you and me now, lock of hair.
118	* in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', Anakin gives his Padawan braid to his wife Padmé after he is promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight.
119	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HairMemento