Line #147 Main/LongHairIsFeminine


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3	[[quoteright:293:[[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LongHairFeminine_4975.jpg]]]]
4	[[caption-width-right:293:Lovely hair for a lovely princess like you, Aurora.]]
5
6	->''"Does not the very nature of things teach you that […] if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering."''
7	-->-- '''[[Literature/BookOfCorinthians 1 Corinthians 11:14-15]]''', ''Literature/TheBible''
8
9	Long hair tends to be among the TertiarySexualCharacteristics used to establish a character as female.
10
11	Long, luscious hair is regarded as an archetypal feminine trait in quite a few cultures and commonly accompanies [[AlwaysFemale other such traits]]. One of the few exceptions seems to be the BarbarianLonghair, which has been a masculine trait at least since the BibleTimes; and its descendants, the [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]] and [[HairMetal heavy metal rockers]]. Another, of course, is that [[HumansAreWhite some groups of people]] are largely incapable of growing long hair without much scalp work. It is important to note however, that what was considered "long" and "short" has changed over the course of history. At various times, styles which would be considered quite long by modern standards were deemed perfectly masculine: but the women of that period typically wore their hair even longer. Although there certainly were times and places where it was the style rather than the length which mattered, or when the question of long versus short hair was decided by factors other than gender. The styles we tend to think of as RatedMForManly were actually a result of the invention of the barber shop, and thus the professionalization of men's hair care: which happened in Ancient Rome. Prior to that, "short hair" usually meant a bowl cut due to the simple fact that most people didn't want to risk putting a straight razor anywhere near their ears.
12	Trope usually averted for [[OurElvesAreDifferent Elves]] and/or SpaceElves, the ProudWarriorRace (if they are more inspired by Mongols, Japanese or Native Americans than Romans), and [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Angels]].
13
14	A SuperTrope to:
15
16	[[index]]
17	* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Long dark hair as part of the alpha female package.
18	* BoyishShortHair: Short, unkempt, or spiky hair, often used to indicate a {{Tomboy}} and an ActionGirl.
19	* BraidsOfAction: Braids are a way for an ActionGirl to keep long hair that doesn't get in the way.
20	* CompressedHair: Another way to keep long hair out of the way in combat.
21	* FurryFemaleMane: Human-like head hair used to indicate femininity in animals.
22	* HimeCut: Long straight hair with full bangs and shorter side locks, used to indicate an {{Ojou}} and a YamatoNadeshiko.
23	* LettingHerHairDown: Doing this with long hair increases the girl's attractiveness.
24	* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Long hair on a man as a sign of [[{{Bishonen}} feminine]] [[PrettyBoy beauty]].
25	* MotherlySidePlait: Hair tied in a loose braid or ponytail resting on the shoulder to indicate motherhood.
26	* OjouRinglets: Curly sidelocks on female characters, used to indicate an {{Ojou}}.
27	* PowerHair: In a society where [[RealWomenDontWearDresses "feminine" is considered to be synonymous with "weak", "passive," or "shallow"]], powerful and/or intelligent (and usually older) women wear their hair short.
28	* RegalRinglets: Corkscrew curls in medium- to long- hair as an indication of a feminine, high-class woman.
29	* ShakingHerHairLoose: Showing the long hair after being hidden in a conservative style.
30	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The tomboy will have BoyishShortHair while the girly girl will have long hair.
31	* TomboyishPonytail: Ponytails are an easy way to get her long hair out of the way.
32	* TraumaticHaircut: A forced and/or sudden haircut is traumatic for women who value their long hair.
33	* TuftOfHeadFur: For less anthropomorphic animals, fur is used as a counterpart to hair. Hair tufts on females contrast with "bald" males, giving the allusion of hair.
34	[[/index]]
35
36	A WholesomeCrossdresser will often, but not always, have long hair either naturally or as a wig. A male-to-female GenderBender will often involve RapidHairGrowth because of this trope.
37
38	GlassesAndPonytailCoverup exploits this since glasses and hair up were typically portrayed as unfeminine.
39
40	Compare PinkMeansFeminine, RealMenHaveShortHair.
41
42	Contrast BoyishShortHair and BaldHeadOfToughness.
43	----
44	!!Examples
45
46	[[foldercontrol]]
47
48	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
49	* ''Anime/JeanieWithTheLightBrownHair'':
50	** Jeanie has long hair tied into two bunches at the front. At school she ties it into a ponytail.
51	** Angela [=MacDowell=] has long, blonde hair like her daughter Jeanie, but hers reaches her waist.
52	** UptownGirl Julia has long light brown hair that reaches to her waist, and also wears a poofy gown and pretty jewellery.
53	* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': Most of the female characters wore long hair: Sayaka, Misato, Erika, Hitomi, the Gamia sisters... Sayaka even wore a pink headband. Of course, it was considered that a girl seemed more feminine like that. In ''Anime/GreatMazinger'', Jun--and even a villainess like Marquis Janus--wore also long hair. It was kind of subverted in ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'', though: Hikaru--a feminine YamatoNadeshiko--wore short hair, and her best friend Maria--a {{Tsundere}} tomboy--wore long, curly hair.
54	* ''Anime/MischievousTwinsTheTalesOfStClares'': Both twins have hair that goes past their shoulders. Isabel manages hers with a hairband, while Pat dons a TomboyishPonytail.
55	* In ''Manga/SamuraiHighSchool'', when Tsukiko decided to enter school as a boy, she considered cutting her hair but her brother said it'd not be necessary. Just holding it in a ponytail would be enough. He was right. Also, he wore a wig to pose as his sister.
56	* [[MoeAnthropomorphism Monaco]] of ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' is said to have grown her hair out in order to imitate a [[PrincessClassic Grand Duchess]] in her profile. She also adds lots of hair decorations for good measure.
57	* Akane Tendo from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' attempted to invoke this, since as a child she believed having long hair like her sister Kasumi would make her more feminine and thus would get Dr. Tofu (whom she initially had a PrecociousCrush on) to like her. Then she gets an accidentally TraumaticHairCut by Ryoga and Ranma. After she fixes her hair to be [[BoyishShortHair much shorter]], she lets go of her feelings for Dr. Tofu and keeps her hair short for the rest of the series.
58	* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
59	** In ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'', the girly Honoka has long, deep blue hair, usually decorated with a heart-shaped accessory, in contrast to the tomboyish Nagisa having short hair.
60	** In ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'', the most tomboyish Cure, Rin, has short hair, while the other Cures who are more feminien have at least bicep-length hair.
61	** In ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'', Cure Sunshine's long hair symbolizes [[{{Bifauxnen}} Itsuki's]] desire to become more feminine.
62	** Downplayed in ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure''; all of the Cures are feminine, but Haruka, who has short hair, is a clumsy GenkiGirl while the longer-haired Cures are more elegant and graceful.
63	** In ''Anime/KiraKiraPrecureALaMode'', the masculine Aoi and Akira have short hair, while the feminine Ichika, Himari, Yukari, and Ciel have long hair.
64	** In ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'', the tomboyish Homare has short hair, while the more feminine Cures have longer hair.
65	** Inverted in ''Anime/TropicalRougePrettyCure''; the tomboyish Asuka has long hair, while the sweet, nerdy Minori has a short, [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Velma]]-esque bowlcut.
66	* Since ''Manga/WanderingSon'' is a manga heavily themed around gender and gender roles this pops up:
67	** Nitori is a UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} girl who likes baking and is quite feminine. Almost every time she envisions herself living as a girl she has long hair past her shoulders. Her hair is cropped short but she buys a long-haired wig when she starts going out as a girl. She ends up growing her hair into a bob in middle school but won't grow it further due to social acceptance issues with boys and long hair. [[spoiler:In high school, she cuts it even shorter originally and buys a new wig, this time a bob]].
68	** Takatsuki is a boyish transgender boy. He originally had an androgynous bob style but cut it into a pixie. In middle school, Chiba gets Takatsuki to grow his hair back to medium-length but he gets it cut when he notices she's just trying to make him feminine. [[spoiler:Takatsuki growing his hair out to shoulder length in high school signifies his confusion about whether he wants to be a boy or a girl. The last time we see Takatsuki ''she'' has long hair and looks more like a GirlyGirl than her usual butch look]]
69	** Averted with Maho, Nitori's mom Satomi, Makoto, and Momoko who are all varying degrees of feminine but have bob styles or shorter. Chizuru is a tomboyish girl who likes wearing the boy's uniform to school but has the longest hair in the manga. Popular model and singer Maiko originally has GirlishPigtails but cuts her hair into a pixie late into the series, subverting this trope.
70	* ''Manga/BokuraNoHentai'' is an OtokonokoGenre deconstruction that discusses gender roles and gender so this pops up:
71	** Hacchi and [[spoiler:Yui]] are two long-haired characters who used to have BoyishShortHair before undergoing a GirlinessUpgrade prior to the series. Hacchi was OneOfTheBoys until precocious puberty caused her friends to stop wanting to hang with her. [[spoiler:Yui]] was a tomboy until [[spoiler:becoming a model]].
72	** Marika is a trans girl. She likes long hair but keeps her hair cropped into a bob haircut due to living as a boy. She cuts her hair shorter partway through the series but grows it out past her shoulders [[spoiler:once she begins living as a girl.]]
73	** Ryousuke crossdresses to [[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe pass as his deceased sister]] Yui. In elementary he had short hair but currently, he has long hair, at least partially [[MessyHair due to his melancholy nature]] and partially because Yui wore GirlishPigtails. [[spoiler:When he stops crossdressing he cuts his hair.]]
74	** Satoshi is introduced as an effeminate WholesomeCrossdresser with long hair. He cuts it short when he quits crossdressing due to growth spurts. Over the course of the series, he begins to grow it out longer again [[spoiler:and even crossdresses a few more times]].
75	* Shun from ''Manga/YouAndMe'' is introduced as a LongHairedPrettyBoy so [[DudeLooksLikeALady androgynous]] that NewTransferStudent Chizuru mistakes him for a girl. He is very much InTouchWithHisFeminineSide. Subverted later when he gets a haircut due to the summer heat. His friends botched it and cut it shorter than he had wanted. Shun stays with this haircut for the rest of the series.
76	* ''Literature/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'' tries to use this for [[spoiler: Etoile]]'s gender reveal, by showing her taking her long hair out of her helmet. The problem? [[SubvertedTrope Over half of the main cast]] are [[LongHairedPrettyBoy long-haired pretty boys]] (even the tough ones like Daryun), so it doesn't quite get the point across smoothly.
77	* ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'': This trope summarizes Ao's ExpositoryHairstyleChange. [[AMinorKidroduction When she was a child]], she was a grumpy tomboy with BoyishShortHair to the point that Mira mistook her for a boy. As puberty hit she turns more (conventionally) feminine, becoming a [[TheQuietOne quiet]] and demure ShyBlueHairedGirl by PresentDay. This was accompanied by her growing out her hair to be longer and tie it into [[GirlishPigtails low pigtails]], which look so unambiguously feminine that Mira immediately gets an UnsettlingGenderReveal when they reunited.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
81	* In ''Animation/KungFuWa'': Tee Yang usually has GirlishPigtails buns, but she lets her hair down when she transforms into Kung-Fu Girl or goes to sleep.
82	** Min, Tee Yang's best friend has long brown hair that reaches her waist.
83	* ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'': In the Season 3 episode "Wig", this seems to be the mindset behind Fat Doc mistaking Slim Doc for a female after Lamput disguises himself as long, flowing hair on his head.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Comic Books]]
87	* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': In the story "A Game of You", the [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} trans woman]] Wanda has long red hair that, according to her friend Barbie, she is rather proud of. [[spoiler:When she dies, her family, who never accepted her as a woman, have her buried with short hair as part of their erasure of her female identity.]]
88	* In ''Comicbook/{{WITCH}}'', Cornelia has the longest hair of all the girls, and she does figure skating.
89	* Comicbook/{{X 23}} is the {{Ugly Guys Hot\|Daughter}} OppositeSexClone of Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}. One method of emphasizing this is that rather than sharing Logan's distinctive hairstyle, [[Characters/MarvelComicsLauraKinney Laura Kinney]] has long black hair down to around or just past her shoulder blades. In fact, her healing factor even recognizes this as its normal length; when she first appeared in ''Comicbook/AllNewXMen'' she was still bald from the events of ''Comicbook/AvengersArena'' and whatever the Purifiers were doing to her, and when she first woke up in the Weapon X lab where Cyclops had his base after being rescued she had a very tomboyish pixie cut. It then grew back out to its normal length again over the course of a conversation with Teen!Scott.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Films--Animated]]
93	* Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon's heroines are often depicted with long, flowing hair--thanks to their use of fairy tales. There are a few notable exceptions, however...
94	** In ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', Snow White has anachronistic bobbed hair to match the style of the 1930s when her film was made.
95	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'' has shoulder-length hair again to match the 1950s style of the time, regardless [[PurelyAestheticEra of the film's Victorian setting]].
96	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' starts out with long hair but cuts it short to pass as a boy. Even so, she's easier to recognize as a woman when her hair is down. The merchandise gives her a GirlinessUpgrade so that she's shown with her long hair more often.
97	** ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' is set in TheRoaringTwenties where bobbed hair was the height of fashion. Lottie the GirlyGirl has a bob, but Tiana's hair is slightly longer. Still shorter than the typical princess though.
98	** In ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', Rapunzel initially has seventy feet of hair [[spoiler:but at the end of the film, it's cut short into a pixie]]. Still, the merchandise mainly shows Rapunzel with her long hair, like Mulan.
99	** ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' has a TomboyAndGirlyGirl situation. [=GoGo=] the Tomboy has short hair, while Honey Lemon the GirlyGirl has long hair.
100	* Violet from ''Franchise/TheIncredibles'' has waist-length black hair, which stands out from most female characters in the films since they generally have short hair. It's pretty helpful if she finds herself needing to hide.
101	* Averted in the first three ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' movies, where all the male characters except for Shrek have long hair. Understandable because Shrek is supposed to take place in the middle ages and those were common hairstyles during that period.
102	* ''{{WesternAnimation/Brave}}''--the very feminine Queen Elinor has hair that goes all the way down to the floor. Merida's hair is long too but it's a good deal wilder.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Films--Live-Action]]
106	* The Disney Channel movie ''Film/{{Motocrossed}}'' had a girl cut her hair short to make her look identical to her twin brother.
107	* The Creator/MillaJovovich version of ''Joan of Arc'' has Joan annoyed that the soldiers aren't taking her seriously because she's a woman, so she hacks off her hair in the hope that she'll be considered as one of the men.
108	* The biopic of the first female U.S. firefighter has the woman having to cut her hair short for health and safety reasons, and she complains that she looks like a boy now.
109	* In ''Film/TheBrothersGrimm'', one of the village children is mistaken for a boy because she had short hair while all the other little girls had flowing long hair. This was part of a ploy to hide the girl from the villain--who was kidnapping the village's daughters. It worked for a while but they eventually caught her.
110	* In both ''Film/TheParentTrap1961'' and ''Film/TheParentTrap1998'', the tomboyish twin has shorter hair than the GirlyGirl.
111	* In ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'' one of the girls auditioning for the Vegas dance troupe has short hair and is told: "I hope you have a good collection of wigs, sweetie". Cristal also has quite short hair (albeit just above the shoulders) but wears a long hairpiece whenever she's performing.
112	* Inverted in ''Film/SuckerPunch'' where Rocket, the only girl with short hair, is TheHeart of TheTeam. Meanwhile, Blondie fills the role of TheBigGuy and has the longest hair of the girls.
113	* In ''Film/{{Suffragette}}'', all of the women have long hair, though most wear it braided in a way that keeps it out of the way. The notable exception is the woman who leads the local group, she has curly hair that she wears open and (relatively) short, in a way that wouldn't look out of place in modern times. As she's the only woman who works in a prestigious job (her husband owns a pharmacy, where she not only works as a pharmacist but also as a sort of doctor), she's in a way the most ''unfeminine'' woman.
114	* The film version of ''{{Theatre/Camelot}}'' portrays Guinevere with beautiful long golden hair. In the finale she is revealed to have become a nun--and thus [[ImportantHaircut had her hair cut short]]. Both Arthur and Lancelot find this very tragic.
115	* ''Film/PrincessCyd'': Contrasting with Katie, who wears her hair short, Cyd's is quite long and thus they are mistaken for a male-female couple from a distance.
116	* ''{{Film/Ophelia}}'': An obvious sign of Ophelia changing from a {{tomboy}} as a little girl to [[ProperLady more conventionally feminine]] in adulthood is her hair growing long. Later, she cuts it short to serve the opposite purpose ([[SweetPollyOliver passing as a man]]).
117	* In the movie ''Switch'', a misogynist is reincarnated in the body of a woman. He's unable to handle the upkeep of longer hair and eventually gets a short haircut.
118	* For ''Film/TheCraft'', Creator/RobinTunney had just shaved her head for ''Film/EmpireRecords'' and was still growing her hair back out. The director liked the "very cute pixie" she had when she tested for the film, but the studio insisted she wear a wig--as she was playing TheIngenue lead. Creator/FairuzaBalk, who was playing the wilder and more antagonistic Nancy, was allowed to have short hair.
119	* InUniverse in ''Film/TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil2022'', long "princess" hair is a hallmark of the School for Good. Sophie is very proud of her long, blonde hair, which makes her stick out at the School for Evil and leads to Lady Lesso chopping it off to make her fit in. {{Subverted\|Trope}} in that Agatha is also long-haired and not at all feminine while Sophie continues wearing feminine clothes and hairstyles after the cut, in line of the movie's themes on how appearances aren't everything.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Literature]]
123	* In Literature/TheBible, St. Paul writes in one of his letters that while men should keep their hair short, women should be encouraged to keep theirs long, saying that "a woman's hair is her glory." (In that culture, long hair was a sign of submissiveness.)
124	** Also averted with the Nazirite vow. A man or woman could take this vow as a sign of dedication to God. Among the vow's restrictions was that haircuts were not allowed until the end of the vow's period, when it would all be shaved off and offered as a sacrifice. The most famous one was super-manly man [[Literature/SamsonAndDelilah Samson]] who was supposed to be a Nazirite for life, although he screwed it up in the end. It's also hinted that Paul himself had done this for a while (the book of Acts mentions that he had his hair cut due to a vow).
125	* ''Literature/BellePratersBoy'': Gypsy is known throughout town for having hair that she describes as "longer than Rapunzel's", falling past her hips. It's made clear throughout the book that she dislikes having her hair so long, as she doesn't like how people see her hair rather than her, she doesn't like how much work it takes to keep it clean.
126	* Inverted on a large scale in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', where short hair is feminine. Children and men grow their hair out long, and men usually keep theirs braided.
127	* ''Literature/{{City of Bones\|1995}}'' by Creator/MarthaWells: [[GenderInvertedTrope Gender-Inverted]] in the upper-class society of Charisat--fashionable Patrician women crop their hair very short. It was originally done to cope with the heat in the Waste but became tradition.
128	* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'': Jame is androgynous, flat chested, and skinny. She routinely cross-dresses, and is legally regarded as male on more than one occasion. But her hair--which falls well below her waist--is regarded as her ''one feminine feature''. She prizes it, and refuses to cut it even when it would be pratical to do so.
129	* The opening scene in Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'' has Polly Perks clipping her hair short so she can pass as a boy and enlist in the army. The fact that she then takes the hair with her becomes a bit of a plot point.
130	* Della, in ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi'', has hair falling almost to her knees. She [[ItWasHisSled has it cut]], obviously, and frets that now she looks like a "Coney Island Chorus Girl".
131	* Averted in ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor''; at the court of the elven emperor, ''all'' people of importance have long hair. Short hair is reserved for low-ranked servants.
132	* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/CountToTheEschaton The Hermetic Millennia]]'', the Nymphs all wear their hair at least waist long.
133	* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': Grayson as a whole feels this way; it stems from their conservative Christian theology. Notably, when Abigail Hearns, Miss Owens, becomes the first Grayson woman to join the [[SpaceNavy Navy]], she refuses to cut her hair, despite the inconvenience of maintaining her waist-length brown hair as a serving officer. Properly raised Grayson women do ''not'' cut their hair short, and it seems that you can take the girl off Grayson, but you can't take the Grayson out of the girl.
134	* Played with in ''Literature/{{Hurog}}''; men tend to wear their hair shorter, but traditionalists might wear long hair, as was the fashion of past times.
135	* Played with by Creator/JRRTolkien. Most of the women have miles of hair, but most of the men wear their hair long too. Particularly elves. This fact is used by the humans, the bad ones, to deride them as effeminate. However, the reader is made thoroughly aware that this is not accurate. Plenty of long-haired elves in the series are manly, and Galadriel with her super-long hair is nevertheless described as a {{Tomboy}} in her youth. And how can you tell that the Rohirrim are actually good guys despite their first appearance? Their long flowing golden locks, naturally. Long hair is a sign of beauty in Tolkien's works, but beauty is not a characteristic assigned only to women: it is generally associated with holiness and goodness.
136	* Played with in ''Literature/KatIncorrigible''; Kat cuts her hair short in an attempt to disguise as a boy. When that plan fails, she is stuck with the haircut. Her stepmother hates it, deeming it very improper for a girl, her father doesn't mind, and another woman kindly states that short hair is now the latest London fashion and that Kat looks like one of the women in the fashion magazines.
137	* Fantine in ''Literature/LesMiserables'' is heartbroken to have to sell her hair--her crowning beauty, which falls all the way to her hips and is a beautiful blond color--but she does it without a second thought to earn money for her daughter, Cosette.
138	* ''Literature/LittleWomen'': Jo sells her hair to pay for a train ticket. As she's a 19th-century {{Tomboy}}, her long hair was her "one beauty" (according to her sister Amy) because it added to her femininity.
139	* PlayedForHorror in ''Literature/PosterGirl'' as it`s mentioned that under the old regime women would get punished for having a short haircut but loosing a certain amount of the FictionalCurrency each day for it.
140	* In ''Literature/TheRapeOfTheLock'', an assault on Belinda's hair is considered an assault on her person, and her beauty, though her hair is still about 90% intact.
141	* ''Literature/TheSilverCrown'' has a moment when Ellen and Otto are on the run, and Otto suggests Ellen cut her hair to [[SweetPollyOliver look like a boy]] to fool anyone looking for her (as they'll be looking for a girl and not a boy). As all Otto has is a switchblade knife, Ellen understandably refuses.
142	* ''{{Literature/Timeline}}'': Female time travelers with short hair must use wigs because people in the 1300s strongly held this view. The only women with short hair had it due to a disgrace or punishment for heresy. Passing as a man by cutting your hair short was also punishable by death at the time.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
146	* The Survivor-like modeling series ''Series/AmericasNextTopModel'' each season plays with this trope and BoyishShortHair, as the almost always long-haired models have their hair cut, sometimes a great deal. At least once, this caused a contestant to quit the competition.
147	* ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'':
148	** When Prue casts a spell to turn herself into a man, her hair becomes significantly shorter (and she gains a goatee) as part of her gender transformation.
149	** Averted in Season 6, where Phoebe sports a pixie haircut. Creator/AlyssaMilano decided to do it for her 30th birthday and wouldn't wear a wig (according to Creator/RoseMcGowan, there was a studio mandate that none of the actresses could change their hair without permission).
150	* An episode of ''Series/ChicagoHope'' had a subplot about a boy who had been raised as a girl. When s/he found out, s/he cut off all his long hair to look more like a boy.
151	* Women of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' who are especially feminine and ladylike have long hair that usually reaches their waists--Daenerys, Catelyn, Sansa, Margaery, Melisandre, Myrcella. Talisa may be a battlefield nurse, but her long hair signifies her noble birth. Brienne of Tarth is the least feminine character and has outright BoyishShortHair. Other less feminine women like Yara, Osha, Ygritte, and Arya usually have theirs at shoulder-length (the latter sported short hair for a few seasons but only because [[SweetPollyOliver she disguised herself as a boy]] and it was growing out to signal CharacterDevelopment). Cersei had hair longer than most of the other characters but it was cut off in a TraumaticHaircut, marked by a step towards becoming [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen a more ruthless ruler]].
152	* ''Series/GenV'': Jordan Li's female form has longer hair than their male form. It's {{downplayed}} though since this is only slightly longer and not in a very feminine style.
153	* The ladylike Rhaenyra Targaryen in ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' has long hair, even in her tomboyish youth. And also perhaps to showcase her Targaryen pride as well.
154	* ''Series/GenV'': Jordan Li is a SexShifter whose female form has longer hair than their male form, as well as a different power set.
155	* ''Every single one'' of the girls in [[Series/{{Glee}} New Directions]] has long, flowing hair (with the occasional exception of Mercedes when she wears her hair natural) right up until the second season finale when Quinn, having lost her Prom King potential boyfriend, proceeds to fail at villainy as well and gets a cute short haircut from Santana and Brittany to make up for it.
156	* ''Series/HaltAndCatchFire'': At the beginning of the series, Cameron is an aggressive punk rocker with very short hair. Over the course of the series, she mellows out and matures. Her hair also gets progressively longer in each season.
157	* Several women from ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' such as [[BigBeautifulWoman Disa]], Miriel and [[TomboyPrincess Galadriel]], all wear their hair very long and styled as a sign of their noble blood.
158	* Morgana, Guinevere, and Morgause from ''Series/Merlin2008'' (as well as most of the female guest stars) all have beautiful long, shiny, styled hair.
159	* Inverted in ''Series/OnceUponATime'' where the most gentle and feminine of the women Mary Margaret has the shortest hair in the cast--and her Enchanted Forest counterpart Snow White (who was an ActionGirl) had long hair. But tomboyish Emma Swan was given beautiful long blonde hair because the creators wanted to convey that she had a "fairy tale princess side to her".
160	* Hannah Spearritt later played this straight in ''{{Series/Primeval}}''--where she played the Tomboy to Claudia Brown's GirlyGirl, and her hair was short. Notably, when she grew her hair long again in Season 4, her tomboyish nature had been downplayed.
161	* ''Series/StrictlyComeDancing'''s 2018 season had BBC newsreader Kate Silverton as a contestant. She described herself as a tomboy who always had short hair, so it was a departure for her to wear a long red wig when dressing as [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Jessica Rabbit]]. The judges had a SheCleansUpNicely moment.
162	* Tommy had long hair in the earlier seasons of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''. During this time, he was PhraseCatcher for the line, "Cut your hair, you look like a girl!"
163	* In ''Series/VeronicaMars'', the Veronica of flashbacks, when she was a fairly stereotypical high school girl, has long hair; present-day Veronica, having become a GuileHero by way of BreakTheCutie, favors a much shorter, more severe cut.
164	* The documentary ''Whose Hair Is It Anyway?'' examines this trope in relation to the use of hair extensions amongst modern girls. One woman spent around £400 a month getting extensions put in and would be paranoid about leaving the house without them in. Presenter Jamelia admitted to spending 3 hours every morning getting her hair ready before school. They theorize that the desire for really long hair comes from the classic fairytale princess look. Jamelia's travels take her to India where she discovers that long hair is the mark of a woman's beauty. Women sacrifice their hair to the temple as an act of faith, and the temple, in turn, sells the hair to extensions dealers. The money from that is used to feed the poor. Long hair is also highly valued in Russia, where Jamelia sees fresh hair being cut to make extensions.
165	* ''Series/TheWorstWitch'' TV series uses this trope to contrast Miss Drill with the rest of the characters. As the only non-witch member of staff, she has short SpikyHair and is always wearing sports clothes. The rest of the teachers and the girls all have long hair and all wear skirts and dresses.
166	[[/folder]]
167
168	[[folder:Music]]
169	* ''Music/ConfessionExecutiveCommittee'': Koyuki Ayase started out as a sensitive, shy boy who loves reading shoujo manga and is in the gardening club. In middle school, his effeminate personality was accented by long, shaggy hair. When he changed himself in the summer of his final year of high school, one of the first things he did was give himself a shorter, more masculine haircut that he's kept for the rest of the series. Note that the girls themselves don't adhere to this; all of them have varying hair lengths, and all adhere to femininity or desire to be more feminine. The only two boys with hair as long as Koyuki's are the Shibasaki brothers, but they wear their hair in more acceptably masculine styles for neck-length hair.
170	* Music/SClub7 member Jo O'Meara preferred her hair short from their second album onwards, and presumably, for this reason, was portrayed as TheLadette on their TV show. Averted when Hannah Spearritt also had short hair, as she remained TheDitz.
171	* Music/TearsForFears: All the female models on the "[[https://i.imgur.com/SrlnKBN.jpg Sowing the Seeds of Love]]", "[[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGVjNGFmZTctYzJhMC00YmM3LTllZjAtMGJhYzMzYTU0ZTdmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg Woman in Chains]]" and "[[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmE2ZTEzM2MtYjQ2NC00NTk2LWJkOGUtOWExYjcyMjdiNWVhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg Advice for the Young at Heart]]" single covers have long hair.
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
175	* Short hair is easier to manage and some wrestlers can't even grow long hair, so extensions and weaves are fairly common, plus they hurt less when pulled on. [[Wrestling/CarleneMoore Jazz]] has recommended them. Alternatively, a slight reduction in hair length can be a whole gimmick in of itself (smiling Jazzy Bi to brutish [[TheGiant giant]] Alpha Female, "Voodoo Queen" Roxxi Laveaux to [[GarbageWrestler hardcore]] "[[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling knockout]]")
176	* The Wrestling/{{WWE}} "Divas" are generally portrayed with long hair. In fact, it's usually a sign that a WWE Diva is going to get called up to TV once she puts extensions in. As such, they all fall under the category of GirlyBruiser. Some Divas have gone for shorter hairstyles such as Wrestling/CandiceMichelle and Wrestling/AshleyMassaro but they usually end up putting extensions in after a couple of months. Wrestling/AliciaFox changes her hair drastically sometimes with a shorter style but she tends to end up with long hair again. Wrestling/MollyHolly gave herself PowerHair to emphasize her prudish and unfeminine character and even had her head shaved at one point. Wrestling/PeytonRoyce had to cut her hair to shoulder length after purple dye ruined it, but after a couple of months put extensions in. Renee Young usually sports a Bob, but often wears extensions.
177	* Wrestling/TheYoungBucks are frequently "mistaken" for girls by the Briscoe Brothers, mostly on account of this. It seemed a little hypocritical when Mark "grew" out his hair, but it turned out to be a wig, it just took a really long time([[BrickJoke as in years]]) to reveal it as no one else was as interested in "[[ByTheHair punishing]]" men for having long hair as the Briscoes were.
178	* Wrestling/HaniaTheHowlingHuntress has long black hair down to her butt, as seen in [[https://www.instagram.com/p/BTNlhf4lXHa this video.]]
179	* Wrestling/SonyaDeville decided to attack her former GirlyGirl partner Wrestling/MandyRose and destroy her beauty, so she cut her long hair off. Mandy however chose to view it as an AdrenalineMakeover and came back even harder, defeating Sonya in a Loser Leaves WWE match.
180	[[/folder]]
181
182	[[folder:Video Games]]
183	* In ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'', sole girl Anzu is shown in a few [[TheFaceless partially off-screen]] [=CGs=] to have long hair. Three other characters also have long hair (Wataru, Nagisa, and Souma) though in these cases it's more for the drama factor than anything. Still, in one story Souma and Anzu bond over the difficulties of dealing with long hair in hot weather and start sharing hair care tips (which for [[{{Samurai}} Souma]], naturally, involves some kind of old family recipe of 'horse extract') and Kuro comments wondering why those two are having 'girly talk'. Hajime also has long hair for a boy and dislikes how feminine it makes him look, saying in ''Holiday'' that he'd prefer to get a buzz cut, but it suits the cute and girly style of his unit so he's forbidden to cut it.
184	* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'':
185	** Sol's "feminine" appearance [[CharacterCustomization if the player chooses that at any point in the game]][[note]]their appearance and pronouns can be chosen separately and be changed anytime[[/note]] has hair that reaches down to their waist.
186	** Marz is the most feminine among Sol's female peers, given her love for fashion and shopping, and has hair reaching down to her thighs as a young adult.
187	* Inverted in ''VideoGame/KanColle'' with the Nagato sisters. Nagato, who has more masculine traits, is the one with long hair, while the more feminine Mutsu wears it short.
188	* Zigzagged all over the place with Samus Aran in ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}''. The length of her hair varies, but most of the time it usually reaches her shoulders. That being said, femininity is the last thing that could describe her. While some promo material for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' describe her as "surprisingly feminine", she doesn't really show any typically feminine or masculine traits in any games.
189	* {{Inverted\|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}''. Aside from Mari, Kel and Aubrey have longer hair than the rest of the main friend group, yet are the two most outwardly masculine members.
190	* In ''VideoGame/PotionPermit'', several young female characters such as Rue, Laura, and Hannah have waist-length hair, highlighting their femininity.
191	* Princess Peach from ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' has long blonde hair and is the [[PinkMeansFeminine girliest]] character in the entire franchise. It especially stands out when she's compared to TomboyPrincess Daisy, who has shorter hair post-redesign (though it's still medium length).
192	* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'': Moebius M has waist-length hair, which makes her look much older and more mature than the short-haired Mio, [[spoiler:despite them being exact copies of each other besides the hair. When M swaps bodies with Mio to save Mio's life, Mio desperately asks her friends if she should cut it, because it's a huge pain to wash and keeps getting in her way. It's pretty obvious that the only reason she considers ''not'' cutting it is because she [[ShipTease thinks Noah might like it]]]].
193	[[/folder]]
194
195	[[folder:Web Animation]]
196	* Aphrodite from ''WebAnimation/GodsSchoolTheOlympianGods'' is one of the most traditionally feminine goddesses and has blonde hair so long that it drags across the floor.
197	[[/folder]]
198
199	[[folder:Webcomics]]
200	* Voluptua in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' has long hair that [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/files/images/VolTurnWeb.jpg spills down to the floor.]]
201	* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'':
202	** Whenever a character [[GenderBender changes genders]], their hair usually gets longer or shorter to complement their new gender. Justified, as it's built into most of the forms they usually transform into, especially the Female Variant #5 form.
203	** Tedd keeps his hair long [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-05-05 because of this trope]] as it distracts people from his naturally feminine face and gets them to blame his hair for his looking feminine. At least, [[InsaneTrollLogic according to Tedd it does]].
204	* Most ''Webcomic/RageComics'' faces are drawn without hair and assumed to be male by default. When an author wants to indicate a character as female, they simply add shoulder-length hair (with a hair dec) to the corresponding rage face.
205	* Webcomic/{{minus}} invokes this [[http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus36.html here]]--she is mistaken for a boy, and consequently grows her hair (previously a bowl cut) long and wavy, wears an ankle-length dress, adds a bow, [[PinkMeansFeminine pink]], to her IdiotHair, gives herself FertileFeet, and makes a couple of butterflies for good measure.
206	* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Alice\|1999}}''--when Joanne gets a haircut, one of Dot's brothers [[http://alice.alicecomics.com/alicecomics/beauty-love-and-annoying-friends-6-2/ suddenly]] realizes that [[BeautifulAllAlong she's beautiful]].
207	* Anvil, of ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'', is dangerously susceptible to the trope. WordOfGod says that she keeps her hair very long due to some insecurity about her femininity, which in turn is due to her exceptional height and formidable musculature. However, this may not be a good choice for a superhero--and a brawler at that. She's smart enough to tie her hair up securely if she knows that a fight is coming up, but she doesn't always get the chance--and [[http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1493 at least one opponent takes full advantage of this.]]
208	* Inverted in ''Webcomic/{{Bomango}}'': The long-haired Gogo is an aggressive CuteBruiser-turned-AmazonianBeauty. While Didi, the one who cut her hair short, is a perky LipstickLesbian.
209	* In ''Webcomic/TrippingOverYou'', this is a point of contention between Liam, who likes to grow his hair out, and his father Eli, who thinks it's unmasculine. Fortunately, Eli drops the unpleasant "makes you look like a poof" comments after Liam comes out of the closet.
210	* ''WebComic/PrincessPrincess'': Sadie has long hair as part of her overall feminine looks.
211	* ''Webcomic/TheGuyUpstairs'': Hawa has long hair and is noticeably more feminine than the short haired Rozy is.
212	* ''Webcomic/TwistedTropes'': A strip argues that luscious hair is a feminine trait by showing two identical panels of a drunkard with only difference is having long blonde hair.
213	* Discussed in ''Webcomic/Rain2010'' after {{transgender}} protagonist Rain suffers a TraumaticHaircut and feels less feminine now that her hair is short rather than long. Her friends sympathize with her distress at not being able to look the way she wants to look, but also assert that there is no one way to be feminine and that having short hair doesn't make Rain or any other woman less of a woman.
214	[[/folder]]
215
216	[[folder:Web Original]]
217	* Eri Kawaguchi and Monica Ambrose from ''Literature/BusterGirls'' both have long hair. Eri is often directly described as a beauty, while the animated Monica is the most feminine member of the main cast.
218	* Iphigenie from ''Literature/GreekNinja'' has very long hair and is one of the most feminine characters.
219	[[/folder]]
220
221	[[folder:Western Animation]]
222	* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderKatara Katara]], the first prominent female character, is the only girl in the core cast whose hair is long and worn down (if not loose, i.e. braided) at all times. Katara is also the most mothering, nurturing, and feminine of the cast — in addition to being the LoveInterest. [[CuteBruiser Toph]] and [[ManipulativeBitch Azula]] both have long hair that is almost always up, and [[ActionGirl Suki]] has short hair.
223	* Inverted with [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl Jessica and Emilie]] in ''WesternAnimation/WheelSquad''. Jessica has the longest hair of the duo and is so much of a tomboy that, when she entered a figure skating contest and some of her rivals said she had no chance of not being feminine, her friends weren't able to say she was.
224	* Leni and Lola Loud in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''.
225	* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': Vera has the longest hair of the kids, and is a GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak. Tooey's mother Atsaq also used to have long hair before cutting it to a bob in the present day.
226	* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]] and [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]]. They're the two girliest mane ponies, and they have long manes, Fluttershy's actually is long enough that part of it trails on the ground behind her. As a rule, even in background ponies, the mares have the longer manes.
227	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
228	** This is inverted with [[Characters/StevenUniverseAmethyst Amethyst]] and [[Characters/StevenUniversePearl Pearl.]] Amethyst has ankle-length hair, but she's by far the crudest, hedonistic and tomboyish of the Gems, while Pearl's hair just reaches her chin, and she's prim and proper and the most conventionally feminine.
229	** Played straight instead with Sapphire, the girly girl to Ruby's tomboy. Her long hair contrasts with Ruby's BoyishShortHair.
230	* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'': Downplayed. When Acxa is first introduced, she has very short hair. When she eventually comes back after a brief TimeSkip as a love interest, her hair is a few inches longer--just long enough for it to be obvious whenever she moves.
231	* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', Bloom, Stella, and Flora have long hair and are quite feminine.
232	[[/folder]]
233
234	[[folder:Real Life]]
235	* Generally speaking, what's considered short hair by women's standards (shoulder-length or a bob will often be considered short) would be considered long by men's.
236	* Nuns entering a convent would cut their hair off as a sign of them giving up their femininity to serve God. Indeed, one of the many forms of abuse committed by nuns in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland was to cut off the hair of any girls if it was too long and pretty--out of fear it would [[ImAManICantHelpIt tempt boys too much]].
237	* The ultimate expression of this trope: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pioneer_plaque.svg Pioneer plaque]], meant to show aliens what humans look like, depicts a man with short hair and a woman with long hair.
238	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer David Reimer]] is notable for originally being born male and named Bruce at birth, having his penis accidentally destroyed during circumcision, and consequently being raised as a girl. He had genital reconstruction surgery performed on him to remove his testes and was renamed Brenda in an attempt to simultaneously give Dr. Money, the psychologist who oversaw his case a subject for an experiment concerning gender identity, research material, and give Bruce a chance at having a happy life as a female rather than live his life as a male with a mutilated penis. The fact that he bore the name David at the time of his suicide in 2004 shows that this went horribly wrong. Contrary to Dr. Money's claims that the reassignment was successful, David did not identify as female since his preteen years and began living as male when he was 15. The case was so famous that it was the subject of a documentary. In a reenactment of David's sessions with Dr. Money, they discuss the differences between males and females. At this time, David was still going by Brenda and still thought of himself as a girl.
239	-->'''Dr. Money:''' Brenda, how can you tell that I'm a boy and you're a girl?\
240	'''Brenda:''' Because I have long hair and you have short hair.
241	* Inverted by the Masai tribes of Africa. The Masai believe themselves to be related to lions, so men wear their hair long and wild to look like a lion's mane while the women wear their hair clipped short.
242	* There are some religious groups (for example, Pentecostal Christians) where girls and women are discouraged, or even forbidden from, cutting their hair because of this trope. The idea is that men and women are divinely ordained to look, dress, and behave a certain way.
243	* During much of history, in the Western world and elsewhere, long hair on women was ubiquitous to the point of being, to a greater or lesser extent, virtually an EnforcedTrope (not that there weren't exceptions but some form of long hair was pretty much the feminine norm). Ironically, in many cultures and times, women, at least adult or married women, were expected to put their hair up or even cover it for reasons of modesty.[[note]]Of course, it could also be seen as a matter of practicality, especially as long hair can get in the way of e.g. housework.[[/note]] Examples include the wimples, veils, and hoods that are seen in many paintings of Medieval and early Renaissance women, the Victorian expectation that a girl would start wearing her hair up around the time when she reached marriageable age, and the Muslim hijab, which many women still practice today. Often it was only cut off [[TraumaticHaircut to disgrace them]], or for religious devotion, mourning and [[SweetPollyOliver disguising oneself as a man]] (in the last case, this could get them into ''serious'' trouble at times, even meriting legal punishment).
244	* In the 1920s, this trope received a major subversion in mainstream fashion from which it didn't fully recover for decades. As part of the radical new look of that decade, bobbed hair, often worn jaw-length or shorter, became all the rage. At first very daring, it quickly became so popular that within a few years, outside certain cultures and demographics, most women had bobbed hair. Long hair continued to be worn and appreciated by some[[note]]Fashion-acceptable alternatives to the bob in the 1920s included twisting long hair into a bob-like shape, bobbing the hair in front and wearing the rest of it up, or wearing the hair in a very sleek, very neat low bun.[[/note]] but the average woman of that time had short hair (though still typically longer than most men). In the 1930s, fashionable hairstyles got longer but were still basically short- to medium-length, heavily styled bobs. Moderately long hair experienced something of a revival in the 1940s, though it tended to be styled in a way that reduced the overall length of the hairstyle; by the time of Christian Dior's New Look, long hair was common enough that Dior's models were routinely being photographed with it in a bun. However, shorter styles were back for the 1950s, even among teenage girls, often tightly curled and with short bangs. It took until well into the 1960s for really long hair to become a feminine ideal again. Notably, in many period movies taking place when long hair was in, most of them employed HollywoodCostuming so that the hair would still be short enough to look fashionable to audiences.
245	* Olivia Hussey's long hair in the 1968 version of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' reportedly inspired loads of women to grow theirs out long (as noted above, long hair was only just coming back into fashion in the 60s). In fact, the original actress cast as Juliet was dropped after she cut her hair and Franco Zeffirelli lost interest in her.
246	* Creator/MaryPickford had an image as "America's Sweetheart", helped by her long ringlets. They helped her play TheIngenue when she was well into her late thirties. When she bobbed her hair at the age of thirty-seven, her career didn't really recover (although this did coincide with the MediaNotes/RiseOfTheTalkies as well).
247	* Creator/RoseMcGowan said that she was advised to wear her hair long in order to get more parts as an actress--or to put it bluntly "people won't want to fuck you". When she decided to retire from acting, she cut all her hair off herself and later shaved her head.
248	* Creator/EmmaWatson likewise cut her hair short into a pixie as soon as she was finished with the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films--but grew it back out again because she said that longer hair allowed her more roles[[note]]Though while this trope is of course a factor, she found herself doing a lot of period pieces, and a pixie hairstyle would restrict her to anything set before the late 60s.[[/note]]. She filmed ''Film/TheBlingRing'' and ''{{Film/Noah}}'' while she had short hair, but had to wear extensions for them.
249	* For the reverse of this Creator/KateeSackhoff had to cut her long blonde hair short for ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', as producers felt it looked too feminine for her to play an ActionGirl. Eventually she got fed up with keeping her hair short for the role and fought for Starbuck to grow her hair out. She's said that she's constantly had to deal with directors wanting her to either cut or dye her hair for an ActionGirl role.
250	* Prior to coming out as UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}}, Creator/ElliotPage recalls nearly missing out on roles--as he had shaved his head for ''Film/MouthToMouth''--and in fact had to wear a wig when auditioning for ''Film/HardCandy'' (though he wore his natural hair in the film, which was still quite short) and extensions for ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''.
251	* Likewise this was a key to Creator/JacksonLennon realising he was actually UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}}. At the age of thirteen, he had his hair cut short and recalls feeling nicely validated when people on the bus used male pronouns afterwards.
252	* Creator/MiaFarrow became famous for her beautiful long, blonde hair while starring in ''Peyton Place''. Having been raised to be Catholic and very modest, she was uncomfortable with everyone's fixation on the hair and impulsively chopped it off into the famous pixie.
253	[[/folder]]

Context Main / LongHairIsFeminine