Expository Hairstyle Change / Anime & Manga

Expository Hairstyle Changes in Anime and Manga.

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• 7 Seeds has Botan, who is originally introduced as an intimidating woman and her hair put up in multiple braids. As her team members warm up to her, Botan lets her hair down and removes the braids, ending up with a high ponytail kind of hairdo.
• Tiffa Addil from After War Gundam X is a Shy Blue-Haired Girl Barrier Maiden who keeps her hair in a ponytail. She temporarily lets it loose in the Ocean Arc, as a sign that she's now possessed by the spirit of Lucille Lilliant, the other Barrier Maiden of the story.
• Halfway through Aquarion Logos, Subete slicks back his hair to mark the moment when he stops being an incompetent Harmless Villain and becomes the new Big Bad.
• Played with in Arakawa Under the Bridge in the case of the Mayor, whose Kappa suit has a wound mechanism in the head which can change his hair from short and spiky to long with a simple twist, and which he reserves for switching from his usual carefree mayorliness to the badass youkai within.
• Each of the four recurring prima characters in ARIA has a Flash Back hairstyle. Alicia, currently in a single braid, wore two braids. Akira, her hair now long, once had it cut short. Athena, now cut short, once wore it at shoulder length. Then we have Grandma, who during her Undine days wore her hair long and wavy and now wears it up in a bun. Unlike the other three, who usually appear in flashbacks dating to four years before the series proper, Grandma's flashbacks date to around thirty years. Four years ago, she wore the same hairstyle but was taller. Finally, we have Akari, who some years after becoming a prima began wearing her hair in a long ponytail, and Aika, who got an Important Haircut midway through the series from twin braids to a shorter cut. Alice is a different example, as she wears her hair differently to signify when she attends school.
• In Asteroid in Love, Ao's personality change from a talkative tomboy to a quiet Girly Girl is accompanied by her changing her hairstyle from Boyish Short Hair to Girlish Pigtails.
• Assassination Classroom:
  • In flashbacks, Nagisa is shown with much longer hair due to his Control Freak mother wanting to raise a girl instead. By the time Kayano transfers into the class (just before the events of the series), he's tried to shorten it into a ponytail, but in their first interaction Kayano convinces him to style into the Hair Wings he has for the rest of the series, a slightly less effeminate hairstyle. The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows he eventually ditched the Hair Wings for a more traditional boyish hairstyle, as his mother is no longer there to control him.
  • Speaking of Kayano, in her true identity as Akari Yukimura she has long dark hair. She adopts a shorter bright green hairstyle with Hair Intakes for most of the series as part of her act so that Koro-sensei (who she believes murdered her sister) would not recognize her. Following Chapter 128, in which she reveals herself (as well as the fact she has tentacles), she sports to her original hairstyle but still colored green as part of her Evil Costume Switch. After her tentacles are removed and she rejoins the class, she reverts back to the hairstyle she had as Kayano. The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows she eventually went back to her hairstyle as Akari.
  • After being welcomed back following her brief Face–Heel Turn in which she betrayed the class to the Reaper, Irina Jelavic changes her long flowing hairstyle to a ponytail as part of her Good Costume Switch.
• Astra Lost in Space: To indicate her new resolution to embrace a more self-confident outlook at the encouragement of her teammates, Yun-hua has her previously face-blocking long hair trimmed shorter, while also ditching her non-prescription glasses that served the same purpose.
• Azumanga Daioh:
  • Parodied. It's a new school year for Chiyo-chan, so to show how much she's matured as a person... she starts wearing her pigtails lower.
  • As well as Tomo — she grows her hair out during her second year, intending to be somewhat like Fujiko. When that doesn't pan out too well, she cuts it to even shorter than it was when she was a freshman. Yomi gets in a good laugh when Chiyo-chan thinks that Tomo did it because she got dumped. The length of Tomo's hair is a good indicator as to when one of the series' spin-off works takes place.
• After the immense trauma she suffered during the Eclipse, Casca from Berserk grows long, disheveled hair signature to The Ophelia that she turned into, in lieu of the short, cropped hair of the badass Action Girl she once was.
• Bleach:
  • Aizen's removal of his glasses and slicking back of his hair demonstrated to the audience that yes, he was now the Big Bad.
  • Most of the Visored had different hair back when they were Captains and Lieutenants in Soul Society. For example, Hirako Shinji as Aizen's former captain used to have a long hair; now he possesses a much shorter bob cut.
  • Ichigo briefly had a great deal of hair, in both is most extreme One-Winged Angel form and his final awesome form, in which it was one of the few things that changed. Aizen had also grown a lot of hair with his power-up to almost-unimaginable, so apparently the Samson look is in.
  • 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 Ikkaku.
  • Squad 4 Captain Retsu Unohana has her hair braided so that it hangs down in front of her neck and chest. During this time she is essentially a benevolent Team Mom. When she lets her hair down, it is time to run.
  • Ever since Tatsuki ran out the bullies that cut her hair by force, Orihime has kept her hair long and with hairpins (which are also the source of her powers). After the first Time Skip she stops wearing the pins (using them as lapel accessories instead) and switches to a Hime Cut. Midway through the last arc, she begins using the clips again and in the last chapter, when she and Ichigo are Happily Married, she ditches the pins for good and uses a Motherly Side Plait.
  • Rukia began the series with a spiky, somewhat messy haircut reaching to her shoulders. She kept it that way until the first Time Skip, where she decided to cut it into a more "orderly" pageboy style. At the very end, when she's both married Renji and has become a captain, her hair is much longer.
• Tsukasa from Boys over Flowers gets his hair straightened (either or purpose or accidentally) when he's being genuinely nice to Tsukushi.
• In the manga adaptation of Cirque du Freak, Kurda's ponytail snaps open at exactly the moment when he stabs and kills Gavner Purl, making Darren aware that he's betrayed the vampire clan. In his next two appearances, around people who don't know about his conspiracy, it is tied back again, but at his trial, when his actions are exposed, it is not.
  • Much later in volume 10, before Kurda returns to the Lake of Souls, Harkat rips off a piece of his robes and uses it to tie Kurda's hair back, showing that he is forgiven.
• Code Geass:
  • Kallen Stadfeldt/Kozuki has two different hairstyles: a spiky wild look (which is apparently her natural one) when she's being her Action Girl self, and a combed-down hairstyle she uses at school to as part of the fake Delicate and Sickly persona she hides behind. In the epilogue, she is shown going to school with her spiky hair, signifying that she has thrown away her frail cover, and can now be herself in school.
  • It's subtle, but in Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, when Lelouch is brainwashed into being the Britannian strategist Julius Kingsley, he has parts of his bangs spiked out to the sides that, as Lelouch, he had tucked under the side parts. It gives him an edgier look and goes with how Julius isn't bothered by ruthlessly causing riots and endangering masses of civilians to help Britannian invade Europia.
• The Dangers in My Heart; Ichikawa keeps his bangs over his left eye and a bit of hair at his right side tucked-in. To prepare for delivering his schools' congratulatory address speech (reluctantly), he has his hair cut into a bowl cut (Which still ends up covering his right eye later on without wax). After delivering the speech he lets his hair grow back out and... well, he still keeps his bangs over his eye, but he left the hair at his right side un-tucked. The speech marks the point in the story where he starts to love and believe in himself more, and when he fully realizes/accepts that Yamada is in love with him.
• Between the two seasons of Darker than Black, Hei goes from clean-cut and capable of passing for a university student to "Hobo Hei", with Perma-Stubble and Wild Hair. 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 Time Skip.
• In The Daughter of Twenty Faces the passing of a year is marked by Chiko's bangs growing out of their straight-cut style into a more natural shape, which also serves to mark her evolution from The Ojou into an Action Girl.
• Death Note:
  • Aizawa's transition from clean-shaven to Perma-Stubble is used to show his emerging inner badass.
  • Another example is Mello, who gets slightly shorter and messier hair after the explosion at his Mafia hideout, from which point not only he becomes more badass but also more reckless.
  • Misa is the most pronounced example, combined with some wardrobe changes. Early on, she defaults to Girlish Pigtails and similar, with elaborate goth clothes, emphasizing her childishness and cuteness as a model and actress. After the timeskip, she's done her best to become Light's perfect girlfriend and minion, and her acting career has taken a more serious turn, so she wears her hair loose and has a conservative, preppy wardrobe. Eventually, however, suspicion of her builds again and Light decides first that she should quit her job and stop attracting attention to herself, and then that having the active Kira living with him is too dangerous, and he instructs Misa to surrender the Death Note to a new minion, losing all of her memories of it in the process (not to mention Ryuk's companionship). Misa is left as the live-in girlfriend of someone who has absolutely no use for her, plainly can't stand her, and leaves her alone as much as possible, leaving her bored out of her mind. She eventually starts dressing and acting the same as she did in the beginning, five years earlier, as if all of her character development never happened... because she doesn't remember it did!
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, initially Tanjiro's hair was long enough to tie it in a high ponytail. Then, when he faces Giyu following the slaughter of his family and Nezuko's transformation into a demon, the ponytail is cut off, leaving him with a messy mop. During his training with Urokodaki, his hair grows out to shoulder-length, only to cut it short after completing his training in two years. The haircuts signify the changes that happened in his life and his ascension as a Demon Slayer.
• Digimon:
  • Ken from Digimon Adventure 02. As the Digimon Emperor, his digital avatar has his hair two-toned and spiked, not too dissimilar to his dead older brother Sam, whose reputation Ken has spent the last couple of years trying to live up to. During his My God, What Have I Done? 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 Heel–Face Turn, but that he's accepted that he can't replace his brother and will now be himself.
  • Joe lets his hair grow between Digimon Adventure and 02 to show that he's mellowed out a bit. Notably, by the time of Digimon Adventure tri., his hair is short again and he once again is more stressed out.
  • Between the first part of Digimon Fusion and the second, Christopher grows his hair out and parts it in the middle into something of a messy mullet, to highlight how much time passed in the Digital World while Mikey was away and how much Christopher had to rough it out in the meantime.
  • In Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, Lui undergoes multiple style changes throughout his life, starting at 4 years old his messy, unkempt hair shows his parental neglect. After Ukkomon enters his life his hairstyle changes to a neatly combed short cut, and after Ukkomon replaces his eye he changes to the Hiding Behind Your Bangs style he's known most for.
• Averted with Bulma from the Dragon Ball franhcise. While she changes her hairstyle quite often, none of the changes are really expository. It's played straight with Krillin, however, when he displays a full head of hair in the Buu saga to signify that he's left his Warrior Monk lifestyle behind to raise a family.
• EDENS ZERO: Initially, Weisz Steiner wore his hair in a rockabilly style. Later after trying out the Arsenal Suit, when it dissolves, it rendered him naked and undid his hair. He has since kept it that way. This show him he is independencing himself from the lifepath his future was destined to have.
• In Eureka Seven, Renton's hairstyle starts to be different from episode 42 onwards, which probably signifies his Coming of Age.
• Eyeshield 21:
  • Sakuraba goes from having a pop-idol-type hairstyle to a shaved head (to the dismay of his fangirls), to show that he's serious about becoming a better athlete. It grows back slowly over the course of the series (with the little bit in the middle inexplicably growing faster than the rest).
  • Mamori also gets a haircut after Sena reveals that he's Eyeshield 21, possibly to signify that Mamori no longer has to protect Sena, but can trust him to stand on his own. After the timeskip, her hair is even longer, which denotes the passage of time.
  • Just before his debut game against the Shinryujii Naga's, Yukimitsu changes his hairstyle from a combed back one showing off his rather large forehead, to a looser downed style, to represent him no longer being just the geeky benchwarmer.
• Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero had bobbed dark hair as a teen. Then, after the Fourth Holy Grail War, as years passed, he has been growing his hair out until it reaches hip-length as an adult, where he becomes Lord El-Melloi II, reflecting his maturity and experience.
• Fruits Basket:
  • After Akito's Heel–Face Turn, she is shown at the end with shoulder-length hair.
  • When Kyouko was a Broken Bird delinquent, she had long hair. She keeps it long after marrying Katsuya, but by the time of her death she had cut it into a bob.
  • Isuzu (a.k.a. Rin) Sohma had extremely long dark hair when she was introduced. Later, Akito chopped it off in a fit of rage. This coincides with her becoming more agreeable and starting to place more trust and faith on others, specially on Tohru.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Ed grows his hair out into a short braid after getting his automail — before it had been shorter and messy. His Earth counterpart in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) kept that hairstyle.
  • Late in the story, Ed spends several months in hiding recuperating from a serious injury, and afterward he switches to a ponytail. The only reason he does that is that he was being hunted down by the military, and their description of him mentions that his hair is in a braid.
  • The ponytail also makes him look more like his father when he was young, though when his father tells him that, Ed immediately braids the hair back up and scowls at him.
  • In the last chapter, it's shown that Ed keeps the ponytail for good. His father's death might've had something to do with it.
  • Let's not forget Hawkeye. She is shown to have short hair in her backstory, grew her hair out because she met Winry, and thought it might look good on her, and finally on the photo epilogue page, is shown to have gone back to her original short cut.
  • Ed once again has a ponytail in The Movie based off of the 2003 anime series, Conqueror of Shamballa.
  • In the manga, once Ling becomes Greed, his front cowlick changes from right to left to show who is currently in control.
  • In Conqueror of Shamballa, Alphonse grew out his hair into a ponytail in order to replicate his brother. He cut it after being reunited with Edward.
• Asuka from Future GPX Cyber Formula cuts her long hair short in EP 5 of ZERO to signifying that she wanted to change to become a stronger person and later in SAGA and SIN, she grows her hair to shoulder-length, which symbolizes that she's now a full-grown woman.
• Golden Kamuy: Sofia wore a tight bun in the back before she left behind the life of a noblewoman. As a revolutionary leader, however, she replaced her bun with a long braid.
• Eikichi Onizuka changes his hairstyle in the first volume of Great Teacher Onizuka right after he decided to be a teacher.
• GTO: The Early Years:
  • When Eikichi is actively trying to charm girls, he changes his hairstyle and wears glasses.
  • In Chapter 34, Saejima's changed his hairstyle so much that the author has to point out that it's him in several panels.
  • Minamino forces the students in his class to change their Delinquent Hair to more conservative hairstyles.
• HeartCatch Pretty Cure!:
  • Itsuki starts growing out her hair during the Distant Finale, now accepting the fact that she can like girlish things and still be a martial artist.
  • WAY before Itsuki, there's also Tsubomi, who is shanghai'd by Erika in the very first episode for a makeover, changing her ponytail into twintails.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • As a little girl and young teenager, Ukraine had long hair and kept it in a braided Prim and Proper Bun. As an adult, she has it in a bob (plus a hairband and hairpins), probably for practical reasons since she's implied to work as a farmer.
  • This is a little harder to spot, but around the same time, Ukraine had her hair long, child!Belarus used to have shoulder-level Messy Hair tied with a white headband. As an older nation, her hair is waist-level and noticeably straighter but still kept with a band (a black one in her case).
  • When Hungary was young and thought she was a boy, she had a very short ponytail. In the infamous Innocent Fanservice Girl scene with Chivalrous Pervert Prussia, she still dresses as a boy but her 'tail is much longer. When she grows up into a Ninja Maid, she keeps it loose - and in modern days, she still wears it like that.
  • Liechtenstein, when was little, had her hair in a long braid or in twin braids. She cut it off some time after meeting Switzerland, as part of her desire to prove herself to him.
  • Parodied when England tries to pull one in his childhood by growing his hair long. Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs when it turns out extremely messy since he only grew it out, without actually putting any care in it. He then asks France to give him one instead... and France proceeds to cut it back to its original style, claiming it's what fits England the best.
  • Czech Republic/Czechia had hair in Girlish Pigtails as a young nation under Austria and Hungary's care/thumb, but by the time she and Slovakia managed to be independent she switched to a long-ish bob.
• In Hoshi Wa Utau Sakuya's hair grows longer and longer in each volume until she cuts it short again.
• K:
  • The All-Powerful Bystander Silver King, Adolf K. Weismann, has let his hair grow to past his knees in the 70 years he's been living in his airship as an immortal hermit after the trauma of losing his sister in the bombing of Dresden during World War II. In the end of the second season, when he returns to his body, he cuts it back to the length it was before he became immortal.
  • In the movie that takes place between seasons 1 and 2, Kuroh wears his hair down from his usual Samurai Ponytail, while he's searching for his lost master.
• Most characters in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War are shown with different hairstyles in the past, but only a few have any real significance.
  • Kaguya has her hair tied up in the present, but flashbacks (and the mental representation of her cold side) have it down. She presumably switched around the time she fell in love with Shirogane.
  • Shirogane's hair is significantly messier in the present compared to flashbacks. It's bedhead that he doesn't have the time to fix in the morning since he gets so little sleep due to his increased workload.
  • Ishigami's hair used to be a lot shorter in middle school. He grew out bangs in order to shut himself off from the world.
  • Inverted with Iino. The fact that she has Hairstyle Inertia helps reflect the fact that she still has the exact same mindset that she did as a child.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Teana Lanster sports Girlish Pigtails in the third season. Later, she starts wearing her hair loose, indicating that she has outgrown the reckless tendencies she exhibited earlier in the story.
  • Nanoha and Fate don't sport Girlish Pigtails in their Magical Girl forms anymore, since the end of the StrikerS manga, demonstrating that they are not girls anymore, but women (with a daughter).
• In Marmalade Boy, Meiko Akizuki has long straight hair, but once she starts dating Namura-sensei, she starts perming it and keeps it that way.
• Flashbacks in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid show that Elma's hair used to be a lot longer. While it's never specified why she changed it, it's worth pointing out that she was last seen with long hair during her falling out with Tohru.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
  • In the second season, Feldt Grace starts wearing her hair in a style similar to her dead best friend Christina Sierra.
  • In the trailers for The Movie, several people have gone through hairstyle changes. Louise grows her hair back to its old length, Saji keeps his slightly longer, Soma/Marie braids hers now, Mileina replaced the Girlish Pigtails with a simple headband, Allelujah sports a really long ponytail... and Feldt cut her hair and looks like Lunamaria Hawke. See it here! (Warning, aside of the already mentioned style changes, there are many spoilers)
• In Monster, the protagonist Kenzo Tenma goes from an immaculately groomed woobie to a scruffy, stubbled, long-haired badass. Pictured in the main page.
• Naruto:
  • Sakura's Important Haircut happened early in the manga and signified her no longer wanting to be The Load. She keeps the short hair into adulthood, though it's slightly longer (however not as long as her original style). Prior to the manga, Sakura had short hair; however, she grew it out before becoming a ninja because she heard that Sasuke liked girls with long hair.
  • Averted with Ino. She cut her hair in the chunin exams as a part of a trap. While afterwards, she rekindled her relationship with Sakura, she doesn't actually keep the short hair for long; if anything, she grew out her ponytail even longer.
  • Hanabi is shown to have had this occur. As a toddler, her hair was short but she grew it out. After she puts her beloved sister on a Broken Pedestal, it's shown she cut her hair. In between Shippuden and The Last: Naruto the Movie, movie she grew out her hair and became fashion savvy after she Took a Level in Cheerfulness.
  • Hinata sported chin-length hair at first but following the timeskip, she grew out her hair to mid-length and since Boruto, she now sports a shoulder-length bob.
  • Naruto himself cuts his hair short after he becomes Hokage, capping off his journey from the lowest of the low to the highest authority figure in Konoha.
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind:
  • Nausicaä doesn't do this in the movie, but in the manga she has her hair cut from shoulder length to just below her ears as she prepares to go to war, symbolizing the end of her innocent life.
  • Later on in the manga, Princess Kushana, who originally sported a waist-length blonde braid wrapped around her head, chopped it off after she failed to rescue some of her soldiers — who had been assigned a task at odds with their training^† (Kushana trained them as elite cavalry specializing in quick attacks, but they were put on point defense; that's the equivalent of forcing Navy SEAL Team Six into a WWI trench) and placed in an indefensible position by her brothers — as a show of solidarity as well as a promise to everyone that she would redouble her efforts to hunt down and kill the Princes of Torumekia.
• Ouran High School Host Club:
  • Identical twins Hikaru and Kaoru 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 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. Near the end of the manga, Kaoru also starts growing his hair long, which differentiates the twins even more.
  • Haruhi used to have long hair, but she accidentally glued her hair and ended up having to cut it short, hence why the Host Club mistake her for a pretty boy at first. She keeps the hairstyle for most of the series to maintain her facade as a Host Club member, but after she transfers out of Ouran High, she begins to regrow her hair again.
• Shinichi Izumi from Parasyte. The Maxim changes his hair partway through, to having his bangs pushed further back, generally making the character look more action-ready. The glasses are also ditched.
• In Pokémon the Series: XY, Serena cuts her hair after losing her first Pokémon showcase and realizing she needs to better herself as a trainer. Combined with more casual clothes; this signifies her desire to have more confidence in herself and her abilities.
• The Prince of Tennis:
  • Hikaru Amane, a.k.a. Dabide from Rokkaku is a natural redhead who's quite proud of his hair and takes care of it quite well, applying hair wax to it every day. When Amane gets serious in his games, he takes a rubber band and ties his hair up; you can expect him to play at his very full strength from then on.
  • Kippei Tachibana used to dye his long hair blonde until a traumatic incident where he almost blinded his best friend. In penance, he shaved his hair and went back to his natural black hair color. He starts dyeing his hair again after Fudomine Middle School makes it to the Nationals under his leadership.
• The 10th episode of Puella Magi Madoka Magica reveals that Homura used to be a nerdy, shy girl with glasses and huge braids. After sticking herself in a "Groundhog Day" Loop to save her friend, and seeing the situation get worse when its full horror is revealed, she wakes up at the start of a new loop with a speech affirming her determination to fight alone and win at the end, while untying her hair and fixing her eyes with magic, becoming the stern badass we'd known up to that point.
• Tart in Puella Magi Tart Magica does this following the massacre of her village and her decision to make a contract and become a magical girl.
• In Pumpkin Scissors, Alice is shown with braids at her military academy graduation just as war is ended. Flash Forward a few years and the braids are gone, and she's in the War Relief squadron still cleaning up from the battles.
• Rain's Head: The titular character starts off with a short hair in the first chapter, which slowly grows chapter by chapter by the passage of time.^note If the manga's chapter titles are not obvious enough. By the end of the manga, which takes place three years and six months later (like the chapter title), her hair grows past her shoulders but she tragically dies from her terminal illness.
• Ranma ½:
  • Akane starts the series with hair at about mid-back length, but it gets sliced off to about neck-level during Ranma's initial battle with Ryoga, resulting in a new hairstyle. Almost immediately afterwards, she gets over her long-standing crush on Dr. Tofu (which she knew would always be unrequited, considering his own feelings for her sister, Kasumi) and decides not to grow her hair back. Therefore, it could be argued that, in addition to a Traumatic Haircut, the new hairdo doubles as an Expository Hairstyle Change that signifies her decision to accept that nothing would come of it and move on.
  • Ranma's pre-story switch from a ponytail (in the flashbacks) to a pigtail. The Dragon Whisker story arc explains the very good reason behind it.
• In the third Rebuild of Evangelion movie, nearly everyone aside from Gendo and the pilots gets a new hairstyle and outfit, to mark the 14-year-Time Skip. Also, the newly-introduced fresh Rei clone has the bangs in the middle of her forehead intersecting or in two distinct points, especially after The Reveal.
• Samurai Champloo has another example that requires knowledge of Japanese customs: Jin's very long bangs/sideburns plus long ponytail are a strange hairstyle for a samurai. Most other samurai in the series either have the short bangs plus ponytail style suitable for teenagers and apprentices or the tonsured style favored by older men, especially bureaucrats. When we start seeing Jin's backstory flashbacks, it becomes clear that he used to have the apprentice style, but stopped cutting it after he became a ronin. His bangs have gone from above his eyebrows to his jawline, suggesting that the time between the flashbacks and the main series timeline is about 3-6 months.
• Kenji Harima from School Rumble explains his present appearance sporting a moustache and goatee because of the fact that he wishes to hide his original appearance so Tenma won't recognize him as the boy who rescued her from an incident long ago. She doesn't remember this said event anyway, though.
• Skip Beat!
  • Kyoko Mogami pulls one on at the end of the first chapter. She's introduced with black hair that reaches past her shoulder blades and appears to be kind to a fault and utterly devoted to her childhood friend, Shou Fuwa, meekly waiting for him to return her romantic feelings. When he admits that he never saw her as more than a maid, Kyoko vows revenge by entering the show business and gets her hair cut to chin-length and dyed chestnut-brown, showing her true colors as a determined, scorned woman that will stop at nothing to get Shou to kneel before her.
  • Done in-universe for the Dark Moon character of Mio, the role that Kyoko plays. Mio is the unfavorite daughter from a rich family, with a large facial scar, and torments her cousin. The original hairstyle was a simple Hime Cut that mostly hid the scar, but when Kyoko created her own version of Mio, who is much more in-your-face with Mio's hatred for Mizuki, she got her bleached hair dyed back to black and openly displayed the facial scar.
• Slam Dunk:
  • Hanamichi Sakuragi starts out with a red-dyed Delinquent Hair. Halfway through the story, he shaves his hair almost bald after losing the match against Kainan. This signals that he gets more serious about his role in the team.
  • Hisashi Mitsui had mid-length hair when he was in junior high and during his first year in Shohoku. He grew his hair past shoulder length in the two years he spent as a delinquent, and upon returning to the basketball club he cuts his hair short.
• Kumiko from Sound! Euphonium tries to invoke this in the first episode. As she begins high school, she pulls her wavy hair into a ponytail in order to symbolize a new, more mature her. Subverted when she almost instantly does away with the ponytail afterwards. She's pretty much never shown with that hairstyle outside of the first episode.
• Shizuku Hoshikawa, the main character of The Summer You Were There, has bangs that cover her eyes, representing how she isolates herself from others. In the flashbacks to her in elementary school, when she was more outgoing and confident to the point of arrogance, her bangs did not cover her eyes. In the final scene, her bangs are shorter, showing that she is no longer isolating herself.
• In one of the Tenchi Muyo! manga, Ayeka ends up changing her hair from the usual purple and straight style she's usually seen in to the light blue and curled similar to what Sasami has, though only temporary, as Sasami was homesick. As it turned out, the blue hair and curled hair was Ayeka's real style, inherited from her Action Mom Misaki; she had it modified like that in her belief that Yosho would fall in love with her more if she resembled the person he thought was the perfect woman - his mother, Queen Funaho. She later states that, despite falling for Tenchi now, she'd rather keep it as that purple style due to the fact that she actually enjoys it now.
• Every single character in Tokyo Revengers has different hairstyles in the past and present, with the exception of Naoto, whose change is noted by his mature looks and height.
• Tower of God: Bam goes from his adorably messy hair to bangs concealing his shiny gold eyes and growing long hair, indicating his loss of trust and idealism and his gain of awesome ass-kicking powers.
• Trigun:
  • After Vash shoots the goddamned moon and does serious damage to a city, Wolfwood finds him living under the name Ericks with long hair and the beginnings of a beard. After Vash comes out of his 10-Minute Retirement he gets his hair cut, returning it to the upright "broom" style the audience is familiar with.
  • Also, Plants like Vash and Knives all have blonde hair at birth, which slowly turns black the more they use that BFG within their arm. So at the start of the Trigun manga, Vash is a happy-go-lucky blondie, but at the beginning of Trigun Maximum, once his hair is cut and he returns to action we see he sports a shock of black at the very back of his scalp below his ears. By the end of the manga, his hair is almost completely black.
• In Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- the growth of Fay's hair coincides with the Growing the Beard segment and shows that he's taken a darker turn, while the rest of the cast apparently went to a barber off-panel during the same period. This also happened when he was younger and imprisoned with his twin, and we know it's been a long time since they go from short hair to waist-length within a few pages.
• In Uzumaki, Kirie cuts her long hair to ear length when it gets infected with spirals. This is the same time that she finally comes to accept that the events in the town aren't normal.
• Vampire Knight:
  • This happens to Yuuki Cross when her brother/boyfriend Kaname reverts her to her true pureblood vampire form. As a human, she had normal shoulder-length hair, and as a vampire, grows long hair very quickly.
  • Once he starts acting more like his former badass vampire hunter self, Kaien Cross takes his hair out of its customary ponytail to return it to the way he used to wear it before.
• Wandering Son:
  • Nitori grows her hair into a bob after she starts getting bullied for wearing the girl's uniform to school. She cuts it short, not because of a dramatic change like her friends think, but because she thought it was getting a bit long for a boy and wanted to emulate a female celebrity with a pixie cut.
  • Kanako has worn pigtails her entire life. She takes them out in high school as a sign of her maturing.
  • Takatsuki has always worn his hair in varying lengths ranging from pixie length to bob length. In high school, he grows it out which correlates with his confusion and doubts about his gender identity.
• The World God Only Knows:
  • Whenever Keima's mom gets angry, she lets her hair fall out of its bun and goes from sweet, kind, and relaxed mother to hot and hotblooded ex-biker gang lady.
  • Keima's childhood friend Tenri originally has eye-obscuring bangs, but has them cut to represent her slowly developing confidence.
• In Xam'd: Lost Memories, Akiyuki's hair grows out from a short cut to a more shaggy look as he matures throughout the series and learns to cope with being a Xam'd.
• Your Lie in April:
  • Hiroko had longer hair in the past but divorced her husband and cut it because, according to her, women change hairstyles when they change men.
  • Kaori wore Girlish Pigtails and had glasses once but she let her hair down and started wearing contacts when she decided to befriend Kousei, the boy she had been admiring for years.

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