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Hereditary Hairstyle

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Seen that ridiculous hairstyle? Turns out it's hereditary. Most of the time, it's an Improbable Hairstyle and often a subtrope of Anime Hair. It is also a type of Strong Family Resemblance. For a similar trope that may overlap, but deals with hair color rather than style, see Hair Color Spoiler. May be part of Generation Xerox.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Ayakashi Triangle:
    • In a strange case, Matsuri's hair started out much shorter than his mother Matoi's, so it only looked slightly similar. After Matsuri is subject to Rapid Hair Growth, he starts tying it up in a tuft much the same as Matoi did at his age (and less often in the present), but without her bangs. Matsuri's hair is also much spikier, something he gets from his grandfather Seigen.
    • Suzu, her brother Ritta, and their mother all have bob cuts. In a flashback, Suzu shows off her current haircut for the first time and points out how it makes her resemble her mother. Later it's shown this was an Important Haircut symbolizing when Suzu's current personality formed; Suzu choosing to look more like her mother is appropriate, as she'd just lost her Past-Life Memories of growing up with anyone else.
  • Day Break Illusion: Akari and her mother Hinata don't have the exact has hairstyle, but they both have this odd hair-crescent thing. It sounds weirder than it looks.
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kyojuro Rengoku shares his distinctive spiky, red-tipped yellow hair with his father and brother. Fitting Elemental Hair Colors for a family who practices the Flame Breathing style of swordsmanship.
  • Goku's younger son, Goten, from Dragon Ball has the same exact hair as his father (from birth according to the movie Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly), who has the same hair as his father, Bardock. Likewise, Vegeta and his father, King Vegeta, have identically ridiculous hairstyles. It also has a rare cross-gender example in Dr. Briefs, his daughter Bulma (when not permed), and her son Trunks and her daughter Bra. By the Distant Finale of Dragon Ball Z, Goten has grown his hair out specifically to look less like his dad, though his new hairstyle ironically resembles that of his paternal grandmother, Gine. The Non-Serial Movie Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might implies that Goku and company's hairstyle belongs to a particular genetic type common to Saiyans in Bardock's (original) power level, as unrelated character Turles is shown to have the exact same look as well.
  • Shobu's Disappeared Dad in Duel Masters shares his absurdly big Anime Hair.
  • The Armstrongs in Fullmetal Alchemist all have blond hair with a distinctive curl in the front. Edward and his father Hohenheim both have the same shade of blonde hair that they both wear in a very similar style.
  • In Gourmet Girl Graffiti, females from the extended Machiko-Morino household (Ryou, her mother, her aunts Akira and Kirin's mother and Ryou's grandmother) all have brown hair and curls that looks like downplayed Ojou Ringlets.
  • Hunter × Hunter: Gon and his father Ging both have naturally spiky black hair with green highlights.
  • A flashback from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders shows that Kakyoin got his signature "hair noodle" from his mom and most likely his red hair color as well.
  • Kagerou Project: All of the gorgons (Azami, daughter Shion, granddaughter Marry) have the same hairstyle - wavy long hair, which sits separately, like snakes - with some slight variation (mainly Shion, who lacks a fringe). The snake-like appearance of their hair is actually plot-relevant, as it's how the villagers identify them as 'monsters' and justify attacking them.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • When a flashback finally reveals what the Shirogane siblings' Missing Mom looked like on the day she left, it's shown that her hair was basically identical to how Kei wears it in the present. The only difference is that Kei has a black ribbon.
    • Hayasaka's hairstyle didn't really resemble either of their parents' at first, though she starts doing so after an Important Haircut, mimicking her mother's bobcut with a slightly different fringe in the front. It's also revealed near the end of the series that the black wig she wears for her Haysaca-kun disguise was modeled after her father.
  • Lucky Star: Konata and Kanata Izumi also are a clear example of this trope; not only do they have the same hairstyle but they also share the same hair color. Well, with the exception that the daughter additionally has the ahoge.
  • The Lyrical Nanoha franchise has an adopted child version with Vivio, whose Older Alter Ego shares the same side-ponytail hairstyle as her Nanoha-mama. She'd wear it in child form too if she could, but the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga showed that all that concentrated hair causes her to tip over to the side. However, Vivio has the same Girlish Pigtails as Nanoha when she was a child.
    • Chrono and Amy's kids inherited Amy's Idiot Hair.
    • Fate's hairstyle during Force is basically a hybrid of her mothers', resembling pre-insanity Precia from the front with Lindy's pigtail in the back.
  • In Marginal Prince, Joshua's hairstyle is exactly the same like that of his father, with the color of his mother's hair. At the same time, it looks identical to that of his ancestor, King Alphonso. And then there is Henri, whose hair has the exact same color and style (including length) as his dead mother's.
  • In Metal Fight Beyblade, Gingka and his father have the exactly same hairstyle, even with matching headbands. However, his father's hair is a darker red.
  • Asem, the second-generation protagonist of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, has a more masculine version of his mother's short haircut + ponytail.
  • My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: While not exactly "hereditary", Sophia's hair is basically identical to her past life Atsuko, just wavy and with additional sidelocks.
  • Naruto basically has the same hair as his father the Fourth Hokage, but got his face from his mother. Similarly, Boruto takes his looks after his father (Naruto), but got his face from his mother (Hinata).
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Negi Springfield inherited his father Nagi's spiky red hair.
  • In Nichijou, Nakanojou and The Daifuku Guy have mohawks.
  • The epilogue of Ojojojo shows that Haru's child inherited her Hair Intakes.
  • Pretty Cure:
    • Komachi from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 sports an identical hairstyle to that of her older sister Madoka.
    • All members of the Kurumi family sport wavy hair.
    • Hibiki from Suite Pretty Cure ♪ has the same messy red hair as her mother Maria.
    • Megumi from HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! has the same low, magenta ponytail as her mother Kaori.
    • In Go! Princess Pretty Cure, Moe Haruno has a reddish-brown bob hairstyle. Her two daughters have reddish-brown bobs as well with little added pigtails to show their age; one for older sister Haruka, and two for younger sister Momoka.
    • In Maho Girls Pretty Cure!, Kanako has a fluffy bob, her daughter Kyoko has bright orange hair, and Kyoko's daughter Mirai has a bright orange fluffy bob.
    • In KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode, Satomi has orange hair in a ponytail, and her daughter Ichika has two ponytails with the same shape and a brighter shade of orange.
    • Saaya from HuGtto! Pretty Cure has the same wavy blue hair as her mother, just with a few more accessories.
    • Hikaru from Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure has the same round, straight bangs as her grandmother Youko.
    • Yasuko from Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure has the same pinkish-brunette short hair as her daughter Nodoka.
    • Mother and daughter Aoi and Manatsu from Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure both have bright orange ponytails.
    • Yui and her grandmother Yone from Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure both have fluffy brunette hair with little ponytails.
  • In Reborn! (2004) Tsuna, apart from inheriting the same powers, also has the same hairstyle as his ancient predecessor Giotto.
  • Usagi and her Kid from the Future Chibi-Usa both wear their hair in exaggerated odangos in Sailor Moon. So does Queen Serenity, Usagi's mother... in a past life. The parody manga Parallel Sailor Moon introduces the daughters of the four Guardian Senshi, who look exactly like their mothers (hairstyles included) and have the same names.
  • Space Patrol Luluco: Downplayed with Luluco, as her hair looks like a tamer version of her mother Lalaco's hairstyle. Played much straighter when she becomes Ms. Trigger, with even her hair color changing to match.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The Parallel Works 8 video shows that Lordgenome as a child had the same multi-colored hair as his daughter Nia, and in the same style as when she had it cut short (as opposed to now, where he has no hair at all).
  • Yaiba seems to have inherited his hair from his father.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yugi's hair spikes are inherited from his grandfather, though this is less obvious until the chapter where we see Sugoroku as a young man.

    Comic Books 
  • The Beano:
    • Following an in-universe makeover, Dennis the Menace (UK)'s dad went from being bald to having a shorter and more controlled version of his son's distinctive spikes. (A later Retcon would make it so that this version of Dennis's Dad had been Eighties Dennis himself.) Dennis's little sister Bea also has spiky hair.
    • Roger the Dodger's dad has the same tuft at the front as his son does.
    • Billy Whizz, his dad, and his little brother Alfie are all bald except for two Hair Antennae. Billy and his dad have stubble, indicating they shave their heads or just have very sparse hair, while Alfie doesn't, suggesting he just hasn't grown any yet.
  • Impulse's hilariously big, poofy hair comes from his mother, Meloni.
  • Invader Zim (Oni) has a flashback that shows that Membrane and Dib got their iconic hairdo from Membrane's mother, while Gaz's purple hair comes from his father.
  • Infamously, the Osborn family of Spider-Man, who all have the same... "unique" hairstyle (stylized waves?). The one exception is Gabriel Stacey, the son of Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacey, and even in that case, it's likely because his father was originally intended to be Spider-Man himself.
    • A mother-daughter example in Gabriel's sister Sarah; apparently, black hairbands are genetic. Apart from the arguable quality of the story that introduced them, this may be part of the reason why fans are hoping for a Retcon.
    • Spider-Man: Chapter One retcons Sandman into being Norman Osborn's distant cousin, solely because they have the same hairstyle.
    • Harry later decides to shave his head so he can safely get off the grid after cutting all ties with Norman following the American Son debacle.
  • Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen (2019) has the revelation that the Luthors and the Olsens are distantly related from a secret tryst between members of their feuding families in the 19th century. This is a subtle reference to the fact that Lex Luthor had red hair just like Jimmy Olsen before he went bald.
  • Wolverine gets his distinctive hairstyle and sideburns from his father, Thomas Logan.

    Fan Works 
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Kaitō Kokoro: Two of Kiku's and Feliciano's children pretty much inherit their hair colors and hairstyles.
    "...Sure." The elder sibling took two of them, emerald hues filling with wonder as he took in their sleeping forms. "They're...beautiful." Jade depths turned, glancing upon a boy who had locks styled like the father's, eyes revealing to be the same limpid brown of the mother's as they opened. "So this one's name is Nihon, right?" Those same jade depths switched to the second bundle, the other another boy who had brunet hair like his mother's and the same piercing ebon orbs as his father's. "And this one's name is Ren, right?"
  • Total Drama Legacy:
    • Cody Jr. is the straightest example out of all the TDL campers, as his hair is the exact same color and style as Cody's.
    • Keith and Zack have near-identical hairstyles to Dave and Shawn respectively, the only difference being their hair color.
    • Morgan wears her hair in a half-up-half-down hairstyle with a voluminous bun and two curled tendrils that frame her face, just like her mother Sugar.

    Film – Animated 
  • In The Book of Life, as seen in his dad and grandfather, Manolo has the "Sanchez curl". Notably, the same curl is also present in the locks of hair hanging by Maria's eyes, which signifies that "she has eyes only for Manolo". His mother also has curly hair - really, curls are something of a continuing motif in the film, both in hair and in general design.
  • Frozen: Downplayed. Elsa and her mother both wear their hair in the exact same braided bun... until Elsa lets her braid down during Let it Go.
  • Meet the Robinsons:
    • The Robinsons all have exactly the same flick in their hair, even most of the women.
    • When Lewis claims to be a foreign exchange student from Canada, the Robinsons ask if he's related to a Canadian family they know, and want to check if he has their distinctive hairstyle. Lewis is wearing a hat so that they won't realize that he's a young Cornelius, meaning that he and Wilbur have to quickly distract everyone from this line of questioning.

    Film - Live Action 
  • Star Wars:
    • In Padmé's first scene in Revenge of the Sith she has her hair styled into two buns in a similar way as her daughter Leia's iconic look in A New Hope. Fittingly, in the same scene Padmé reveals to Anakin that she's pregnant with Luke and Leia.
    • In The Rise of Skywalker it's revealed that Rey and her mother share the exact same three-bun hairstyle. It's probable that Rey's mother styled her daughter's hair the same as her own, while it's implied Rey keeps her hair this way even as a young adult to feel closer to the family she barely remembers.

    Literature 
  • Harry Potter got his jet black messy hair from his father, James, as part of an overall Strong Family Resemblance.
  • The Mallen Trilogy by English novelist Catherine Cookson was a saga about a family whose patriarch had a genetic white streak in his hair and passed on the same trait to his many children, both legitimate and illegitimate.
  • The Heap family in Septimus Heap all share straw-coloured curls. Likewise, the royal family all has long black hair.
  • Whateley Universe: Dr. Diabolik and his children all have devil's horn-shaped forelocks.

    Live-Action TV 
  • My Name Is Earl: The police chief and her many daughters all have the same red curly hair.

    Video Games 
  • In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Laharl's father, King Krichevskoy, had the same long Hair Antennae that he does, only his ended in Regal Ringlets. Laharl's sister Sicily also has them, but she ties it up in a bow.
  • Emperor Uriel Septim VII and his illegitimate son (or should we say... heir?) in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion bear some facial resemblance, but have the exact same hairstyle despite having never met (there are only a limited number of hairstyles available to begin with, but it does help you get the feeling they're related). But it gets better in light of one popular fan theory: it's possibly a hint that the Prophet in Knights of the Nine is Tiber Septim, a.k.a. Talos himself.
  • They're Bird People, so it's not hair exactly, but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has Tulin, a Rito boy with the same spiky white tuft of feathers on his head as his father Teba, albeit not nearly as long.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Hudson and Rhondson of Tarrey Town have a daughter by the name of Mattison who's a Gerudo with her father's bullet-shaped hairstyle.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Raiden's son John has his father's white feathered hair.
  • In Phantasy Star III, any offspring/descendents of Rhys (with the exception of Crys, whose hair seems to be a strange combination of both his parents) will have the same hair as their respective mothers.
  • In Pokémon Legends: Arceus a fair of the characters are heavily implied to be distant ancestors of characters in the "Modern" era of Pokemon by lieu of having identical hairstyles. Kamado's case (to Professor Rowan) has been confirmed.

    Visual Novels 
  • Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney:
    • Brothers Kristoph and Klavier Gavin both have the same, long spiral side ponytail.. thing. Klavier's collar hides whether or not the rest of his hair is long, but if so, the two would be identical but for fashion, despite not being twins. However, Klavier had short hair in sprites from when he was younger.
    • Turns out Trucy has mini versions of Apollo's hair horns underneath her hat, which foreshadows that they're actually siblings. However, Apollo's biological father Jove Justice had the hair horns, but Trucy's biological father was the balding Shadi Enigmar and her mother doesn't have them, likely making this a Contrived Coincidence.

    Webcomics 
  • Girl Genius:
    • Gilgamesh Wulfenbach has the same unkempt frizz and traditional Mad Scientist look as his father Klaus. If Word of God is to be believed, this also explains why Zeetha has spiky bangs when the rest of her hair is straight like her mother's - she and Gil are fraternal twins.
    • A number of the Valois family have the same unusual shade of red hair - Tarvek, Violetta, Martellus and Xerxsephnia, and presumably also Aaronev, since someone mistook Tarvek for a younger version of him. A portrait of the family's founder, the original Storm King, shows he had it as well.
  • Homestuck: the kids have very similar hairstyles to their guardians, and, of course, each other.
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: Emil and one of his young cousins both have a hairstyle near-identical to the one their grandmother is shown wearing as a child in the prologue and as an adult in her family tree portrait.

    Western Animation 
  • In the American Dad! episode "The Kidney Stays In The Picture", it is revealed that Francine slept with another man right before her and Stan's wedding, meaning Hayley may not be his biological daughter. The one thing Hayley and this man have in common? A bandana.
  • Detentionaire: Lee Ping and his father share a similar multi-pronged cowlick on the back of their heads, with Mr. Ping's being shorter and messier since he's going bald.
  • Done very subtly in DuckTales (2017) to the point that you wouldn't even notice it if you didn't know that the characters in question were related, but Webby is an Opposite-Sex Clone of Scrooge, and the way that ends of her hair jut out on the side facing away from the camera mimic the tufts he has on his cheeks (especially when he was younger).
  • The Fry/Farnsworth family in Futurama. Philip J. Fry's brother Yancy had the same weird points in his hair. Their mother had the same style only longer. So does her late father-in-law Enos Fry [only shorter], which doesn't really make sense, especially since he's not actually Fry's grandfather anyway. Fry's nephew Philip J. Fry Jr inherits his father's hairstyle as does Professor Farnsworth (Fry's great-to-the-thirtieth-nephew) in flashbacks to when he had hair, and the Professor's clone, Cubert. Yancy and Philip Jr. had brown hair; the rest are all redheads.
  • Get Ace:
    • Downplayed with the McDougal family. Ace and his sister Becky have similar but not identical hairstyles to their father and mother respectively, but in different colors.
    • Claudia has a bob cut similar to her mother's but with small Girlish Pigtails.
    • Ned's cousin Egbert is shown to have the same blonde hair and "devil horns" hairstyle, only much cuter-looking.
  • In Invader Zim, Dib's bizarre hairstyle includes a two-foot cowlick that grows up and back in a "scythe" pattern; his father has the same thing, except it bends twice like a lightning bolt. "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom" shows Dib's hair growing the same way when he gets older.
  • Invoked in The Owl House. While her siblings have more naturally blended dark-green hair, Amity — the youngest child with the most pressure and expectations put on her — is compelled to keep her brown locks (which she got from Alador) dyed to the exact green shade of Odalia's and styled near identically to when she was her age, symbolizing her mother's domineering attitude over both her and her father. When she dyes her hair lavender and cuts it in "Through the Looking Glass Ruins", it serves as an expression of individuality and rebellion.
  • The Simpsons
    • Upon her introduction, it is clear that Marge gets her iconic beehive from her mother.
    • In the "Treehouse of Horror XXIII" segment "Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure", Bart finds that he's changed history so that his father is Artie Ziff, and removes his hat to find that his spiked hair has been replaced with Artie's hairstyle (but still the same shade of yellow as his skin). He turns round to find the same thing has happened to Lisa and Maggie.
    • Sideshow Bob's pineapple-shaped hairstyle is shared by both his son and his mother.
    • The Flanders siblings have afros like their mother Maude.
  • Voltron: Legendary Defender:
    • Downplayed. Keith and his mother, Krolia, both have the same in-the-face bangs.
    • Matt and Pidge have very similar haircuts.
    • When we see Allura's mother in flashback and see that she had the exact same Mystical White Hair as her daughter, though she wore it slightly differently.
  • In The Venture Brothers, it's implied that Brock has fathered a bunch of illegitimate bastards with the women of Spanakos since a fair amount of the kids all have blonde mullets like his.

    Real Life 
  • Although this trope is an obvious exaggeration, it does have a real-life inspiration. Your hair color is hereditary, as is baldness and body hairiness, the shape of your hair follicles (straight, wavy, or curly), and the way your head hair grows (clockwise or counter-clockwise). It is thus possible that the same hairstyle that suited best one of your parents will also suit you best, if you have inherited most of those features from them. They may also have taught you to cut your hair in the same way and you never changed it.

 
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Michela McFarlane's hairstyle

"Ceremony". Michela "Chela" McFarlane introduces herself as the eldest daughter of the prominent McFarlane clan. Guy Greenwood says he got that from the ringlet hairstyle and asks her if it's some kind of curse on the family; Chela jokingly retorts that it's considered polite to faint at first sight of it.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

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Main / OjouRinglets

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