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Her life is about to change.
Oh, poor little thing. There's nothin' worse than having your pigtails shot off!
When a character cuts off their hair, it often symbolizes a rite of passage or bout of character growth. A princess striking out on an adventure, or a new recruit at boot camp, for instance. Hair is something that takes time and effort to grow, so parting with it voluntarily can be a powerful act.
This is particularly a big deal when women get haircuts since long hair is considered attractive. Yet even an accidental hair slicing can leave a character with a surprisingly even cut.
In many religions (Western Christianity, Ancient Egyptian religion, and others) priests and/or monks cut/shave their hair. The cutting of one's own hair is also a part of Buddhist mythology, specifically something done by Siddhartha himself early on in his path to enlightenment, so anime examples might draw from this as an allusion. There are also some cultures, including Native American and many Asians, where a person would cut their hair as an act of grief, disgrace, or even rebellion.
The opposite of a Hair Reboot. If it comes after a Heel Face Turn may result in switching their Good Hair Evil Hair around. May also occur after or during a Close Call Haircut. If it's involuntary, it's likely Rape Of The Lock. If the hair is changed in order to show a change in characterization, this may also be an Expository Hairstyle Change.
See also Fan Service Pack, Beard Of Sorrow.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Sailor Moon: Usagi's hair grows exponentially when she is revealed as the princess in the manga. It is eventually cut back to normal length.
- In the anime, she almost gets a sorrow haircut upon Minako's suggestion when Mamoru is taken hostage, but the MOTD apparently makes her forget that she was in the beauty shop for a new 'do.
- Akane Tendo in an early episode of Ranma 1/2. Notable in that she didn't actually have a choice in the matter, but then decides to ask Kasumi to get it more or less cleaned up, not growing it back. That's because she grew it long originally to attract her first crush, Dr. Tofu, but by that time she gets over her love for him.
- We see in a flashback why Mireille of Noir has a peculiar "half-bang" style. Lady Silvana is to blame
- In a later episode of Azumanga Daioh, Tomo gets a new, shorter haircut. She still acts the same, but feels it reflects the new Tomo.
- Meanwhile, Chiyo kind of wondered if it meant Tomo had been dumped, and felt like she had reverted to being like a 1st year (despite Tomo having had longer hair back then).
- There was a similar event with Chiyo-chan, where she wears her pigtails down, but is otherwise the same.
- Ninamori from FLCL cuts her hair at the end of the 3rd episode.
- In Maria-sama ga Miteru, Sei (the original Rosa Gigantea) has not just one but two Important Haircuts.
- Another male example: Ginta shaves his head to apologize to Miki after he accidentally breaks her heart in Marmalade Boy. Meiko also suggested Miki cut her hair before they saw that Ginta had, but Miki laughed it off; back then, her hair was much too short already.
- Echoing the above incident, when Yuu leaves Miki (apparently for good, after finding out he may be her half-brother), Miki's efforts to overcome it include cutting her long hair into a pageboy style and piercing her ears.
- When young, Anju Kitahara had long hair, but when she returns to Yuu's life she's already cut it real short.
- Also spoofed: Miwa has shoulder-length hair which he wears loose, and once he tricks Meiko into believing he has cut it short by tying it in a ponytail.
- Spoofed again when Tsutomu, as the series's Butt Monkey and Ted Baxter, has to shave his head after losing a bet to Ginta.
- During the Chunin exam arc of Naruto, Sakura Haruno is discovered by the three Sound Genin participating. Having her hair held by the kunoichi of the Sound Squad (Kin Tsuchi, whose hair is even longer than Sakura's, and who actually mocks her for paying so much attention to her beautiful hair), Sakura cuts her hair to free herself from Kin's grasp. It also symbolizes her wish to stop being a Faux Action Girl and become as strong as Naruto, Sasuke and Rock Lee, who have always been there to protect her. And thanks to Princess Tsunade, she will get it later.
- Oddly enough, in one flashback after the timeskip that shows Sakura training with Tsunade, her hair has grown back to its pre-Chunin Exam length, but it's short once again in Part II.
- Later in the Chuunin exams, during Sakura's fight with Ino, Sakura mocks Ino by saying she's the one putting too much emphasis on her looks now. Ino gets pissed off and cuts off her hair with a kunai right there... and actually uses the discarded strands as a tie rope to keep Sakura in place and use the Shintenshin no Jutsu/Mind switch Jutsu on her.
- In the Konoha Gakuen Den feature set in a High School AU, Sakura's Important Haircut in this universe (shown in the ending sequence this is based on), is initially thought to be the result of a breakup until Ino produces photos that reveal that Sakura lay down on the grass and accidentally got gum in her hair.
- Two different characters in Simoun give themselves the same Important Haircut at different dramatic moments, with the second one echoing the first, and one of them later follows up with an additional Important Haircut. Also, another pair of characters have a set of Important Hair Clips.
- On Vandread, the stuck-up ship's navigator Bart develops a rapport with Littlest Cancer Patient Shirley on one of the planets they visit. The people there make dolls to leave as proof they existed, due to their bodies being harvested by Earth after death, and she is working on a doll of Bart when she dies, leaving it bald but otherwise complete. Bart shaves his own head to match, and from there on is slightly less of a jerk.
- In the second episode of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, Nakahara Sunako cuts off the bangs that obscured her face and blocked her view of "the bright creatures" in a dramatic scene. She then almost immediately suffers from The Nose Bleed, now that she can see the tenants.
- Sara of Soukou No Strain cuts her hair going into her new identity as she chases her brother.
- Miyuki Takamachi, in the Triangle Heart 3 Sweet Songs Forever, OVA gets her braid chopped off in a swordfight. This happens the exact same instant she goes for an opening against her enemy's defenses, smiles, and guts him with a katana. Previously she always innocently stated she didn't like fighting... but perhaps just a little bit. (Really, don't mess with the Takamachi family. Even Miyuki's little sister could kick your ass.)
- There's an interesting contrast in Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien — Mitsuki cuts her long hair short to make a break with the past; meanwhile, Haruka's short hair grows long during the three years she's in a coma.
- Similarly, in Kanon, Ayu's hair has grown long in a coma; not long before she awakens, Yuuichi gives her her headband and Nayuki cuts her hair to look like the Ayu that the viewers know.
- In the same vein as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in Kara No Kyoukai grew long in the gap between the second and fourth movies, and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight.
- In Yu Yu Hakusho, Yusuke goes back and forth between hair styles, though this is typically more about whether his particular style fits his given outfit; the slicked back hair with the green uniform is indicative of his "return to normalcy" delinquent status, whereas other hair styles go with other outfits. It also indicates his mood. Messy is relaxed, and if it starts off slicked back but becomes messy, you're in trouble.
- To be fair, this falls more in Expository Hairstyle Change or Slipknot Ponytail, since it's the same length but different styles. At least, up until it goes white, waist-length, and spiky when his demon ancestor takes over his body for a couple of episodes. It goes back to black when Yusuke regains control of his body. It's back to normal the next episode, though Yusuke does mention the haircut courtesy of Kurama, so it's not a Reset Button.
- Likewise, Keiko starts out with ponytails, then loses them in favor of shorter hair after they get singed in a fire, but has extremely long hair again at the end of the series.
- Variation: in Bleach, Sosuke Aizen does an Important Hairstyle Change when he reveals himself as a Big Bad.
- Inversion: Orihime Inoue used to have short hair after a group of junior high bullies cut it forcibly, but when Tatsuki Arisawa swore to protect her, she grew it back long and claimed she'd never cut it back short since it was now a symbol of their friendship.
- Also, the Vizard changed their hairstyles after leaving Soul Society.
- Kouga, the Big Bad of the Zanpakuto Unknown Tales filler arc, had one as well. In this case the hair wasn't important, it was the fact that it was connected to a hair adornment connected with his noble family, which he was disgusted with.
- Somewhat inverted in Suzumiya Haruhi: The title character comes to school with a different hairstyle and different color hair ribbon every day, until Kyon catches her attention by sarcastically asking her if she's doing it to confuse the space aliens. Haruhi responds by explaining that she has a theory that each day has a color. She cuts her waist-long hair to shoulder length the next day and from then on sticks with the same hairstyle, letting it mostly loose and using a yellow ribbon on it; it is insinuated that this is because he was the first person to comment on it, although her motivation is never fully explained.
- To replace it with something even more bizarre and inexplicable?
- The motivation is hinted at in the second season episode "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody": it's the haircut that Haruhi had three years ago, when she first met time-traveling Kyon on Tanabata.
- After almost rewriting the world, but stopped by Kyon, she wear her hair as a ponytail the next day, because Kyon commented in what she thought was a dream, that he liked it when she had her hair that way.
- Kenji Harima of School Rumble gets several haircuts as the series progresses - from a mustache and goatee to bearded to clean-shaven and partially bald. All of it done for Tenma.
- The Prince Of Tennis definitely loves to play around with the trope, whether using full haircuts or mere hairstyle changes:
- Shishido Ryoh is kicked off the Hyoutei tennis club after an embarrassing defeat, and then sets out to get back on the team through ridiculously harsh training with junior student Choutaro Ohtori; finally, he cuts off his long hair in front of the team's manager, Tarou Sakaki, as a symbol of having become a different person (Atobe Keigo, the captain of the team, says "This guy hasn't lost" after the haircut [[Jerk With A Heart Of Gold as a way of endorsing him).
- Atobe himself (the series' most popular rival]]) arrogantly vows to shave his head if he loses his match against Echizen Ryoma... which of course he does, because Ryoma is the main character and Atobe had promised to shave his head in public, with lots of witnesses. Since Atobe is unconscious by the end, Ryoma shaves his head for him. This devolves into a joke, as a lot of things do in Prince of Tennis, when several chapters later, Atobe shows up with his hair intact (although muttering about his beautiful hair) and no explanation for it has been given, which has caused the fans to heavily speculate about it.
- This was played differently in the OAV's: Atobe is actually conscious and sub-regular Haginosuke Taki asks Ryoma to cut his hair instead. Atobe rejects the offer, swipes the razor from Ryoma's hands and cuts his own hair right there. In the last OAV series, Atobe *does* really use a wig.
- Not to mention that Kabaji, Atobe's long time friend, also cuts his hair short after Atobe's loss. He cuts it even shorter, practically in a buzzcut.
- In his Kyushuu days, Fudomine captain Kippei Tachibana used to dye his long hair blond, which earned him the nickname of "The Lion". After he seriously injures his best friend and rival Chitose, however, among his penances for such a deed Tachibana cuts his long hair and dyes it back to its natural black. For the Nationals, he keeps his hair short, but actually dyes it back to blond.
- When he was Inui Sadaharu's doubles partner, Yanagi Renji from Rikkaidai had chin-length hair in a pageboy style. Four years later, when they meet again, he has cut it much shorter. It's hinted he did so after the end of his first year in Rikkai: a picture taken when he, Yukimura and Sanada were titulars in their first year shows Yanagi with long hair.
- And if you take a close look at the picture, you'll notice that the actual Rikkai subcaptain Sanada has his hair longer and more messy than he does in the present, and that Yukimura used to have two long bangs while keeping the rest of his hair fairly short.
- In the anime, Yanagi's teammate Jackal Kuwahara shaves his head as a tribute to a good friend.
- And *again*, Oishi Syuichirou changes his hairstyle every year in all canons. The first one was apparently an Important Haircut that came when he became a regular in his second year in Seigaku: his formerly messy hair became a simple buzzcut.
- Inversion: Sakuno Ryuzaki's hair reaches her butt and Ryoma teases her often by saying it's too long for a tennis player, but she doesn't even seem to think about cutting it short.
- And don't forget the Kisarazu twins using different hairstyles (long for Ryou, short for Atsushi) to distinguish each other. Atsushi's manager Mizuki cut Atsushi's hair short after mistaking Atsushi for Ryou and taking him along for the ride by mistake.
- Fay in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle somewhat subverts this by letting his hair grow out and into a ponytail to emphasize that he's taken a darker turn and developing cracks in his Stepford Smiler persona.
- Videl in Dragon Ball receives an important haircut which lasts throughout virtually all the Buu Saga when Gohan asks her to do it, and his flimsy reason being it will get in the way when she fights. Yeah, right! He just prefer girls with shorter hair. Nonetheless, she did it anyway, despite initially being very angry at his silly reason, which indicated she liked him, despite looking observably annoyed.
- Please! "Get in the way when she's fighting"? What kind of half-assed excuse is that!? Wasn't Yamcha fighting alongside the Z-Senshi as well? He seemed fine with long hair! (Although, he's usually the first to get his ass handed to him. Mostly before even Krillin.)
- You're forgetting what kind of female archetype Videl embodies. Cutting off her Girlish Pigtails shows her deredere side (wanting to look cuter in Gohan's eyes), the "more comfortable" excuse is her going back to tsuntsun (not wanting to admit it in front of him). So Yeah.
- And speaking of Yamcha, he had at least two noticeable ones. One before the 21st Tenka'ichi Budokai which lasted until the 23rd one, and during the Android Saga.
- Averted in the case of pure-blooded Saiyans. In that case, simply Goku and Vegeta. Vegeta informs his wife (or then, partner or whatever) Bulma, that a pure-blood Saiyan's hair never changes from the day they are born. Actually, that explained about why Goku's hair had been consistently the same throughout Dragon Ball. Oddly enough, having said that, Vegeta received a haircut, and after some twenty episodes shaved his moustache (which grew in the ten years of peace) in Dragon Ball GT. But we all know about its status in the canon don't we?
- Subverted with Krillin who grew out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with a smoking hot wife, and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives Lampshade Hanging even going as far as for one character to break the fourth wall, more so than anyone else. Even when there's a clown, a triclops, a green pointy-eared man with bulging muscles (Yes, even more than Piccolo), and a pink genie on the same team roster.
- Aika in ARIA ends up burning her hair at a cookout in one episode after she intentionally grew it out long to be similar to Alicia, whom she idolizes. After this, she switches to shorter hairstyle, and several episodes are spent on her getting used to it. It's not until Al, her crush, compliments on her that she feels satisfied. Her hair stays this way into the next season.
- Now And Then Here And There provides a rather tragic example of this trope. After being repeatedly raped and assaulted at Hellywood, Sara manages to kill one of the rapists and escape into the desert where she proceeds to cut her hair short (despite the fact that she's American and shouldn't appreciate the symbolism).
- The moment that Knives in Trigun cuts his own hair begins his descent into madness. Vash, on the other hand, has two important haircuts, the second of which settles his commitment to abide by Rem's advice.
- In Slam Dunk, the main character Hanamichi Sakuragi shaves his head as self-punishment after being the cause of the Shohoku team's loss against Kainan. And before him, Hisashi Mitsui cuts his own hair to symbolize his redemption. Later, Haruko Akagi also cuts her hair short.
- In Elfen Lied, Nyu's long hair gets chopped off to impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae to signify Lucy's guilt over the incident where she killed her.
- In DNA ^2, Ami's best friend Kotomi Takanashi keeps at first her hair in pigtails. Later, she cuts it into a pageboy style.
- Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind's title character.
- In the manga, Nausicaa receives the haircut (and a scale mail) when leaving for war. Also in manga, Kushana cuts her considerably long braid to honor the death of a considerable part of her men in an Ohmu attack engineered by the Dorok.
- In Princess Mononoke, the prince cuts his hair after being banished to seek his fate.
- Ashitaka is not 'banished', exactly. Circumstance forced him to leave, and custom dictated that he could not return. His haircut was not merely coincidental- it was a straightforward declaration of his decision to leave.
- She didn't do it to herself, but Sheeta in ''Laputa: Castle In The Sky'' experiences an Important Haircut by getting her braids shot off, symbolic of her maturing and loss of innocence through the traumatic experiences of the movie. Note that the change in hairstyle happens in the same scene where she finds the strength to stop running and take control of the situation.
- "My hair! He shot my hair! SON OF A BITCH!" Oops. Wrong movie. Sorry.
- In D.Gray-Man, Lenalee manages to burn most of her hair off defeating Eshi. This is so Important! that her hair stays burned away in the middle of a time-reversing field that cured at least one of the crewmen of the ship the main characters are using of having his head blown off.
- As a note, the posting editor is going off the manga, and does not know whether or not the anime keeps this.
- Maybe Miranda just chose not to fix her hair. It is Important after all.
- Miranda's Time-Record did not reverse it because Lenalee wasn't on the ship when it happened (thus her original state was not "captured" to restore her hair.)
- In Akane's first appearance in Mai-HiME, she's seen wearing a barely noticeable ponytail. Several episodes later, when she shows off her CHILD against an Orphan attacking Kazuya and Miyu, the string binding her ponytail falls out, giving her a more mature look (and thus bringing her to terms with her own desire to protect). This is the last we see of Akane for a good while, as immediately after the Orphan is defeated, Miyu skewers the CHILD, effectively eliminating both Akane and her boyfriend from "the game" to occur later in the show. The change seems to have made it across continuities, as Akane from Mai-Otome is first introduced sans ponytail.
- The second ED of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 prominently features Lockon cutting Setsuna's hair, which seems to be a deliberately symbolic invocation of a particular scene where Lockon shot through some locks of Setsuna's hair.
- In Air Misuzu gets her long hair cut by Haruko, her aunt and adoptive mother. By mistake, Haruko cuts Misuzu's hair a lot shorter than intended, which gives Misuzu a much younger appearance and subtly hints the turn of events in the show.
- In Eyeshield 21, Sakuraba gets a crew-cut after quitting Jerry/Jari Productions to focus on his football life with the Ojo White Knights. He also grows a noticeable mustache and goatee.
- And Yukimitsu Manabu starts combing his hair forward at the start of the Kanto tournament, before the first game he would actually play in.
- In flashbacks we are shown that Hiruma started dyeing his hair shortly after discovering American Football. One character has speculated that this is to further enhance his demonic appearance so as to intimidate
his opponents everybody.
- Mamori, Musashi, and (briefly) Ishimaru also change hairstyles before the Kanto tournament — this is less likely an Important Haircut than a group meme among the team
or the artist getting tired of drawing the same hairstyles all the time.
- Prior to setting out for the climactic battle of Weiss Kreuz Gluhen, Aya uses his own katana to cut off the waist-length braid he'd grown between series.
- Last Exile Slightly twisted for Sophia's hair-down-to-there upon taking the Imperial Throne. Dio's braid is unwrapped, and his bangs re-brushed to show off his Mark of the Covenant, after being brainwashed for the Rite and turned into a remorseless killing machine.
- Yumi in the Fafner special, Right Of Left cuts her short once she becomes a Fafner pilot.
- In the manga Get Backers, Kazuki chopped off his Rapunzel Hair to express his determination to rescue Fuuga and 'get back his lost time'. This troper is not sure how cutting off one's hair would be an expression of determination in this case, but all the same, the scene took up one full page, so that ought to classify it an important haircut.
- In the manga Chrono Crusade, Chrono's braid is cut off during a duel with Remington. This symbolizes Chrono learning to control his temper, which serves to be a key in later battle.
- Also, a flashback shows that Chrono used to have long, flowing hair in his true form when he was a Sinner, but had most of it burned away during the battle that gave him the title "Slayer of a Hundred."
- On Hana Yori Dango, after some nasty events involving Rape Of The Lock, Tsukushi must cut her ruined hair. Her mom attempts to help her, but Mrs. Makino fucks up so bad that Rui has to finish the work.
- While not cutting it herself, Layla Hamilton fits this trope in the Kaleido Star OVA, "Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari". After a journey to find herself, Layla goes from her Defrosting Ice Queen persona to a person who won't hide her feelings anymore. Then, she asks Sora Naegino to cut her long blond hair for her.
- When we first meet Casca from Berserk she has close-cropped short hair symbolic of her Lady Of War persona. In a flashback to her earlier days before joining Griffith's Band of the Hawks, she had long hair, meaning that she probably cut it off soon afterward. After the events of the Eclipse where she gets raped by Femto and Goes Mad From The Revelation, Casca has let her hair grow long again.
- Additionally, Farnese, when she joined Guts on his journey, cut her own hair short as a sign of humility and apology for everything she did to him and Casca.
- In the movie adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle, when Calcifer is about to be extinguished (which would kill Howl as well) and needs fuel to keep on burning, Sophie quickly cuts her long braid and gives it to him.
- In Eureka Seven, Eureka gets several hairstyle changes reflecting... other changes about her. Her hair is cut in the episode Acperience 2, and grows back in Acperience 3.
- In Skip Beat!, after discovering she has been deceived and used as an step by the person she loved the most, Kyouko not only cuts short her hair, she also dyes it, as a symbol of her new attitude and personality.
- In Full Metal Panic, Sousuke allows Kaname to cut his hair. Although his look doesn't change appreciably as a result, the scene serves as an indication of just how much he trusts her: Sousuke is a Raised By Wolves Child Soldier conditioned to assume that anyone is a potential enemy and to never leave himself vulnerable, and the fact that he can allow Kaname to handle a pair of scissors around his head and behind his back with no more than a calm "Please don't cut off my ears," - and in fact not only allows her to cut his hair but actually falls asleep while she's doing it - is very important.
- Not to mention that this is probably the closest and most intimate they ever got to each other; when she was cutting near his forehead, Sousuke was blushing like hell and breathed suspiciously quickly for obvious reasons - he was either embarrased, aroused or both. Looks like no amount of conditioning can defeat pheromones from a similarly aged girl when you are 16...
- Token Loli Liechtenstein already has short hair in her introduction, but the dialogue with her older brother Switzerland points out that she has just cut it, since it's the first time he has seen her like that. When asked why, she tells him it's both because she's more comfy with shorter hair and because she wants to look and be more like her very tough older brother.
- This is slightly expanded in the anime: the episode featuring Liechtenstein and Switzerland opens with her sitting in front of her mirror and cutting her braids.
- Parodied in a strip with young England and young France. Tired of being bullied, England lets his hair grow to look tougher, but soon it's matted and ruined so France offers some help... and actually cuts it to its former short shape, much to England's horror.
- The lead character of Kaze Hikaru has already cut her hair at the beginning of the series to join the Shinengumi, but Okita Souji remarks on the depth of her sacrifice.
- This Troper is unsure if this instance counts, but in the manga Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, known as Hana-Kimi for short, Mizuki cuts her hair in the first few pages because she wants to disguise herself as a boy. This is to sneak into an all-boys' school as a student so she can get close to a student athlete she admires. The gender-reversal is so key to the plot that the reader does not actually get to see Mizuki with long hair. When she is depicted cutting it, her head is not shown until after she has cut it short. later, Mizuki is shown in a flashback taking place before she cut her hair, but some clever art tricks are used so that the sight of her with long hair is again denied.
- Haru from Xamd Lost Memories cuts her hair short after officially enrolling in the army.
- And male lead Akiyuki's grows out after he gains complete control of his powers.
- Gets a lampshade hung on it in the dub of the OVA of Master of Mosquiton when Inaho cuts off her ponytail to signify her search for the O-Parts and Mosquiton, the Genre Savvy vampire, complains about her doing "the hair-cutting thing."
- In the Kino's Journey prequel movie/episode "life goes on", Kino has her long hair cut into the shorter style seen throughout the series as the result of it being stained with blood from the first person she killed.
- In the Moral Event Horizon of Fushigi Yuugi, Tamahome's hair is cut off by Suboshi's weapons.
- In Gurren Lagann, Nia's hair is cut by two bullets from Yoko's sniper rifle the episode after she decides to shun her previous life. Unlike many cases, this time the accidental cut doesn't give a clean cut at all, and she has Yoko clean it up, showing that they finally trust each other.
- There is a sort of inverted example in Shuffle Asa Shigure's short hair grows longer when she uses magic to save Rin's life after he attempts suicide... to force her use said magic and stop bottling it inside her body. This change signifies that Asa has finally come to terms with her heritage as a half-demon and the daughter of the first being experimented on by the gods and the demons.
- Eunhyung from the Boys Love manhwa Let Dai gets her hair cut boy-like short after being brutally gang raped. She also adopts a more masculine attitude that borders on tomboyish. Somewhat subverted in Naru whose hair style keeps changing all the time since he often uses wigs.
- Naru Taru has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut after the death of Hiro-chan and she also cuts her father's hair.
- Clannad, both the anime and the game: In the Kyou OVA/Kyou route of the game, when Tomoya calls Ryou out to break up with her and apologize for falling for her sister, instead Kyou comes in Ryou's place, but her hair was already cut short, thus making her fool Tomoya until she utters his name.
- In Otaku no Musume-san, Haruka cuts off her Peek A Bangs to emphasise to her elder sister how serious she is about following her own path.
- Somewhat subverted in Boys Love manga Doushitemo Furetakunai in which Shima cuts his hair shorter to signify that he renounces any hope of keeping up his relationship with Togawa only to have Togawa calling him out on it so that he ends up going back on his resolution. Shima at one point reflects that girls tend to cut their hair when they're dumped thus acknowledging the validity of this trope.
- Both subverted and respected in the Boys Love manga Koi Ga Bokura O Yurusu Hani. Yamazaki tries to change his hairdo to make it look less girlish in an attempt at revamping his image but it does not work. Miku gets a radical haircut once she finally decides to accept the relationship between Eiji and Yamazaki, thus moving on from her emotional hang ups
- After accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan stuck as Hibino Hikaru, Erika from Hime-chan No Ribbon cuts off her gorgeous, extrememly long blonde hair so that she can impersonate Hime-chan at home and school until they can find some way to reverse the transformation. The next time we see her after she goes back home, her hair has grown out to shoulder-length.
- While only shown for a moment in a 'growing up' montage MAR's Ginta gets his hair cut at one point during his first trip into the Shuuren no Mon.
- In Captain Tsubasa, Kumi Sugimoto cuts her Girlish Pigtails midway through the WYC arc, to offer it as a sacrifice to a Shinto goddess and bring good luck to the Japanese team.
- An unintentionally hilarious example in Dragonaut. Kazuki gives himself a haircut following a Wangst-fueled hissy-fit (one of many.) The result has been described as looking like his head got raped by a lawnmower.
Comic Books
- In the "Season of Mists" Story Arc of The Sandman, Lucifer — depicted as looking like an ordinary if rather good-looking human apart from the great big wings growing from his back — resigns from being Ruler of Hell and goes off to live among the mortals; in a gesture combining practicality with the symbolism of the Important Haircut, his last act as Ruler of Hell is to ask the Sandman — his enemy on the best of days — to cut his wings off. He doesn't bother with anaesthetic.
- The very opening scene of the pseudomanga Shutter-Box depicts the romantic lead cutting the blue dyed streak from his hair before going off to drown himself.
- When Superman came Back From The Dead, he had shoulder-length hair (worn in a ponytail as Clark). During the preparations for his wedding, he had it cut to its previous length.
- In the beginning of Kingdom Come, the isolated, retired Clark Kent has long hair, which he cuts when he decides to become Superman again. Rather a shame, since he looked surprisingly good with long hair.
- Nightwing grew a ponytail during New Titans, and lost it by accident in an early issue of his solo series, giving him a distinctive look he maintained for some time.
- Likewise, he lost the haircut he'd been sporting more or less constantly since 1940 in New Titans under the advice of Starfire, who turned out to be a sinister doppelganger.
- In the ElfQuest comics, when her lifemate is killed, the usually mild-mannered Clearbrook slices off her waist-length braid and drapes it over his dead body, then turns into a revenge-mad Mama Bear for a while. Centuries later, when she's back to her normal serene self, we see her hair has grown back. Word Of God explicitly labels her hair as a symbol of her sexuality, which she was unable to experience fully while mourning her lifemate.
- After an extended period offworld and near-transformation into a predatory alien, Storm of the X-Men steadily veered away from her serene nature-loving Technical Pacifist Team Mom persona to the point of stabbing a woman in the heart during a duel for rulership of the Morlocks. This culminated with her showing up to Wolverine's wedding in leather pants, a matching tube-top with vest, and a mohawk (her clothes and much of her hair were burned earlier that week, but less jarring salvage options were available even in Tokyo).
- Referenced in Ultimate X-Men. After Hank McCoy aka Beast was killed in a Sentinel attack (don't worry, he got better) Storm, who had been his girlfriend at the time, smashed up her room, started dressing in black leather clothes, and gave herself a punk-rocker haircut.
- This trope, like nearly every other predominant comic book trope of the era, gets played with during Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man. After the murder of his wife and children, he heads off to get vengeance, but not before switching over to a leather costume and cutting his own hair with a trimmer. When Mirror Master sees him, though, he says it looks like he ran his head under a lawnmower.
- Another Morrison example—in The Invisibles, Jack Frost cuts his previously long hair into a shorter style upon finally accepting The Call. This is foreshadowed earlier in the series, when Boy tells him he should cut his hair as at its current length it would get into his eyes when he was fighting- the obvious symbolism of the haircut being that he is now ready to begin said fighting.
- In the Sonic The Hedgehog comic series, Princess Sally grows her hair after a year-long Time Skip. This is symbolic of the changes she'd gone through the year apart from Sonic, and coincided with a redesign for a lot of the other characters and her own apparent mental breakdown. Later on, while under a new writer, Sally decides to cut her hair again, going back to her old hair-do, to signify that she's got her head on straight again.
- Y: The Last Man. Agent 355 cuts Yorick's hair after the traumatic events in "Cycles".
- The Silver Age origin of Lex Luthor is that he turned evil after Superboy accidentally made his hair fall out. Really. (Oh, okay, there's some stuff about pride and betrayal and destroyed experiments, but the baldness is the important thing.)
- In Meridian, minor character Feabie cuts off her braid with a dagger to prove to her unrequited love Jad that she can be as serious and useful as his missing girlfriend Sephie (the protagonist). Metafictionally, this was meant to make them more distinct from each other, as both Sephie and Feabie had long blond hair.
- Thunder from The Outsiders loses her distinctive blonde wig and grows out her hair during the One Year Later jump in The DCU. It's later revealed that the team has gone underground and that she's in a same-sex relationship with teammate Grace. Make what significance of that you will.
- Lisa from Funky Winkerbean lost her hair twice in the strip's run. First, a building fell on her and her head had to be shaved for brain surgery. Then there was the cancer.
- Catwoman has a history of giving herself important haircuts. Most recently, she hacked off her hair in a public bathroom after giving up her daughter for adoption, trading longer mommy hair for her usual short action-ready style.
- Ramona Flowers has one in volume 5 of the Scott Pilgrim series.
- In Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem loses all of his hair to a malfunctioning shower unit within hours of returning to The City, having come down from the mountains looking decidedly woolly.
- Shade The Changing Man - Kathy's Important Haircut came after getting over the loss of Shade and becoming romantically attached to Lenny. The editor confessed in the letters page that she had also gone through several hairstyles of her own while getting over emotional pains. Kathy returned to long, natural hair while pregnant with Shade's child and since she was murdered not long after, that's how she's always remembered.
- Queen Hippolyta cuts her own hair in the Circle arc before going to beat up invading Nazis.
Film
- In The Crying Game, Fergus gives Dil a haircut so Dil will look like a man (and thus, to protect Dil from the people hunting Fergus down).
- In The Parent Trap, Ann has to cut her hair in order to pose as Hailey. She isn't too happy about it, especcialy since Hailey is the one doing the cutting.
- In Mulan, the Disney film (pictured above) and presumably the original Chinese legend, the title character cuts her hair off with a sword in a half-practical (making her upcoming Sweet Polly Oliver charade easier), half-symbolic (breaking off with her past) move.
- Example and subversion: In Shaolin Soccer, the hero's main love-interest has two important haircuts - the first one failing badly, and the second one turning her into an unbeatable goalie.
- In the movie Sliding Doors, the version of Helen that did find her boyfriend in bed with another woman had an Important Haircut, allowing the audience to easily distinguish Single, Empowered, Blonde Helen from Cheated-on, Dowdy, Brunette Helen.
- Evey Hammond is shaved bald in the V For Vendetta movie at a crucial moment in her character development.
- Although, the shaving is a part of the process that causes the character development - not just a side-effect.
- A band even named themselves "Natalie Portman's Shaved Head" after this scene. Yes, really.
- Parodied in Shoot 'em Up, where the protagonist spots a mook with a ponytail, comments on how much he hates middle aged men with ponytails, then shoots it off of his head.
- Also parodied in Coming To America; Prince Akeem goes into a barber shop and asks for a "real American haircut". The barber whacks off Akeem's ponytail with one snip of his scissors. "That'll be
ten bucks eight dollars."
- Used to effect at the end of Elizabeth, as Elizabeth I of England declares herself the Virgin Queen.
- Mickey Knox of Natural Born Killers shaves his head before his interview with Wayne Gayle.
- In The Tenth Kingdom the main character Virginia is placed under a curse that causes her hair to grow at an incredible rate. When using a magic axe to undo the curse, another character renders her hair even shorter than at the beginning of her adventure. After the haircut, Virginia seems to have lost some of her naivete and indecision.
- The female protagonist of G.I. Jane shaves her head during her special operations training.
- A rare example of one as a character introduction: In Seven Samurai, we first see Kambei as he shaves his head to disguise himself as a priest and take care of a hostage situation. This event inspires some farmers to hire him to take care of some bandits.
- Which is in fact a total subversion: the scene is deliberately solemn and slow, ritualistic even... Something portentously portentous is happening. It turns out to be a mere disguise, in other words a cowardly ploy when compared to your usual Charge of the Light Brigade tactics common to samurai movies at the time - he Just Doesnt Care about that, and ostensibly doesn't care about all the hair subtext and symbols either. Kambei (and most of the Seven) will keep on gunning down samurai tropes throughout the movie.
- Richie's Important Haircut in The Royal Tenenbaums coincides with an important suicide attempt. He spends most of the movie as a has-been tennis player, and like his siblings wears pretty much the same same hairstyle and clothes as he did when he was young, so the new, shaven style is a sign of his moving on.
- Tom Cruise in Minority Report.
- Smoke Signals had Victor Joseph cut his hair with a folding knife when faced with the family mementos kept by his runaway father. He had previously told his braided traveling companion that long, free-flowing hair is an Indian man's sign of pride.
- In Willow, Willow's wife Kaia lops off her braid and gives it to him as a keepsake near the start of the movie.
- In the film of Stardust, Tristran gets a haircut from captain Shakespeare, symbolising his change from Victorian shop- boy to romantic adventurer. Oddly, this involves him having longer hair, to Tristran's visible surprise.
- Reese Witherspoon's character Vanessa Julia Lutz gets an unwanted Important Haircut in Freeway.
- Jim of 28 Days Later shaved and cut his hair at Frank's place, just about when he stopped being the baby of the team and became competent and sure of himself.
- In Empire Records, Deb comes to work on the day the movie is set, goes into the bathroom, and shaves her head.
- In Shanghai Noon, the antagonist Lo Fong cuts off Chon Wang's braid, which is a very important status symbol to an Imperial Guard to the Emporer of China. Without this braid, he would be ridiculed upon returning to Shanghai, and so because of this, his primary objective changes and he starts to embrace the "Western world".
- Sunshine (2007). After a fight with a fellow crewmember, engineer Mace shaves and cuts his hair short to show that he's going to focus on the mission from now on.
- In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle shaves his hair into a mohawk, showing his trip off the deep end.
- He actually cuts it twice. He first cuts his hair really short and neat as he prepares for his mission. Once he actually goes crazy he gets the mohawk. Unlike the mohawk, however, Robert De Niro's hair was actually cut shorter, leading to some continuity errors where he has magically grown it longer overnight.
- In Mongol, Jamukha shaves his head to mourn the killing of his brother by Temudgin's guards.
- In The Accused Jodie Foster does it after she's been raped.
- In Sleeping With The Enemy, Julia Robert's character cuts her hair as part of her transformation from battered, submissive wife to free woman.
- In Splendor in the Grass, Natalie Wood cuts her hair, to get rid of her "nice girl" looks.
- The opening credits for Full Metal Jacket consist of a montage of all the
maggots new recruits getting shaved in preparation for basic training.
- The transformative moment in The Legend of Billie Jean is when Billie Jeans hacks off her hair. She goes from a long blond beauty to an avenging rebel.
- The protagonist of Cthulhu (2007), shortly after arriving back in his hometown, shaves his head similar to his estranged father. As this happens early in the movie I'm not sure exactly what it was supposed to symbolise, though it's apparently a case of Real Life Writes The Plot — the actor had shaved his head for another role, yet was playing a college professor).
- After being raped, Asia Argento's character in The Stendhal Syndrome hacks off her hair. This also turns out to be an indication that she's developed a serial-killing split personality.
- In Blow Dry, Christine (Rachel Leigh Cook) cuts off her own hair so her scheming dad (Bill Nighy) can no longer use her as a hair model in the annual British Hairdressing Championship. This drives home the point that she refuses to help him win by cheating.
- Susanna from Legends Of The Fall did this before she shot herself.
Literature
- In Culhwch and Olwen, the hero Culhwch seeks the help of his cousin King Arthur to win Olwen, the daughter of a giant, from her father. Arthur, in traditional fashion, offers Culhwch any boon he may wish for (although they subvert the "rash boon" trope of romantic literature by having Arthur qualify his offer with a list of important items that Culhwch may not ask for). One of Culhwch's requested boons is a haircut from Arthur, marking a right of passage for the youth. Furthermore, Olwen 's father, the giant Ysbaddaden, requires many onerous tasks from Olwen his knightly companions before granting his daughter's hand, culminating in a request for a shave (because shaving his mighty hair requires such obscure, powerful tools that it may as well be pointless). During the shave, they shave him down to the bone, and he grants his daughter's hand before being beheaded. This Welsh tale dates back to at least the 11th century.
- Many religions have prohibitions or rules in regards to hair. In literature, the most famous example is probably the Biblical Samson, whose parents were visited by an angel who allowed his barren mother to become pregnant if she would abstain from unclean meat and alcohol and never cut the child's hair or shave him. This essentially constituted a pre-natal initiation into a Jewish ascetic cult, and this super out-of-proportion before-birth devotion granted Samson the mystical power of invincible strength, allowing him to become one of the judges who were leaders of Israel. The major part of his story is a negative Important Haircut that eventually results in his blindness and death, making even the inversion of this trope Older Than Feudalism.
- In the Baby Sitters Club series, Mary Anne has one when her father stops being overprotective of her.
- Inverted in Emma, as it's important only because all the other characters think it isn't. "Emma's very good opinion of Frank Churchill was a little shaken the following day, by hearing that he was gone off to London, merely to have his hair cut."
- Happens to a few characters in the Sword Of Truth series, where one section of the world puts a lot of stock in the length and style of women's hair. Two examples: In the first book, the hero gives Rachel (previously little more than a slave, with her hair deliberately chopped up) a haircut evening out her locks after she runs to freedom. In the second book, the Mother Confessor (who, as the de facto ruler of the land, has the longest hair around) has her hair chopped off before she's sentenced to be executed.
- In New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series, Jacob and his friends get short haircuts after joining the reservation gang. Turns out long hair makes shaggy werewolves.
- Two of the main characters in The Outsiders cut their hair off while on the run from the law. Important as their hair is the most obvious symbol of their Greaser status.
- In The Time Traveller's Wife, Henry has his shoulder-length hair cut off shortly before his wedding, to symbolize leaving behind his immature playboy lifestyle and becoming more like the responsible adult Clare fell in love with in the first place. Conveniently, this also means his future self can convincingly stand in for him at the wedding ceremony itself (since cold feet and nerves in his present self end up triggering his time travel).
- Jaime Lannister in A Song Of Ice And Fire has his characteristic golden hair shaved off and grows an unflattering beard, ending his period of life as a vain and cruel golden boy under the thumb of his sister. Also, the Dothraki tribe don't cut their hair unless they've suffered a defeat in combat. Khal Drogo has very long hair because he has never seen defeat. Then there's Dany's hair, which is burned off in the end of book 1 when she has her big "mother of dragons" moment.
- If we include beards, the Earl of Gloucester's beard being cut off by Regan and Goneril in King Lear indicated an extreme insult.
- Also, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, part of the tragedy of Aslan's sacrifice was seeing him with his mane cut off. Without it his majesty disappeared and he looked like simply a large cat.
- In Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao chops off his hair to impress his men after transgressing against a rule that had execution (by decapitation) as its punishment. Calling it an attack on the head, his men were doubly careful to avoid breaking the rules when they saw that the highest ranks were still subject to punishment.
- Subverted by Zhao Fang. When Cao Xiu questions Zhao's motives for defecting, Zhao threatened suicide. After being stopped from killing himself, he cut off his hair as a pledge. Zhao's defection was fake, though, and Cao Xiu would end up severely defeated in battle.
- In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Jo March cuts her long, beautiful hair and sells it to a wig maker to raise money for her mother's trip to where their father is in a Union Army hospital. It was her one real beauty and a great personal sacrifice to help her family.
- Subverted in the Honor Harrington book In Enemy Hands. Honor's brutal State Security captors think giving her a clipper-cut is inflicting yet one more humiliation on a woman condemned to hang. Unfortunately for the 'black-legs', Honor deliberately wore her hair that short throughout most of her earlier career and only grew it out during her time in 'exile' on Grayson; she finds their resulting consternation a little funny, and is actually more worried that they're not feeding her enough.
- In Ben Elton's novel Dead Famous, Sally, a contestant on a Big Brother-style game show, expresses a desire for an Important Haircut and cuts and dyes her hair while staying in the house. It turns out to be a very important haircut, because the show's producer planned to murder one of the girls to boost ratings, and "pre-recorded" the scene for all five female contestants. Sally was the first target but was not killed because she no longer looked like the fake Sally on the videotape.
- In The English Patient, Hana cuts her hair after she starts working as an army nurse.
- In the short story The Gift Of The Magi, Della has her long, beautiful hair cut and sold to get enough money to buy a Christmas present for her lover.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a short story called Bernice Bobs Her Hair.
- In the book Adorable Sunday, the title character Sunday poor kid cuts off her hair so her mother will let her stop being a child model.
- Venus does something similar in Venus and the Comets.
- After Turtle loses her waist-length braid in The Westing Game, she starts acting more mature and calling herself T.R. instead of Turtle.
- In the Dragonlord series, the Yerrin clan only cut their hair when banished from the clan. A Yerrin without a clan braid is a man (or woman) without honor. Baisha, a villain in Dragon and Phoenix, cuts his own hair after murdering a kinsman and running from home.
- There's a subtle one in Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. After Lymond sells his body to the repulsive Aga Morat to protect Jerott, an oblivious Jerott ribs Lymond about his recent haircut. Though Lymond reveals nothing, an astute reader can extrapolate that the haircut was a reaction to the traumatic experience.
Live Action TV
- A great deal of fuss was made when the title character of Felicity cropped her mane of curls between seasons.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer played with this: after a dramatic sequence wherein Buffy gives herself an Important Haircut, we cut to her in a hair salon getting it repaired.
- In the second season of Star Trek Voyager, Captain Janeway ditched her librarian bun. This was less about symbolism and transition, and more about looking less ridiculous.
- Likewise Kes ditched her bobbed wig for long flowing locks, but that was probably to save Jennifer Lien from having to spend hours getting those pointy ears stuck on.
- More seriously, Starbuck gives herself an Important Haircut in the third season of the new Battlestar Galactica, and in a rare male example, Adama importantly shaves off his mustache.
- More recently, Chief Tyrol's shaved head is used as a sign of his gradual mental descent.
- Starbuck's haircut at the end of "Torn" was contrasted with Colonel Tigh's draining of a bottle of booze: Both had been valued crewmembers that had lately turned unpleasant, so Adama had to chew them out. Starbuck then puts on a clean uniform, cuts her hair, and goes to apologize to a family she had offended. Tigh just gets dirtier and drunker.
- In Star Trek Deep Space Nine, at approximately the same time Ben Sisko was promoted from Commander to Captain, he shaves his head and grows a goatee. (Actor Avery Brooks was initially forbidden from appearing with a shaved head, which had been a trademark of his long-standing character in another series.
 Eventually, it was evidently decided that the actor had transcended the earlier part.) Also, about the same time Kira Nerys is promoted from Major to Colonel, her hair goes from short and boyish to shoulder-length.
- Peter Petrelli, in Heroes, has his floppy fringe cut off while Sylar is attempting to remove his brain. This could well be in response to repeated requests (both by other characters in the show and by fans) for him to cut his hair.
- Elle later adds to this by giving him a more complete hair cut. Claude would be proud.
- Lorna Dickey in Waterloo Road gets hair extensions. And then kills herself.
- In the first episode of Scrubs season three, "My Own American Girl", Elliot reinvents herself by having her hair cut so her bangs aren't in her face so much. This is comprehensively mocked by Dr Cox and Dr Kelso in later episodes.
- Matt McNamera on Nip Tuck shaves his head as part of the coping process after finding out that his parents blackmailed his much-older transsexual girlfriend into leaving town — although before becoming a Neo-Nazi, oddly enough.
- Xena Warrior Princess actually used this trope as an essential part of its story in the fourth season. The season premiere had Xena seeing a vision from the future in which she and Gabrielle were crucified. Gabrielle had short hair in the vision, and sure enough, toward the end of the season Xena was forced to throw her chakram through Gabrielle's hair to beat the episode's villain. Both of them realized afterward that it now looked like it did in the vision, though that didn't stop Gabrielle from keeping it that way for the rest of the show's run.
- Lionel Luthor has his head shaved at the end of "Covenant", the season finale of the third season of Smallville, while we're shown his son choking to death on poisoned wine and Chloe Sullivan being blown up. The dramatic effect was somewhat lessened the next season, when it turned out that they had both miraculously survived, and one of the attempted murders hadn't even been committed by Lionel.
- Lana Lang also chopped off some hair to try and Take A Level In Badass through training with her personal Yoda. Somewhat subverted unintentionally in that that didn't pan out.
- Played with in The Wire. Drug dealer in training Namond Brice has a distinctive frizzy ponytail that his compatriots all urge him to cut, since it makes him easily identifiable. He finally does, only to realize shortly afterwards that the drug trade isn't for him and be adopted by a former cop. He's next seen months later, with the ponytail again.
- Marian cuts her hair at the beginning of series four of Maid Marian And Her Merry Men, in an attempt to look tougher. The DVD commentary states that the actress had cut her hair for a play in between seasons, and didn't have time to grow it again.
- Lori cuts Jessi's hair near the end of season 2 of Kyle XY when Sarah, who has shorter hair, comes and she leaves her "father". Lori even utters the line "Once we do this there's no turning back."
- Boy Meets World actress Danielle Fishel wanted to get a haircut, but the higher-ups didn't want Topanga to lose her trademark locks. The only way they would allow it is if Topanga getting a haircut was made into a major story point, which became the second episode of the 4th season.
- Happens in 24. At the start of day 2, Jack, still mourning for his wife and dealing with the fact that his daughter hates him now, is seen with straggly hair a unkempt beard (perma stubble in the extreme?) After struggling with the decision, we see Jack in the bathroom, fresh from cutting his hair and shaving the beard. A soon as you see that you know some serious shit is about to go down. It's business time, dammit.
- After the rather brutal second season opening of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, John cuts off his long mop of hair. That episode implies it's to show how many levels of badass he's taken, and the next few episodes suggest that he's rebelling in the face of having watched his mother kill a man (the preceding episode made a point out of Sarah's unwillingness to kill humans), but a later episode reveals that it's actually very justified, because it was John who had just killed a man for the first time, and self loathing is a normal reaction.
- In Greys Anatomy, George cut his hair after he was burned by Meredith. Everyone even commented on how weird and stupid it looked too, and the reply was "the man has issues."
- After Derek Shepherd's season 5 Heroic BSOD, he comes back to the hospital to remove Izzie's brain tumor, but the real sign that he's back is when, after the surgery and a talk with the chief, he shaves his beard, returning to his original McDreamy Perma Stubble look.
- In the Australian TV show Phoenix (1992-3) undercover cop Laz Carides is reluctant to give up his independence to become a member of the suit-and-tie-wearing Major Crimes squad. His eventual acceptance of his new role is shown when he cuts off his (much commented on) ponytail.
- Used in the second season of The L Word when Shane gives the newly-out Jenny a short haircut.
- In NCIS, Gibbs grows a neat, somewhat disturbing moustache after returning from his Ten Minute Retirement, then shaves it off when he returns to his old self.
- Additionally, during the obligatory amnesia episode, Gibbs thinks he is still a Marine, and gives himself the appropriate crew cut.
- On the "Game Night" episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney (in his hippie past) gets dumped and gives himself an important haircut and shave.
- Also, between Season 1 and Season 2, Lily leaves and comes back with her trademark red hair dyed black. This was a decision by the actress unrelated to the show, but the creators felt it fit the character, who had just undergone a breakup and other major life changes. The hair remained the same after she got back together with her ex, though.
- Then there's Ted's growing a Beard Of Sorrow after breaking up with Robin, and shaving it off again when he goes back on the market.
- In Deadwood, Mr. Wu cuts off his queue to show his commitment to America and his alliance with Al Swearengen. He later begins wearing western style clothes as well.
- Stephan Colbert had this done on him to prove he'd really gone through (a little) basic training to Commander General Odierno. When Colbert hesitated, President Barack Obama ordered Gen. Odierno to do it.
- From a Brazillian soap opera: This is gotta be the most upsetting out of all Important Haircuts, complete with Lara Fabian's equally moving "Love By Grace" as background music.
- On Iron Chef, when Kandagawa challenged Sakai for the Millenium rematch battles, he espoused a new philosophy about Japanese cuisine changing (if not quite modernizing - he was a strict Japanese traditionalist chef in his earlier appearances) in order to survive in the 21st century. Embodying this change, he shaved his head to remind him of his new commitment. His perfect, sweep victory over Sakai was a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- Towards The Republic dramatizes young Sun Yat-sen's rejection of the Qing Dynasty by depicting him cutting off his braid in public and throwing it away.
- In the Australian series Mc Leod'sDaughters, Becky cuts her hair using a shard of a broken mirror after taking a job at Drovers Run.
- Played with on Reba when Van goes through one to show he blends in with his football team... only to find out after the fact that his teammates tricked him.
- Brad from Home Improvement gets a ponytail as a self-expression, much to Tim's initial chagrin. Later on, Emo Teen Mark shaves his head after a break-up.
- In Season 7 of The Amazing Race, Joyce had to shave her head to win a Fast Forward (her husband Uchenna was already bald). That was the point at which they stopped being the boring couple in the background, and became threats to win the race.
Music
- Metallica experienced a backlash from their fans when they cut their hair prior to the release of 1996's Load (after a pyrotechnics accident forced James Hetfield to cut his, possibly out of solidarity). Guitarist Kirk Hammett has stated that "Metallica is all about music, not the length of our hair." During Alice in Chains' MTV Unplugged performance (which Metallica attended), bassist Mike Inez wrote on his bass guitar, "Friends Don't Let Friends Get Friends Haircuts..." However, the line was in fact just a Friends reference and the relation with Metallica's new haircuts was coincidental.
- Speaking of Alice in Chains, singer Layne Staley cut his signature dreadlocks around the time he started using heroin.
- Garbage singer Shirley Manson cut her trademark red hair short and dyed it blonde after splitting from her husband in 2001.
Professional Wrestling
- Professional Wrestling uses the haircut as the ultimate insult, which means it is occasionally used as a way to resolve a dispute that has gone beyond Its Personal levels. In Mexico, it is especially considered a "statement victory" if you win with your hair (or mask) on the line, especially if your opponent has the same risk.
Close Professional Wrestling
Tabletop Games
- Dwarfs in the world of Warhammer who fail to fulfill an oath or become similarly dishonored seek death on the battlefield, joining the Slayer cult. This is done by discarding any armor, dyeing their hair orange (in honor of the first Slayer), hacking it into a mohawk (not explained), and finding the nastiest enemy they can. Dwarfs being dwarfs, don't expect them to throw the match.
Video Games
- Princess Cecilia from Wild ARMs cuts her hair to show her dedication to the party.
- Posha Saint-Amour cuts her hair late in Kartia as a sign of leaving the Medium profession. She becomes a Shrine Warrior, boosting her stats quite a bit.
- In Final Fantasy IX, Princess Garnet goes into a period of mourning after her coronation as Queen of Alexandria is interrupted by an invasive attack by the Big Bad — a piece of unfinished business she left hanging when she went home to assume the throne. Eventually, she learns to put the incident, and her sense of shame over it, behind her. As an expression of her newfound devotion to give her all to finding and stopping the Big Bad, for her people and for every kingdom in the world, she borrows one of Zidane's daggers — which have a previously established significance in her sense of identity - and uses it to give herself an Important Haircut.
- In a slight twist, her hair has grown back to its original length by the end of the game, although the symbolic weight of the Important Haircut doesn't seem to be diminished by it.
- Luke cuts his hair in Tales of the Abyss when he decides that he wants to change himself for the better.
- A semi-hidden audio segment in Metal Gear Solid shows Snake (who was shown up until this point as having long hair) asking Naomi for a pair of scissors so he can "clean himself up a little" - when pressed, he admits he doesn't want to be mistaken for the terrorist Liquid Snake, who has the same haircut, and the confession serves as his acceptance of the mission. By the time he's playable his hair is much shorter.
- Used in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn but with a twist: Lucia's Important Haircut marks a significant turning point for Elincia.
- Romancing Sa Ga 3 Katrina Changes her hairstyle and loses her Noble's clothes after the Masquerade was stolen from her, you can revert her back to the way she was after getting the Masquerade back and Defeating any of the Devil Lords except Byunei so you can gain access to Loanne Castle.
- A not-just-symbolic example: in the Star Craft universe, the the Dark Templar officially and literally cut themselves off from the Protoss race by cutting off their "nerve-appendages": thick, hair-like fibers at the back of their heads that connect the Protoss to a sort of communal mind-link.
- Jeanne D'Arc in... well, Jeanne D'Arc when she decides to pursuit the Englishmen and join the army.
- In Suikoden V, Lady Sialeeds stops dyeing her hair after her Face Heel Turn, allowing it to go back to its natural white.
- Charlotte cuts her own hair at the end of Samurai Shodown 2 to symbolize her renouncement to her feelings for Haohmaru.
- The King Of All Cosmos suffers one in his youth, as depicted in his flashbacks in We Love Katamari.
- Referenced in Dragon Age, when Marjolaine comments that Leliana cut her hair "like a boy" after escaping from Orlais
Webcomics
- Ellen from El Goonish Shive cuts her hair shorter just as she is starting to find her place in the world. Susan also dyed her hair and had it cut after finding out about her father.
- And there's Nanase, who just recently cut her hair really short. Actually, this isn't just an important haircut as it is an important complete makeover. This troper wouldn't have recognized her at all had Ellen not said her name.
- Then Nanese gets another one when her magic is temporarily run out. Her hair goes completely black.
- Collin of Friendly Hostility has to dye the blue streak from his hair whenever he visits his hated parents. Not exactly a hair cut, per se, but it probably still fits.
- Marten of Questionable Content seems to always get a haircut just before something interesting happens between him and Faye.
- Also in Questionable Content, Dora decides to grow her dyed-black hair out shortly before a Time Skip; presumably, in the skipped time, Faye and Sven both grow accustomed to their friends-with-benefits relationship, which makes it all the more painful for both of them when he has a one-night stand with someone else.
- The 'dating sim accessory' Ping in Megatokyo has her previously longer-than-waistlength ponytails trimmed by a plasma cannon shot;later on,at the beginning of the next chapter,we see her behaving like a 'real', possessive girl. The next two chapters top this with her gaining an Important Hair Colour, Height Change, Breast Expansion and Personality Switch in order to make her more attractive to her 'owner', Piro.
- Red String has Karen cut her hair after she gets a dressing down from Miharu, whose fiance she'd previously been trying to lure away for her own reasons. After this, Karen becomes a more sympathetic character and stops trying to break Miharu and Kazou up.
- Miharu's characteristic blond hair is the result of one of these - her friend Reika had her hair lightened (though not bleached) at the same time, symbolizing the strengthening of their friendship and their new lives at a new school. Miharu got another one when she was expelled from that school and had to let her hair go black again, symbolizing the subsequent identity crisis she suffered through.
- Shelly in Wapsi Square cuts her hair while dealing with some emotional issues. Semi-lampshaded a little later.
- Newly confident Amber in Shortpacked. Also new glasses and a slightly different top.
- Sluggy Freelance did two of these in one. After Zoe (in camel form) chewed off most of Gwynn's hair, Gwynn used magic to turn Zoe permanently bald. Zoe took to wearing a wig (longer than her previous hairdo), while Gwynn switched back and forth between her short hair and a wig that resembled her previous look. They were eventually restored to their old hairstyles in the "Time for Hair-Raising" arc.
- Oasis also gave herself one of these in order to make herself look more like Zoe, though in the same arc a lot of it was burned off as well. Her previous Anime Hair was restored when she came Back From The Dead (again).
- Gwynn had short locks for a brief period when her hair was burned off during the "Dangerous Days Ahead" arc. She grew it back over time. Played for laughs when the long-moved out Zoe moved back in and, trying to find at least one normal event, asked Gwynn what happened to her hair.
- In Concession, Artie (the White Haired Pretty Boy) starts out refusing to tie his waist-length hair back on the grounds that it makes him look like a girl. When in a relationship with Kate, she braids it for him, and he keeps this style for a short time, then goes back to wearing his hair loose after he breaks up with Kate when she reveals herself to be a pedophile and tries to get him to join in a NAMBLA meeting. After he undergoes successful treatment for his cancer, he cuts it short and adds red streaks.
- Played for laughs in Menage A 3, as when Didi
comes out mistakes inadequate sexual partners as a sign that she is gay she immediately declares that she must now cut her hair short.
- Played straight in Penny And Aggie when Sarah got an extreme haircut to symbolize coming out of the closet.
- The lead character and author mouthpiece in Atheist Eve started out with a short bob, but was suddenly drawn with long hair in a strip focusing on evolution. It's been that way ever since.
- Lampshaded in This Order of the Stick
- A minor variation in Everyday Heroes. Jane, during her career as a villain, had a long black wig as part of her costume. It was yanked off in the middle of the fight during her Help Face Turn, and she's been an ordinary brunette ever since.
- Gunnerkrigg Court, Chapter 15 shows Red's first haircut, ever. (Owing to her fairy heritage, she didn't even know that hair could be cut.) She's convinced that it's not just symbolic, but that her old long hair that won't stick up is actually the root of all her problems.
- Alex from Khaos Komix got a haircut from his sister, as a part of tryting to transform himself more attractive. Earlier, Maria started her change into Tom by having a short haircut.
- Felix in Queen Of Wands, when the baby comes.
Western Animation
- After a failed imprisonment attempt by his own sister Azula, Prince Zuko and his Uncle Iroh of Avatar The Last Airbender both cut off their ceremonial top-knots and dropped them into a nearby river when it becomes apparent that they will never be accepted back into the Fire Nation. In addition, later episodes show them growing out their hair gradually and consistently. Their heads had previously been shaved, except for those queues (top-knots). The former is probably a reference to the queues worn by Chinese men during the Qing dynasty to symbolize their loyalty to the Emperor (see Real Life below), while the shaggy mop Zuko wound up with by the end of the second season reflected Turn Of The Millennium styles for teenage boys throughout the developed world, giving Zuko an air of familiarity, as well as emphasizing his youth and concealing the more jagged areas of his burn scar, as his Back Story was filled out and he became a more sympathetic character.
- Also both used and reversed at the same time in the third season premiere, where Aang symbolically cuts his hair by destroying his glider. Reversed in the fact that Aang had actually grown some hair between the seasons, which he then shaves off again for his showdown with the Big Bad.
- Azula's haircut is the sign that she is coming unhinged due to paranoia and mistrust.
- In the transition from Justice League to Justice League Unlimited, Green Lantern John Stewart, like Sisko before him, shaves his head and grows a goatee. Whether this is a deliberate reference to Sisko is unknown. Unusually for a male character, Stewart's Important Haircut immediately follows his traumatic break up with Shayera.
- The completion of Anakin's training as a Padawan and his becoming a Jedi is signified in Star Wars Clone Wars when Yoda slices off Anakin's braid with a light saber in a Jedi Knighting ceremony. Later Anakin has it sent to Padme, who keeps it in a small jewelry box.
- After Kim Possible forced Ron Stoppable to cut his hair, his personality took a 180. He became secure in himself, dressed more slick than he ever did and got to be popular with the attractive girls. But he became such a jerk that even his loyal naked mole rat didn't want to spend time with him, so he had his hair combed wrong, making the attractive girls overlooking him again.
- Also, in the time travel movie A Sitch in Time, the older present Ron advised the past young Ron that he should keep the haircut.
- In King of the Hill, Hank Hill cares very much about his hair. In one episode, he is soon going to pose in a "Wish You Well" Christmas themed card from his work place, but when his hair is ruined by his barber, he almost breaks down.
- To round it all off, when he finally gets in the photo at the last second, he doesn't even smile.
- A Rug Rats episode was about Chucky's first haircut.
- At the end of Teen Titans episode Birthmark, Raven cuts her hair, which had grown out like her father's(Fittingly, this happens after Raven's father tells her via a vision that she will help him bring about The End Of The World As We Know It.), back to its normal length. The haircut seems to symbolize her taking back control of her life, reclaiming her humanity. The same haircut presumably happens in The End, Part 3. Her hair grew out again when she regained her power (which she used to defeat her father for good), but when we see her again back in Titans tower, her hair is back to normal length again. However, we never actually see her cut her hair in this episode.
Real Life
- Joan of Arc cut her hair to a man's length to show her commitment to the cause (and make it easier for men to take her seriously); it was something the clergy at her trial made a big deal about. When she was convicted, her head was shaved completely, giving us a twofer.
- Since the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty required all men to keep their foreheads shaved and the rest of the hair long on the pain of death, cutting the braid was thus a symbol of rebellion—and to the Manchu, treason. When the Manchu era ended, this happened en masse for all of China, though many would keep their braid out of sheer habit.
- Same went for the Japanese and their top-knots.
- In many Native American tribes, hair is cut only as a sign of grief or disgrace. Because of this, the students at Carlisle Indian Industrial School were fairly traumatized when their braids were forcibly cut off.
- It might also have helped prevent lice and fleas.
- The haircut traditionally given to new military recruits. The tradition began with the Romans, who wanted to make sure that barbarians couldn't grab onto a Roman soldier's hair during battle. In modern armies, the initial head shave upon entering basic training is often inflicted as sadistically as possible, leaving recruits feeling violated for what could be a simple shave. They call it 'peeling your scalp'.
- The history of the modern version of the mohawk haircut is also military. Paratroopers; having their hair grown a bit since joining the force, would cut the sides, leaving the mohawk before going to battle. The tradition was copied from the Native Americans.
- Part of the punishment for cowardice in ancient Sparta was to shave half your beard as a sign of humiliation.
- Patrick Stewart's Bald Of Awesome? Began as an Important Haircut. He started losing his hair at nineteen, thought life was over, was mortified and wore hats all the time, until a Hungarian theatre friend who was a judo black belt snuck up behind him and pinned him screaming to a chair while his wife chopped it off. So Yeah.
- In Japan, it's a trend for girls to cut their hair short after getting rejected from a love confession. So they cut their hair as a sign that they got over it and moved on.
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