Intimate Haircut

Now that's a close shave.

I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors in the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done all right
And kissed me 'til the morning light

— "Samson", Regina Spektor

When you go to the barbershop/salon, you often get your hair cut in public, and by somebody who isn't really close to you. In other media, cutting hair can become very sexual, as well as reliving the pesky Will They or Won't They? feeling. Often, a woman is cutting a man's hair and is very intimate. Sometimes, it leads to more than intended, but definitely is one of the many intimate acts between two people.

Compare Intimate Hair Brushing. Contrast Traumatic Haircut.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Nothing sexual happens, but in Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid, Kaname giving Sousuke a haircut is played as a very intimate scene because of the level of trust it shows that Sousuke has in Kaname — enough that he falls asleep while she's cutting his hair. This is in particular contrast to his earlier violent freakout episode at a regular barbershop.
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Nia asks Yoko to cut her ruined hair after they share a powerful bonding experience.
• In Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, Chikane is the only one who can so much as touch her lover Himeko's hair without making her freak out (caused by the latter's traumatic experiences in the past).
• In The Tyrant Falls in Love, Morinaga finds out that Souichi doesn't like going to salons, and offers to trim Souichi's hair for him. As he's cutting it, he realizes that Souichi has several erogenous zones on his scalp, hence why Souichi doesn't want a stranger touching his head. Morinaga being Morinaga, he tries to take advantage of it and gets immediately pummeled as a result.
• Fullmetal Alchemist gives us a variation: At one point Winry offers to braid the titular alchemist's hair; at first Ed waves it off, thinking nothing of it other than convenience, but her uncharacteristic insistence clues him in. It ends up as a rather heart-warming and promising little scene.
• In MÄR, during a training montage, Snow gives Ginta a haircut. While there's plenty of Ship Tease between them in the show overall... This was not one of those scenes. It was a fairly casual random haircut.
• A non-sexual example from Sailor Moon. In an early act from the manga, after Usagi's hair grew to ankle length, her friends cut it to its original length. This is a very special act of bonding between the senshi since that moment was after things got pretty serious and the girls have to strengthen their friendship. In the anime, a similar thing happened when Minako combed Usagi's hair alone in her room and proposed some haircuts for her, this being the first of Usagi and Minako's bonding moments as they have met two episodes before.
• The credits sequence for Yuri!!! on Ice has Victor do Yuri Katsuki's hair in a dimly lit room. The fact that Victor actually has feelings for him notwithstanding, it displays a sort of trust and intimacy that the two boys hadn't had before.
• The Severing Crime Edge: Kiri and Iwai's haircutting sessions often get rather...intimate due to the former's hair fetish; hair-petting from Kiri and a lot of blushing from the both of them are usually included.
• Played with during the flashback of how Lorem and Zeke fell in love in Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya. Just before their Falling-in-Love Montage, she notes how how his wild mane of hair must make it difficult for him to eat and offers to cut it for him. The result is laughably bad and he's forced to clean it up himself. However, after the flashback is over, there's a scene where the two of them are able to talk for the first time in a while and she notes that his hair is growing out and offers to cut it for him when he gets home, with the whole thing being treated a lot more affectionately.

Fan Works

• In the Star Wars So Much To Tell You , Mara gives Luke an intimate shave during the stopover on their trip to Sullust right after they decide to get married. Naturally, there’s a brief reflection on how it wouldn’t have happened years ago and he’d have been very nervous. Then his mind starts wandering to more naughty thoughts.

Films — Live-Action

• Phenomenon does it with George and Lace. Subverted, as they don't do anything until much later in the movie.
• The Incredible Hulk (2008) does it with Betty and Bruce.
• Edward Scissorhands averts the trope when Joyce tries to seduce Edward as he cuts her hair.
• Amnesiac spy Jason Bourne inexpertly cutting and dyeing Marie's hair in a hotel room wten they're fleeing police in the 2002 film of The Bourne Identity. Being so close lights the sparks of romantic attraction.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 has a scene where Hermione cuts Harry's hair; while their affection is brotherly and sisterly, Ron thinks it's this trope.
• The Pierce Brosnan indie film The Nephew does this, overlapping with Important Haircut. Aishling cuts off Chad's dreadlocks in a very intimate scene.
• Pretty much the whole point of ''Le Mari de la coiffeuse''
• Fergus and Dil from The Crying Game - in the beginning, it's Fergus getting a cut from Dil, with soft lighting and all that entails. After the infamous reveal he cuts her hair in a manner that is depicted as violent and distressing for Dil, even though it's to protect her from the IRA.
• Eve shaves Bond with a straight-razor in Skyfall, while sitting in his lap. It's left ambiguous as to whether things progressed further.

Literature

• In Ru Emerson's The Princess of Flames, Archbishop Gespry is shaved regularly by his longtime lover Fialla; various people comment on the trust this implies.
• In The Dresden Files, White Court Vampires feed on emotions and life energies instead of blood. The House of Raith, specifically, feed on lust. When Thomas Raith tries to go straight after nearly killing his girlfriend by feeding (it should be noted for clarity that he was so exhausted that his Hunger demon was killing him, and she was sent to him to be disposed of by his utterly vile father), he compensates by getting a job as a hairdresser. As he explains, sex isn't actually necessary to feed, just intimacy - and next to actual intercourse, cutting a woman's hair is one of the most intimate things two people can do. In doing so, he can "nibble" on a large number of women instead of taking big bites and risk making them dependant.
• Averted in Sourcery when Conina cuts Rincewind's hair: she's doing it because all she wants to be is a hairdresser, Rincewind is going along with it because she inherited her father Cohen the Barbarian's proclivity for violence if she doesn't get her way (not that this makes him any happier about her using large sharp objects close to his jugular).

Live-Action TV

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine, episode "The Crime Scene": Implied between girlfriends Rosa and Jocelyn. Jocelyn is in cosmetology school and Rosa allows her to play with her hair and practice on her. She has a different Gag Haircut in every new scene. Considering Rosa's usual "badass bitch" attitude, it's a big deal and indication of how much she likes Jocelyn.
• Beard version on CSI: the "Do you trust me" scene between Sara and Grissom where she shaves him.
• On The Drew Carey Show, Drew's female barber (Jamie Lee Curtis) straddles him while cutting his hair. They have a thing for an episode or two.
• In one episode of Friends, Joey's girlfriend (on whom Chandler has a huge crush) offers to cut Chandler's hair. It becomes quite intimate, particularly when she runs her fingers through it to check whether it's even, and they end up kissing.
• Rick Grimes of The Walking Dead is offered one almost immediately from Jessie on their first meeting, upon her seeing him shirtless after showering and removing his big bushy beard.
• Dawson's Creek, in Season 6 episode "Castaways", Joey shaves off Pacey's beard

Music

• In Toni Braxton's music video for "Un-Break My Heart", we see her shave her lover's face.

Video Games

• Harvest Moon: A New Beginning: Allen is the hairdresser of Echo Town and if the player romances him, one of his heart events is treating the farmer's hair and styling it.

Web Comics

• During a flashback in Tiger, Tiger, Jamis walks in on Remy attempting to shave his face while still recovering from a dislocated shoulder, and immediately volunteers to do it for him. This comes right after a long reflection by Remy about his grappling with his sexuality and the fact that he is very wary of other people, so the fact that Remy lets him do it is a massive show of trust. And yes, it is very intimate.
  Remy: He smelled like home. Something familiar, something I had been missing my whole life and only now realized it.

Web Original

• Critical Role: In Episode 81, Official Couple Vax'ildan and Keyleth have a moment the day before the party's eventual rematch with Raishan the Diseased Deceiver where he cuts away the burnt edges of her hair after most of it was gone due to Keyleth falling into lava and nearly dying. The entire scene is just so emotional and heartwarming.
  Keyleth: (about her now shorter hair) Do you like it shorter?
  Vax'ildan: I like you.
• Touched on briefly in the episode "6 Bizarrely Specific Scenes Hollywood Won't Quit Using" from Cracked's Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder.

Western Animation

• King of the Hill: Army barber Bill gets work in a posh hair salon by pretending to be gay, but soon, close contact with women who are relaxed in his presence becomes a massive strain on him and he cracks, loudly declaring his heterosexuality - and getting him fired.
• The Owl House: At the beginning of "Thanks to Them", Hunter, upon realizing that his shoulder-length hair makes him resemble his abuser, Emperor Belos, has a panic attack and begins hacking away at his hair. Willow walks in on him mid-Freak Out and decides to cut his hair for him, calming Hunter down and making him blush heavily.

Real Life

• This trope is inverted in Real Life by people who have a haircut fetish/kaldari. Unnoticed in Western culture, as to such people haircutting is erotic rather than leading to possible arousal.

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