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Added an example from light novel series Classroom of the Elite, a little wordy but all the information is necessary for the context

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* In volume 11.5 of light novel series ''LightNovel/ClassroomOfTheElite'', this trope is used in a way that is of surprisingly high importance to the character development of Suzune Horikita. [[spoiler:It is explained that the reason she kept her hair long was for the sake of her brother, who told her that he liked how it looked. She preferred it short, but because she has always idolized him she went along with his request. Throughout the series she constantly attempts to gain his attention and approval to no avail; he is cold to her and expresses his disappointment in her on multiple occasions. It is explained to us but not her that he disapproves of her idolizing him and wishes for her to become her own person. He thinks that by her chasing his shadow she will never reach her proper potential. So he told her he liked her hair long, so that when she cuts it he will know she has become her own person. In the present, she meets up with him one last time before his graduation, hoping to reconcile. She arrives with her hair cut, and finally receives his acceptance in the form of a heartwarming conversation before he leaves the story indefinitely.]]
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* Happens twice in ''Anime/StarWarsVisions''
** In "The Village Bride", the order 66 survivor F slices of her padawan braid before going to save the villagers, symbolically knighting herself.
** More tragically, in "Lop and Ochõ", Ochõ cuts of her braid to symbolize her turning her back on her family and becoming an imperial soldier.
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Dewicking Anime/Pokemon, as the contents have been reorganized under Pokemon The Series.


* In the sixtieth episode of the ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon X & Y series]]'', [[spoiler:Serena]] cuts her hair short and begins to wear a different outfit to signal CharacterDevelopment after [[spoiler:losing in her first Showcase]].

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* In the sixtieth episode of the ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon X & Y series]]'', ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY'', [[spoiler:Serena]] cuts her hair short and begins to wear a different outfit to signal CharacterDevelopment after [[spoiler:losing in her first Showcase]].

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* Ange does this in ''Anime/CrossAnge'' once she has accepted her fate
* ''Manga/SketDance'':
** Switch is a straight example in his BackStory, for his own reasons. Tsubaki also makes such a decision when appearing as a minor character in Bossun's backstory.
** Himeko is an inversion and a straight example though. [[spoiler:Her hair was shorter when younger and was definitely not blonde, but later she grew it up to go as the image of the yanki she became.]] Much later, Himeko cuts it just to start fresh when [[spoiler:the Sket Dan officially formed]].
* Narrowly averted in ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Usagi almost gets a sorrow haircut upon Minako's suggestion when Mamoru dumps her, but the MonsterOfTheWeek apparently makes her forget that she was in the beauty shop for a new 'do. It really doesn't help that the monster had a hairstylist theme going.
* Akane Tendo in an early episode of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. Notable in that [[TraumaticHaircut she didn't actually have a choice]] [[CloseCallHaircut in the matter]], but then decides to ask her bis sister Kasumi to get it more or less cleaned up and, from then on, chose to ''not'' grow it back. That's because she grew it long originally to attract [[PrecociousCrush her first crush]], Dr. Tofu, but by that time she gets over her love for him. In the Anime and Manga Ryoga accidentally chopped Akane's hair when she was caught in the crossfire between a fight with him and Ranma, she blames Ranma too since she got in the mess to try helping him anyway; in the live action special, it was one of the gang members who did it with a sickle.
* The beginning narration of ''Ojamajo Doremi 16'' (which is a spinoff/sequel LightNovel series to ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'') states that [[spoiler:Doremi cut her hair to a shorter length in order to deal with her feelings being rejected by Kotake]].
* ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'': In episode 9, to prove that her HeelFaceTurn was real, [[spoiler:Lecce]] unsheathed her rapier, stated that she would cut the most precious thing for a woman, and then cut her hair and offered it to Daba (crying as she did so). That did it, and the main characters believed her.
* We see in a {{flashback}} why Mireille of ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' has a peculiar "half-bang" style. [[spoiler: Lady Silvana is to blame: when they were playing as kids, Silvana used a knife to cut little Mireille's bangs, and she's kept a similar style since then.]]

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* Ange does this in ''Anime/CrossAnge'' once she has accepted her fate
* ''Manga/SketDance'':
** Switch is a straight example in his BackStory, for his own reasons. Tsubaki also makes such a decision when appearing as a minor character in Bossun's backstory.
** Himeko is an inversion and a straight example though. [[spoiler:Her hair was shorter when younger and was definitely not blonde, but later she grew it up to go as the image of the yanki she became.]] Much later, Himeko
In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordinary Person (Swindler) cuts it just to start fresh when [[spoiler:the Sket Dan officially formed]].
* Narrowly averted in ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Usagi almost gets a sorrow haircut upon Minako's suggestion when Mamoru dumps her, but the MonsterOfTheWeek apparently makes her forget that she was in the beauty shop for a new 'do. It really doesn't help that the monster had a hairstylist theme going.
* Akane Tendo in an early episode of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. Notable in that [[TraumaticHaircut she didn't actually have a choice]] [[CloseCallHaircut in the matter]], but then decides to ask her bis sister Kasumi to get it more or less cleaned up and, from then on, chose to ''not'' grow it back. That's because she grew it long originally to attract [[PrecociousCrush her first crush]], Dr. Tofu, but by that time she gets over her love for him. In the Anime and Manga Ryoga accidentally chopped Akane's hair when she was caught in the crossfire between a fight with him and Ranma, she blames Ranma too since she got in the mess to try helping him anyway; in the live action special, it was one of the gang members who did it with a sickle.
* The beginning narration of ''Ojamajo Doremi 16'' (which is a spinoff/sequel LightNovel series to ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'') states that [[spoiler:Doremi cut
her hair to a shorter length short while on the run with Sister in order to deal with better mask her feelings being rejected by Kotake]].
identity. However, the haircut also serves to represent her coming into her own, perhaps no longer minding her classifiction as akudama]].
* ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'': In Aika in ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'' ends up burning her hair at a cookout in one episode 9, after she intentionally grew it out long to prove that be similar to Alicia, whom she idolizes. After this, she switches to shorter hairstyle, and several episodes are spent on her HeelFaceTurn was real, [[spoiler:Lecce]] unsheathed getting used to it. It's not until Al, her rapier, stated crush, compliments on her that she would cut feels satisfied. Her hair stays this way into the most precious thing for a woman, and then cut next season.
* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Moe cuts
her hair and offered it to Daba (crying as she did so). That did it, and the main characters believed her.
* We see in a {{flashback}} why Mireille of ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' has a peculiar "half-bang" style. [[spoiler: Lady Silvana is to blame:
short when they were playing the new school year begins at Chapter 32. The reason is, she keeps her hair long because [[spoiler:she admires Misa]], but as kids, Silvana used a knife to cut little Mireille's bangs, and she's kept a similar style since then.]]Misa leaves the town for college, she requests Moe [[spoiler:to not admire her but live as herself instead]].



* Ninamori from ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' cuts her hair at the end of the 3rd episode.
* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'':
** Sei (the original ''Rosa Gigantea'') has not just one but ''two'' Important Haircuts. She cut her long hair to medium length after [[spoiler:her girlfriend ran off to become a nun]]. She later cropped it short after beginning college.
** In the same series, [[ShaggyDogStory a whole episode is dedicated to minor character Mifuyu]], who cuts her hair after realizing that she will never gain Sachiko's favor.
* ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'':
** Another male example: Ginta shaves his head to apologize to Miki after he accidentally breaks her heart. Meiko also suggested Miki cut her hair before they saw that Ginta had, but Miki laughed it off; back then, [[BoyishShortHair her hair was much too short already.]] Echoing the above incident, when Yuu leaves Miki (apparently for good, [[spoiler: after finding out he may be her half-brother]]) in the anime, Miki's efforts to overcome it include cutting her long hair into a pageboy style and piercing her ears.
** When young, [[IllGirl 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 ButtMonkey and SmallNameBigEgo, has to shave his head after losing a bet to Ginta.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** During the Chunin exam arc, 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 become as strong as Naruto, Sasuke and Rock Lee, who have always been there to protect her. Oddly enough, in one flashback after the timeskip that shows Sakura training with [[spoiler: Tsunade]], her hair has grown back to its pre-Chunin Exam length, but it's short once again in Part II. Late into ''Shippuden'' Sakura's hair grows to chin length, and as an adult it's a bit longer, but neither have any ulterior meaning.
** 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 HighSchoolAU, 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 [[spoiler:Sakura had laid down on the grass and accidentally got gum in her hair]].
* Two different characters in ''Anime/{{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.
* Motoko Aoyama from ''Manga/LoveHina'' cuts her long hair into a short bob when she decides to become a nun as penance for lying to her sister. Kaolla Su even has a laugh at the idea of her shaving her head bald.
* On ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'', the stuck-up ship's navigator Bart develops an IntergenerationalFriendship with LittlestCancerPatient Shirley on one of the planets they visit. The people there make dolls [[spoiler: to leave as proof they existed, due to their [[HumanResources 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, [[CharacterDevelopment and from there on is slightly less of a jerk]]. Oh, and additionally he [[TookALevelInBadass has both control over the cool ship's weapons and a willingness to use them]], lets not forget that.
* In the second episode of ''Manga/TheWallflower'', 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 TheNoseBleed, now that she can see the tenants.
* Sara of ''Anime/StrainStrategicArmoredInfantry'' cuts her hair going into her new identity as she chases her brother.
* In ''Manga/OtakuNoMusumeSan'', Haruka cuts off her PeekABangs to emphasise to her elder sister how serious she is about following her own path.
* There's an interesting contrast in ''VisualNovel/RumblingHearts'' -- 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.
* In the same vein as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' grew long in the gap between the [[AnachronicOrder second and fourth movies]], and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight. In the original novel, TheDragon of chapter six, [[spoiler:Misaya Ouji]], also cuts her hair in a similar fashion after discovering that she has been emotionally manipulated by the VillainOfTheWeek all along and resolving to kill him in revenge.
* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' 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.

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* Ninamori When we first meet Casca from ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' cuts her ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' she has close-cropped short hair at the end symbolic of her LadyOfWar persona. In a flashback to her earlier days before joining Griffith's Band of the 3rd episode.
* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'':
** Sei (the original ''Rosa Gigantea'') has not just one but ''two'' Important Haircuts. She cut her long hair to medium length after [[spoiler:her girlfriend ran off to become a nun]]. She later cropped it short after beginning college.
** In the same series, [[ShaggyDogStory a whole episode is dedicated to minor character Mifuyu]], who cuts her hair after realizing that
Hawks, she will never gain Sachiko's favor.
* ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'':
** Another male example: Ginta shaves his head to apologize to Miki after he accidentally breaks her heart. Meiko also suggested Miki cut her hair before they saw that Ginta had, but Miki laughed it off; back then, [[BoyishShortHair her hair was much too short already.]] Echoing the above incident, when Yuu leaves Miki (apparently for good, [[spoiler: after finding out he may be her half-brother]]) in the anime, Miki's efforts to overcome it include cutting her long hair into a pageboy style and piercing her ears.
** When young, [[IllGirl Anju Kitahara]]
had long hair, but when meaning that she returns to Yuu's life she's already probably cut it real short.
** Also spoofed: Miwa
off soon afterward. After the events of the Eclipse where she [[spoiler: gets raped by Femto and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Goes Mad From The Revelation]]]], Casca has shoulder-length let her hair which he wears loose, and once he tricks Meiko into believing he grow long again. When she regains her sanity, she has Danna cut it short by tying it in a ponytail.
again.
** Spoofed again when Tsutomu, as the series's ButtMonkey and SmallNameBigEgo, has to shave Additionally, Farnese, [[spoiler:when she joined Guts on his head after losing a bet to Ginta.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** During the Chunin exam arc, 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 become as strong as Naruto, Sasuke and Rock Lee, who have always been there to protect her. Oddly enough, in one flashback after the timeskip that shows Sakura training with [[spoiler: Tsunade]], her hair has grown back to its pre-Chunin Exam length, but it's short once again in Part II. Late into ''Shippuden'' Sakura's hair grows to chin length, and as an adult it's a bit longer, but neither have any ulterior meaning.
** 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 HighSchoolAU, 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 [[spoiler:Sakura had laid down on the grass and accidentally got gum in her hair]].
* Two different characters in ''Anime/{{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.
* Motoko Aoyama from ''Manga/LoveHina'' cuts her long hair into a short bob when she decides to become a nun as penance for lying to her sister. Kaolla Su even has a laugh at the idea of her shaving her head bald.
* On ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'', the stuck-up ship's navigator Bart develops an IntergenerationalFriendship with LittlestCancerPatient Shirley on one of the planets they visit. The people there make dolls [[spoiler: to leave as proof they existed, due to their [[HumanResources 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, [[CharacterDevelopment and from there on is slightly less of a jerk]]. Oh, and additionally he [[TookALevelInBadass has both control over the cool ship's weapons and a willingness to use them]], lets not forget that.
* In the second episode of ''Manga/TheWallflower'', 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 TheNoseBleed, now that she can see the tenants.
* Sara of ''Anime/StrainStrategicArmoredInfantry'' cuts her hair going into her new identity as she chases her brother.
* In ''Manga/OtakuNoMusumeSan'', Haruka cuts off her PeekABangs to emphasise to her elder sister how serious she is about following
journey, cut her own path.
* There's an interesting contrast in ''VisualNovel/RumblingHearts'' -- 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.
* In the same vein
as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' grew long in the gap between the [[AnachronicOrder second a sign of humility and fourth movies]], apology for everything she did to him and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight. In the original novel, TheDragon of chapter six, [[spoiler:Misaya Ouji]], also cuts her hair in a similar fashion after discovering that she has been emotionally manipulated by the VillainOfTheWeek all along and resolving to kill him in revenge.
* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' 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.
Casca.]]



* ''Manga/GlassMask'' has Ayumi stereotyped as a princess in her acting, something that she starts to detest. When she becomes determined to expand her repertoire in roles and prove to everyone and herself that she has the makings of a first-class actress, she cuts her long, [[OjouRinglets curly]] hair to a pixie cut. She ends up growing it out and, reflecting her character development, it ends up in waves instead of curls.
* In ''StellaJogakuinKoutokaC3Bu'', after briefly experimenting with various hairstles in episode three to stop her hair getting in the way during airsoft battles, Yura just cuts her hair shorter at the end of the episode to signify her increasing determination to take airsoft seriously.
* Kenji Harima of ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' 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 [[CannotSpitItOut Tenma]].
* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' definitely loves to play around with the trope, whether using full haircuts or mere hairstyle changes:
** [[BadassNormal Shishido Ryoh]] is kicked off the Hyoutei tennis club after [[PrideBeforeAFall an embarrassing]] [[BreakTheHaughty defeat]], and then sets out to get back on the team through [[TrainingFromHell ridiculously harsh training]]; 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, the captain of the team, says "This guy hasn't lost" after the haircut [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold as a way of endorsing him]]).
** Atobe himself (the series's 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. In the manga, since Atobe is unconscious by the end, Ryoma shaves his head for him; in the anime, Atobe shaves it himself, even when sub-regular Taki offers to have ''his'' own hair cut instead of Atobe's. 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 [[EpilepticTrees the fans to heavily speculate about it]].
** 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 [[EyeScream 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* , [[TeamMom Oishi Syuichirou]] changes his hairstyle ''every'' year in all canons. The first one is theorized to be an Important Haircut that came when he became a regular in his second year in Seigaku: his formerly messy hair became a simple buzzcut.
** And don't forget the Kisarazu twins using different hairstyles (long for Ryou, short for Atsushi) to distinguish each other. [[spoiler: Atsushi's manager Mizuki cut Atsushi's hair short [[TwinSwitch after mistaking Atsushi]] for Ryou and taking him along for the ride by mistake.]]
* Fay in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' 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 StepfordSmiler persona.
* Videl in ''Manga/DragonBall'' 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, [[{{Tsundere}} which indicated she liked him, despite looking observably annoyed.]]
** Gohan himself gets a haircut after reaching Super Saiyan for the first time. Later on, he cuts it again off-screen before the Majin Buu arc, which has been his ''de facto'' hairstyle (excluding ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection F]]'') to signify his transition into adulthood.
** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and its ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' adaptation, Krillin has Android 18 shave it to prepare for the battle against [[BigBad Frieza]] and his army, grows it back afterwards during ''Super'' to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then 18 re-shaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.
* Aika in ''Manga/{{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.
* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' 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). Or she may have cut her hair so nobody would mistake her for Lala Ru again, which pulled her into this mess to begin with.
* The moment that Knives in ''Manga/{{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 ''Manga/SlamDunk'', 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; it doesn't seem to be for a specific reason, but by that time she assumes that her crush towards Rukawa is a hopeless one. Mitsui's haircut is noted by one of the members of his former gang whom he runs into after a check-up at the hospital (his reaction is important because it symbolizes his acceptance of Mitsui putting his life back on track):
---> "What's up with the 'do? You look like a jock. But seriously... It suits you fine."
** Perhaps a deconstruction in Hanamichi's case, given that he gets endlessly mocked for his new haircut. Also Rukawa had previously told him that assuming all the blame for the loss was actually very arrogant of him (of course, being Rukawa, he did it too), making the haircut just another of Hanamichi's over-the-top reactions in the eyes of the readers, rather than an important moment of character development. Though Hanamichi eventually [[CharacterDevelopment becomes even more serious about basketball than before]], so the trope can be seen as PlayedStraight with some time.
* In ''Anime/DirtyPairFlash'', Lady Flair gets her long hair shot off as she makes her heel-face turn.
* In ''Manga/ElfenLied'', Nyu cuts off her long hair to impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae [[spoiler:to signify Lucy's guilt over killing her]].
* In ''Manga/DNA2'', Ami's best friend Kotomi Takanashi keeps at first her hair in GirlishPigtails. She cuts it into a pageboy style when she wants to change her whole personality, making her more open in wanting to date Junta. It takes her a while to learn that a new haircut doesn't make her a different person, but she does improve on speaking up about things.
* ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'''s title character.
** In the manga, Nausicaä receives the haircut (and a scale mail) when leaving for war. Also in manga, Kushana cuts her considerably long braid [[spoiler:to honor the death of a considerable part of her men in an Ohmu attack engineered by the Dorok.]]
* In ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'', Ashitaka cuts his hair before having to leave his village (due to a curse) to seek his destiny, it was a proof of his determination to resist returning.

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* ''Manga/GlassMask'' has Ayumi stereotyped as a princess in her acting, something that she starts to detest. When she becomes determined to expand her repertoire in roles and prove to everyone and herself that she has the makings of a first-class actress, she cuts her long, [[OjouRinglets curly]] hair to a pixie cut. She ends up growing it out and, reflecting her character development, it ends up in waves instead of curls.
* In ''StellaJogakuinKoutokaC3Bu'', after briefly experimenting with various hairstles in episode three to stop her hair getting in the way during airsoft battles, Yura just cuts her hair shorter at the end of the episode to signify her increasing determination to take airsoft seriously.
* Kenji Harima of ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' 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 [[CannotSpitItOut Tenma]].
* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' definitely loves to play around with the trope, whether using full haircuts or mere hairstyle changes:
''Manga/BokuraNoHentai'':
** [[BadassNormal Shishido Ryoh]] is kicked off the Hyoutei tennis club after [[PrideBeforeAFall an embarrassing]] [[BreakTheHaughty defeat]], and then sets out to get back on the team through [[TrainingFromHell ridiculously harsh training]]; 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, the captain of the team, says "This guy hasn't lost" after the haircut [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold as a way of endorsing him]]).
** Atobe himself (the series's 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. In the manga, since Atobe is unconscious by the end, Ryoma shaves his head for him; in the anime, Atobe shaves it himself, even when sub-regular Taki offers to have ''his'' own hair
Satoshi cut instead of Atobe's. 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 [[EpilepticTrees the fans to heavily speculate about it]].
** 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 [[EyeScream 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
between his first year in Rikkai: a picture taken when he, Yukimura of middle school 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* , [[TeamMom Oishi Syuichirou]] changes his hairstyle ''every'' year in all canons. The first one is theorized to be an Important Haircut that came when he became a regular in
his second year in Seigaku: year. He hit puberty and decided to stop crossdressing to school. Eventually he grew it back long though.
** Ryousuke cut
his formerly messy long hair became a simple buzzcut.
** And don't forget the Kisarazu twins using different hairstyles (long for Ryou, short for Atsushi) to distinguish each other. [[spoiler: Atsushi's manager Mizuki cut Atsushi's hair short [[TwinSwitch after mistaking Atsushi]] for Ryou and taking him along for the ride by mistake.
when [[spoiler:he stopped [[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe dressing as his sister]].]]
* Fay in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' 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 StepfordSmiler persona.
* Videl in ''Manga/DragonBall'' receives an important haircut which lasts throughout virtually all the Buu Saga when Gohan asks
In ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'', after some nasty events involving TraumaticHaircut, [[PluckyGirl Tsukushi]] must cut 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 ruined hair. Nonetheless, Her mom attempts to help her, but Mrs. Makino fucks up so bad that Rui has to finish the work. In Mrs. Makino's defense, all she did it anyway, despite initially being very angry at his silly reason, [[{{Tsundere}} which indicated she liked him, despite looking observably annoyed.]]
** Gohan himself gets a haircut after reaching Super Saiyan for
was even out the first time. Later on, he cuts it again off-screen before the Majin Buu arc, which has hair that hadn't been his ''de facto'' hairstyle (excluding ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection F]]'') to signify his transition into adulthood.
** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and its ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' adaptation, Krillin has Android 18 shave it to prepare for the battle against [[BigBad Frieza]] and his army, grows it back afterwards during ''Super'' to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then 18 re-shaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.
* Aika in ''Manga/{{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.
[[TraumaticHaircut cut]]. It's not until Al, her crush, compliments on her that she feels satisfied. Her hair stays this way into the next season.
* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' 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). Or she may have cut her hair so nobody would mistake her for Lala Ru again, which pulled her into this mess to begin with.
* The moment that Knives in ''Manga/{{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 ''Manga/SlamDunk'', 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;
fault it doesn't seem to be for a specific reason, but by that time she assumes that her crush towards Rukawa is a hopeless one. Mitsui's haircut is noted by one of the members of his former gang whom he runs into after a check-up at the hospital (his reaction is important because it symbolizes his acceptance of Mitsui putting his life back on track):
---> "What's up with the 'do? You
made poor Tsukushi look like a jock. But seriously... It suits you fine."
** Perhaps a deconstruction in Hanamichi's case, given that he gets endlessly mocked for his new haircut. Also Rukawa had previously told him that assuming all the blame for the loss was actually very arrogant of him (of course, being Rukawa, he did it too), making the haircut just another of Hanamichi's over-the-top reactions in the eyes of the readers, rather than an important moment of character development. Though Hanamichi eventually [[CharacterDevelopment becomes even more serious about basketball than before]], so the trope can be seen as PlayedStraight with some time.
Kintaro.
* In ''Anime/DirtyPairFlash'', Lady Flair gets her long hair shot off as she makes her heel-face turn.
* In ''Manga/ElfenLied'', Nyu cuts off her long hair to impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae [[spoiler:to signify Lucy's guilt over killing her]].
* In ''Manga/DNA2'', Ami's best friend Kotomi Takanashi keeps at first her hair in GirlishPigtails. She cuts it into a pageboy style when she wants to change her whole personality, making her more open in wanting to date Junta. It takes her a while to learn that a new haircut doesn't make her a different person, but she does improve on speaking up about things.
* ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'''s title character.
** In the manga, Nausicaä receives the haircut (and a scale mail) when leaving for war. Also in manga, Kushana
''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'', Kumi Sugimoto cuts her considerably long braid [[spoiler:to honor GirlishPigtails midway through the death of a considerable part of her men in an Ohmu attack engineered by the Dorok.]]
* In ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'', Ashitaka cuts his hair before having
WYC arc, to leave his village (due offer it as a sacrifice to a curse) Shinto goddess and bring good luck to seek his destiny, it was a proof of his determination to resist returning.the Japanese team.



* The second [=ED=] of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' 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.
** Louise Halevy got one when [[spoiler: she [[TookALevelInBadass evolved]] from BrattyTeenageDaughter to a mix of BrokenBird DarkActionGirl. Once the series is over, though, she lets it grow again as a symbol of her CharacterDevelopment.]]
* In [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Gundam F91]], the LadyOfWar Cecily Fairchild cut her OjouRinglets much shorter after she returns to the Ronah clan, and did not grow it back until later on.
* In ''Manga/{{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 [[strike: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 [[strike:or the artist getting tired of drawing the same hairstyles all the time]].
* Prior to setting out for the climactic battle of ''[[Anime/WeissKreuz Weiß Kreuz Glühen]]'', Aya uses his own katana to cut off the waist-length braid he'd grown between series.
** The epilogue of the original series shows that Sakura, who had previously [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange grown her hair out]] in the hopes that it would appeal to Aya, has gone back to her previous bob cut.
* ''Anime/LastExile'' [[spoiler: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 ''[[Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor Fafner]]'' special ''Right of Left'' cuts her hair short once she becomes a Fafner pilot.
* In the manga ''Manga/GetBackers'', [[spoiler:Kazuki]] chopped off his RapunzelHair [[spoiler: to express his determination to rescue Fuuga and 'get back his lost time'. The scene took up one full page, so that ought to classify it an important haircut.]]

to:

* The second [=ED=] of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' 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.
** Louise Halevy got one when [[spoiler: she [[TookALevelInBadass evolved]] from BrattyTeenageDaughter to a mix of BrokenBird DarkActionGirl. Once the series is over, though, she lets it grow again as a symbol of her CharacterDevelopment.]]
* In [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Gundam F91]], the LadyOfWar Cecily Fairchild cut her OjouRinglets much shorter after she returns to the Ronah clan, and did not grow it back until later on.
* In ''Manga/{{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
Chapter 193 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 [[strike: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 [[strike:or the artist getting tired of drawing the same hairstyles all the time]].
* Prior to setting out for the climactic battle of ''[[Anime/WeissKreuz Weiß Kreuz Glühen]]'', Aya uses his own katana to cut off the waist-length braid he'd grown between series.
** The epilogue of the original series shows that Sakura, who had previously [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange grown her hair out]] in the hopes that it would appeal to Aya, has gone back to her previous bob cut.
* ''Anime/LastExile'' [[spoiler: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 ''[[Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor Fafner]]'' special ''Right of Left''
''Manga/{{Chihayafuru}}'', [[spoiler:Taichi cuts her his hair short once she becomes a Fafner pilot.
* In the manga ''Manga/GetBackers'', [[spoiler:Kazuki]] chopped off
right before his RapunzelHair [[spoiler: to express Meijin qualifier final against Arata, symbolizing his determination desire to rescue Fuuga and 'get back be seen as a serious threat to his lost time'. The scene took up one full page, so that ought to classify it an important haircut.]]rival]].



* In ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'', after some nasty events involving TraumaticHaircut, [[PluckyGirl 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. In Mrs. Makino's defense, all she did was even out the hair that hadn't been [[TraumaticHaircut cut]]. It's not her fault it made poor Tsukushi look like Kintaro.
* While not cutting it herself, Layla Hamilton fits this trope in the ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' {{OVA}}, "Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari". After a journey to find herself, Layla goes from her DefrostingIceQueen persona to a person who won't hide her feelings anymore. Then, she asks [[GenkiGirl Sora Naegino]] to cut her long blond hair for her.
* When we first meet Casca from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' she has close-cropped short hair symbolic of her LadyOfWar 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 [[spoiler: gets raped by Femto and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Goes Mad From The Revelation]]]], Casca has let her hair grow long again. When she regains her sanity, she has Danna cut it short again.
** Additionally, Farnese, [[spoiler: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 ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', Calcifer needs to [[spoiler: move the wrecked castle]] but needs [[InsertPaymentToUse something of value]] for the energy to do so. He suggests he use Sophie's eyes, but Sophie quickly cuts her long braid and gives it to him. It's good enough.

to:

* In ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'', after some nasty events involving TraumaticHaircut, [[PluckyGirl Tsukushi]] must cut ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', Clare gets her ruined hair. Her mom attempts haircut during her final exam and first yoma hunt, to help her, but Mrs. Makino fucks up so bad that Rui has to finish the work. In Mrs. Makino's defense, all she did was even out use the hair that hadn't been [[TraumaticHaircut cut]]. It's not her fault it made poor Tsukushi look like Kintaro.
as a decoy.
* While not cutting it herself, Layla Hamilton fits In ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'', Ayace cuts off [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Canale's]] hair instead of killing him as requested, leaving the severed hair at Canale's family mansion (now on fire) as symbol of his old life and encouraging him to move on and live.
* Ange does
this trope in the ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' {{OVA}}, "Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari". After a journey to find herself, Layla goes from her DefrostingIceQueen persona to a person who won't hide her feelings anymore. Then, she asks [[GenkiGirl Sora Naegino]] to cut her long blond hair for her.
* When we first meet Casca from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''
''Anime/CrossAnge'' once she has close-cropped short hair symbolic of accepted her LadyOfWar persona. fate.
*
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 ''Anime/DevilmanLady'', [[spoiler: gets raped by Femto and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Goes Mad From The Revelation]]]], Casca has let right before the final battle against Lan Asuka, a nude Jun Fudo cuts her hair grow long again. When she regains her sanity, she has Danna cut it short again.
** Additionally, Farnese, [[spoiler:when she joined Guts on his journey, cut her own
hair short as a sign in front of humility the candle. This has been long after the deaths of Kazumi and apology for everything she did to him and Casca.Bates.]]
* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', it's a combination of this and TraumaticHaircut. During her battle with a Level 3 Akuma, Lenalee Lee's long GirlishPigtails are burned off, leaving her hair [[BoyishShortHair boyishly short]]. It counts as an Important Haircut as she discovers the movie adaptation depths of ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', Calcifer needs her resolve.
* In ''Anime/DirtyPairFlash'', Lady Flair gets her long hair shot off as she makes her heel-face turn.
* In ''Manga/DNA2'', Ami's best friend Kotomi Takanashi keeps at first her hair in GirlishPigtails. She cuts it into a pageboy style when she wants
to change her whole personality, making her more open in wanting to date Junta. It takes her a while to learn that a new haircut doesn't make her a different person, but she does improve on speaking up about things.
* Happens a few times in ''Manga/DomesticGirlfriend''.
** Hina cuts it when
[[spoiler: she's forced to break up with Natsuo and then grows it back when she makes the decision to move back home and try to get back together with him.]]
** Rui grows her hair out after [[spoiler: Hina leaves because she thinks Natsuo prefers long hair and cuts it again after she returns and Natsuo remains loyal to herself rather than get back together with Hina.]]
** Miyabi cuts it after [[spoiler: she finally works up
the wrecked castle]] but needs [[InsertPaymentToUse something courage to tell Natsuo she loves him, only to get rejected.]]
* Somewhat subverted in BoysLove manga ''Doushitemo Furetakunai'' in which Shima cuts his hair shorter to signify that he renounces any hope
of value]] 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.
* An unintentionally hilarious example in ''[[Anime/DragonautTheResonance Dragonaut]]''. [[EmoKid 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.
* Videl in ''Manga/DragonBall'' 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, [[{{Tsundere}} which indicated she liked him, despite looking observably annoyed.]]
** Gohan himself gets a haircut after reaching Super Saiyan
for the energy to do so. He suggests first time. Later on, he use Sophie's eyes, but Sophie quickly cuts it again off-screen before the Majin Buu arc, which has been his ''de facto'' hairstyle (excluding ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection F]]'') to signify his transition into adulthood.
** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and its ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' adaptation, Krillin has Android 18 shave it to prepare for the battle against [[BigBad Frieza]] and his army, grows it back afterwards during ''Super'' to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then 18 re-shaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.
* In ''Manga/ElfenLied'', Nyu cuts off
her long braid and gives it hair to him. It's good enough.impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae [[spoiler:to signify Lucy's guilt over killing her]].



** Talho also trims her normally unkempt hair as part of her complete outer (and inner) makeover in episode 30.
* In ''Manga/SkipBeat'', 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 ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', [[TheStoic Sousuke]] allows [[{{Tsundere}} 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 [[ChildSoldiers Child Soldier]] with NoSocialSkills 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 [[CharacterDevelopment very important]]. 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 embarrassed, aroused or both. Looks like no amount of conditioning can defeat pheromones from a similarly aged girl when you are 16...
* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'':
** 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 [[AdaptationExpansion 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.
** According to author's notes, [[GenderFlip Female!Japan]] used to have long hair in a HimeCut, but once she broke off her 200-years long isolation, she cut it shorter to prove that she could now interact with the rest of the world.
** When Hungary [[ItMakesSenseInContext thought that she was a guy]], she kept her hair in a TomboyishPonytail. As an OlderAndWiser mix of ActionGirl and TeamMom, she now keeps it loose and much longer.
* The lead character of ''Manga/KazeHikaru'' has already cut her hair at the beginning of the series [[SweetPollyOliver to join the Shinengumi]], but Okita Souji remarks on the depth of her sacrifice.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** Haruhi cuts her hair short in the first episode. Before cutting her hair, she was indifferent to all classmates, changing her hairstyle every day of the week, increasing the number of ribbons each day. When Kyon questions this, the usually aloof Haruhi has a short debate with him, ending with Kyon implying that he finds it unnecessary. The next day Haruhi shows up with her hair cut (to everyone's, especially Kyon's surprise). This event marks the beginning of her opening up to Kyon and creating the SOS Brigade, which is crucial to the series.
** In the ''Disappearance'' arc, [[spoiler: the alternate-timeline Haruhi still has long hair and is still snarky and antisocial. This shows how much of an impact Kyon had on Haruhi in the old timeline.]]
* In the manga ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'', known as ''Manga/HanaKimi'' 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 ''Anime/XamdLostMemories'' 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 [[LampshadeHanging 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 [[MacGuffin O-Parts]] and Mosquiton, the vampire, complains about her doing "the hair-cutting thing."
* In the ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' prequel movie/episode "life goes on", Kino has their long hair cut into the shorter style seen throughout the series as the result of it being stained with blood from the first person they killed.

to:

** Talho also trims her normally unkempt hair as part of her complete outer (and inner) makeover in episode Episode 30.
* In ''Manga/SkipBeat'', ''Manga/{{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 she American Football. One character has been deceived speculated that this is to further enhance his demonic appearance so as to intimidate [[strike:his opponents]] everybody.
** Mamori, Musashi,
and used as an step by (briefly) Ishimaru also change hairstyles before the person she loved Kanto tournament -- this is less likely an Important Haircut than a group meme among the most, Kyouko not only team [[strike:or the artist getting tired of drawing the same hairstyles all the time]].
* Yumi in the ''[[Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor Fafner]]'' special ''Right of Left''
cuts her hair short her hair, once she also dyes it, becomes a Fafner pilot.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'': A few instances, most notably when Fried Justine shaves off his [[LongHairedPrettyboy waist-length hair]] after [[spoiler:Laxus is excommunicated from the guild
as a symbol result of trying to overthrow his grandfather and forcing everyone to fight each other, a plan for which Fried was Laxus' accomplice]]. Lampshaded in Lucy's narration when she remarks that he "seems to have taken the old-fashioned position of 'contemplation = head-shaving'." Notably, he grows it back to its original length not much later (probably with the aid of, y'know, [[AWizardDidIt magic]], namely Lucy's Summon Spirit, Cancer), so it's possible it was either done for the sake of the joke, or else someone pointed out that he looks silly with a shaved head.
** During the Edolas arc, Erza impersonates her [[SociopathicSoldier Edolas counterpart]] by stealing her clothes and styling her hair so she could help her fellow wizards. Once said counterpart realizes what happens, she's so pissed that she cuts her own hair down to a bob so no one would make that mistake again.
** Also Juvia cuts her hair to signify her change and after the Edolas arc her hair gets restored [[AWizardDidIt somehow]].
** As of Chapter 388, Wendy has followed suit, which makes her look even more like Katja than she already did, partly as a vow of determination, and partly because [[CloseCallHaircut some
of her new attitude hair got cut off in her battle with Ezel]]. [[spoiler:At the end of the arc her hair is also returned thanks to Cancer]].
* Ninamori from ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' cuts her hair at the end of the 3rd episode.
* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', both Rin
and personality.
Akito get important haircuts. [[spoiler:Rin has her long hair hacked off by Akito when she's locked up. In this case, the TraumaticHaircut is symbolic for both of them. Akito is enraged and hates long, black hair because it reminds her of her mother, Ren (A SmugSnake who abuses her daughter constantly, and in fact is the one who manipulated Rin to act against Akito which is what got her caught in the first place); Rin, meanwhile, wears her hair short for the rest of the series and it symbolizes how [[CharacterDevelopment she is calmer and eases up on her determination to break the curse]] (which was pretty much driving her to an early grave, due to her being an IllGirl). Akito gets an inverse at the end, when she grows her hair out to symbolize how she's free to live her life as a woman, rather than forced to hide her identity and pretend to be a man.]]
** Kazuma Sohma, A.K.A. Shishou, is no excempt neither. He originally grew his hair long to gather Kyo good luck, but after he succeed on getting him get accepted for his true zodiac form by [[LoveInterest Tohru]], who refused to turn her back on him for it, he eventually cut his hair short afterwards.
* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** During ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', Alphonse grew his hair out like Edward. It's symbolic, as he wants to be like Ed; he even wore the same clothing as him. Near the end he cuts his hair, to the same style as before he lost his body.
** In regards to [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist original manga]] and the ''Brotherhood'' anime, there is an inversion with Riza Hawkeye. Back in her younger years as a soldier, she kept her hair rather short and tied up. However, after meeting Winry Rockbell (from when she and Roy met the Elric brothers), a discussion between the people that matter to them led them to make a change in appearance as a result. While Winry got earrings like Hawkeye, Hawkeye grew out her hair (though it was still held up in a similar way)as a form of kinship to her and how Winry reminded her of what was important. It remains as such for a majority of the series though its seemingly back to its short cut in the epilogue.
* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', [[TheStoic Sousuke]] allows [[{{Tsundere}} 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 [[ChildSoldiers Child Soldier]] with NoSocialSkills 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 [[CharacterDevelopment very important]]. 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 embarrassed, aroused or both. Looks like no amount of conditioning can defeat pheromones from a similarly aged girl when you are 16...
* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'':
** 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 [[AdaptationExpansion 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.
** According to author's notes, [[GenderFlip Female!Japan]] used to have long hair in a HimeCut, but once she broke off her 200-years long isolation, she cut it shorter to prove that she could now interact with the rest of the world.
** When Hungary [[ItMakesSenseInContext thought that she was a guy]], she kept her hair in a TomboyishPonytail. As an OlderAndWiser mix of ActionGirl and TeamMom, she now keeps it loose and much longer.
* The lead character of ''Manga/KazeHikaru'' has already cut her hair at the beginning of the series [[SweetPollyOliver to join the Shinengumi]], but Okita Souji remarks on the depth of her sacrifice.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** Haruhi cuts her hair short in the first episode. Before cutting her hair, she was indifferent to all classmates, changing her hairstyle every day of the week, increasing the number of ribbons each day. When Kyon questions this, the usually aloof Haruhi has a short debate with him, ending with Kyon implying that he finds it unnecessary. The next day Haruhi shows up with her hair cut (to everyone's, especially Kyon's surprise). This event marks the beginning of her opening up to Kyon and creating the SOS Brigade, which is crucial to the series.
** In the ''Disappearance'' arc, [[spoiler: the alternate-timeline Haruhi still has long hair and is still snarky and antisocial. This shows how much of an impact Kyon had on Haruhi in the old timeline.]]
* In the manga ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'', known as ''Manga/HanaKimi'' 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 ''Anime/XamdLostMemories'' 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 [[LampshadeHanging 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 [[MacGuffin O-Parts]] and Mosquiton, the vampire, complains about her doing "the hair-cutting thing."
* In the ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' prequel movie/episode "life goes on", Kino has their long hair cut into the shorter style seen throughout the series as the result of it being stained with blood from the first person they killed.
16...



* In ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann 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, [[CharacterDevelopment solidfying their new friendship]].
* There is a sort of inverted example in ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'' Asa Shigure's short hair grows longer when she [[spoiler: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 [[CharacterDevelopment Asa has finally come to terms]] with her heritage as [[spoiler:a half-demon and the daughter of the first being experimented on by the gods and the demons]].
* Eunhyung from the BoysLove {{manhwa}} ''Manhwa/LetDai'' 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.
* ''Manga/ShadowStar'' has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut [[spoiler: after the death of Hiro-chan]] and she also cuts her father's hair.
* Somewhat subverted in BoysLove 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 BoysLove manga ''Koi ga Bokura wo 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 [[spoiler: to accept the relationship between Eiji and Yamazaki, thus moving on from her emotional hang ups]].
* After [[spoiler:accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck as Hibino Hikaru]]]], Erika from ''[[Manga/HimechanNoRibon Hime-chan no Ribbon]]'' cuts off her gorgeous, [[RapunzelHair extremely long]] blonde hair so that she can [[TwinSwitch impersonate Hime-chan]] at home and school until they can find some way to [[spoiler: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 ''Manga/{{MAR}}'''s Ginta gets his hair cut at one point during his first trip into the Shuuren no Mon.
* In ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'', Kumi Sugimoto cuts her GirlishPigtails 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 ''[[Anime/DragonautTheResonance Dragonaut]]''. [[EmoKid 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.
* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', Clare gets her haircut during her final exam and first yoma hunt, to use the hair as a decoy.
* Hanako in ''Manga/TheLuciferAndBiscuitHammer'' cuts off her own ponytail to symbolize how she's decided to become a warrior and avenge her [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend not-boyfriend's]] HeroicSacrifice.

to:

* In ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'', Nia's hair is cut by two bullets Bleed Kaga from Yoko's sniper rifle ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'' cuts his long braided tail in the final 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, of ''SIN'' and she has Yoko clean it up, [[CharacterDevelopment solidfying their new friendship]].
* There is a sort of inverted example in ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'' Asa Shigure's short
dyes his hair grows longer when she [[spoiler:uses magic black, a symbol of wanting 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 [[CharacterDevelopment Asa has finally come to terms]] settle the score with her heritage as [[spoiler:a half-demon and the daughter of the first being experimented on by the gods and the demons]].
Hayato.
* Eunhyung from the BoysLove {{manhwa}} ''Manhwa/LetDai'' gets Ruru in ''Anime/GaikingLegendOfDaikuMaryu'' cuts 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.
* ''Manga/ShadowStar'' has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut
upon [[spoiler: after her promotion to Captain of the death of Hiro-chan]] Daiku Maryu]].
* In the same vein as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' grew long in the gap between the [[AnachronicOrder second and fourth movies]],
and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight. In the original novel, TheDragon of Chapter 6, [[spoiler:Misaya Ouji]], also cuts her father's hair.
* Somewhat subverted
hair in BoysLove a similar fashion after discovering that she has been emotionally manipulated by the VillainOfTheWeek all along and resolving to kill him in revenge.
* In the
manga ''Doushitemo Furetakunai'' in which Shima cuts ''Manga/GetBackers'', [[spoiler:Kazuki]] chopped off 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 BoysLove manga ''Koi ga Bokura wo 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
RapunzelHair [[spoiler: to accept the relationship between Eiji express his determination to rescue Fuuga and Yamazaki, thus moving on from her emotional hang ups]].
* After [[spoiler:accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck as Hibino Hikaru]]]], Erika from ''[[Manga/HimechanNoRibon Hime-chan no Ribbon]]'' cuts off her gorgeous, [[RapunzelHair extremely long]] blonde hair
'get back his lost time'. The scene took up one full page, so that she can [[TwinSwitch impersonate Hime-chan]] at home and school until they can find some way ought to [[spoiler: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 ''Manga/{{MAR}}'''s Ginta gets his hair cut at one point during his first trip into the Shuuren no Mon.
* In ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'', Kumi Sugimoto cuts her GirlishPigtails midway through the WYC arc, to offer
classify it as a sacrifice to a Shinto goddess and bring good luck to the Japanese team.
* An unintentionally hilarious example in ''[[Anime/DragonautTheResonance Dragonaut]]''. [[EmoKid 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.
* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', Clare gets her haircut during her final exam and first yoma hunt, to use the hair as a decoy.
* Hanako in ''Manga/TheLuciferAndBiscuitHammer'' cuts off her own ponytail to symbolize how she's decided to become a warrior and avenge her [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend not-boyfriend's]] HeroicSacrifice.
an important haircut.]]



* A {{Flashback}} chapter of ''[[Manga/SgtFrog Keroro Gunsou]]'' reveals that Momoka gave herself an Important Haircut when her [[SplitPersonality dark side]] emerged for the first time upon seeing Tamama on the bad end of a CurbStompBattle. Coupled with ActionDressRip.
* ''Manga/SakuraGari'': Masataka gives one to Souma to signify [[spoiler: his MissingMom Abigail's definitive passing, and Lord Saiki's acceptance of such a fact]].
* ''Manga/WanderingSon'':
** Subverted. When formerly depressed [[UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} trans girl]] Nitori cuts her hair short everyone thinks she's decided to be a boy after all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the ''female'' model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in ''Film/RosemarysBaby''). It's used as a plot point as the style looks masculine on her. She's hitting puberty and growing out of her androgyny.
** Played straight in the same series with the resident trans boy, Takatsuki. He cuts his hair early in the first volume, from a bob to a pixie. In middle school he grows it back into a bob due to a female friend of his saying he looks better with it. After being told how it makes him look like a tomboy and he's "cute" with it, he cuts his hair. At the beginning of high school he begins letting his hair grow again though, which signifies [[spoiler:Takatsuki's confusion about their gender identity and their beginning of identifying as female]].

to:

* A {{Flashback}} chapter of ''[[Manga/SgtFrog Keroro Gunsou]]'' reveals ''Manga/GlassMask'' has Ayumi stereotyped as a princess in her acting, something that Momoka gave she starts to detest. When she becomes determined to expand her repertoire in roles and prove to everyone and herself an Important Haircut when that she has the makings of a first-class actress, she cuts her [[SplitPersonality dark side]] emerged for the first long, [[OjouRinglets curly]] hair to a pixie cut. She ends up growing it out and, reflecting her character development, it ends up in waves instead of curls.
* Prior to becoming a cyborg Henrietta from ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' had long hair. Present
time upon seeing Tamama on the bad end it's in a bob style.
* Yozora
of a CurbStompBattle. Coupled ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' shears her long locks after an incident with ActionDressRip.
* ''Manga/SakuraGari'': Masataka gives one
a firework, and getting a bucket of dirty water dumped on her to Souma to signify put it out. The important part of this is [[spoiler: her short hair finally brings Kodaka around to realizing, she's his MissingMom Abigail's definitive passing, and Lord Saiki's acceptance of such ForgottenChildhoodFriend, Sora.]]
* In the manga ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'', known as ''Manga/HanaKimi'' for short, Mizuki cuts her hair in the first few pages because she wants to disguise herself as
a fact]].
* ''Manga/WanderingSon'':
** Subverted.
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 formerly depressed [[UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} trans girl]] Nitori 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.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** Haruhi
cuts her hair short everyone thinks she's decided to be a boy after all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the ''female'' model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in ''Film/RosemarysBaby''). It's used as a plot point as the style looks masculine on her. She's hitting puberty and growing out of her androgyny.
** Played straight in the same series with the resident trans boy, Takatsuki. He cuts his hair early
in the first volume, from a bob episode. Before cutting her hair, she was indifferent to a pixie. In middle school he grows it back into a bob due to a female friend all classmates, changing her hairstyle every day of his saying he looks better the week, increasing the number of ribbons each day. When Kyon questions this, the usually aloof Haruhi has a short debate with it. After being told how it makes him look like a tomboy and he's "cute" him, ending with it, Kyon implying that he cuts his hair. At finds it unnecessary. The next day Haruhi shows up with her hair cut (to everyone's, especially Kyon's surprise). This event marks the beginning of high school he begins letting his hair grow again though, her opening up to Kyon and creating the SOS Brigade, which signifies [[spoiler:Takatsuki's confusion about their gender identity is crucial to the series.
** In the ''Disappearance'' arc, [[spoiler: the alternate-timeline Haruhi still has long hair
and their beginning is still snarky and antisocial. This shows how much of identifying as female]].an impact Kyon had on Haruhi in the old timeline.]]



* ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'': In Episode 9, to prove that her HeelFaceTurn was real, [[spoiler:Lecce]] unsheathed her rapier, stated that she would cut the most precious thing for a woman, and then cut her hair and offered it to Daba (crying as she did so). That did it, and the main characters believed her.
* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'':
** 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 [[AdaptationExpansion 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.
** According to author's notes, [[GenderFlip Female!Japan]] used to have long hair in a HimeCut, but once she broke off her 200-years long isolation, she cut it shorter to prove that she could now interact with the rest of the world.
** When Hungary [[ItMakesSenseInContext thought that she was a guy]], she kept her hair in a TomboyishPonytail. As an OlderAndWiser mix of ActionGirl and TeamMom, she now keeps it loose and much longer.
* After [[spoiler:accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck as Hibino Hikaru]]]], Erika from ''[[Manga/HimechanNoRibon Hime-chan no Ribbon]]'' cuts off her gorgeous, [[RapunzelHair extremely long]] blonde hair so that she can [[TwinSwitch impersonate Hime-chan]] at home and school until they can find some way to [[spoiler:reverse the transformation]]. The next time we see her after she goes back home, her hair has grown out to shoulder-length.
* In the manga ''{{Manga/Horimiya}}'' [[spoiler:Miyamura]] gets one to prevent the other students from talking badly about Hori for having 'such a bad taste in guys'. Hori doesn't like it and wants him to grow it back, which he slowly seems to be doing.
* In the movie adaptation of ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', Calcifer needs to [[spoiler: move the wrecked castle]] but needs [[InsertPaymentToUse something of value]] for the energy to do so. He suggests he use Sophie's eyes, but Sophie quickly cuts her long braid and gives it to him. It's good enough.
* Zigzagged in ''LightNovel/HumanityHasDeclined''. "[[NoNameGiven Watashi]]" screwed [[NoodleIncident something]] up before the story began and cut her hair... but things really begin after she grows it all back (and then some) with [[AcmeProducts Fairy Co]] hair tonic.
* Kaoru from ''Manga/ICantUnderstandWhatMyHusbandIsSaying'' dyed her hair blonde after getting married to Hajime, probably to distance herself from the time she spent alone and miserable before meeting him. It also has the bonus effect of making her look like her mother.
* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', every time Koichi Hirose evolves his Stand to a new ACT, it's accompanied by a new hairstyle. He starts the series with his hair slicked down, but it becomes messier once he unlocks Echoes [=ACT1=], then he cuts it into a flat-top when he evolves Echoes to [=ACT2=] (stopping in the middle of a battle with his [[{{Yandere}} psycho stalker]] to cut his hair so as to tell her, "You can't control me anymore!"), then his hair somehow takes on a style of its own accord that can only be described as '[[Franchise/DragonBall Super Saiyan]]' when he finally achieves [=ACT3=].
* During the class trip arc in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:Hayasaka cuts off her ponytail with a knife in order to prevent one of Unyo's servants from holding onto it. This keeps her from being able to wear the scrunchie Kaguya gave her anymore, marking the metaphorical end to their master-servant relationship (she ends up keeping it as a wristband instead). After the arc is over, she styles the remaining hair into a bobcut, [[HereditaryHairstyle similar to her mother's]].]]



* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', both Rin and Akito get important haircuts. [[spoiler:Rin has her long hair hacked off by Akito when she's locked up. In this case, the TraumaticHaircut is symbolic for both of them. Akito is enraged and hates long, black hair because it reminds her of her mother, Ren (A SmugSnake who abuses her daughter constantly, and in fact is the one who manipulated Rin to act against Akito which is what got her caught in the first place); Rin, meanwhile, wears her hair short for the rest of the series and it symbolizes how [[CharacterDevelopment she is calmer and eases up on her determination to break the curse]] (which was pretty much driving her to an early grave, due to her being an IllGirl). Akito gets an inverse at the end, when she grows her hair out to symbolize how she's free to live her life as a woman, rather than forced to hide her identity and pretend to be a man.]]
** Kazuma Sohma, A.K.A. Shishou, is no excempt neither. He originally grew his hair long to gather Kyo good luck, but after he succeed on getting him get accepted for his true zodiac form by [[LoveInterest Tohru]], who refused to turn her back on him for it, he eventually cut his hair short afterwards.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'': A few instances, most notably when Fried Justine shaves off his [[LongHairedPrettyboy waist-length hair]] after [[spoiler:Laxus is excommunicated from the guild as a result of trying to overthrow his grandfather and forcing everyone to fight each other, a plan for which Fried was Laxus' accomplice]]. Lampshaded in Lucy's narration when she remarks that he "seems to have taken the old-fashioned position of 'contemplation = head-shaving'." Notably, he grows it back to its original length not much later (probably with the aid of, y'know, [[AWizardDidIt magic]], namely Lucy's Summon Spirit, Cancer), so it's possible it was either done for the sake of the joke, or else someone pointed out that he looks silly with a shaved head.
** During the Edolas arc, Erza impersonates her [[SociopathicSoldier Edolas counterpart]] by stealing her clothes and styling her hair so she could help her fellow wizards. Once said counterpart realizes what happens, she's so pissed that she cuts her own hair down to a bob so no one would make that mistake again.
** Also Juvia cuts her hair to signify her change and after the Edolas arc her hair gets restored [[AWizardDidIt somehow]].
** As of chapter 388, Wendy has followed suit, which makes her look even more like Katja than she already did, partly as a vow of determination, and partly because [[CloseCallHaircut some of her hair got cut off in her battle with Ezel]]. [[spoiler:At the end of the arc her hair is also returned thanks to Cancer]].
* Bleed Kaga from ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'' cuts his long braided tail in the final episode of ''SIN'' and dyes his hair black, a symbol of wanting to settle the score with Hayato.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'', Ayace cuts off [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Canale's]] hair instead of killing him as requested, leaving the severed hair at Canale's family mansion (now on fire) as symbol of his old life and encouraging him to move on and live.
* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': [[spoiler: Leo]] gets one in Retrace 61. For a while, [[spoiler:he had been using his hair as BlindingBangs so he wouldn't have to see or hear things anymore. By that point, he was "tired of hiding".]]
* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** During ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', Alphonse grew his hair out like Edward. It's symbolic, as he wants to be like Ed; he even wore the same clothing as him. Near the end he cuts his hair, to the same style as before he lost his body.
** In regards to [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist original manga]] and the ''Brotherhood'' anime, there is an inversion with Riza Hawkeye. Back in her younger years as a soldier, she kept her hair rather short and tied up. However, after meeting Winry Rockbell (from when she and Roy met the Elric brothers), a discussion between the people that matter to them led them to make a change in appearance as a result. While Winry got earrings like Hawkeye, Hawkeye grew out her hair (though it was still held up in a similar way)as a form of kinship to her and how Winry reminded her of what was important. It remains as such for a majority of the series though its seemingly back to its short cut in the epilogue.
* In the ''Manga/SukebanDeka'' OAV, Saki rejects the advances of a classmate by saying that she hates guys with long hair. In response, the boy whips out a set of clippers and shaves himself bald right there in front of her. He doesn't graduate to love interest, but he does become one of Saki's allies.
* Perhaps in an inverted example, in Book Two of the manga ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'', Abbott Arikoto [[spoiler: grows his hair out when he breaks his vow of chastity]].

to:

* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', both Rin and Akito get important haircuts. [[spoiler:Rin has While not cutting it herself, Layla Hamilton fits this trope in the ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' {{OVA}}, "Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari". After a journey to find herself, Layla goes from her DefrostingIceQueen persona to a person who won't hide her feelings anymore. Then, she asks [[GenkiGirl Sora Naegino]] to cut her long blond hair hacked off by Akito when she's locked up. In this case, the TraumaticHaircut is symbolic for both her.
* The lead character
of them. Akito is enraged and hates long, black hair because it reminds her of her mother, Ren (A SmugSnake who abuses her daughter constantly, and in fact is the one who manipulated Rin to act against Akito which is what got her caught in the first place); Rin, meanwhile, wears ''Manga/KazeHikaru'' has already cut her hair short for at the rest beginning of the series [[SweetPollyOliver to join the Shinengumi]], but Okita Souji remarks on the depth of her sacrifice.
* In the finale of ''Anime/KillLaKill'', Satsuki is shown to have traded in her RapunzelHair for a stylish chin-length bob. Along with her [[DefrostingIceQueen warmer]] attitude
and more relaxed clothing, it symbolizes fully illustrates how [[CharacterDevelopment she is calmer and eases up on her determination to break the curse]] (which was pretty much driving her to an early grave, due to her being an IllGirl). Akito gets an inverse at the end, when she grows her hair out to symbolize how she's changed now that [[spoiler: she's completed her goal of saving humanity and free to live from her life family's dark past]].
* In the ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' prequel movie/episode "life goes on", Kino has their long hair cut into the shorter style seen throughout the series
as a woman, rather than forced the result of it being stained with blood from the first person they killed.
* Both subverted and respected in the BoysLove manga ''Koi ga Bokura wo Yurusu Hani''. Yamazaki tries
to hide 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 [[spoiler: to accept the relationship between Eiji and Yamazaki, thus moving on from her identity emotional hang ups]].
* In ''LightNovel/KokoroConnect'', when Aoki goes to see his old girlfriend Nana
and pretend sort his feelings out, right as he leaves she tells him she cut her hair the last New Year, and his expression suggests that he understands the message that she's let go.
* ''Anime/LastExile'' [[spoiler: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 be show off his Mark of the Covenant, after being brainwashed for the Rite and turned into a man.remorseless killing machine.]]
** Kazuma Sohma, A.K.A. Shishou, is no excempt neither. He originally grew his hair * ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'': Rinko's long to gather Kyo good luck, but after he succeed on getting him get accepted for his true zodiac form pigtails are chopped off accidentally by [[LoveInterest Tohru]], who refused to turn her back on him for it, he eventually cut his hair short afterwards.
teammate as she does a HeelFaceTurn and protects Ueki, which they are fighting.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'': A few instances, most notably when Fried Justine shaves off his [[LongHairedPrettyboy waist-length hair]] after [[spoiler:Laxus is excommunicated Eunhyung from the guild as a result of trying to overthrow his grandfather and forcing everyone to fight each other, a plan for which Fried was Laxus' accomplice]]. Lampshaded in Lucy's narration when she remarks that he "seems to have taken the old-fashioned position of 'contemplation = head-shaving'." Notably, he grows it back to its original length not much later (probably with the aid of, y'know, [[AWizardDidIt magic]], namely Lucy's Summon Spirit, Cancer), so it's possible it was either done for the sake of the joke, or else someone pointed out that he looks silly with a shaved head.
** During the Edolas arc, Erza impersonates her [[SociopathicSoldier Edolas counterpart]] by stealing her clothes and styling
BoysLove {{manhwa}} ''Manhwa/LetDai'' gets her hair so she could help her fellow wizards. Once said counterpart realizes what happens, she's so pissed that she cuts her own hair down to a bob so no one would make that mistake again.
** Also Juvia cuts her hair to signify her change and
cut boy-like short after the Edolas arc her being brutally gang raped. She also adopts a more masculine attitude that borders on tomboyish. Somewhat subverted in Naru whose hair gets restored [[AWizardDidIt somehow]].
** As of chapter 388, Wendy has followed suit, which makes her look even more like Katja than she already did, partly as a vow of determination, and partly because [[CloseCallHaircut some of her hair got cut off in her battle with Ezel]]. [[spoiler:At the end of the arc her hair is also returned thanks to Cancer]].
* Bleed Kaga from ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'' cuts his long braided tail in the final episode of ''SIN'' and dyes his hair black, a symbol of wanting to settle the score with Hayato.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'', Ayace cuts off [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Canale's]] hair instead of killing him as requested, leaving the severed hair at Canale's family mansion (now on fire) as symbol of his old life and encouraging him to move on and live.
* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': [[spoiler: Leo]] gets one in Retrace 61. For a while, [[spoiler:he had been using his hair as BlindingBangs so he wouldn't have to see or hear things anymore. By that point, he was "tired of hiding".]]
* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** During ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', Alphonse grew his hair out like Edward. It's symbolic, as he wants to be like Ed; he even wore the same clothing as him. Near the end he cuts his hair, to the same
style as before he lost his body.
** In regards to [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist original manga]] and
keeps changing all the ''Brotherhood'' anime, there is an inversion with Riza Hawkeye. Back in her younger years as a soldier, she kept her hair rather short and tied up. However, after meeting Winry Rockbell (from when she and Roy met the Elric brothers), a discussion between the people that matter to them led them to make a change in appearance as a result. While Winry got earrings like Hawkeye, Hawkeye grew out her hair (though it was still held up in a similar way)as a form of kinship to her and how Winry reminded her of what was important. It remains as such for a majority of the series though its seemingly back to its short cut in the epilogue.
* In the ''Manga/SukebanDeka'' OAV, Saki rejects the advances of a classmate by saying that she hates guys with long hair. In response, the boy whips out a set of clippers and shaves himself bald right there in front of her. He doesn't graduate to love interest, but
time since he does become one of Saki's allies.
* Perhaps in an inverted example, in Book Two of the manga ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'', Abbott Arikoto [[spoiler: grows his hair out when he breaks his vow of chastity]].
often uses wigs.



* The protagonist of ''Vitamin'' by the same mangaka as ''Life'' cuts her hair in the last chapter, to show she's become more confident.
* Franky from ''Franchise/OnePiece'' cut his hair to a buzz cut after the TimeSkip, but can revert to his old style or change to a new one by pressing his nose for more than three seconds. It doesn't really seem to be important so much as funny, however, as the hairstyles Franky's displayed so far include his original pompadour, his new buzz-cut, a mohawk, and bull horns.
* Yozora of ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' shears her long locks after an incident with a firework, and getting a bucket of dirty water dumped on her to put it out. The important part of this is [[spoiler: her short hair finally brings Kodaka around to realizing, she's his ForgottenChildhoodFriend, Sora.]]
* In the first chapter of ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'', when a prince demands that the heroine Shirayuki become his concubine because of her rare hair color, she flees the country, [[TakeThat leaving her cut off hair behind]].
* Zigzagged in ''LightNovel/HumanityHasDeclined''. "[[NoNameGiven Watashi]]" screwed [[NoodleIncident something]] up before the story began and cut her hair... but things really begin after she grows it all back (and then some) with [[AcmeProducts Fairy Co]] hair tonic.

to:

* The protagonist of ''Vitamin'' by the same mangaka as ''Life'' cuts her hair in the last chapter, In ''LightNovel/LordMarksmanAndVanadis'', Rurick mocked Tigre and gave him a shoddy bow to show she's become more confident.
* Franky
sabotage his archery display. Despite this, Tigre manages to shoot an assassin from ''Franchise/OnePiece'' cut a great distance. Afterwards, everyone found out what Rurick did and was about to execute him until Tigre asked them not to. Extremely grateful and awed by Tigre's skills, Rurick shaved his hair to a buzz cut after the TimeSkip, but can revert to his old style or change to a new one by pressing his nose for more than three seconds. It doesn't really seem to be important so much head as funny, however, as the hairstyles Franky's displayed so far include his original pompadour, his new buzz-cut, a mohawk, sign of humility and bull horns.
* Yozora of ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' shears her long locks after an incident with a firework, and getting a bucket of dirty water dumped on her to put it out. The important part of this is [[spoiler: her short hair finally brings Kodaka around to realizing, she's his ForgottenChildhoodFriend, Sora.]]
* In the first chapter of ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'', when a prince demands that the heroine Shirayuki become his concubine because of her rare hair color, she flees the country, [[TakeThat leaving her cut off hair behind]].
* Zigzagged in ''LightNovel/HumanityHasDeclined''. "[[NoNameGiven Watashi]]" screwed [[NoodleIncident something]] up before the story began and cut her hair... but things really begin after she grows it all back (and then some) with [[AcmeProducts Fairy Co]] hair tonic.
loyalty.



* In the ''Manga/{{Strider}}'' manga, Hiryu cuts off his ponytail at the end of the 2nd chapter, [[spoiler:and leaves it in his friend Sheena's grave, now fully-determined to destroy the MegaCorp and anyone responsible for their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control]] project.]]
* Ena from ''Manga/{{Yotsubato}}'' had even longer hair in the early chapters, suggesting that she cut it a bit shorter during the early summer vacations.
* In the 3rd ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' OVA, Noike lops off her long hair early because she absolutely ''hates'' the idea of having long hair, saying she'll wear a wig for important matters. For those not in the know, Juraians have incredibly long hair as tradition. Noike's adopted.
** Not an actual haircut, but supplemental information revealed that Ayeka actually has blue hair and that she had it geneticly modified to impress Yosho.
* In the manga ''{{Manga/Horimiya}}'' [[spoiler:Miyamura]] gets one to prevent the other students from talking badly about Hori for having 'such a bad taste in guys'. Hori doesn't like it and wants him to grow it back, which he slowly seems to be doing.
* Ruru in ''Anime/GaikingLegendOfDaikuMaryu'' cuts her hair short upon [[spoiler: her promotion to Captain of the Daiku Maryu]].
* In the finale of ''Anime/KillLaKill'', Satsuki is shown to have traded in her RapunzelHair for a stylish chin-length bob. Along with her [[DefrostingIceQueen warmer]] attitude and more relaxed clothing, it fully illustrates how much she's changed now that [[spoiler: she's completed her goal of saving humanity and free from her family's dark past]].

to:

* In Motoko Aoyama from ''Manga/LoveHina'' cuts her long hair into a short bob when she decides to become a nun as penance for lying to her sister. Kaolla Su even has a laugh at the ''Manga/{{Strider}}'' manga, Hiryu idea of her shaving her head bald.
* Hanako in ''Manga/TheLuciferAndBiscuitHammer''
cuts off his her own ponytail to symbolize how she's decided to become a warrior and avenge her [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend not-boyfriend's]] HeroicSacrifice.
* While only shown for a moment in a 'growing up' montage ''Manga/{{MAR}}'''s Ginta gets his hair cut
at one point during his first trip into the end Shuuren no Mon.
* ''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'':
** Sei (the original ''Rosa Gigantea'') has not just one but ''two'' Important Haircuts. She cut her long hair to medium length after [[spoiler:her girlfriend ran off to become a nun]]. She later cropped it short after beginning college.
** In the same series, [[ShaggyDogStory a whole episode is dedicated to minor character Mifuyu]], who cuts her hair after realizing that she will never gain Sachiko's favor.
* ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'':
** Another male example: Ginta shaves his head to apologize to Miki after he accidentally breaks her heart. Meiko also suggested Miki cut her hair before they saw that Ginta had, but Miki laughed it off; back then, [[BoyishShortHair her hair was much too short already.]] Echoing the above incident, when Yuu leaves Miki (apparently for good, [[spoiler: after finding out he may be her half-brother]]) in the anime, Miki's efforts to overcome it include cutting her long hair into a pageboy style and piercing her ears.
** When young, [[IllGirl 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 ButtMonkey and SmallNameBigEgo, has to shave his head after losing a bet to Ginta.
* Gets a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade hung on it]] in the dub
of the 2nd chapter, [[spoiler:and leaves it in his friend Sheena's grave, now fully-determined OVA of ''Master of Mosquiton'' when Inaho cuts off her ponytail to destroy signify her search for the MegaCorp [[MacGuffin O-Parts]] and anyone responsible for their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control]] project.Mosquiton, the vampire, complains about her doing "the hair-cutting thing."
* The second [=ED=] of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' 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.
** Louise Halevy got one when [[spoiler: she [[TookALevelInBadass evolved]] from BrattyTeenageDaughter to a mix of BrokenBird DarkActionGirl. Once the series is over, though, she lets it grow again as a symbol of her CharacterDevelopment.
]]
* Ena from ''Manga/{{Yotsubato}}'' had even longer hair in In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91'', the early chapters, suggesting that she LadyOfWar Cecily Fairchild cut it a bit her OjouRinglets much shorter during after she returns to the early summer vacations.
* In the 3rd ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' OVA, Noike lops off her long hair early because she absolutely ''hates'' the idea of having long hair, saying she'll wear a wig for important matters. For those
Ronah clan, and did not in the know, Juraians have incredibly long hair as tradition. Noike's adopted.
** Not an actual haircut, but supplemental information revealed that Ayeka actually has blue hair and that she had it geneticly modified to impress Yosho.
* In the manga ''{{Manga/Horimiya}}'' [[spoiler:Miyamura]] gets one to prevent the other students from talking badly about Hori for having 'such a bad taste in guys'. Hori doesn't like it and wants him to
grow it back, which he slowly seems to be doing.
* Ruru in ''Anime/GaikingLegendOfDaikuMaryu'' cuts her hair short upon [[spoiler: her promotion to Captain of the Daiku Maryu]].
* In the finale of ''Anime/KillLaKill'', Satsuki is shown to have traded in her RapunzelHair for a stylish chin-length bob. Along with her [[DefrostingIceQueen warmer]] attitude and more relaxed clothing, it fully illustrates how much she's changed now that [[spoiler: she's completed her goal of saving humanity and free from her family's dark past]].
back until later on.



* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** During the Chunin exam arc, 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 become as strong as Naruto, Sasuke and Rock Lee, who have always been there to protect her. Oddly enough, in one flashback after the timeskip that shows Sakura training with [[spoiler: Tsunade]], her hair has grown back to its pre-Chunin Exam length, but it's short once again in Part II. Late into ''Shippuden'' Sakura's hair grows to chin length, and as an adult it's a bit longer, but neither have any ulterior meaning.
** 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 HighSchoolAU, 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 [[spoiler:Sakura had laid down on the grass and accidentally got gum in her hair]].
* ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'''s title character.
** In the manga, Nausicaä receives the haircut (and a scale mail) when leaving for war. Also in manga, Kushana cuts her considerably long braid [[spoiler:to honor the death of a considerable part of her men in an Ohmu attack engineered by the Dorok.]]
* We see in a {{flashback}} why Mireille of ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' has a peculiar "half-bang" style. [[spoiler: Lady Silvana is to blame: when they were playing as kids, Silvana used a knife to cut little Mireille's bangs, and she's kept a similar style since then.]]
* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' 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). Or she may have cut her hair so nobody would mistake her for Lala Ru again, which pulled her into this mess to begin with.
* The beginning narration of ''Ojamajo Doremi 16'' (which is a spinoff/sequel LightNovel series to ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'') states that [[spoiler:Doremi cut her hair to a shorter length in order to deal with her feelings being rejected by Kotake]].
* Franky from ''Franchise/OnePiece'' cut his hair to a buzz cut after the TimeSkip, but can revert to his old style or change to a new one by pressing his nose for more than three seconds. It doesn't really seem to be important so much as funny, however, as the hairstyles Franky's displayed so far include his original pompadour, his new buzz-cut, a mohawk, and bull horns.
* Perhaps in an inverted example, in Book Two of the manga ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'', Abbott Arikoto [[spoiler: grows his hair out when he breaks his vow of chastity]].
* In ''Manga/OtakuNoMusumeSan'', Haruka cuts off her PeekABangs to emphasise to her elder sister how serious she is about following her own path.
* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': [[spoiler: Leo]] gets one in Retrace 61. For a while, [[spoiler:he had been using his hair as BlindingBangs so he wouldn't have to see or hear things anymore. By that point, he was "tired of hiding".]]



* In ''LightNovel/KokoroConnect'', when Aoki goes to see his old girlfriend Nana and sort his feelings out, right as he leaves she tells him she cut her hair the last New Year, and his expression suggests that he understands the message that she's let go.
* In ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'', Yona's haircut had a reason similar to Sakura's since she was being held by her hair and need to get away. It isn't until a little later when she definitively starts to change from a sheltered princess to a warrior in her own right.
* Prior to becoming a cyborg Henrietta from ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' had long hair. Present time it's in a bob style.

to:

* In ''LightNovel/KokoroConnect'', when Aoki goes to see his old girlfriend Nana and sort his feelings out, right as he leaves she tells him she cut the final episode of ''Anime/APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse'', [[spoiler:Shirase cuts her hair the last New Year, and his expression suggests that he understands the message that she's let go.
* In ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'', Yona's haircut had a reason similar to Sakura's since
after getting closure about her mother. With her new hair, she was being held by is told she looks just like her hair and need to get away. It isn't until a little later mother when she definitively starts to change from a sheltered princess to a warrior in her own right.
* Prior to becoming a cyborg Henrietta from ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' had long hair. Present time it's in a bob style.
smiles]].



* Kaoru from ''Manga/ICantUnderstandWhatMyHusbandIsSaying'' dyed her hair blonde after getting married to Hajime, probably to distance herself from the time she spent alone and miserable before meeting him. It also has the bonus effect of making her look like her mother.
* ''Manga/BokuraNoHentai'':
** Satoshi cut his hair between his first year of middle school and his second year. He hit puberty and decided to stop crossdressing to school. Eventually he grew it back long though.
** Ryousuke cut his long hair when [[spoiler:he stopped [[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe dressing as his sister]].]]
* Occurs early in ''{{Manga/Uzumaki}}'', when Kirie receives an Important Haircut after her hair is contaminated by the Spiral.
* ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'': Rinko's long pigtails are chopped off accidentally by her teammate as she does a HeelFaceTurn and protects Ueki, which they are fighting.
* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', it's a combination of this and TraumaticHaircut. During her battle with a Level 3 Akuma, Lenalee Lee's long GirlishPigtails are burned off, leaving her hair [[BoyishShortHair boyishly short]]. It counts as an Important Haircut as she discovers the depths of her resolve.
* In ''LightNovel/LordMarksmanAndVanadis'', Rurick mocked Tigre and gave him a shoddy bow to sabotage his archery display. Despite this, Tigre manages to shoot an assassin from a great distance. Afterwards, everyone found out what Rurick did and was about to execute him until Tigre asked them not to. Extremely grateful and awed by Tigre's skills, Rurick shaved his head as a sign of humility and loyalty.

to:

* Kaoru from ''Manga/ICantUnderstandWhatMyHusbandIsSaying'' dyed her hair blonde after getting married to Hajime, probably to distance herself from the time she spent alone and miserable before meeting him. It also has the bonus effect of making her look like her mother.
* ''Manga/BokuraNoHentai'':
** Satoshi cut
In ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'', Ashitaka cuts his hair between before having to leave his village (due to a curse) to seek his destiny, it was a proof of his determination to resist returning.
* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' definitely loves to play around with the trope, whether using full haircuts or mere hairstyle changes:
** [[BadassNormal Shishido Ryoh]] is kicked off the Hyoutei tennis club after [[PrideBeforeAFall an embarrassing]] [[BreakTheHaughty defeat]], and then sets out to get back on the team through [[TrainingFromHell ridiculously harsh training]]; 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, the captain of the team, says "This guy hasn't lost" after the haircut [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold as a way of endorsing him]]).
** Atobe himself (the series's 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. In the manga, since Atobe is unconscious by the end, Ryoma shaves his head for him; in the anime, Atobe shaves it himself, even when sub-regular Taki offers to have ''his'' own hair cut instead of Atobe's. 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 [[EpilepticTrees the fans to heavily speculate about it]].
** 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 [[EyeScream 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 of middle school in Rikkai: a picture taken when he, Yukimura and his second year. He hit puberty and decided to stop crossdressing to school. Eventually he grew it back Sanada were titulars in their first year shows Yanagi with long though.
** Ryousuke cut
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 when [[spoiler:he stopped [[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe dressing as fairly short.
** In the anime, Yanagi's teammate Jackal Kuwahara shaves
his sister]].]]
* Occurs early
head as a tribute to a good friend.
** And *again* , [[TeamMom Oishi Syuichirou]] changes his hairstyle ''every'' year
in ''{{Manga/Uzumaki}}'', when Kirie receives all canons. The first one is theorized to be an Important Haircut that came when he became a regular in his second year in Seigaku: his formerly messy hair became a simple buzzcut.
** And don't forget the Kisarazu twins using different hairstyles (long for Ryou, short for Atsushi) to distinguish each other. [[spoiler: Atsushi's manager Mizuki cut Atsushi's hair short [[TwinSwitch
after her hair is contaminated by mistaking Atsushi]] for Ryou and taking him along for the Spiral.
* ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'': Rinko's long pigtails are chopped off accidentally
ride by her teammate as she does a HeelFaceTurn and protects Ueki, which they are fighting.
* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', it's a combination of this and TraumaticHaircut. During her battle with a Level 3 Akuma, Lenalee Lee's long GirlishPigtails are burned off, leaving her hair [[BoyishShortHair boyishly short]]. It counts as an Important Haircut as she discovers the depths of her resolve.
* In ''LightNovel/LordMarksmanAndVanadis'', Rurick mocked Tigre and gave him a shoddy bow to sabotage his archery display. Despite this, Tigre manages to shoot an assassin from a great distance. Afterwards, everyone found out what Rurick did and was about to execute him until Tigre asked them not to. Extremely grateful and awed by Tigre's skills, Rurick shaved his head as a sign of humility and loyalty.
mistake.]]



* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'':
** At the start of the story [[{{Tsundere}} Nino]] is the only quintuplet [[RapunzelHair who had refused to cut her hair at all]], which was a symbolic way for her to cling to the past. During the Seven Goodbyes arc, she has Miku cut it to shoulder length once she accepts that she can't cling to the past forever [[spoiler:as well as [[LoveEpiphany her own feelings for Fuutarou]]]].
** Later chapters reveal that [[GenkiGirl Yotsuba]] had also kept her hair long, but decided to cut it after they were transferred from their old school due to flunking their tests. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she did so because she was the only one to actually fail, but her sisters pretended to have cheated so she wouldn't be transferred alone, and from then on she decided she would put their happiness over her own]].
* Akane Tendo in an early episode of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. Notable in that [[TraumaticHaircut she didn't actually have a choice]] [[CloseCallHaircut in the matter]], but then decides to ask her bis sister Kasumi to get it more or less cleaned up and, from then on, chose to ''not'' grow it back. That's because she grew it long originally to attract [[PrecociousCrush her first crush]], Dr. Tofu, but by that time she gets over her love for him. In the Anime and Manga Ryoga accidentally chopped Akane's hair when she was caught in the crossfire between a fight with him and Ranma, she blames Ranma too since she got in the mess to try helping him anyway; in the live action special, it was one of the gang members who did it with a sickle.
* There's an interesting contrast in ''VisualNovel/RumblingHearts'' -- 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.
* Narrowly averted in ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Usagi almost gets a sorrow haircut upon Minako's suggestion when Mamoru dumps her, but the MonsterOfTheWeek apparently makes her forget that she was in the beauty shop for a new 'do. It really doesn't help that the monster had a hairstylist theme going.



* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', every time Koichi Hirose evolves his Stand to a new ACT, it's accompanied by a new hairstyle. He starts the series with his hair slicked down, but it becomes messier once he unlocks Echoes [=ACT1=], then he cuts it into a flat-top when he evolves Echoes to [=ACT2=] (stopping in the middle of a battle with his [[{{Yandere}} psycho stalker]] to cut his hair so as to tell her, "You can't control me anymore!"), then his hair somehow takes on a style of its own accord that can only be described as '[[Franchise/DragonBall Super Saiyan]]' when he finally achieves [=ACT3=].

to:

* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', every time Koichi Hirose evolves ''Manga/SakuraGari'': Masataka gives one to Souma to signify [[spoiler: his Stand to MissingMom Abigail's definitive passing, and Lord Saiki's acceptance of such a new ACT, it's accompanied by a new hairstyle. He starts fact]].
* Kenji Harima of ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' 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 [[CannotSpitItOut Tenma]].
* A {{Flashback}} chapter of ''[[Manga/SgtFrog Keroro Gunsou]]'' reveals that Momoka gave herself an Important Haircut when her [[SplitPersonality dark side]] emerged for the first time upon seeing Tamama on the bad end of a CurbStompBattle. Coupled
with his ActionDressRip.
* ''Manga/ShadowStar'' has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black
hair slicked down, after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut [[spoiler: after the death of Hiro-chan]] and she also cuts her father's hair.
* There is a sort of inverted example in ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'' Asa Shigure's short hair grows longer when she [[spoiler: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 [[CharacterDevelopment Asa has finally come to terms]] with her heritage as [[spoiler:a half-demon and the daughter of the first being experimented on by the gods and the demons]].
* Two different characters in ''Anime/{{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.
* ''Manga/SketDance'':
** Switch is a straight example in his BackStory, for his own reasons. Tsubaki also makes such a decision when appearing as a minor character in Bossun's backstory.
** Himeko is an inversion and a straight example though. [[spoiler:Her hair was shorter when younger and was definitely not blonde,
but later she grew it up to go as the image of the yanki she became.]] Much later, Himeko cuts it just to start fresh when [[spoiler:the Sket Dan officially formed]].
* In ''Manga/SkipBeat'', 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 ''Manga/SlamDunk'', 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; it doesn't seem to be for a specific reason, but by that time she assumes that her crush towards Rukawa is a hopeless one. Mitsui's haircut is noted by one of the members of his former gang whom he runs into after a check-up at the hospital (his reaction is important because it symbolizes his acceptance of Mitsui putting his life back on track):
---> "What's up with the 'do? You look like a jock. But seriously... It suits you fine."
** Perhaps a deconstruction in Hanamichi's case, given that he gets endlessly mocked for his new haircut. Also Rukawa had previously told him that assuming all the blame for the loss was actually very arrogant of him (of course, being Rukawa, he did it too), making the haircut just another of Hanamichi's over-the-top reactions in the eyes of the readers, rather than an important moment of character development. Though Hanamichi eventually [[CharacterDevelopment
becomes messier once he unlocks Echoes [=ACT1=], then he cuts it into a flat-top even more serious about basketball than before]], so the trope can be seen as PlayedStraight with some time.
* In the first chapter of ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'',
when he evolves Echoes a prince demands that the heroine Shirayuki become his concubine because of her rare hair color, she flees the country, [[TakeThat leaving her cut off hair behind]].
* In ''StellaJogakuinKoutokaC3Bu'', after briefly experimenting with various hairstyles in episode three
to [=ACT2=] (stopping stop her hair getting in the middle way during airsoft battles, Yura just cuts her hair shorter at the end of the episode to signify her increasing determination to take airsoft seriously.
* Sara of ''Anime/StrainStrategicArmoredInfantry'' cuts her hair going into her new identity as she chases her brother.
* In the ''Manga/{{Strider}}'' manga, Hiryu cuts off his ponytail at the end of the second chapter, [[spoiler:and leaves it in his friend Sheena's grave, now fully-determined to destroy the MegaCorp and anyone responsible for their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control]] project.]]
* In the ''Manga/SukebanDeka'' OAV, Saki rejects the advances
of a battle classmate by saying that she hates guys with his [[{{Yandere}} psycho stalker]] long hair. In response, the boy whips out a set of clippers and shaves himself bald right there in front of her. He doesn't graduate to cut his hair so as to tell her, "You can't control me anymore!"), then his hair somehow takes on a style love interest, but he does become one of its own accord that can only be described as '[[Franchise/DragonBall Super Saiyan]]' when he finally achieves [=ACT3=].Saki's allies.



* Happens a few times in ''Manga/DomesticGirlfriend''.
** Hina cuts it when [[spoiler: she's forced to break up with Natsuo and then grows it back when she makes the decision to move back home and try to get back together with him.]]
** Rui grows her hair out after [[spoiler: Hina leaves because she thinks Natsuo prefers long hair and cuts it again after she returns and Natsuo remains loyal to herself rather than get back together with Hina.]]
** Miyabi cuts it after [[spoiler: she finally works up the courage to tell Natsuo she loves him, only to get rejected.]]
* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Moe cuts her hair short when the new school year begins at Chapter 32. The reason is, she keeps her hair long because [[spoiler:she admires Misa]], but as Misa leaves the town for college, she requests Moe [[spoiler:to not admire her but live as herself instead]].
* During the class trip arc in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:Hayasaka cuts off her ponytail with a knife in order to prevent one of Unyo's servants from holding onto it. This keeps her from being able to wear the scrunchie Kaguya gave her anymore, marking the metaphorical end to their master-servant relationship (she ends up keeping it as a wristband instead). After the arc is over, she styles the remaining hair into a bobcut, [[HereditaryHairstyle similar to her mother's]].]]
* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'':
** At the start of the story [[{{Tsundere}} Nino]] is the only quintuplet [[RapunzelHair who had refused to cut her hair at all]], which was a symbolic way for her to cling to the past. During the Seven Goodbyes arc, she has Miku cut it to shoulder length once she accepts that she can't cling to the past forever [[spoiler:as well as [[LoveEpiphany her own feelings for Fuutarou]]]].
** Later chapters reveal that [[GenkiGirl Yotsuba]] had also kept her hair long, but decided to cut it after they were transferred from their old school due to flunking their tests. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she did so because she was the only one to actually fail, but her sisters pretended to have cheated so she wouldn't be transferred alone, and from then on she decided she would put their happiness over her own]].
* In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordinary Person (Swindler) cuts her hair short while on the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity. However, the haircut also serves to represent her coming into her own, perhaps no longer minding her classifiction as akudama]].
* In the final episode of ''Anime/APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse'', [[spoiler:Shirase cuts her hair after getting closure about her mother. With her new hair, she is told she looks just like her mother when she smiles]].
* In chapter 193 of ''Manga/{{Chihayafuru}}'', [[spoiler:Taichi cuts his hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata, symbolizing his desire to be seen as a serious threat to his rival]].
* In ''Anime/DevilmanLady'', [[spoiler: right before the final battle against Lan Asuka, a nude Jun Fudo cuts her hair short in front of the candle. This has been long after the deaths of Kazumi and Bates.]]

to:

* Happens a few times in ''Manga/DomesticGirlfriend''.
** Hina cuts it when [[spoiler: she's forced to break up with Natsuo and then grows it back when she makes
In the decision to move back home and try to get back together with him.]]
** Rui grows
third ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' OVA, Noike lops off her long hair out after [[spoiler: Hina leaves early because she thinks Natsuo prefers absolutely ''hates'' the idea of having long hair, saying she'll wear a wig for important matters. For those not in the know, Juraians have incredibly long hair as tradition. Noike's adopted.
** Not an actual haircut, but supplemental information revealed that Ayeka actually has blue hair
and cuts that she had it again geneticly modified to impress Yosho.
* In ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'', Nia's hair is cut by two bullets from Yoko's sniper rifle the episode
after she returns decides to shun her previous life. Unlike many cases, this time the accidental cut doesn't give a clean cut at all, and Natsuo remains loyal to herself rather than get back together with Hina.]]
** Miyabi
she has Yoko clean it up, [[CharacterDevelopment solidfying their new friendship]].
* The moment that Knives in ''Manga/{{Trigun}}''
cuts it 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.
* Fay in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' 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 StepfordSmiler persona.
* Occurs early in ''{{Manga/Uzumaki}}'', when Kirie receives an Important Haircut
after her hair is contaminated by the Spiral.
* On ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'', the stuck-up ship's navigator Bart develops an IntergenerationalFriendship with LittlestCancerPatient Shirley on one of the planets they visit. The people there make dolls
[[spoiler: to leave as proof they existed, due to their [[HumanResources bodies being harvested by Earth after death]]]], and she finally works up is working on a doll of Bart when she dies, leaving it bald but otherwise complete. Bart shaves his own head to match, [[CharacterDevelopment and from there on is slightly less of a jerk]]. Oh, and additionally he [[TookALevelInBadass has both control over the courage cool ship's weapons and a willingness to tell Natsuo she loves him, only use them]], lets not forget that.
* The protagonist of ''Vitamin'' by the same mangaka as ''Life'' cuts her hair in the last chapter,
to get rejected.]]
show she's become more confident.
* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Moe the second episode of ''Manga/TheWallflower'', 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 TheNoseBleed, now that she can see the tenants.
* ''Manga/WanderingSon'':
** Subverted. When formerly depressed [[UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} trans girl]] Nitori
cuts her hair short when the new school year begins at Chapter 32. The reason is, she keeps her hair long because [[spoiler:she admires Misa]], but as Misa leaves the town for college, she requests Moe [[spoiler:to not admire her but live as herself instead]].
* During the class trip arc in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:Hayasaka cuts off her ponytail with a knife in order to prevent one of Unyo's servants from holding onto it. This keeps her from being able to wear the scrunchie Kaguya gave her anymore, marking the metaphorical end to their master-servant relationship (she ends up keeping it as a wristband instead). After the arc is over, she styles the remaining hair into a bobcut, [[HereditaryHairstyle similar to her mother's]].]]
* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'':
** At the start of the story [[{{Tsundere}} Nino]] is the only quintuplet [[RapunzelHair who had refused to cut her hair at all]], which was a symbolic way for her to cling to the past. During the Seven Goodbyes arc, she has Miku cut it to shoulder length once she accepts that she can't cling to the past forever [[spoiler:as well as [[LoveEpiphany her own feelings for Fuutarou]]]].
** Later chapters reveal that [[GenkiGirl Yotsuba]] had also kept her hair long, but
everyone thinks she's decided to cut it be a boy after they were transferred all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the ''female'' model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in ''Film/RosemarysBaby''). It's used as a plot point as the style looks masculine on her. She's hitting puberty and growing out of her androgyny.
** Played straight in the same series with the resident trans boy, Takatsuki. He cuts his hair early in the first volume,
from their old a bob to a pixie. In middle school he grows it back into a bob due to flunking a female friend of his saying he looks better with it. After being told how it makes him look like a tomboy and he's "cute" with it, he cuts his hair. At the beginning of high school he begins letting his hair grow again though, which signifies [[spoiler:Takatsuki's confusion about their tests. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she did so because she was gender identity and their beginning of identifying as female]].
* Prior to setting out for
the only one climactic battle of ''[[Anime/WeissKreuz Weiß Kreuz Glühen]]'', Aya uses his own katana to actually fail, but cut off the waist-length braid he'd grown between series.
** The epilogue of the original series shows that Sakura, who had previously [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange grown
her sisters pretended to have cheated so she wouldn't be transferred alone, and from then on she decided she hair out]] in the hopes that it would put their happiness over appeal to Aya, has gone back to her own]].
previous bob cut.
* In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordinary Person (Swindler) Haru from ''Anime/XamdLostMemories'' cuts her hair short while on after officially enrolling in the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity. However, the army.
** And male lead Akiyuki's grows out after he gains complete control of his powers.
* In ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'', Yona's
haircut also serves had a reason similar to represent Sakura's since she was being held by her coming into hair and need to get away. It isn't until a little later when she definitively starts to change from a sheltered princess to a warrior in her own, perhaps no own right.
* Ena from ''Manga/{{Yotsubato}}'' had even
longer minding her classifiction as akudama]].
hair in the early chapters, suggesting that she cut it a bit shorter during the early summer vacations.
* In the final episode ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' Keiko starts out with ponytails, then loses them in favor of ''Anime/APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse'', [[spoiler:Shirase cuts her shorter hair after getting closure about her mother. With her new hair, she is told she looks just like her mother when she smiles]].
* In chapter 193 of ''Manga/{{Chihayafuru}}'', [[spoiler:Taichi cuts his
they get singed in a fire, but has extremely long hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata, symbolizing his desire to be seen as a serious threat to his rival]].
* In ''Anime/DevilmanLady'', [[spoiler: right before
again at the final battle against Lan Asuka, a nude Jun Fudo cuts her hair short in front end of the candle. This has been long after the deaths of Kazumi and Bates.]]
series.
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Dewicking per TRS.


** Subverted. When formerly depressed [[{{transgender}} trans girl]] Nitori cuts her hair short everyone thinks she's decided to be a boy after all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the ''female'' model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in ''Film/RosemarysBaby''). It's used as a plot point as the style looks masculine on her. She's hitting puberty and growing out of her androgyny.

to:

** Subverted. When formerly depressed [[{{transgender}} [[UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} trans girl]] Nitori cuts her hair short everyone thinks she's decided to be a boy after all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the ''female'' model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in ''Film/RosemarysBaby''). It's used as a plot point as the style looks masculine on her. She's hitting puberty and growing out of her androgyny.
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None


* In [[Anime/DevilmanLady]], [[spoiler: right before the final battle against Lan Asuka, a nude Jun Fudo cuts her hair short in front of the candle. This has been long after the deaths of Kazumi and Bates.]]

to:

* In [[Anime/DevilmanLady]], ''Anime/DevilmanLady'', [[spoiler: right before the final battle against Lan Asuka, a nude Jun Fudo cuts her hair short in front of the candle. This has been long after the deaths of Kazumi and Bates.]]
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to:

* In [[Anime/DevilmanLady]], [[spoiler: right before the final battle against Lan Asuka, a nude Jun Fudo cuts her hair short in front of the candle. This has been long after the deaths of Kazumi and Bates.]]
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None


* After [[spoiler:accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck as Hibino Hikaru]]]], Erika from ''[[Manga/HimechanNoRibon Hime-chan no Ribbon]]'' cuts off her gorgeous, [[RapunzelHair extrememly long]] blonde hair so that she can [[TwinSwitch impersonate Hime-chan]] at home and school until they can find some way to [[spoiler:reverse the transformation]]. The next time we see her after she goes back home, her hair has grown out to shoulder-length.

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* After [[spoiler:accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck as Hibino Hikaru]]]], Erika from ''[[Manga/HimechanNoRibon Hime-chan no Ribbon]]'' cuts off her gorgeous, [[RapunzelHair extrememly extremely long]] blonde hair so that she can [[TwinSwitch impersonate Hime-chan]] at home and school until they can find some way to [[spoiler:reverse the transformation]]. The next time we see her after she goes back home, her hair has grown out to shoulder-length.



* In chapter 193 of Chihayafuru, [[spoiler:Taichi cuts his hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata, symbolizing his desire to be seen as a serious threat to his rival]].

to:

* In chapter 193 of Chihayafuru, ''Manga/{{Chihayafuru}}'', [[spoiler:Taichi cuts his hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata, symbolizing his desire to be seen as a serious threat to his rival]].
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None


* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Moe cuts her hair short when the new school year begins at Chapter 33. The reason is, she keeps her hair long because [[spoiler:she admires Misa]], but as Misa leaves the town for college, she requests Moe [[spoiler:to not admire her but live as herself instead]].

to:

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Moe cuts her hair short when the new school year begins at Chapter 33.32. The reason is, she keeps her hair long because [[spoiler:she admires Misa]], but as Misa leaves the town for college, she requests Moe [[spoiler:to not admire her but live as herself instead]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In the same vein as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' grew long in the gap between the [[AnachronicOrder second and fourth movies]], and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight. In the original novel, TheDragon of chapter six, [[spoiler:Misaya Ouji]], also cuts her hair in a similar fashion after discovering that she has been emotionally manipulated by the VillainOfTheWeek all along and resolving to kill him in revenge.

to:

* In the same vein as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' grew long in the gap between the [[AnachronicOrder second and fourth movies]], and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight. In the original novel, TheDragon of chapter six, [[spoiler:Misaya Ouji]], also cuts her hair in a similar fashion after discovering that she has been emotionally manipulated by the VillainOfTheWeek all along and resolving to kill him in revenge.



* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': [[spoiler: Leo]] gets one in Retrace 61. For a while, [[spoiler:he had been using his hair as BlindingBangs so he wouldn't have to see or here things anymore. By that point, he was "tired of hiding".]]

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* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': [[spoiler: Leo]] gets one in Retrace 61. For a while, [[spoiler:he had been using his hair as BlindingBangs so he wouldn't have to see or here hear things anymore. By that point, he was "tired of hiding".]]



* In ''Anime/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'', [[HeartwarmingOrphan Saya]] cuts [[ShelteredAristocrat Chagum]]'s hair to help him blend in and hide from [[OffingTheOffspring his father's men]]. Before this he had an elaborate (and extremely conspicuous) royal hairstyle.

to:

* In ''Anime/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'', ''Literature/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'', [[HeartwarmingOrphan Saya]] cuts [[ShelteredAristocrat Chagum]]'s hair to help him blend in and hide from [[OffingTheOffspring his father's men]]. Before this he had an elaborate (and extremely conspicuous) royal hairstyle.
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None


* In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordinary Person (Swindler) cuts her hair short while on the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity]].

to:

* In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordinary Person (Swindler) cuts her hair short while on the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity]].identity. However, the haircut also serves to represent her coming into her own, perhaps no longer minding her classifiction as akudama]].



* In chapter 193 of Chihayafuru, [[spoiler:Taichi cuts his hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata]].

to:

* In chapter 193 of Chihayafuru, [[spoiler:Taichi cuts his hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata]].
Arata, symbolizing his desire to be seen as a serious threat to his rival]].
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typo


* In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordianary Person (Swindler) cuts her hair short while on the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity]].

to:

* In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordianary [[spoiler:Ordinary Person (Swindler) cuts her hair short while on the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity]].

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*In ''Anime/AkudamaDrive'', [[spoiler:Ordianary Person (Swindler) cuts her hair short while on the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity]].
*In the final episode of ''Anime/APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse'', [[spoiler:Shirase cuts her hair after getting closure about her mother. With her new hair, she is told she looks just like her mother when she smiles]].
*In chapter 193 of Chihayafuru, [[spoiler:Taichi cuts his hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
misgendering


* In the ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' 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.

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* In the ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' prequel movie/episode "life goes on", Kino has her their 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 they killed.
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None


* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'':

to:

* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'':''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'':



* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''

to:

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':



* ''Manga/FushigiYuugi''

to:

* ''Manga/FushigiYuugi''''Manga/FushigiYuugi'':



* Yozora of ''LightNovel/BokuWaTomodachiGaSukunai'' sheers her long locks after an incident with a firework, and getting a bucket of dirty water dumped on her to put it out. The important part of this is [[spoiler: her short hair finally brings Kodaka around to realizing, she's his ForgottenChildhoodFriend, Sora.]]

to:

* Yozora of ''LightNovel/BokuWaTomodachiGaSukunai'' sheers ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' shears her long locks after an incident with a firework, and getting a bucket of dirty water dumped on her to put it out. The important part of this is [[spoiler: her short hair finally brings Kodaka around to realizing, she's his ForgottenChildhoodFriend, Sora.]]
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* ''Manga/{{Narutaru}}'' has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut [[spoiler: after the death of Hiro-chan]] and she also cuts her father's hair.

to:

* ''Manga/{{Narutaru}}'' ''Manga/ShadowStar'' has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut [[spoiler: after the death of Hiro-chan]] and she also cuts her father's hair.
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None


* ''LightNovel/MariaSamaGaMiteru'':

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* ''LightNovel/MariaSamaGaMiteru'':''LightNovel/MariaWatchesOverUs'':
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* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'':
** At the start of the story [[{{Tsundere}} Nino]] is the only quintuplet [[RapunzelHair who had refused to cut her hair at all]], which was a symbolic way for her to cling to the past. During the Seven Goodbyes arc, she has Miku cut it to shoulder length once she accepts that she can't cling to the past forever [[spoiler:as well as [[LoveEpiphany her own feelings for Fuutarou]]]].
** Later chapters reveal that [[GenkiGirl Yotsuba]] had also kept her hair long, but decided to cut it after they were transferred from their old school due to flunking their tests. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she did so because she was the only one to actually fail, but her sisters pretended to have cheated so she wouldn't be transferred alone, and from then on she decided she would put their happiness over her own]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* During the class trip arc in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveisWar'', [[spoiler:Hayasaka cuts off her ponytail with a knife in order to prevent one of Unyo's servants from holding onto it. This keeps her from being able to wear the scrunchie Kaguya gave her anymore, marking the metaphorical end to their master-servant relationship (she ends up keeping it as a wristband instead). After the arc is over, she styles the remaining hair into a bobcut, [[HereditaryHairstyle similar to her mother's]].]]

to:

* During the class trip arc in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveisWar'', ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:Hayasaka cuts off her ponytail with a knife in order to prevent one of Unyo's servants from holding onto it. This keeps her from being able to wear the scrunchie Kaguya gave her anymore, marking the metaphorical end to their master-servant relationship (she ends up keeping it as a wristband instead). After the arc is over, she styles the remaining hair into a bobcut, [[HereditaryHairstyle similar to her mother's]].]]
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None

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* During the class trip arc in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveisWar'', [[spoiler:Hayasaka cuts off her ponytail with a knife in order to prevent one of Unyo's servants from holding onto it. This keeps her from being able to wear the scrunchie Kaguya gave her anymore, marking the metaphorical end to their master-servant relationship (she ends up keeping it as a wristband instead). After the arc is over, she styles the remaining hair into a bobcut, [[HereditaryHairstyle similar to her mother's]].]]

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* ''Manga/{{Given}}'': After an incident with Akihito, Haruki cuts his beautiful long blond hair, as a sign of his confusion over his feelings for him, until they reconcile.



** Kazuma Sohma, A.K.A. Shishou, is no excempt. He originally grew his hair long to gather Kyo good luck, but after he succeed on getting him get accepted for his true zodiac form by [[LoveInterest Tohru]], who refused to turn her back on him for it, he eventually cut his hair short afterwards.

to:

** Kazuma Sohma, A.K.A. Shishou, is no excempt.excempt neither. He originally grew his hair long to gather Kyo good luck, but after he succeed on getting him get accepted for his true zodiac form by [[LoveInterest Tohru]], who refused to turn her back on him for it, he eventually cut his hair short afterwards.
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None


* On ''Manga/HanaYoriDango'', after some nasty events involving TraumaticHaircut, [[PluckyGirl 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. In Mrs. Makino's defense, all she did was even out the hair that hadn't been [[TraumaticHaircut cut]]. It's not her fault it made poor Tsukushi look like Kintaro.

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* On ''Manga/HanaYoriDango'', In ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'', after some nasty events involving TraumaticHaircut, [[PluckyGirl 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. In Mrs. Makino's defense, all she did was even out the hair that hadn't been [[TraumaticHaircut cut]]. It's not her fault it made poor Tsukushi look like Kintaro.
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** Kazuma Sohma, A.K.A. Shishou, is no excempt. He originally grew his hair long to gather Kyo good luck, but after he succeed on getting him get accepted for his true zodiac form by [[LoveInterest Tohru]], who refused to turn her back on him for it, he eventually cut his hair short afterwards.
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* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Moe cuts her hair short when the new school year begins at Chapter 33. The reason is, she keeps her hair long because [[spoiler:she admires Misa]], but as Misa leaves the town for college, she requests Moe [[spoiler:to not admire her but live as herself instead]].
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* In the ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' manga, Hiryu cuts off his ponytail at the end of the 2nd chapter, [[spoiler:and leaves it in his friend Sheena's grave, now fully-determined to destroy the MegaCorp and anyone responsible for their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control]] project.]]

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* In the ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' ''Manga/{{Strider}}'' manga, Hiryu cuts off his ponytail at the end of the 2nd chapter, [[spoiler:and leaves it in his friend Sheena's grave, now fully-determined to destroy the MegaCorp and anyone responsible for their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control]] project.]]

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* Ange does this in ''Anime/CrossAnge'' once she has accepted her fate



* Ange does this in ''Anime/CrossAnge'' once she has accepted her fate
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* Ange does this in ''Anime/CrossAnge'' once she has accepted her fate
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** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and its ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' adaptation, Krillin has [[HappilyMarried Android 18]] shaves it to prepare for the battle against [[BigBad Frieza]] and his army, grows it back afterwards during ''Super'' to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then 18 re-shaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.

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** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and its ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' adaptation, Krillin has [[HappilyMarried Android 18]] shaves 18 shave it to prepare for the battle against [[BigBad Frieza]] and his army, grows it back afterwards during ''Super'' to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then 18 re-shaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.
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** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Krillin shaves is for the ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' adaptation, grows it back afterwards to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then reshaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.

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** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Krillin shaves is for the ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and its ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' adaptation, Krillin has [[HappilyMarried Android 18]] shaves it to prepare for the battle against [[BigBad Frieza]] and his army, grows it back afterwards during ''Super'' to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then reshaves 18 re-shaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.
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{{Important Haircut}}s in anime and manga.
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* ''Manga/SketDance'':
** Switch is a straight example in his BackStory, for his own reasons. Tsubaki also makes such a decision when appearing as a minor character in Bossun's backstory.
** Himeko is an inversion and a straight example though. [[spoiler:Her hair was shorter when younger and was definitely not blonde, but later she grew it up to go as the image of the yanki she became.]] Much later, Himeko cuts it just to start fresh when [[spoiler:the Sket Dan officially formed]].
* Narrowly averted in ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Usagi almost gets a sorrow haircut upon Minako's suggestion when Mamoru dumps her, but the MonsterOfTheWeek apparently makes her forget that she was in the beauty shop for a new 'do. It really doesn't help that the monster had a hairstylist theme going.
* Akane Tendo in an early episode of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. Notable in that [[TraumaticHaircut she didn't actually have a choice]] [[CloseCallHaircut in the matter]], but then decides to ask her bis sister Kasumi to get it more or less cleaned up and, from then on, chose to ''not'' grow it back. That's because she grew it long originally to attract [[PrecociousCrush her first crush]], Dr. Tofu, but by that time she gets over her love for him. In the Anime and Manga Ryoga accidentally chopped Akane's hair when she was caught in the crossfire between a fight with him and Ranma, she blames Ranma too since she got in the mess to try helping him anyway; in the live action special, it was one of the gang members who did it with a sickle.
* The beginning narration of ''Ojamajo Doremi 16'' (which is a spinoff/sequel LightNovel series to ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'') states that [[spoiler:Doremi cut her hair to a shorter length in order to deal with her feelings being rejected by Kotake]].
* ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim'': In episode 9, to prove that her HeelFaceTurn was real, [[spoiler:Lecce]] unsheathed her rapier, stated that she would cut the most precious thing for a woman, and then cut her hair and offered it to Daba (crying as she did so). That did it, and the main characters believed her.
* We see in a {{flashback}} why Mireille of ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' has a peculiar "half-bang" style. [[spoiler: Lady Silvana is to blame: when they were playing as kids, Silvana used a knife to cut little Mireille's bangs, and she's kept a similar style since then.]]
* In ''Anime/AzumangaDaioh'':
** Tomo starts the second year growing out her hair in an attempt to be ''Franchise/LupinIII'''s Fujiko Mine. When the third year starts, she has it cut back to her short style from the beginning. This confuses Chiyo-chan, leading her to ask Yomi if she broke up with a boyfriend, causing Yomi to bust a gut at the thought. Tomo just had it lopped off because she figured that was too high of a goal.
** In the same period Tomo chopped her hair, Chiyo-chan moved her pigtails' positioning, freaking out Osaka.
* Ninamori from ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' cuts her hair at the end of the 3rd episode.
* ''LightNovel/MariaSamaGaMiteru'':
** Sei (the original ''Rosa Gigantea'') has not just one but ''two'' Important Haircuts. She cut her long hair to medium length after [[spoiler:her girlfriend ran off to become a nun]]. She later cropped it short after beginning college.
** In the same series, [[ShaggyDogStory a whole episode is dedicated to minor character Mifuyu]], who cuts her hair after realizing that she will never gain Sachiko's favor.
* ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'':
** Another male example: Ginta shaves his head to apologize to Miki after he accidentally breaks her heart. Meiko also suggested Miki cut her hair before they saw that Ginta had, but Miki laughed it off; back then, [[BoyishShortHair her hair was much too short already.]] Echoing the above incident, when Yuu leaves Miki (apparently for good, [[spoiler: after finding out he may be her half-brother]]) in the anime, Miki's efforts to overcome it include cutting her long hair into a pageboy style and piercing her ears.
** When young, [[IllGirl 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 ButtMonkey and SmallNameBigEgo, has to shave his head after losing a bet to Ginta.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** During the Chunin exam arc, 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 become as strong as Naruto, Sasuke and Rock Lee, who have always been there to protect her. Oddly enough, in one flashback after the timeskip that shows Sakura training with [[spoiler: Tsunade]], her hair has grown back to its pre-Chunin Exam length, but it's short once again in Part II. Late into ''Shippuden'' Sakura's hair grows to chin length, and as an adult it's a bit longer, but neither have any ulterior meaning.
** 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 HighSchoolAU, 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 [[spoiler:Sakura had laid down on the grass and accidentally got gum in her hair]].
* Two different characters in ''Anime/{{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.
* Motoko Aoyama from ''Manga/LoveHina'' cuts her long hair into a short bob when she decides to become a nun as penance for lying to her sister. Kaolla Su even has a laugh at the idea of her shaving her head bald.
* On ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'', the stuck-up ship's navigator Bart develops an IntergenerationalFriendship with LittlestCancerPatient Shirley on one of the planets they visit. The people there make dolls [[spoiler: to leave as proof they existed, due to their [[HumanResources 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, [[CharacterDevelopment and from there on is slightly less of a jerk]]. Oh, and additionally he [[TookALevelInBadass has both control over the cool ship's weapons and a willingness to use them]], lets not forget that.
* In the second episode of ''Manga/TheWallflower'', 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 TheNoseBleed, now that she can see the tenants.
* Sara of ''Anime/StrainStrategicArmoredInfantry'' cuts her hair going into her new identity as she chases her brother.
* In ''Manga/OtakuNoMusumeSan'', Haruka cuts off her PeekABangs to emphasise to her elder sister how serious she is about following her own path.
* There's an interesting contrast in ''VisualNovel/RumblingHearts'' -- 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.
* In the same vein as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'' grew long in the gap between the [[AnachronicOrder second and fourth movies]], and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight. In the original novel, TheDragon of chapter six, [[spoiler:Misaya Ouji]], also cuts her hair in a similar fashion after discovering that she has been emotionally manipulated by the VillainOfTheWeek all along and resolving to kill him in revenge.
* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' 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.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** Variation: [[spoiler:Sosuke Aizen]] does an Important Hairstyle Change when he reveals himself as a BigBad.
** Inversion: [[TheMedic Orihime]] [[BarrierWarrior Inoue]] used to have short hair [[TraumaticHaircut after a group of junior high bullies cut it forcibly]], but when [[BullyHunter 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. If one looks at her hair "progression" closely, the reader will notice that even after she has started using a HimeCut, the rest of her hair has continuously grown ''longer''.
** Also, the Vizard changed their hairstyles after leaving Soul Society. [[spoiler: And have kept said styles whether they have returned [[note]](Rose, Shinji, Mashiro, Kensei, and at the very end Lisa)[[/note]] or not [[note]](Love, Hachi, Hiyori)[[/note]] to it, after their exoneration.]]
** Towards the very end, a more mature Rukia Kuchiki is seen wearing her hair to her waist after keeping it short for the whole series. [[spoiler: It's also timed with two very important hits in her life: [[ChildhoodFriendRomance forming a family with Renji]] [[BabiesEverAfter and their daughter]], and [[RankUp becoming a captain]].]]
** Kouga, the BigBad of the ''Zanpakuto Unknown Tales'' filler arc, had one as well. [[spoiler: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.]]
* ''Manga/GlassMask'' has Ayumi stereotyped as a princess in her acting, something that she starts to detest. When she becomes determined to expand her repertoire in roles and prove to everyone and herself that she has the makings of a first-class actress, she cuts her long, [[OjouRinglets curly]] hair to a pixie cut. She ends up growing it out and, reflecting her character development, it ends up in waves instead of curls.
* In ''StellaJogakuinKoutokaC3Bu'', after briefly experimenting with various hairstles in episode three to stop her hair getting in the way during airsoft battles, Yura just cuts her hair shorter at the end of the episode to signify her increasing determination to take airsoft seriously.
* Kenji Harima of ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' 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 [[CannotSpitItOut Tenma]].
* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' definitely loves to play around with the trope, whether using full haircuts or mere hairstyle changes:
** [[BadassNormal Shishido Ryoh]] is kicked off the Hyoutei tennis club after [[PrideBeforeAFall an embarrassing]] [[BreakTheHaughty defeat]], and then sets out to get back on the team through [[TrainingFromHell ridiculously harsh training]]; 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, the captain of the team, says "This guy hasn't lost" after the haircut [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold as a way of endorsing him]]).
** Atobe himself (the series's 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. In the manga, since Atobe is unconscious by the end, Ryoma shaves his head for him; in the anime, Atobe shaves it himself, even when sub-regular Taki offers to have ''his'' own hair cut instead of Atobe's. 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 [[EpilepticTrees the fans to heavily speculate about it]].
** 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 [[EyeScream 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* , [[TeamMom Oishi Syuichirou]] changes his hairstyle ''every'' year in all canons. The first one is theorized to be an Important Haircut that came when he became a regular in his second year in Seigaku: his formerly messy hair became a simple buzzcut.
** And don't forget the Kisarazu twins using different hairstyles (long for Ryou, short for Atsushi) to distinguish each other. [[spoiler: Atsushi's manager Mizuki cut Atsushi's hair short [[TwinSwitch after mistaking Atsushi]] for Ryou and taking him along for the ride by mistake.]]
* Fay in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' 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 StepfordSmiler persona.
* Videl in ''Manga/DragonBall'' 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, [[{{Tsundere}} which indicated she liked him, despite looking observably annoyed.]]
** Gohan himself gets a haircut after reaching Super Saiyan for the first time. Later on, he cuts it again off-screen before the Majin Buu arc, which has been his ''de facto'' hairstyle (excluding ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection F]]'') to signify his transition into adulthood.
** Krillin ''grew'' out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with [[UglyGuyHotWife a smoking hot wife,]] and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives LampshadeHanging even going as far as for one character to [[NoFourthWall break the fourth wall,]] [[DoubleStandard more so than anyone else.]] [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance 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.]] During ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Krillin shaves is for the ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' adaptation, grows it back afterwards to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then reshaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.
* Aika in ''Manga/{{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.
* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' 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). Or she may have cut her hair so nobody would mistake her for Lala Ru again, which pulled her into this mess to begin with.
* The moment that Knives in ''Manga/{{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 ''Manga/SlamDunk'', 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; it doesn't seem to be for a specific reason, but by that time she assumes that her crush towards Rukawa is a hopeless one. Mitsui's haircut is noted by one of the members of his former gang whom he runs into after a check-up at the hospital (his reaction is important because it symbolizes his acceptance of Mitsui putting his life back on track):
---> "What's up with the 'do? You look like a jock. But seriously... It suits you fine."
** Perhaps a deconstruction in Hanamichi's case, given that he gets endlessly mocked for his new haircut. Also Rukawa had previously told him that assuming all the blame for the loss was actually very arrogant of him (of course, being Rukawa, he did it too), making the haircut just another of Hanamichi's over-the-top reactions in the eyes of the readers, rather than an important moment of character development. Though Hanamichi eventually [[CharacterDevelopment becomes even more serious about basketball than before]], so the trope can be seen as PlayedStraight with some time.
* In ''Anime/DirtyPairFlash'', Lady Flair gets her long hair shot off as she makes her heel-face turn.
* In ''Manga/ElfenLied'', Nyu cuts off her long hair to impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae [[spoiler:to signify Lucy's guilt over killing her]].
* In ''Manga/DNA2'', Ami's best friend Kotomi Takanashi keeps at first her hair in GirlishPigtails. She cuts it into a pageboy style when she wants to change her whole personality, making her more open in wanting to date Junta. It takes her a while to learn that a new haircut doesn't make her a different person, but she does improve on speaking up about things.
* ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'''s title character.
** In the manga, Nausicaä receives the haircut (and a scale mail) when leaving for war. Also in manga, Kushana cuts her considerably long braid [[spoiler:to honor the death of a considerable part of her men in an Ohmu attack engineered by the Dorok.]]
* In ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'', Ashitaka cuts his hair before having to leave his village (due to a curse) to seek his destiny, it was a proof of his determination to resist returning.
* She didn't do it to herself, but Sheeta in ''[[Anime/CastleInTheSky Laputa: Castle in the Sky]]'' experiences an Important Haircut by [[CloseCallHaircut 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 [[PluckyGirl she finds the strength to stop running and take control of the situation]].
* The second [=ED=] of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' 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.
** Louise Halevy got one when [[spoiler: she [[TookALevelInBadass evolved]] from BrattyTeenageDaughter to a mix of BrokenBird DarkActionGirl. Once the series is over, though, she lets it grow again as a symbol of her CharacterDevelopment.]]
* In [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Gundam F91]], the LadyOfWar Cecily Fairchild cut her OjouRinglets much shorter after she returns to the Ronah clan, and did not grow it back until later on.
* In ''Manga/{{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 [[strike: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 [[strike:or the artist getting tired of drawing the same hairstyles all the time]].
* Prior to setting out for the climactic battle of ''[[Anime/WeissKreuz Weiß Kreuz Glühen]]'', Aya uses his own katana to cut off the waist-length braid he'd grown between series.
** The epilogue of the original series shows that Sakura, who had previously [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange grown her hair out]] in the hopes that it would appeal to Aya, has gone back to her previous bob cut.
* ''Anime/LastExile'' [[spoiler: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 ''[[Anime/FafnerInTheAzureDeadAggressor Fafner]]'' special ''Right of Left'' cuts her hair short once she becomes a Fafner pilot.
* In the manga ''Manga/GetBackers'', [[spoiler:Kazuki]] chopped off his RapunzelHair [[spoiler: to express his determination to rescue Fuuga and 'get back his lost time'. The scene took up one full page, so that ought to classify it an important haircut.]]
* In the manga ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'', Chrono's braid is cut off during a duel with [[spoiler: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 ''Manga/HanaYoriDango'', after some nasty events involving TraumaticHaircut, [[PluckyGirl 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. In Mrs. Makino's defense, all she did was even out the hair that hadn't been [[TraumaticHaircut cut]]. It's not her fault it made poor Tsukushi look like Kintaro.
* While not cutting it herself, Layla Hamilton fits this trope in the ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' {{OVA}}, "Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari". After a journey to find herself, Layla goes from her DefrostingIceQueen persona to a person who won't hide her feelings anymore. Then, she asks [[GenkiGirl Sora Naegino]] to cut her long blond hair for her.
* When we first meet Casca from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' she has close-cropped short hair symbolic of her LadyOfWar 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 [[spoiler: gets raped by Femto and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Goes Mad From The Revelation]]]], Casca has let her hair grow long again. When she regains her sanity, she has Danna cut it short again.
** Additionally, Farnese, [[spoiler: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 ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', Calcifer needs to [[spoiler: move the wrecked castle]] but needs [[InsertPaymentToUse something of value]] for the energy to do so. He suggests he use Sophie's eyes, but Sophie quickly cuts her long braid and gives it to him. It's good enough.
* In ''Anime/EurekaSeven'', 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.
** Talho also trims her normally unkempt hair as part of her complete outer (and inner) makeover in episode 30.
* In ''Manga/SkipBeat'', 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 ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', [[TheStoic Sousuke]] allows [[{{Tsundere}} 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 [[ChildSoldiers Child Soldier]] with NoSocialSkills 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 [[CharacterDevelopment very important]]. 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 embarrassed, aroused or both. Looks like no amount of conditioning can defeat pheromones from a similarly aged girl when you are 16...
* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'':
** 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 [[AdaptationExpansion 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.
** According to author's notes, [[GenderFlip Female!Japan]] used to have long hair in a HimeCut, but once she broke off her 200-years long isolation, she cut it shorter to prove that she could now interact with the rest of the world.
** When Hungary [[ItMakesSenseInContext thought that she was a guy]], she kept her hair in a TomboyishPonytail. As an OlderAndWiser mix of ActionGirl and TeamMom, she now keeps it loose and much longer.
* The lead character of ''Manga/KazeHikaru'' has already cut her hair at the beginning of the series [[SweetPollyOliver to join the Shinengumi]], but Okita Souji remarks on the depth of her sacrifice.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya''
** Haruhi cuts her hair short in the first episode. Before cutting her hair, she was indifferent to all classmates, changing her hairstyle every day of the week, increasing the number of ribbons each day. When Kyon questions this, the usually aloof Haruhi has a short debate with him, ending with Kyon implying that he finds it unnecessary. The next day Haruhi shows up with her hair cut (to everyone's, especially Kyon's surprise). This event marks the beginning of her opening up to Kyon and creating the SOS Brigade, which is crucial to the series.
** In the ''Disappearance'' arc, [[spoiler: the alternate-timeline Haruhi still has long hair and is still snarky and antisocial. This shows how much of an impact Kyon had on Haruhi in the old timeline.]]
* In the manga ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'', known as ''Manga/HanaKimi'' 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 ''Anime/XamdLostMemories'' 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 [[LampshadeHanging 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 [[MacGuffin O-Parts]] and Mosquiton, the vampire, complains about her doing "the hair-cutting thing."
* In the ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' 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.
* ''Manga/FushigiYuugi''
** Tamahome's hair is cut off by Suboshi's weapons when [[spoiler: he confronts Suboshi on the murder of his family]].
** It's also mentioned in the author's notes that Yui Hongo used to have long hair, but she cut it short [[HotLibrarian to stop guys from chasing after her]]. She lets it grow back later.
** Nuriko [[spoiler: cut his hair off when he decided to stop living [[DeadPersonImpersonation the life that his dead younger sister would've lived]].]]
* In ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann 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, [[CharacterDevelopment solidfying their new friendship]].
* There is a sort of inverted example in ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'' Asa Shigure's short hair grows longer when she [[spoiler: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 [[CharacterDevelopment Asa has finally come to terms]] with her heritage as [[spoiler:a half-demon and the daughter of the first being experimented on by the gods and the demons]].
* Eunhyung from the BoysLove {{manhwa}} ''Manhwa/LetDai'' 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.
* ''Manga/{{Narutaru}}'' has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut [[spoiler: after the death of Hiro-chan]] and she also cuts her father's hair.
* Somewhat subverted in BoysLove 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 BoysLove manga ''Koi ga Bokura wo 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 [[spoiler: to accept the relationship between Eiji and Yamazaki, thus moving on from her emotional hang ups]].
* After [[spoiler:accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck as Hibino Hikaru]]]], Erika from ''[[Manga/HimechanNoRibon Hime-chan no Ribbon]]'' cuts off her gorgeous, [[RapunzelHair extrememly long]] blonde hair so that she can [[TwinSwitch impersonate Hime-chan]] at home and school until they can find some way to [[spoiler: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 ''Manga/{{MAR}}'''s Ginta gets his hair cut at one point during his first trip into the Shuuren no Mon.
* In ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'', Kumi Sugimoto cuts her GirlishPigtails 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 ''[[Anime/DragonautTheResonance Dragonaut]]''. [[EmoKid 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.
* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', Clare gets her haircut during her final exam and first yoma hunt, to use the hair as a decoy.
* Hanako in ''Manga/TheLuciferAndBiscuitHammer'' cuts off her own ponytail to symbolize how she's decided to become a warrior and avenge her [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend not-boyfriend's]] HeroicSacrifice.
* A {{Flashback}} chapter of ''[[Manga/SgtFrog Keroro Gunsou]]'' reveals that Momoka gave herself an Important Haircut when her [[SplitPersonality dark side]] emerged for the first time upon seeing Tamama on the bad end of a CurbStompBattle. Coupled with ActionDressRip.
* ''Manga/SakuraGari'': Masataka gives one to Souma to signify [[spoiler: his MissingMom Abigail's definitive passing, and Lord Saiki's acceptance of such a fact]].
* ''Manga/WanderingSon'':
** Subverted. When formerly depressed [[{{transgender}} trans girl]] Nitori cuts her hair short everyone thinks she's decided to be a boy after all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the ''female'' model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in ''Film/RosemarysBaby''). It's used as a plot point as the style looks masculine on her. She's hitting puberty and growing out of her androgyny.
** Played straight in the same series with the resident trans boy, Takatsuki. He cuts his hair early in the first volume, from a bob to a pixie. In middle school he grows it back into a bob due to a female friend of his saying he looks better with it. After being told how it makes him look like a tomboy and he's "cute" with it, he cuts his hair. At the beginning of high school he begins letting his hair grow again though, which signifies [[spoiler:Takatsuki's confusion about their gender identity and their beginning of identifying as female]].
* In ''Anime/HeatGuyJ'', Giovanni [[spoiler: has to go destroy J, even though he knows it will hurt someone to whom Giovanni and his best friend owe their lives]]. Before he does so, he tries to look like a different person by shaving his mullet into a mohawk and dyeing it blue. Meanwhile, his best friend looks on nervously, knowing that this isn't going to go well.
* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' kept her long, red hair down as Meimi, but kept her hair in a pigtail as Saint Tail. At the end of the manga series, after she'd quit being Saint Tail, she cut her hair short.
* In ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', both Rin and Akito get important haircuts. [[spoiler:Rin has her long hair hacked off by Akito when she's locked up. In this case, the TraumaticHaircut is symbolic for both of them. Akito is enraged and hates long, black hair because it reminds her of her mother, Ren (A SmugSnake who abuses her daughter constantly, and in fact is the one who manipulated Rin to act against Akito which is what got her caught in the first place); Rin, meanwhile, wears her hair short for the rest of the series and it symbolizes how [[CharacterDevelopment she is calmer and eases up on her determination to break the curse]] (which was pretty much driving her to an early grave, due to her being an IllGirl). Akito gets an inverse at the end, when she grows her hair out to symbolize how she's free to live her life as a woman, rather than forced to hide her identity and pretend to be a man.]]
* ''Manga/FairyTail'': A few instances, most notably when Fried Justine shaves off his [[LongHairedPrettyboy waist-length hair]] after [[spoiler:Laxus is excommunicated from the guild as a result of trying to overthrow his grandfather and forcing everyone to fight each other, a plan for which Fried was Laxus' accomplice]]. Lampshaded in Lucy's narration when she remarks that he "seems to have taken the old-fashioned position of 'contemplation = head-shaving'." Notably, he grows it back to its original length not much later (probably with the aid of, y'know, [[AWizardDidIt magic]], namely Lucy's Summon Spirit, Cancer), so it's possible it was either done for the sake of the joke, or else someone pointed out that he looks silly with a shaved head.
** During the Edolas arc, Erza impersonates her [[SociopathicSoldier Edolas counterpart]] by stealing her clothes and styling her hair so she could help her fellow wizards. Once said counterpart realizes what happens, she's so pissed that she cuts her own hair down to a bob so no one would make that mistake again.
** Also Juvia cuts her hair to signify her change and after the Edolas arc her hair gets restored [[AWizardDidIt somehow]].
** As of chapter 388, Wendy has followed suit, which makes her look even more like Katja than she already did, partly as a vow of determination, and partly because [[CloseCallHaircut some of her hair got cut off in her battle with Ezel]]. [[spoiler:At the end of the arc her hair is also returned thanks to Cancer]].
* Bleed Kaga from ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'' cuts his long braided tail in the final episode of ''SIN'' and dyes his hair black, a symbol of wanting to settle the score with Hayato.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'', Ayace cuts off [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Canale's]] hair instead of killing him as requested, leaving the severed hair at Canale's family mansion (now on fire) as symbol of his old life and encouraging him to move on and live.
* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': [[spoiler: Leo]] gets one in Retrace 61. For a while, [[spoiler:he had been using his hair as BlindingBangs so he wouldn't have to see or here things anymore. By that point, he was "tired of hiding".]]
* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** During ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', Alphonse grew his hair out like Edward. It's symbolic, as he wants to be like Ed; he even wore the same clothing as him. Near the end he cuts his hair, to the same style as before he lost his body.
** In regards to [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist original manga]] and the ''Brotherhood'' anime, there is an inversion with Riza Hawkeye. Back in her younger years as a soldier, she kept her hair rather short and tied up. However, after meeting Winry Rockbell (from when she and Roy met the Elric brothers), a discussion between the people that matter to them led them to make a change in appearance as a result. While Winry got earrings like Hawkeye, Hawkeye grew out her hair (though it was still held up in a similar way)as a form of kinship to her and how Winry reminded her of what was important. It remains as such for a majority of the series though its seemingly back to its short cut in the epilogue.
* In the ''Manga/SukebanDeka'' OAV, Saki rejects the advances of a classmate by saying that she hates guys with long hair. In response, the boy whips out a set of clippers and shaves himself bald right there in front of her. He doesn't graduate to love interest, but he does become one of Saki's allies.
* Perhaps in an inverted example, in Book Two of the manga ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'', Abbott Arikoto [[spoiler: grows his hair out when he breaks his vow of chastity]].
* Ayumu from ''Manga/{{Life}}'' cut her hair when she began middle school, around the same time she became depressed and started to SelfHarm herself. She cut it shorter later in the story, when she became more happy with herself.
* The protagonist of ''Vitamin'' by the same mangaka as ''Life'' cuts her hair in the last chapter, to show she's become more confident.
* Franky from ''Franchise/OnePiece'' cut his hair to a buzz cut after the TimeSkip, but can revert to his old style or change to a new one by pressing his nose for more than three seconds. It doesn't really seem to be important so much as funny, however, as the hairstyles Franky's displayed so far include his original pompadour, his new buzz-cut, a mohawk, and bull horns.
* Yozora of ''LightNovel/BokuWaTomodachiGaSukunai'' sheers her long locks after an incident with a firework, and getting a bucket of dirty water dumped on her to put it out. The important part of this is [[spoiler: her short hair finally brings Kodaka around to realizing, she's his ForgottenChildhoodFriend, Sora.]]
* In the first chapter of ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'', when a prince demands that the heroine Shirayuki become his concubine because of her rare hair color, she flees the country, [[TakeThat leaving her cut off hair behind]].
* Zigzagged in ''LightNovel/HumanityHasDeclined''. "[[NoNameGiven Watashi]]" screwed [[NoodleIncident something]] up before the story began and cut her hair... but things really begin after she grows it all back (and then some) with [[AcmeProducts Fairy Co]] hair tonic.
* In ''LightNovel/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'', Makoto Isshiki shaves his head bald as gesture of apology to his class when his girl-ranking book was discovered.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' manga, Hiryu cuts off his ponytail at the end of the 2nd chapter, [[spoiler:and leaves it in his friend Sheena's grave, now fully-determined to destroy the MegaCorp and anyone responsible for their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control]] project.]]
* Ena from ''Manga/{{Yotsubato}}'' had even longer hair in the early chapters, suggesting that she cut it a bit shorter during the early summer vacations.
* In the 3rd ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' OVA, Noike lops off her long hair early because she absolutely ''hates'' the idea of having long hair, saying she'll wear a wig for important matters. For those not in the know, Juraians have incredibly long hair as tradition. Noike's adopted.
** Not an actual haircut, but supplemental information revealed that Ayeka actually has blue hair and that she had it geneticly modified to impress Yosho.
* In the manga ''{{Manga/Horimiya}}'' [[spoiler:Miyamura]] gets one to prevent the other students from talking badly about Hori for having 'such a bad taste in guys'. Hori doesn't like it and wants him to grow it back, which he slowly seems to be doing.
* Ruru in ''Anime/GaikingLegendOfDaikuMaryu'' cuts her hair short upon [[spoiler: her promotion to Captain of the Daiku Maryu]].
* In the finale of ''Anime/KillLaKill'', Satsuki is shown to have traded in her RapunzelHair for a stylish chin-length bob. Along with her [[DefrostingIceQueen warmer]] attitude and more relaxed clothing, it fully illustrates how much she's changed now that [[spoiler: she's completed her goal of saving humanity and free from her family's dark past]].
* In ''Anime/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'', [[HeartwarmingOrphan Saya]] cuts [[ShelteredAristocrat Chagum]]'s hair to help him blend in and hide from [[OffingTheOffspring his father's men]]. Before this he had an elaborate (and extremely conspicuous) royal hairstyle.
-->"Well, I don't look at all like a prince now." ''(SingleTear)''
* In ''Manga/{{Pastel}}'', Manami cuts her hair short after she finds out her crush is in love with someone. The translators include a note about the traditional implication that she's moving on.
* In ''LightNovel/KokoroConnect'', when Aoki goes to see his old girlfriend Nana and sort his feelings out, right as he leaves she tells him she cut her hair the last New Year, and his expression suggests that he understands the message that she's let go.
* In ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'', Yona's haircut had a reason similar to Sakura's since she was being held by her hair and need to get away. It isn't until a little later when she definitively starts to change from a sheltered princess to a warrior in her own right.
* Prior to becoming a cyborg Henrietta from ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' had long hair. Present time it's in a bob style.
* In the sixtieth episode of the ''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon X & Y series]]'', [[spoiler:Serena]] cuts her hair short and begins to wear a different outfit to signal CharacterDevelopment after [[spoiler:losing in her first Showcase]].
* Kaoru from ''Manga/ICantUnderstandWhatMyHusbandIsSaying'' dyed her hair blonde after getting married to Hajime, probably to distance herself from the time she spent alone and miserable before meeting him. It also has the bonus effect of making her look like her mother.
* ''Manga/BokuraNoHentai'':
** Satoshi cut his hair between his first year of middle school and his second year. He hit puberty and decided to stop crossdressing to school. Eventually he grew it back long though.
** Ryousuke cut his long hair when [[spoiler:he stopped [[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe dressing as his sister]].]]
* Occurs early in ''{{Manga/Uzumaki}}'', when Kirie receives an Important Haircut after her hair is contaminated by the Spiral.
* ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'': Rinko's long pigtails are chopped off accidentally by her teammate as she does a HeelFaceTurn and protects Ueki, which they are fighting.
* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', it's a combination of this and TraumaticHaircut. During her battle with a Level 3 Akuma, Lenalee Lee's long GirlishPigtails are burned off, leaving her hair [[BoyishShortHair boyishly short]]. It counts as an Important Haircut as she discovers the depths of her resolve.
* In ''LightNovel/LordMarksmanAndVanadis'', Rurick mocked Tigre and gave him a shoddy bow to sabotage his archery display. Despite this, Tigre manages to shoot an assassin from a great distance. Afterwards, everyone found out what Rurick did and was about to execute him until Tigre asked them not to. Extremely grateful and awed by Tigre's skills, Rurick shaved his head as a sign of humility and loyalty.
* In ''Anime/QueensBlade'', Leina cuts her long hair short as part of her resolve to become a warrior.
* ''Anime/SaintSeiyaSoulOfGold'' has an Important ''Beard'' Cut: Deathmask spends the early part of the series as TheHedonist, but after [[spoiler:failing to protect Helena]] [[HesBack he finds back his resolve]] and goes in the final battle clean shaven.
* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', every time Koichi Hirose evolves his Stand to a new ACT, it's accompanied by a new hairstyle. He starts the series with his hair slicked down, but it becomes messier once he unlocks Echoes [=ACT1=], then he cuts it into a flat-top when he evolves Echoes to [=ACT2=] (stopping in the middle of a battle with his [[{{Yandere}} psycho stalker]] to cut his hair so as to tell her, "You can't control me anymore!"), then his hair somehow takes on a style of its own accord that can only be described as '[[Franchise/DragonBall Super Saiyan]]' when he finally achieves [=ACT3=].
* In LightNovel/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline, main character Karen cuts her waist-length hair short after winning a tournament and feeling she'd managed to overcome her complex about her height. She'd only worn her hair long to make herself seem more feminine, since it was hard to maintain. In the light novels, it's mentioned that the rest of her family thought she'd gone through a breakup after seeing her hair cut short.
* Happens a few times in ''Manga/DomesticGirlfriend''.
** Hina cuts it when [[spoiler: she's forced to break up with Natsuo and then grows it back when she makes the decision to move back home and try to get back together with him.]]
** Rui grows her hair out after [[spoiler: Hina leaves because she thinks Natsuo prefers long hair and cuts it again after she returns and Natsuo remains loyal to herself rather than get back together with Hina.]]
** Miyabi cuts it after [[spoiler: she finally works up the courage to tell Natsuo she loves him, only to get rejected.]]

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