History Main / IHaveToWashMyHair

* ''MegasXLR'' "Dude, Where's My Head" When Jamie decides to break his NonActionGuy role and do a flying leap off a parking garage roof his date protests. Saying "It's been great hanging out with you and all, but I've got to go home and wash my hair."

* In the episode where [[Series/SavedByTheBell Kelly Kapowski]] didn't want to go to the prom with Zack because she couldn't afford a dress, she used this one so often Zack told her she'd caused a drought in California.

* In the episode where [[SavedByTheBell Kelly Kapowski]] didn't want to go to the prom with Zack because she couldn't afford a dress, she used this one so often Zack told her she'd caused a drought in California.
* ''TheBigBangTheory'' "The Cushion Saturation", Penny tries to excuse herself saying she needed to wash her hair to save herself from Sheldon's wrath when he was about to discover his self-designated couch cushion had been disturbed.
* An episode of ''DiffrentStrokes'' had Willis' girlfriend blow off a date with him by saying she had to wash her hair. He goes to the movies anyway and sees her there with another guy.
* In the extended ''{{Glee}}'' pilot, Emma pulls out several of these excuses (i.e. "I'm allergic to nighttime") to discourage Ken from asking her out.

* In the furry comic ''{{ISO}}'' by Vince Suzukawa, when the main character Cody Frost is trying to work up the nerve to ask his crush, GentleGiant Doug, out on a date, his ImagineSpot comes up with various reasons why Doug might turn him down. This excuse is one of them.

* ''PrivateSchool''

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part II'': Lorraine uses the line on Biff. Ironically she wasn't trying to let him down easy, considering she had just told him to "take a long walk off a short pier". At least Biff deserved it.
* When Otter says that a girl broke a date with him in ''AnimalHouse'', Boon asks if she used this excuse. Subverted with Otter's reply - "Dead mother".
* Creator/WoodyAllen films love this Trope.
** ''{{Bananas}}''. [[Creator/WoodyAllen Fielding Mellish]] tries to ask out a SexySecretary.

->'''Otter:''' She broke our date.
->'''D-Day:''' Had to wash her hair?
->'''Otter:''' (shakes head) Dead mother.
-->- ''AnimalHouse''

* One ''{{Concerned}}'' strip has Gordon trying to ask out one of his female co-workers at the Combine Citadel out on a date, and she gives him this excuse. The catch here is that the coworker, who was a normal human in the previous comic, [[http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-07-04 is now a transhuman Combine soldier]] instead.
* Subverted in [[http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1136 this]] ''QuestionableContent'' strip, where Faye has a legitimate reason for having to wash her hair: bubble gum.
* In ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' this is Molly's excuse for standing Rocko up for a date bearing in mind that Molly is ''completely covered'' with pink hair. "I had to wash my hair. All of it."

* ''DarthsAndDroids'' [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0551.html parodies it]].

* In ImAlanPartridge, Alan casts around wildly for an excuse to leave the house of a swinger couple who want to have sex with him and comes up with "I've just remembered that my father is...still dead".

* A variant shows up in one of the ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'': The daughter of a man whose soul the angels and demons were fighting over gets sent to go wash her hair by a guardian angel so that her Christian friend would try to convert the dad while she waited for the girl to finish washing her hair (because apparently Jack Chick thinks that it takes hours).

Named for the StockPhrase that has become ''such'' a [[DeadHorseTrope clichéd excuse]] that it doesn't let the target down easily at all, but instead says ''"I wouldn't go out with you if every other man on the planet was radioactive!"''

** ''Play It Again, Sam'': A girl in an art museum blows off [[Creator/WoodyAllen Allan]] when he asks her for a date on Saturday by telling him that she's ''[[HintDropping committing suicide that night]]''. Allan is undaunted.
--->'''Allan:''' How about Friday?

* Elaine in ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'' and ''EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'', to [=LeChuck=].

* Back in the days when women generally wore their hair very long and in elaborate hairstyles, and before such things as showers and hair dryers, washing one's hair, drying it, and then putting it back up was a major undertaking. It was a legitimate excuse then.

* Gender-inverted by Lakewalker culture in ''Literature/TheSharingKnife''. The ''woman'' is normally the one that makes advances, while the man is the one who has to come up with some excuse if he's not inclined to her.

* Oddly enough, this is [[Series/ThePrisoner Number 24's]] excuse when Number 6 calls her for help in "The Schizoid Man." She comes anyway.

* Not played quite straight in ''SouthPacific'': Emile isn't around when Nellie sings "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta my Hair" and washes her hair on stage. (She does ''not'' "wash that man right out of [her] hair", as her very next number is "(I'm in Love With) A Wonderful Guy". Lampshaded with her fellow nurses:

* Not played quite straight in ''SouthPacific'': Emile isn't around when Nellie sings "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta my Hair" and washes her hair on stage.

* Used and promptly [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''. [[TheGrimReaper Grim]] tries this excuse, but Billy points out that he tried the same excuse yesterday. (And Billy misses the obvious: Grim ''has no hair''.)

* Used against Dexter on the ''{{Freakazoid}}!'' episode "Dance of Doom".

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', we discover that, sometime in the past, Leela told Fry she couldn't go out with him because she had to meet a ghost. She wasn't expecting him to believe it (he did), so she flipped a coin to decide if she should use the excuse or not. In an AlternateUniverse, where coin-flips have the opposite result, their counterparts went out and are now married.

* ''VentureBros.'' has an episode where Dr. Venture is pursuing another date with Charlene, or Dr. Girlfriend, calling The Monarch's cocoon. When Dr. Venture calls yet again for Dr. Girlfriend, the Monarch yells flustered, "Tell him you're washing your hair, or something, I don't care."

* [[Series/{{Mash}} Colonel Blake]] once put the moves on a nurse. He complimented her on her scent, to which she replied, "I just washed my hair." When the colonel goes a little further, she brushes him off with, "I have to wash my hair."

* ''TheBigBangTheory'' "The Cushion Saturation", Penny tries to excuse herself saying she needed to wash her hair to save herself from Sheldon's wrath when he was about to discover his couch cushion had been disturbed.

* In the extended ''{{Glee}}'' pilot, Emma pulls out several of these excuses (i.e. "I'm alergic to nighttime") to discourage Ken from asking her out.

* In ImAlanPartridge, Alan casts around wildy for an excuse to leave the house of a swinger couple who want to have sex with him and comes up with "I've just remembered that my father is...still dead".

* [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] once reviewed a [[Franchise/StarTrek Klingon]] language instruction CD where IHaveToWashMyHair is said to be a perfectly valid way of dealing with an unwanted Klingon suitor. A disbelieving Spoony responds "Oh come on, if that's a pussy line on Earth, it's ''gotta'' be a pussy line on Qo'noS!"

* [[{{MASH}} Colonel Blake]] once put the moves on a nurse. He complimented her on her scent, to which she replied, "I just washed my hair." When the colonel goes a little further, she brushes him off with, "I have to wash my hair."

Compare and contrast IHaveToGoIronMyDog, where the excuse is blatantly just a nonsensical lie. Doesn't work on the LiteralMinded, the {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, or anyone particularly [[StalkerWithACrush determined]] (or [[CovertPervert just]] [[{{Casanova}} plain]] [[KavorkaMan lecherous]]): "That's a lot of hair. [[ShowerScene Need any help?]]"

* Back in the days when women generally wore their hair very long and in elaborate hairstyles, and before such things as showers and hair dryers, washing one's hair, drying it, and then putting it back up was a major undertaking. It was a legitimate excuse then.