History Main / TraumaticHaircut

* Throughout {{Scrubs}}, there are flashbacks to the two male leads' stay in college, all of which feature Chris Turk with an afro. In the last one, frustration over lost tickets to a climatic basketball game causes Turk to start tearing his hair out in handfuls. At the end of the flashback, JD hints that this is the reason Turk keeps his head shaved.

** Actually, if this troper remembers correctly, it was used in one of the movies, ''Lost In Paris.'' [[CruelAndUnusualPunishment Oh, and the girls have to use their own hair to make lace.]] Madeline does end up getting a chunk of her hair cut off in the climax, but [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished it's fine again in the ending.]]

* Alexander Pope's ''{{The Rape of the Lock}}'', satirizes an [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory actual scandal of an involuntary haircut]] that tore apart the engagement of one of Pope's friends. He took the real events, changed the names to protect the innocent, added [[FantasyKitchenSink sylphs and gnomes and other Divine Machinery]]. and wrote up a grand BattleRoyaleWithCheese that breaks out between the men and the women over the ill-fated lock. [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Whose fate was not quite that ill after all.]]

* The story ''The Nutcracker Coup'' by Janet Kagan is about aliens with hedgehog-like spines down their backs. It was a deeply shaming punishment to have these spines clipped. When one of the aliens befriended by the protagonist (a junior member of the human diplomatic staff) had it done, the protagonist told her that someone once cut her hair off to shame her, but she dyed the remnant bright red and gloried in it. The clipped aliens are inspired to put beads on their spines and walk tall, which angers those who clipped them, but they don't care.

* The Spanish GameShow ''El gran juego de la oca'' (The Great Game of the Goose) was a giant board game with each space on the board corresponding to a challenge of some sort. However one of the spaces was home to a demented barber. Whether you were male or female, getting one of three questions wrong (the third of which was always impossible to answer) resulted in your receiving an [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AutMNU1fI0c extreme]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8MWO8gTLgk haircut.]]

* Averted in this troper's case. This troper can proudly state that she had her long locks cut to a boy cut in order to donate that hair to Locks of Love. Her hair is almost back to its original length, but she's thinking about donating again eventually.
** While This Troper agrees and has done the same thing last week, isn't that an ImportantHaircut instead of this?

* According to the laws of Sweden, forcibly shaving any part of another person is considered a so grave violation of personal integrity it is considered felony assault.

* In ancient Japan, a woman's hair [[http://www.h.ehime-u.ac.jp/~marx/courses/2004/fall/Hearn/Hearn-Hair.htm was considered one of her greatest treasures]]. Cutting her hair off against her will was considered to be on a level with raping her. So when it happens in anime it is significant by Japanese cultural standards.

Jewelry, [[UnlimitedWardrobe vast wardrobes]], and [[BeautyEqualsGoodness facial beauty]] are not the most prized possessions for some societies and individuals; instead, it's... [[HairTropes hair.]]

A minor subtrope involves hair being the source of a hero's powers (or in modern tales, an emotional anchor) that when cut off renders a hero [[WeaksauceWeakness vulnerable and powerless.]]

* A particularly effective example occurs in the manga version of ''FruitsBasket'': [[spoiler: Akito cuts Isuzu's long hair while attempting to kill her slowly and painfully by starving her in a private room in the Sohma estate. It's strongly hinted that she did so because Isuzu's long hair reminded Akito of her [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]], Ren, who wears her hair exactly that way ("Long black hair... like that woman... it makes me so sick!". It doesn't help that Ren actually asked Isuzu to do something for her with fake promises and ''that'' is when Akito caught and captured her. ]]
** Ironically, [[spoiler: after her HeelFaceTurn and her marriage to Shigure, Akito is shown not only wearing a dress, but with quite longer hair.]]
* Akane's accidental haircut courtesy of both Ranma and Ryoga in ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]''. Both Ranma and Ryoga start apologizing profusely, expecting a MegatonPunch or the like, but Akane was remarkably calm about it. Turns out she only had long hair to begin with to impress Dr. Tofu. Now, if her hair had been cut ''before'' she gave up the crush on the older man, heads would've rolled, I'm sure.

* After spending club funds with which he had been entrusted, Eguchi Yousuke of {{Shonan Bakusouzoku}} swears he will shave off his pompadour if he can't pay the money back. Eguchi's pompadour is very {{serious business}}.
* Maya Natsume in ''{{Tenjho Tenge}}'' while fighting against Emi Isuzu.

* The manga version of ''ChronoCrusade'' shows that Chrono's hair was worn long as a child up until a battle right after what would have been his coming-of-age ceremony. During the battle his RapunzelHair is burned off to the shorter, jagged cut that he wears the rest of the time (in his [[SleepModeSize true form]]). It seems pretty symbolic of Chrono losing his innocence, particularly since the battle marks the start of the trauma that eventually leads to him becoming a FailureKnight, if not downright developing [=PTSD=]. (It's also worth noting that when he meets Rosette and Joshua in his SleepModeSize, his previously short hair has grown long again, possibly hinting that he ''regains'' some of his innocence by spending time with the children.)

* Lex Luthor. Jup, Pre-Crisis Lex Luthor's original reason for turning evil was that, whilst he and Superboy were friends, one accident causes Lex Luthor... To lose all of his hair prematurely! Oh no, my life is ruined! I'll get you for this, Superboy!
** It's not nearly that simple. Lex had just created living matter in the lab, and with it he was preparing a treatment to immunize his friend Superboy to Kryptonite. A lab fire and Superboy's precipitate action to extinguish it destroyed the matter, and the fumes rendered Luthor bald. He resented both, but the destruction of his artificial life and the kryptonite cure were what really unbalanced Lex (and maybe all those weird fumes had something to do with it... ).
* And... A modern {{Superman}} comic had Joker show up with a chemical which causes mass hysteria because... It makes them bald.

* Nobutada's topknot cutting scene in ''TheLastSamurai.'' Like some of his other work, Koyamada [[{{Narm}} kinda overdid it when it came to emotion]] and rendered the scene inorganic. Moving on.

** The scene is also meant to mirror the discussion of scalping earlier in the film, so the message becomes rather {{Anvilicious}}

* The "Creepy Thin Guy" in the latest ''CharliesAngels'' movie does this, often ripping out the hair with his bare hands

* ''{{Spaceballs}}'' uses this trope, when Princess Vespa's hair gets shot and she transforms from a DamselInDistress to a ruthless killing machine.

* In ''StarWars'': Episode One, the last scene shows Anakin as a young Padawan. His hair was cut into a mullet. He seems rather unhappy about it.

* Sarah Michelle Gellar's character in ''IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer''
* In ''Amy & Isabelle'' the mother Isabelle discovers that her daughter Amy had slept with her teacher and suffers a momentary breakdown due to the fact that [[spoiler: she had also slept with an older man as a teenager and that man got her pregnant with Amy]]. In a fit of rage she hacks off Amy's beautiful long curly hair. Later near the end of the movie she takes her to the hairdressers to have it tidied up.

* Alexander Pope's ''TheRapeOfTheLock,'' satirizes an [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory actual scandal of an involuntary haircut]] that tore apart the engagement of one of Pope's friends. He took the real events, changed the names to protect the innocent, added [[FantasyKitchenSink sylphs and gnomes and other Divine Machinery,]] and wrote up a grand BattleRoyaleWithCheese that breaks out between the men and the women over the ill-fated lock. [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Whose fate was not quite that ill after all.]]

* In ''Shards of Honor'' by the same author, this trope is used as a chilling prequel to a real rape (plus additional [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]]), when the sadistic psychopath bad guy cuts off a lock of Cordelia's red hair and plays with it.
--> Vorrutyer: "I must think what can be done with that hair. One might remove the scalp entirely, of course, but there must be something more creative..."

* In the second book of the ''SwordOfTruth'' series, Kahlan gets her hair lopped off when she's sentenced to execution. This is one of the more obvious examples, as in a good chunk of the series' world, a woman's hair is directly and explicitly tied to her status, and Kahlan has the longest locks around.
* In the VCAndrews novel ''Flowers in the Attic'', the [[EvilMatriarch fanatically religious grandmother]] coats Cathy's long hair in tar to force her to cut it (believing that vanity is a sin.) The children manage to remove the tar with chemicals. The film adaptation plays the trope normally; the grandmother knocks Cathy unconscious and screams "You are a sinner!" before hacking off her hair with a comically vast pair of scissors.

* In the Sherlock Holmes story ''The Copper Beeches'' a woman Violet Hunter is offered a position as a governess with a three figure salary on the condition she cut off her beautiful hair quite short. It turns out [[spoiler: they were really hiring her to impersonate their daughter who had been ill with a {{brain fever}} and her hair had to be cut off]].
* In StephenKing's ''TheDarkTower/WizardAndGlass'', WickedWitch Rhea hypnotizes Susan into cutting off all her hair after losing virginity. [[spoiler: She doesn't, as she's stopped by Roland.]]

* Self-inflicted example in ''The Red and The Black'' - The VillainProtagonist "tames" his {{Tsundere}} / {{Yandere}} (she alternates between being a snooty aristocrat and acting lovey-dovey, and is batshit insane) love interest, and to show fealty to him, she cuts her hair brutally short.

* In the book ''Circle Of Blood'' by Alane Ferguson, the book's victim is found dead with her long braid cut off beside her. It later turns out that [[spoiler: her killers were members of the cult she escaped from, and cutting off her hair was their way of stealing her beauty.]]

* In TheColorPurple Celie writes that Misters girls have hair that hasn't been combed since their mother died, being that it is so unmanageable, she suggest shaving the hair off and starting fresh. Mister disagrees and says that it is "bad luck to cut a woman hair."

* In 'The Outsiders' by S. E. Hinton, the main character, Poneyboy, is attacked by socs and they attempt to cut his hair(long hair was his emblem of greaser status) when they try to, he begins screaming and fighting to be released. However, in later chapters he is forced by circumstances to both dye and cut his hair.
* Also, in Hinton's ''ThatWasThenThisIsNow'', the main characters, Bryon and Mark, cut off Bryon's ex-girlfriend's hair after she [[spoiler: recruits a guy to beat up Ponyboy (who rejected her advances) and he ends up cracking Mark over the head with a busted bottle]].

* ''{{Smallville}}'s'' Lionel Luthor, [[BaldOfEvil unlike his spawn]], had a lot of hair that he probably did not appreciate having shaved off for admission to general-population prison in the season 3 finale.

* A Dutch girl guilty of sleeping with a Nazi, as referenced below under TruthInTelevision, gets her hair shaved by force in ''BandOfBrothers''.
* Two episodes of ''TheXFiles'' featured a necrophiliac serial killer obsessed with women's hair, which he would cut from his victims' bodies.
* In the 2006 BBC ''{{Series/Robin Hood}}'' series, Marian's hair is forcibly cut in front of the townspeople as punishment for defying the Sheriff. This overlaps somewhat with ImportantHaircut, since her tough "Night Watchman" persona comes more into focus afterwards.

* There's an episode of ''AgathaChristie's Poirot'' where the Belgian detective gets into a bet with an equally arrogant French detective; if Poirot fails to solve the case first he has to cut off his moustache (the French detective would have to give up his trademark pipe). David Suchett is shown with a pair of scissors quivering at his upper lip at one point, but he rallies himself and wins the bet (magnanimously allowing to the loser to keep his pipe. "Because when you light it, you will think of Poirot.")
** In the book ''TheBigFour'', [[spoiler: he actually shaves his mustaches, when impersonating his imaginary brother Archille. Of course [[FanWank some fans]] [[WildMassGuessing theorize]] that because his mustache would not have been able to grow back afterward, the shaven man must really have been Archille...]]

** In some versions, it turns out [[HeyItsThatGuy yes, it IS 'that Scylla.']] You do not murder your father, dearie, [[TransformationTrauma there are consequences]]!

--> '''Player Character:''' I always shear my victims.
* Taken in a silly direction in the laserdisc game ''Badlands'', which plays like if ''Dragon's Lair'' had one button, [[NintendoHard extremely strict timing for the button presses, and no continues.]] At one point, a scorpion leaps at Buck from atop a cactus. If he doesn't shoot it in time, it lands on his head and cuts his hair into a mohawk. It's hard to decide what's funnier- the face Buck makes afterwards, or the fact that this costs you a life.
* In ''{{Fire Emblem}}: Radiant Dawn'', Lucia's long hair has cut off after [[spoiler:she is captured by Ludveck. Ludveck cut off a significant amount of Lucia's hair for punishment, and as a threatening message to her Majesty.]]

--> '''Thoreen:''' ''Allow me to introduce you to a friend of mine. This is the Epi-Rip 300, the most powerful hand hair remover in the galaxy, and it's capable of shaving your legs clean off!"''

* ''PowerpuffGirls'' had an episode where Bubbles and Buttercup accidentally pull out a huge chunk of Blossom's hair while playing with it, and their attempts to fix their mistake was less than successfull, making her look like she lost a fight with a lawn mower. She eventually gets revenge on the other two by butchering ''their'' hair. [[ResetButton It's all back to normal next episode]]
** In the World Premier Toons pilot, "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins," Bubbles has one pigtail turned into a drumstick by Fuzzy's Meat Ray. [[BerserkButton This]] [[LawOfDisproportionateResponse proves]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown ill]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome for]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Fuzzy]] [[ImAHumanitarian Lumkins]].

* Shaving a woman's hair, or cutting it short used to be a humiliating punishment for a very long time in many cultures, including Europe; in parts of Europe, a woman with short hair was often thought to be scandalous sight even in the early 20th century.
* WorldWarTwo [[LesCollaborateurs collaborators]] (generally women who had sex with Germans) had their heads shaved once the Nazis were kicked out of the town.

** There was also the generally antisemitic method of cutting off the ''peyes'', or religiously significant side-curls and beards of Orthodox Jewish men.

** The ImportantHaicut variant is common to all branches. Army recruits have the "barely there" shave until the end of Basic.
** Female Officer Candidates in Navy OCS get an ImportantHaircut upon enrollment. They have their hair shorn down to less than two inches; this is singular in the US military, where most of the time women are required only to wear their hair off their collar and out of their face. Male OCs get the typical "high and tight" described by the Marine above.

*** Given that Han Chinese hated the queue requirement across the board it would probably be better to say that having the hair cut (and shaved forehead that went with it) was the real dishonor. Cutting it off became the definitive method of declaring oneself a rebel agains the Qing. And again, a declaration that others could make for one.

*** The richer, western-educated Chinese would often have a wig made with queue, for ease of travel within China.

* During Genghis Khan's rule of Mongolia, he sent envoys to attempt to open trade with a neighboring nation. Even after being rebuked with violence, he tried again and did not retaliate until his envoy had his beard forcibly shaved as a method of humiliation, and was sent back home. Khan then declared war. [[BadAss And proceeded to wipe the country out]]. The Mongols took the concept of diplomatic immunity very seriously and humiliating or mistreating an ambassador in such a manner was tantamount to a declaration of war.

* It can happen that people who sport real-life RapunzelHair, which naturally requires a great deal of upkeep, may enter a period where they can no longer care for it--for example, falling into a deep depression with accompanying self-neglect that includes the hair--and as a result, the hair becomes unsalvageable and ''must'' be cut, sometimes only short, sometimes almost shaved off. Being that someone who puts in the effort to care for RapunzelHair is probably very attached to it, no matter how necessary the shearing can be, it is ''agonizing.''

* Britney Spears and her famous hair cut. However that's slightly subverted, as she willingly had that done to her after having a mental breakdown.

** "Chemotherapy" literally means "treatment with chemicals" and technically encompasses everything from aspirin to zinc supplements. Chemotherapy did once refer to all kinds of drugs and medicines, but has now mostly been co-opted by oncology. Probably because there are a number of other common treatment modalities for cancer- not many conditions will respond to drugs, surgery, and radiation.

* In Argentina there was a show called ''El Último Pasajero'' (The Last Passenger) in where two groups of teenagers in their last high school years compited for a graduation trip for the whole class division, wich is a tradition between argentinian students. One of the games, and the most viewed, consisted in a member of one team selecting someone from the oposite team, normally a pretty girl with long hair, in order to get him/her a horrible haircut. The teen could refuse, of course, but [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything their classmates made that choice rather difficult, by insisting and treating the girl as a traitor if she didn't acced to the task.]] Most of the girls who acceded to cut their hair [[{{Understatement}} ended up crying.]]

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* In Argentina there was a show called ''El Último Pasajero'' (The Last Passenger) in where two groups of teenagers in their last high school years compited for a graduation trip for the whole class division, wich is a tradition between argentinian students. One of the games, and the most viewed, consisted in a member of one team selecting someone from the oposite team, normally a pretty girl with long hair, in order to get him/her a horrible haircut. The teen could refuse, of course, but [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything their classmates made that choice rather difficult, by insisting and treating the girl as a traitor if she didn't acced to the task.]] Most of the girls who acceded to cut their hair [[{{Understatement}} ended up crying.]]

* In 'The Outsiders' by S. E. Hinton, the main character, Poneyboy, is attacked by socs and they attempt to cut his hair(long hair was his emblem of greaser status) when they try to, he begins screaming and fighting to be released. However, in later chapters he is forced by circumstances to both dye and cut his hair.

* In ''JaneEyre'', the narrator witnesses Mr. Brocklehurst's visit to Lowood School, where he admonishes a girl for having curled her hair, saying that she is giving her soul over to Satan, she will burn in hell for idleness and vanity, and demanding that it be cut off as soon as possible - never mind that her hair is naturally curly.

*In the Sherlock Holmes story ''The Copper Beeches'' a woman Violet Hunter is offered a position as a governess with a three figure salary on the condition she cut off her beautiful hair quite short. It turns out [[spoiler: they were really hiring her to impersonate their daughter who had been ill with a brain fever and her hair had to be cut off]].

** In the World Premier Toons pilot, "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins," Bubbles has one pigtail turned into a drumstick by Fuzzy's Meat Ray. [[BerserkButton This]] [[LawOfDisproportionateResponse proves]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown ill]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome for]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Fuzzy]] [[ImAHumanitarian Lumkins]], and also leads to Ernie Anderson's immortal quote in the image above.

Whether it's [[GoodHairEvilHair good or evil]], a person's hair comes to symbolize honor, social station, and otherwise serves as a human peacock tail, representing a life rather than a fashion statement. Thusly, having it forcibly [[ImportantHaircut cut off]] isn't just a minor fashion ''faux pas'', but akin to ''[[RapeAsDrama rape]]''; and is likened to having your life stolen from you. From another view, a forced haircut serves as the symbolic initiation of [[ItGotWorse worse things to come]].