History Main / TraumaticHaircut

** After losing his precious locks to Delilah (and his [[SuperStrength godlike strength]]), Samson is captured by the Phillistines, has both [[EyeScream eyes gouged out]], and chained between two pillars to [[ComeToGawk serve as entertainment at a party]], making this trope OlderThanFeudalism. In this case, it wasn't the hair itself that was the source of power -- God had decreed He would empower Samson so long as he followed the restrictions of a Nazarite but Samson broke every single one of them -- getting his hair cut was the last straw, at which point God withdrew His blessing until Samson asked forgiveness and God gave him his strength back, allowing Samson to die honorably through TakingYouWithMe.

* There are Website/GoAnimate videos which involve the grounding victim getting a haircut for a punishment. A good number of videos interpreting how Caillou became bald could also count. They usually involve his dad shaving his hair off as punishment.

** An incident like that started a war between the [[ElvesVsDwarves elves and dwarves]]. The elves had a dwarven emissary shaved, which became the famous last straw. The war has subsequently been known as the "War of Vengeance" to the dwarves, and the "War of the Beard" to anyone else currently out of dwarven earshot. Not ''just'' shaved, but also laughed out of court, beaten, shaved and sent back to the dwarven kingdoms in that state. [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne But the beard was the main reason]].

* ''Series/HenryDanger'': In "Danger Things", Piper wanted to trim her hair to look like a Fresno Girl doll, but the right side of her hair was too long. She tried to even it out, but the left side was still too long. Thus she kept trimming her hair shorter and shorter every time a side was longer; by the time she stopped, her hair is completely cut short and she looks like a boy.

* In ''{|Anime/Noir}}'' the young Mireille met [[MafiaPrincess Silvana Greone]] and was terrified when the latter ran at her with a knife, shearing away part of her hair. As an adult Mireille is still afraid of Silvana and freezes at the sight of her.

** "Chuckie's First Haircut": Chuckie had to get his hair cut. Since he's only a timid, two-year old, he didn't want one. It didn't help that Angelica terrified him into believing that a hair cut involves having every one of his hairs pulled out by the roots and that his father ended up suffering a traumatic haircut when he tried to show him that haircuts were harmless.

* Near the end of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'', [[AlphaBitch Heather's]] hair is forcibly shaved off. She is not pleased. Afterwards, she spends the entire second season bald and the third season with her hair only partially grown back. Also in the third season finale Sierra gets her hair burned off in the plane explosion.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' has the inverse of this. At the start of "Thanks to Them", a long-haired Hunter hallucinates Belos and [[spoiler:Caleb]] staring back at him in the mirror, chops his own hair off in a panic, and rocks a crewcut for the rest of his time [[spoiler:in the human realm]]. However, [[spoiler:[[DemonicPossession when Belos takes over his body]] in the episode's climax, [[PowerMakesYourHairGrow he forces Hunter's hair to rapidly grow longer]], leaving him with a scraggly-looking mullet. Given that Hunter chopped off his own hair in an attempt to look ''less'' like Belos, this is just an extra slap in the face.]]

* One of the many offscreen tortures Paz suffers at the hands of her captors in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidGroundZeroes'' is [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange having her long blond hair shaved off]].

* In ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid'', the title character's sisters all trade their long, beautiful hair to the Sea Witch for a chance to save her, similar to how the Little Mermaid had to trade her tongue to become human in the first place.
* ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}''. This was a deliberate attempt by the evil old crone to rob Rapunzel of the ability to snag herself a man. In some versions, the crone did it when the Prince was using Rapunzel's hair to climb up her tower... he falls off and gets subjected to EyeScream.

* A few weeks before the [=WrestleMania=] 23 match, Vince and Umaga beat the crap out of [[Wrestling/NickDinsmore Eugene]] and shaved his head, while boasting that the same thing would happen to Drumpf. Obviously, that didn't go as planned.

* In an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' with an InferredHolocaust example, Daniel Jackson lost his long floppy hair with no explanation (and kept it that way for the rest of the series' run, partly because it fit [[TookALevelInBadass his rising levels of badass]] and partly because [[90sHair curtains were going out of style]])... coinciding with waking up the prisoner of [[TheVamp someone]] who actually ''had'' raped him once before.

* In an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' with an InferredHolocaust example, Daniel Jackson lost his long floppy hair with no explanation (and kept it that way for the rest of the series' run)... coinciding with waking up the prisoner of [[TheVamp someone]] who actually ''had'' raped him once before.

->''Cersei sat as still as a stone statue as the shears clicked. Drifts of golden hair fell to the floor. She had not been allowed to tend it properly penned up in this cell, but even unwashed and tangled it shone where the sun touched it.'' My crown, ''the queen thought.'' They took the other crown away from me, and now they are stealing this one as well.
-->--''Literature/ADanceWithDragons''

''Cersei sat as still as a stone statue as the shears clicked. Drifts of golden hair fell to the floor. She had not been allowed to tend it properly penned up in this cell, but even unwashed and tangled it shone where the sun touched it.'' My crown, ''the queen thought.'' They took the other crown away from me, and now they are stealing this one as well.
--> --''Literature/ADanceWithDragons''

* In ''Series/Inhumans,'' Maximus [[spoiler: cutting Medusa's hair is especially traumatic because of her PrehensileHair, making this double as a DePower.]]

* A few weeks before the [=WrestleMania=] 23 match, Vince and Umaga beat the crap out of [[Wrestling/NickDinsmore Eugene]] and shaved his head, while boasting that the same thing would happen to Trump. Obviously, that didn't go as planned.

* Creator/RachelTrue was used to having quite long hair early in her career, such as in ''Film/EmbraceOfTheVampire1994''. Due to breakage and split ends, she had to cut it short right before she was cast in ''Film/TheCraft''. As such, she says she channeled some real emotions for a scene where her character hallucinates that her hair is falling out.

* Creator/RachelTrue was used to having quite long hair early in her career, such as in ''Film/EmbraceOfTheVampire''. Due to breakage and split ends, she had to cut it short right before she was cast in ''Film/TheCraft''. As such, she says she channeled some real emotions for a scene where her character hallucinates that her hair is falling out.

* In the ''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia'' series ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864420 Sunset]]'' Present Mic is raped while on the air on his radio show. In the second fic in the series, Aizawa finds Mic giving himself a trauma induced haircut. Mic loves his long blond mowhawk thing but can’t stop feeling the rapist grabbing it.

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In the ''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia'' series ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864420 Sunset]]'' Present Mic is raped while on the air on his radio show. In the second fic in the series, Aizawa finds Mic giving himself a trauma induced haircut. Mic loves his long blond mowhawk thing but can’t stop feeling the rapist grabbing it.