History Main / YouGottaHaveBlueHair

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[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1644310334052725600&page=1#1 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

[[quoteright:329:[[Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvt_curtainsmatchthewindow.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:329:Blue, purple, green, no hair dye required. (Then again, [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent they are mermaids.]]) ]]

->''"A Japanese cartoon, eh, James? I saw one of them once. Let's see what I can remember: okay, so first of all, my head would have to be a little bean. With real, ''real'' big eyes. Get rid of my thumbs, make me all shiny. My boots would be a whole lot cooler, like robot boots. And for some reason, I got blue hair. [[TropeNamers You gotta have blue hair]]."''
-->-- '''[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad]]''' (describing his {{anime}} counterpart, Stinkoman), ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' #57 [[Recap/StrongBadEmailE57JapaneseCartoon "japanese cartoon"]]

Though there are plenty of ways to differentiate characters from each other, one of normally limited utility is hair color. Human hair has a limited amount of variation, after all, not enough to make everyone on a half hour show once a week [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience easily distinguished]]. Thus, this trope was born, so that artists could use the full spectrum of color. It's so common that it's mostly considered an AcceptableBreakFromReality now.

This is especially common in {{anime}}, where characters often have impossible hair colors (and no, they're not a result of dyeing; for the majority of cases, [[UsefulNotes/{{Pornography}} the carpet, really and naturally, matches the drapes]]). This started with {{manga}} series that used distinctive colors on the covers to make characters stand out, even though they all had either dark or light hair in the actual black-and-white pictures; {{anime}} brought it to the screen and [[AdaptationDyeJob made it a standard part of character designs]].

There are several reasons why artists do this. The first, noted above, is to help distinguish characters from each other especially if their designs are [[OnlySixFaces highly stylized and simplified]], as with AnimeHair, and other features such as eye shapes (long, wide, [[EyesAlwaysShut constantly closed]] etc.), pupil shapes (circular, elliptical, [[HellishPupils slit]], etc.), [[TechnicolorEyes eye colors]], tattoos, scars, [[CuteLittleFangs prominent canines]], accessories, mannerism, [[VerbalTic verbal tics]], etc. It may be done to indicate character personality, such as an EmotionlessGirl [[ReiAyanamiExpy with blue or white hair]]. It may indicate that a character is unique, if they are the only one in the cast with their hair color. Or it may be done just to suit the artist's taste for variety. In some cases, artists may use PowerDyesYourHair to explain how a character gets unusual hair when otherwise trying to be realistic in their hair color choices. Also not uncommon is that the CurtainsMatchTheWindow.

Some specific colors have {{Sub Trope}}s which ascribe certain character traits to them: such as [[ShyBlueHairedGirl a blue-haired girl being shy]], a [[RoseHairedSweetie pink-haired girl being cheerful or passionate or sweet]] (take your pick) or [[WhiteHairBlackHeart a white-haired young-man being evil]]. Bright yellow or orange hair as a stand-in for blonde or red does not count even if the shade of yellow or orange is unnatural, as that falls under [[HairColorDissonance Hair Color Dissonance]].

A {{subtrope}} of HairColors. HairColorDissonance is when hair is ''depicted'' as an odd color, but is supposed to be a normal color (e.g., powder blue standing in for grey); specifically, when hair of a very dark shade of blue or purple is supposed to represent black hair, that's PurpleIsTheNewBlack. When the hair color is realistic but is not justified by the setting, that's ImplausibleHairColor. For characters with impossible hair ''styles'', see AnimeHair.

See also AmazingTechnicolorPopulation and {{Mukokuseki}}. Not to be confused with MyHairCameOutGreen. Or, for that matter, TheBluebeard (though the character of the same name ''was'' an example).
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!!Example subpages:
[[index]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/AnimeAndManga
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/ComicBooks
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/FanWorks
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/{{Film}}
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/{{Literature}}
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/LiveActionTV
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/{{Music}}
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/ProfessionalWrestling
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/TabletopGames
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/VideoGames
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/VisualNovels
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/{{Webcomics}}
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/WebOriginal
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/WesternAnimation
[[/index]]

!!Other examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* Erin of the Advertising/ErinEsurance commercials has pink-colored hair.
* Super Kind, the MagicalGirl heroine of the ''Advertising/MetroManners'' [=PSAs=] has pink-purple hair, befitting the ad campaign's heavy use of anime tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* ''Animation/BanzisSecretDiary'': Banzi's two best friends, Namnam and Eungsim, both have blue hair.
* ''Animation/FlowerFairy'':
** Qianhan has lilac-colored hair.
** When she transforms into a magical girl, Yitong's blonde hair changes to pink.
** Shuxin has blue-green hair that changes to plain green when she transforms.
** Lucio has bright blue hair.
* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'':
** Sweet S. has two green pigtails sticking out of the back of her head.
** Cockroach, a girl from planet Gray who first appears in episode 29, has light blue hair.
* In ''Animation/NoonboryAndTheSuper7'', Noonbory has green hair, and Kikibory has pink hair.
* In the ''Animation/PangPond'' episode "[=PangPond=] in Love", [=PangPond=] falls in love with a girl who has green hair.
* Blue of ''Animation/SayHiToPencil'', befitting of his name, has blue hair.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Audio Plays]]
* A few of the guys in ''AudioPlay/YandereHeaven'' possess odd colors while the rest have black, brown or blond hair. Atsushi and Ayumu have green, Kakeru has purple, Minase has silver and Katsumi has lavender.
* Some of the girls in ''AudioPlay/YandereNoOnnaNoKo'' have strange hair colors. Sonoko and Iori have purple, Yumemi has pink, and Tomoe [[spoiler:seemingly]] has white.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* Sedine from ''ComicStrip/InSecurity'' sports a bright shade of purple.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eastern European Animation]]
* ''Animation/GypsyTales'': In "Káló, the Gypsy Lad", Dimkárta is nicknamed the witch with seaweed hair because of her green hair.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music Videos]]
* Music/BubbleButt: The three women at the beginning have cyan-blue hair, which matches their blue lipstick.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* Almost all [[Myth/EgyptianMythology ancient Egyptian deities]] are depicted with blue hair. This was a JustifiedTrope, believe it or not: their hair was said to be made of precious lapis lazuli.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pinballs]]
* Annie from ''Pinball/AsteroidAnnieAndTheAliens'' has green hair for some unspecified reason.
* In ''Pinball/BanzaiRun'', Blue Beard's hair is a ''very'' light electric blue.
* Scarlett, the woman on the backglass of ''Pinball/TotalNuclearAnnihilation'', has blue hair.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* Die from the ''Podcast/CoolKidsTable'' game ''Creepy Town'' has purple streaks in her hair.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* In ''Theatre/BeetlejuicesGraveyardRevue'' at Ride/UniversalStudios, the characters Hip and Hop have bright yellow hair and pink hair, respectively.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]
* Most of the ''Toys/{{Hairdorables}}'' characters have brightly colored hair; the main character, Noah, has blue hair and blue eyes. Only about a third of them have semi-natural hair colors at all: Kat, Skylar, Bella, and Brit--and starting in Series Two Brit drops the semi-natural brown for fully pink.
* Very few ''Toys/MonsterHigh'' characters have human hair colors, and if they do, [[MulticoloredHair it's not their only color]].
* The ''Toys/PurrTenders'' toyline is an example of You've Gotta Have Pink Fur... and lavender, and bright yellow. The Golden Books showed they weren't the ''only'' ones with odd-colored fur; the cats came in all colors of the rainbow.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/AcedemySugoiSeiun'' has characters with bright pink, blue, yellow/orange/red (at the same time), and purple hair.
* Nikki from ''WebAnimation/CampCamp'' has mint-green hair, as well as pink {{technicolor eyes}}. This is odd, given that other than her and her mother, no other character has odd hair or eye coloration like this.
* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': Vampire Lord and Seleenara have teal hair.
** Anjren, all Mechellies, and Boru have light-purple hair.
** Melissa has purple hair, but 'Confronting the Dark' reveals she was a redhead before she joined Melinda, who has purple hair ''naturally''.
** The tip of Nik's hair is red.
** The blue and red fairy of Eleenin's FireIceLightning fairy trio have, well, blue and red hair.
* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': Bill and his sister, Whitney, are the only members of the main cast with unnatural hair colors. [[PinkGirlBlueBoy He has blue hair and she has pink.]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{Eddsworld}}'' had Laurel, a one-time character in the "Movie Makers" episode.
* ''WebAnimation/GwainSaga:'' The population of the Kingdom of Gwain all have technicolor hair. And eyes as well.
* ''WebAnimation/LaGolda'': Ms. Ricca's hair is green, and Sonya's hair is blue.
* The {{Trope Namer|s}}, ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'', spoofs this when a fan named James [[http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail57.html asks]] what Strong Bad would look like as an anime character. Strong Bad decides that he'd be shiny and have huge green eyes, cooler boots, and blue hair for some reason. Humorously, on one ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/main17.html main page,]] scrolling over "Store" gives 1-Up (Homestar Runner's anime counterpart) blue hair.
* Several ''WebAnimation/MyStoryAnimated'' videos features technicolor hair colours, especially the {{animesque}} ones. For example, an episode about a pink haired girl with SplitPersonality.
* Richie in ''WebAnimation/RecessReindeer'' has blue hair to match his blue body.
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': On the world of Remnant, people honour the memory of a terrible global war that sought to suppress individuality and artistic expression by naming children after colour associations and letting people express their personalities through clothing styles, hair dyes, and other forms of artistic expression. As a result, a number of characters have impossible hair colours. Characters that have ImplausibleHairColour can be found under that trope.
** Green hair:
*** Russel Thrush from Team CRDL has a punk theme and a green mohawk to go with it.
*** Doctor Oobleck is Beacon Academy's history teacher. He has a shaggy, unkempt mane of vivid green hair.
*** Emerald Sustrai has mint-green hair, in keeping with her name.
*** Sage Ayana from Team SSSN has very dark green hair, similar in colour to the plant.
*** Reese Chloris from Team ABRN has mint-green hair, which matches her eyes.
** Multi-coloured hair:
*** Neopolitan is named after the ice-cream of the same name. She has a tri-colour theme to match. Her hair is therefore half pink and half chocolate brown. In the pink half of her hair, there are streaks of white. This actually matches her eyes, which naturally default to one pink, one brown eye, but which turn white when she's afraid.
*** Nadir Shiko from Team ABRN has bi-coloured hair: predominantly pink with very dark side-cuts.
** Blue Hair:
*** Neptune Vasillas from Team SSSN has light blue hair, which goes with his heavy water themes.
*** Ciel Soleil, who has a sun-and-sky theme, has very dark blue hair that borders on blackish-grey.
** Other colours:
*** Nebula Violette from Team NDGO has violet coloured hair.
*** May Zedong from Team BRNZ has magenta-coloured hair. Depending on lighting, it sometimes can look either pale purple or dusky pink.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Mermista has teal hair. Frosta and Hordak have navy blue hair. [[spoiler:He dyes it.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Can be {{invoked|Trope}} using hair dye.
** Can be '''unintentionally''' invoked using hair dye, particularly if your hair is fair and/or highly absorbent. For instance, it's not unknown for temporary black hair dye, when being washed out, to [[MyHairCameOutGreen turn blonde hair green for several days]].
* The celebrated "Glowing Green Monkeys", who were created by gene-splicing lab monkeys with bioluminescent sea creatures. Their hair only glows under fluorescent light, however, and looks more of a dull greenish-brown under normal conditions. Bioluminescent pigs, on the other hand, are [[http://gizmodo.com/these-pigs-glow-in-the-dark-to-save-lives-1491589459 bright yellow]].
* A potential result of overexposure to cobalt or indigo dyes during industrial processes.
* Purple squirrels have been showing up around the world. Whether or not it's some sort of prank is unknown. Maybe it's a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_squirrel commentary on the job market.]]
* In 2001, UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}}er Colin "Funky" Miller celebrated Australia's Centenary of Federation by dying his hair in what he referred to as "Federation Blue".
* The famous green cat that became a internet sensation. It turned out it had been regularly sleeping on a can of green paint over a long enough period to eventually completely coat itself, and it was eventually washed by animal rescue because of concerns about it's safety, as ingesting paint can hurt cats.
[[/folder]]
----

->''"A Japanese cartoon, eh, James? I saw one of them once. Let's see what I can remember: okay, so first of all, my head would have to be a little bean. With real, ''real'' big eyes. Get rid of my thumbs, make me all shiny. My boots would be a whole lot cooler, like robot boots. And for some reason, I got blue hair. [[TitleDrop You gotta have blue hair]]."''

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Mermista has teal hair. Frosta Hordak have navy blue hair. [[spoiler:He dyes it.]][[/folder]]

->''"A Japanese cartoon, eh, James? I saw one of them once. Let's see what I can remember: okay, so first of all, my head would have to be a little bean. With real, ''real'' big eyes. Get rid of my thumbs, make me all shiny. My boots would be a whole lot cooler, like robot boots. And for some reason, I got blue hair. You gotta have blue hair."''

** Qianhan has lavender-colored hair.

* Can be invoked using hair dye.

* Can be invoked using hair dye.
* Can be '''unintentionally''' invoked using hair dye, particularly if your hair is fair and/or highly absorbent. For instance, it's not unknown for temporary black hair dye, when being washed out, to [[MyHairCameOutGreen turn blonde hair green for several days]].

-->-- '''[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad]]''' (describing his {{anime}} counterpart, Stinkoman), ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' #157 [[Recap/StrongBadEmailE157JapaneseCartoon "japanese cartoon"]]

-->-- '''Strong Bad''' (describing his {{anime}} counterpart, Stinkoman), ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' #157 [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail57.html "japanese cartoon"]]

* The {{Trope Namer|s}}, ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', spoofs this when a fan named James [[http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail57.html asks]] what Strong Bad would look like as an anime character. Strong Bad decides that he'd be shiny and have huge green eyes, cooler boots, and blue hair ([[TropeNamers "You gotta have blue hair."]]), for some reason. Humourously, on one [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/main17.html main page,]] scrolling over "Store" gives 1-Up (Homestar Runner's anime counterpart) blue hair.

* ''Animation/SimpleSamosa'' features Dhokla, who has a tuft of green hair on top of his head.

->''"A Japanese cartoon, eh, James? I saw one of them once. Let's see what I can remember: okay, so first of all, my head would have to be a little bean. With real, ''real'' big eyes. Get rid of my thumbs, make me all shiny. My boots would be a whole lot cooler, like robot boots. And for some reason, I got blue hair. You gotta have blue hair. Then there's my mouth: real tiny when it's closed; ''ridiculously huge'' when it's open."''
-->-- '''Strong Bad''' (describing his {{anime}} counterpart, Stinkoman), ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail57.html "japanese cartoon"]]

* In ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', Cockroach, a girl from planet Gray who first appears in episode 29, has light blue hair.

* ''Animation/GypsyTales'': Dimkárta, from "Káló, the Gypsy Lad", is nicknamed the witch with seaweed hair because of her green hair.

Some specific colors have {{Sub Trope}}s which ascribe certain character traits to them: such as [[ShyBlueHairedGirl a blue-haired girl being shy]], a [[RoseHairedSweetie pink-haired girl being cheerful or passionate or sweet]] (take your pick), and [[WhiteHairBlackHeart a white-haired young-man being evil]]. Bright yellow or orange hair as a stand-in for blonde or red does not count even if the shade of yellow or orange is unnatural, as that falls under [[HairColorDissonance Hair Color Dissonance]].

!!Example Subpages:

!!Other Examples:

* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': Vampire Lord has teal hair.
** Anjren has light-purple hair.

** Mechellies have light-purple hair.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair/FanFic