"Son of Slaanesh, full of desire
He does cocaine and his head is on fire."
He does cocaine and his head is on fire."
Most characters have hair. But some (usually of a supernatural ilk) have hair that is either composed of flames, or simply takes the form of a fire on the individual's head. Usually an indicator of villainy. This may be the hair of characters who are literal Fiery Redheads.
See also Hot Wings. Often a part of Burning with Anger. If extended to the entire body it becomes Wreathed in Flames.
Sub-Trope of Elemental Hair Composition, for all hair that's not actually keratin, but some "elemental" substance.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In DieBuster, physics-breaking Exotic Manuever normally manifests as bright blue light from the forehead, but when Lal'C gets really, teleport-a-gas-giant's-core-and-smash-it-into-your-face level serious it goes beyond that and her hair turns into a blue-white flames. Similar effect is constantly in effect for Buster Machine #7 in active form. Dix-Nieuf, after consuming the degeneration engine, manifests the flames through his cloak.
- In Fairy Tail, Flare Corona fights with Prehensile Hair, and she can set it on fire for extra damage.
- Akari's Magical Girl form in Day Break Illusion. While everyone gets giant hair when they transform, none of the others get anything quite as cool.
- In Shakugan no Shana, Shana's hair, while normal in shape, is colored like a blazing flame with ember-like sparks flying off. It's even part of her title. The same applies to Mathilde Saint-Omer, the previous Flame-Haired Blazing-Eyed Hunter.
- Lordgenome, who is normally bald and goatee'd, sprouts a fine head of flame during his fight with Simon in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. His Spiral Power's Battle Aura is red, and he's got such tremendous amounts of it that the Flaming Hair effect appears whenever he gets serious. He isn't the only one who can do this, but he's the only one whose Battle Aura focus is on his (former) hair. In the movie, he gets serious enough to do interstellar travel on foot, and so he gets the Godiva Hair effect with his flaming pubic hair.
- Burner the Fire Demon from Yaiba. His colleague Rain sports what can be called "Watering" Hair.
- My Hero Academia: Endeavor, Shoto Todoroki's father, subverts this. He can create a flaming beard to look intimidating, but he does have regular facial hair behind it. One of his sidekicks Moe Kamiji, Hero Name Burnin, plays the trope straighter with her quirk Blazing Hair. It gives her vibrant green fire for hair that she can pull chunks off to shape into weapons or throw as fireballs, or even expand it on her head into wings to glide with.
- In Doki Doki! PreCure, Ace has red hair made out of fire.
- Cannon Busters: Sam's hair bursts into flames when their powers are awakened during the final battle.
- In the final two episodes of Symphogear XV, the girls unlock the Burning X-Drive, a Super Mode to the Super Mode that is the X-Drive. As the name would imply, the Burning X-Drive has an effect where their hair seems like it's on fire.
Asian Animation
- Kalo from Happy Heroes has light blue flames on the top of his head where hair would normally be.
- Mechamato: Apayapi, the upgraded (and more evil looking) form of the firefighter robot Payapi, sports purple flames atop his head.
Comic Books
- The DCU:
- Aquaman: An obscure foe, Karla Fire-Hair, had this as her power, which conveniently worked underwater.
- Armageddon 2001: Waverider, who also shows up in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!.
- Firestorm: All versions of Firestorm, and Firehawk as well.
- Green Lantern:
- Xrill-Vrex often looks like she's got a wispy gaseous flame in place of hair when she's not keyed fully into someone specific, but with her empathy tamped down she's bald in her default form.
- Red Lantern member Rankorr changes his hair for a flaming red fire when he ports the Red Lantern ring.
- Justice League of America member Fire has hair ON green fire. Her DC Animated Universe counterpart had hair of green fire when powered on.
- Legion of Super-Heroes:
- Comet Queen has a long trail of flames instead of hair. Her teammate Fire Lad has his locks on fire.
- On the other hand, Legion villain Flare appears to have flaming hair when she's using her powers but it's illusory. She's actually got an afro.
- New Gods: The hair of Takion of the Source is a single golden flame.
- The Outsiders: Heatstroke (a female supervillain who has Playing with Fire as her trademark) of the Masters of Disaster is sometimes drawn like this.
- Robin (1993): The villain Fuego has a firey mohawk in place of any proper hair, and she is evidently bald when her powers are nullified.
- Supergirl: Thara Ak-Var, alias "Flamebird", sprouts a head of flame when her divine power manifests.
- Superman:
- Crucible: The villainess Rendll's hair permanently burns with bright pink flames.
- The Leper from Krypton: The whole Flammbronian alien race have flaming heads.
- Teen Titans: Starfire is occasionally drawn with her hair dissolving into fire.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: Flamina's hair is drawn differently than any other character's hair with the tips all coming to curled up slightly wavering points that resemble the shape of fire, but the artstyle seems to imply it is red-orange hair shaped like fire rather than made of it.
- Marvel Universe:
- Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers had this during her Binary phase, something which reoccurred once she got the ability to use those powers and a sufficient energy boost.
- Doctor Strange: Dormammu has a head entirely cased in flame. It seems to be the 'crown' worn by the rulers of the Dark Dimension; when Clea was empress she had a flame over her hair.
- Fantastic Four: Frankie Raye is a literal Fiery Redhead.
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Firelord, and Nikki from the original incarnation. According to "The Handbook Of The Marvel Universe", Nikki's hair only looks like flame. Though some artists didn't seem to realize that. Following a sequence in the comic where she was swimming and clearly shown as bald, the letters page said the Handbook was in error.
- New Mutants: Magma, when her powers are fully active, has hair of fire.
- X-Men: Jean Grey sometimes has flaming hair when she's all Phoenix-y.
Fan Works
- Traveler Smurf, the Expy of DC Comics' Waverider from Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, appears in "Smurfed Behind: The Departure" with what appears to be flaming hair.
- Corona's mane and tail in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's actually a very minor spell that she leaves "on" almost all the time, rather than her hair's natural state.
- In Thieves Can Be Heroes!, Izuku's Persona, Carter, has flaming crimson hair made of fire, though the first officially commissioned cover art depicted him with golden hair instead.
- A Prize for Three Empires has Jean Grey and Carol Danvers. Their hair become a crown of bright flares when they power up.
- In Ara Ara
, Moe Bakugou has hair made of fire with its current color serving as an indicator of the state of her Quirk. When she overuses her Quirk against the League of Villains at the USJ, her hair shifts from yellow to orange to red before finally extinguishing and leaving her bald.
- In the Blood Bond, Blood Omen Series Shego has this when her Superpowered Evil Side (yes, she has a side that's even more superpowered and even more evil) takes control and she takes the form of "the Archangel of Poisonous Radiation". It isn't limited to the hair on her head, either, creating an effect similar to Wreathed in Flames.
- Past Sins: Glimpses 2: Day: The Point of Divergence-created character has flame hair:
Her hair was composed of broiling flames
- Read the Fine Print (Evangelion): The hair of a demoness named Bwynvienne is a literal cascade of fire. Even her eyebrows are burning.
Where Asuka's red locks could resemble a fireball when she was in motion, and Shinji had actually thought of her at one point as 'flame-haired', this woman's hair was an actual ball of fire. It streamed down her back and was lush enough that she could potentially use it as a fiery cloak if she felt like it. Surprisingly there was no heat radiating off of her, and the chair she was sitting on was not bursting into flame.
She raised an eyebrow. That was also on fire.'' - The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 fanfic Campfire Conversations mentions Linka's cousin Sena from the main game. The problem with hair that is literally on fire is mentioned when she brings up the time she was babysitting Sena and nearly burned the house down, then almost drowned Sena because she panicked and forgot her hair is supposed to be on fire.
Films — Animation
Literature
- Fire Witches in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles have this trait when they're using their powers, or when they get annoyed.
- In the Ravirn series, the Fury Tisiphone has flaming hair.
- In The Quest of the Unaligned, Laeshana's hair has a tendency to spark when she gets angry or excited.
- The fire jinn in Fancy Apartments, Tisa, has flaming eyes and hair when she's in jinn mode.
- N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy has a variant: Bright Itempas, the Old God of Light and Order, manifests as a young black man with hair made of searing white light.
- Knights of the Borrowed Dark has Ambrel Croit whose hair bursts into flames when her power first manifests.
Music
- Pink's wife in The Wall has this, during the Trial Sequence.
- The eponymous ghost in the Mystery Skulls Animated video. A flaming pink pompadour, to be exact.
Myths & Religion
- Some depictions of Loki show him with hair styled to resemble this.◊ However, as Thor fits the Fiery Redhead archetype better, this has been all but forgotten nowadays.
- Surviving fragments of an ode to the ancient Armenian God Vahagn the Dragon Reaper, preserved by early historian Moses Khorenatsi, state that "fiery hair had he, aye too, he had a flaming beard, and his eyes, they were as suns".
- Curupira, in Tupi-Guarani Mythology, is described as having a flame hair, in addition to inverted feet and green skin.
- In Brazilian Folklore, a Cumacanga is a floating head with fiery hair that glows in the night. Also the Headless Mule, is a mule with a flame coming out of its neck where its head would be.
Pinballs
- The long-faced alien looming over the playfield in The Atarians has this.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Fire genasi, Uneven Hybrid descendants of humanoids and Elemental Embodiment entities like Efreet, sometimes show their ancestry with flaming hair or flames in place of hair.
- Azers, dwarf-like creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire, have fiery hair and beards. They can also channel the intense heat of their bodies into their attacks.
- Nightmares are Hellish Horses native to the Nine Hells and other evil-aligned planes. Their manes, fetlocks and tails are made of fire, which matches their glowing eyes and Throat Lights.
- Salamanders are Elemental Embodiment Snake People native to the Plane of Fire, and often have "hair" made of fire.
- Magic: The Gathering: The planeswalker Chandra Nalaar, who specializes in pyromancy, is a Fiery Redhead in the most literal sense. When depicted in the middle of casting a spell, her hair transforms into flames.
- Pathfinder: The sun goddess Sarenrae's hair consists of a flowing stream of flames.
- Warhammer 40,000 has the Chaos special character Doomrider; he does cocaine and his head's on fire!
Video Games
- Some of Kirby's elemental Copy Abilities give him crowns that simulate this effect; most notably Fire power, but Spark, Ice, Water, and Poison also give Kirby "hair" made out of their respective elements.
- The Zombie Demon Pirate LeChuck has a beard of flame in The Curse of Monkey Island.
- Pokémon: Chimchar, Infernape, Magmar, Magmortar, Kantonian Ponyta and Rapidash, and Emboar.
- Ares from God of War has burning hair and a beard. As does Hermes in God of War III.
- There are a number of items on Gaia Online that include a fire hair option. Elemental Hair, Sol's Sunglasses, and Twister the Fire Phoenix, to name a few.
- The tops of Magma Man (Mega Man 9) and Fire Man's (Mega Man) heads are on fire. Mega Man X 6's Blaze Heatnix has hair on fire.
- Needles "Sweet Tooth" Kane from Twisted Metal has a flaming head beginning with the second installment, adding a unique element to his Monster Clown appearance. The third game only gives him a hairstyle that evokes this look, but all installments afterward keep the flaming effect. This finally receives an in-story explanation in Black; a preacher cursed Kane to burn in hell, setting the clown's head on fire.
- Archons in fire form in Dungeon Siege III have this.
- Fire Spirit Cookie from Cookie Run.
- Manpuku from Ōkamiden. Chibiterasu can even use the flaming hair as a source of fire via the Inferno brush technique.
- In Persona 4, Yosuke's upgraded Persona Susano-o has a tall orange swirling pillar of flame for hair. In Golden, it can evolve further into Takehaya Susano-o, which has a flaming afro.
- Kid Icarus: Uprising has Twinbellows, a Hellhound with flaming hair. Hades also has a head of flaming hair.
- Dickson and Christie from Sigma Harmonics.
- Skully has the Fire Elemental, Fiona, whose hair is a gigantic blazing flame.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- Demise from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has billowing flaming hair, and even flaming sideburns.
- Dark Beast Ganon from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has very similar hair as well as a tail, though it has a more purplish hue.
- Hothead from SpeedRunners has this kind of hair, although it's debatable if it's natural or if he sets his head on fire.
- Skylanders: Torch from Trap Team is able to weaponize her flaming hair as a whip.
- The evil Wizard from Tsioque has hair of this type of yellow-green fire to match the color of magic he uses.
- The final form of the Profound Darkness in Phantasy Star IV has blazing green energy hair that seems to flow endlessly.
- Mother Brain from Phantasy Star II appears to have this going on too, which changes colours along with the rest of her form.
- In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Tribunal deity Vivec is said in in-game books and depicted in Temple frescoes as being "bald except for flame." However, this is not the case when you meet him in the game, possibly because of his declining powers.
- In Castle of the Winds, the fight against Surtur at the end depicts him as an armored man with hair and a beard of flame.
- The player character in Ring Fit Adventure has flaming yellow hair; the intensity of the flames change according to how well the player performs each exercise routine.
- Tianhuo, as well as the rest of the longma from Them's Fightin' Herds all have manes, tails and wings made of flames.
- Twisted Wonderland: Shroud brothers, being based on Hades, have blue flames for hair. This is not their actual hair; it's a result of a hereditary curse.
- Dota 2 has Lina's Arcana item, the Fiery Soul of the Slayer, which replaces her hair with fire, which is a direct reference to her very early concept design.
It has often been said that Lina's hair was touched by fire, though few know the truth of this claim. In Lina's youth, as her natural talents first began to smoke and smolder it was her fiery hair that told the tale of the storm to come. With time and training, her skill and control of the flame was enough to suppress the searing display. Yet on occasion, when her ire grows and tempers flare, the full measure of Lina's burning spirit threatens to unleash its wrath.
- Open Sorcery: BEL/S has it in orange, as shown in the game's cover art and in the ending pictures of Jingle BEL/S.
- The End Times: Vermintide and Vermintide II: The pyromancer Sienna Fuegonasus is a Fiery Redhead with flames playing in her hair. They burn brighter as her Overheating meter rises.
- Xenoblade Chronicles:
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Several of the Fire Blades have hair that is literally aflame. Brighid's distinctive blue flames are noted to be her unique signature.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Cammuravi has burning red hair, and Sena has burning blue hair. Sena sharing Brighid's unique flame color is one of the reasons she is theorized to be Brighid's daughter, even though that should be impossible.
Visual Novels
- Monster Prom: Red/Amira is an efreet with fire instead of hair.
Web Animation
- In Mystery Skulls Animated Lewis's ghostly head is just a bald jawless skull until he lights a flickering purple pompadour on it.
- Dreamscape:
- Jenna's Skull Snake has a flaming mane.
- The Master of the Dammed has flaming hair, even though his actual head just seems to be a mask.
- RWBY: When Yang activates her Semblance, her blonde hair catches fire. Initially, she can't separate her Semblance activation from her temper, resulting in her hair catching fire whenever she gets angry. Once she learns to control her temper and use her Semblance in a smarter way, her hair only catches fire when she prepares to convert tanked attack damage into super-powered attack strikes.
Webcomics
- Aurora (2019): When the fire god Caliban is particularly angry or exasperated, their hair turns into a mass of flame.
- Bob and George: Bob can turn this on and off at will when he's Playing with Fire, even through his helmet.
- Girl Genius: Her Undying Majesty, Queen Albia of England, is something of a shapeshifter and when she's showing particularly Sparky tendencies her hair starts to glow and shift to start looking like it's been set alight.
- Gunnerkrigg Court. Some of the Treatise pages show Annie's hair turning into fire. In-story, Annie can take on this appearance along with wings of fire for her Etheric image at least.
- The Handbook of Heroes: Antipaladin is a fire genasi, and as such the fiery red hair atop his head are actual flames. They happen to be doused by water after a shipwreck, making him look bald.
Western Animation
- Flame Princess from Adventure Time, except when it's wet.
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold had flame-haired Firestorm's origin story as an episode.
- Danny Phantom:
- Dark Danny has fiery white hair. Which actually came back to bite him when it blew up the gas tanker Danny threw him into.
- Ember McLain. It gets longer the stronger she gets. She can use it as a weapon. Backfired when she accidentally set Youngblood's pirate ship on fire.
- Skulker. In fact, part of his description on Butch Hartman's website is "His hair is on fire! And he doesn't even care!"
- Mandie from The Fairly OddParents! can light her hair on fire.
- Flain from Mixels...though to be more specific, it's his brain that's on fire, and it burns even harder when he thinks too hard.
- Aku in Samurai Jack sports GREAT FLAMING EYEBROWS and matching beard.
- Static Shock has Hotstreak, whose hair looks even more like it might light on fire in the updated version of the intro theme — it's a common joke amongst the fandom to explain his newer hairstyle by Hotstreak now using flammable hair spray.
- The Lumberjack Ghost haunting Northwest Mansion in Gravity Falls episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery" has a flaming beard. And when Dipper manages to trap him in a mirror, the Ghost uses his fiery follicles to burn Dipper's hand by heating the frame.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Daybreaker, the hypothetical Superpowered Evil Side of Princess Celestia from "A Royal Problem", has a mane and tail composed of flames.
- "Sounds of Silence": The Niriks, the Superpowered Evil Side of the peaceful Kirins, have manes and tails burning with red, blue, and pink flames.
