"My, what a fine moustache you have, sir."
"All the better to twirl at you, my dear…"
"All the better to twirl at you, my dear…"
"Under the nightmare of Communism, moustaches were, of course, compulsory."
— Tomorrow Stories, written by Alan Moore
It used to be that things were simple: The Heroes had faces smoother than a baby's bottom and Villains had long, thin, oily moustaches to twirl after tying the Damsel in Distress to a set of train tracks. Then along came the grizzled Drifter with his five o'clock shadow, The Gunslinger with his proud beard, and other Antiheroes who broke out of old archetypes. Thanks to these brave pioneers in the fight for facial follicle freedom it's been okay for heroes to have beards, villains to be clean-shaven, and Antiheroes to blur the lines. However, much like superhero costumes there are still guidelines for who can get away with what.
By default heroes tend towards clean shaves, whether it's because of artistic inertia or simple cultural popularity is up for grabs.note Sometimes movies made in countries or/of eras that are friendlier to facial hair have a higher number of heroes and extras with beards and moustaches, though it is still very common to find anachronistically clean shaven male main characters. A full, thick, and above all well trimmed beard is almost always a sign of the good guys (Dwarves, The Mentor, Santa, etc). You will never, ever see a good character with a Fu Manchu moustache, nor one with a pencil thin moustache, unless you are watching an Errol Flynn movie, or in fact any movie from the 1930s or 40s. Stubbles are an exception, as they're usually a sign of Antiheroism and badassitude.
Villains with beards tend to either have long wispy ones, short fancy ones, or wild and unkempt ones. This depends entirely on what flavor their villainy has. Sophisticated villains tend towards clean shaves and devil goatees and will almost always be very fastidious about their appearance. Savage villains are likelier to have a full on uncontrolled beard, possibly with braids or dreadlocks. Back alley thugs or unsavory types are likely to keep thin and scraggly beards, in line with their ratty appearance.
An Anti-Hero, of course, can go either way, although they rarely have the wispy beards. Perma-Stubble is popular for antiheroic characters (as well as the generally badass) as a contrast to clean-shaven heroes. One pop culture extreme is to get incredibly elaborate patterns in a full beard. Again, this depends on if the Anti-Hero is the grungy unkempt kind or is going for a Blade like extravagance.
For Evil Minions and foot soldiers one of the few perks they enjoy is complete freedom to go overboard with their beards: long braids, intricate patterns, pencil thin flame designs and more are common. The punk/grunge/barbarian image their intricate styles boast is an excellent cue that they'll soon be wishing they'd spent less time grooming and more practicing to dodge an Offhand Backhand.
Slicked-back hair seems to be a common feature of a number of school bullies and evil businessmen types.
Whether a woman's hairstyle is good or evil depends on when the show was filmed. The good hairstyle of 2009—long, sexy, but not too smooth — would have been seen only on a villain (like Cruella Deville) fifty years earlier. In contrast, the bad hairstyle of 2009 — big, teased, with floofy bangs — was the good hairstyle of 1985. The implication is that heroines are slaves of fashion while villains are dowdy and out of date.
See also Expository Hairstyle Change, Expressive Hair, Evil Brunette Twin, Funny Afro, Delinquent Hair, Hair Colors, Hair Reboot, Important Haircut, Beard of Evil and Bald of Evil. Compare Good Scars, Evil Scars.
Examples of characters who exemplify or just have particular facial and head hairstyles:
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Heroes
The Mentor and Other Mentors
These type of characters often have a neat full beard—especially if they are a wise old wizard. The odder the mentor, the less tidy his beard.
Invoked in Real Life Imperial Germany where teachers were contractually required to wear a beard.
- Dr. King Schultz from Django Unchained
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Professor Henry Jones, Sr.
- Star Wars: Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his master Qui-Gon Jinn. An older Luke Skywalker also has a beard in the sequel trilogy.
- Belgarath of the Belgariad has a neatly trimmed beard. His "brothers" (fellow disciples of the God Aldur) also have beards—long and wispy for the twins Beltira and Belkira, and unkempt birds-nest for Beldin.
- Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter)
- Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings)
- Claude's beard on Heroes, though this may have something to with being a Homeless Hero and a Homeless Pigeon Person. It was also to make him less obviously The Doctor.
- Another professor, Maximilian Arturo in Sliders.
- A famous example in Commander William Riker's beard in Star Trek: The Next Generation which not only signaled the moment when he was a Kirk clone no more but also created the trope Growing the Beard marking when the series started improving to become the television classic it would be.
- Bobby Singer on Supernatural.
Multiple
- The entire stock fantasy race of Dwarves (and yes, if female dwarves exist at all, they have beards too), usually priding themselves on the fullness and thickness of their beards and sometimes styling them elaborately.
- Older Than Print: The first example is Merlin, King Arthur's famous advisor, who is always drawn/filmed/described as having a long beard, which was copied by Gandalf and Dumbledore. Subverted by the BBC series, which depicts Merlin as a clean-shaven teenager.
- Popular depictions of Jesus typically portray him with a thick beard and long hair.
- Both Gorion and Elminster from Baldur's Gate have the wizard beard variety.
- Dragon Age: Origins recruiting Warden, Duncan.
- Warcraft:
- Antonidas.
- Medivh.
- World of Warcraft: Velen.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar Roku and Uncle Iroh both sport the "Sage Graybeard" variety of facial hair, as befits "good" characters (in spite of their both being from the otherwise Always Chaotic Evil Fire Nation).
Cops and Private Eyes
These type of characters are pretty likely to have a Thick Moustache or Porn Stache, though this is the hardest hair to pin down. This is something of a Justified Trope insofar as before 1980, the dress codes of some urban police departments mandated mustaches for men, as there was a perception that they made cops look older and more authoritative. Even now "moustache" is a French slang term for "policeman." In British shows senior military personnel will often have a moustache for similar reasons, probably a Kitchener-style handlebar.
- Kogoro Mouri, Juzo Megure and Heizo Hattori in Case Closed. Also Yusaku Kudo, despite not being a policeman and only VERY rarely acting as a detective.
- Soichiro Yagami in Death Note (with the exception of the live-action movies) — subject to a Lampshade Hanging about he is "obviously a cop".
- Commissioner Gordon in most versions of Batman.
- Detective Walsh from Strangers in Paradise.
- Thomson & Thompson (a k a Dupont & Dupond) from Tintin. One has a slight curl to his mustache, which seems to be the only way to tell them apart.
- Captain Bosch from C.H.U.D. had a moustache.
- Captain Gordon from Godzilla: Final Wars sported a badass mustache, which suited a character so awesome he only spoke English in a Japanese movie (that and he was willing to take on Godzilla in a fistfight).
- In RoadGames, the trucker Pat Quid has a typical blue collar 80s moustache. He is stalked by a serial killer with an unkempt beard and mullet.
- In Transformers (2007), Barricade's holographic driver was a police officer simply called "mustache man" by the filmmakers.
- In the Twilight movies, Charlie Swan has an awesome 'stache.
Literature
- Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie.
- Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, in Doctor Who.
- In keeping with some of the more "mildly trustworthy" points on the scale illustrated, Ray Carling from Life On Mars and Ashes to Ashes (2008) has a droopy moustache which could either be full or the "RS Jake" horseshoe, and he is often rather more on the Cowboy Cop end of things for Sam Tyler or Alex Drake's comfort.
- Magnum, P.I. had Magnum himself—Tom Selleck's mustache is legendary.
- Monk's Captain Stottlemeyer sports this distinctive mustache.
- Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown from Sliders, a musician with more soul than any mere soulpatch could carry.
- Lampshaded on That '70s Show when Kelso joins the police academy and grows a mustache purely because of his new career choice.
- The Beastie Boys all wear fake mustaches in their video for "Sabotage", which parodies cop shows of the 70s/80s.
- Colonel Stephon Ely, from the Crusader series of games, has a thick moustache and chomps a cigar (which he never actually smokes, probably because the actor didn't).
- The protagonist of Disco Elysium has over-the-top 70s muttonchops in the same style as the 'Friendly chops/Irish cop' diagram on the page image, signifying his Disco Dan Life of the Party version of being a cop.
- Super Mario Bros.: Mario and Luigi are mustachioed heroes, as a simple mouth on the primitive game sprites wouldn't show as well. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, "Stache" is the statistic with the functions normally associated with Luck.
- Kai Kitamura from Super Robot Wars Original Generation. The "older and more authoritative" part especially kicks in when he recruits most of the younger members of the group into a single team.
- The Super Robot Soulgain also sports a metal moustache, though its pilot Axel Almer doesn't sport one. And yes, he's still a military man.
- Every cop in Axe Cop, along with ever-present aviator shades.
- Park Ranger Simpson
in El Goonish Shive has a friendly mutton chops beard.
Very Long, Flowing Hair
This type of hair is a sign of femininity, both in women and in Pretty Boys. In anime it's a staple of the Yamato Nadeshiko. Add some perfectly level bangs and sidelocks over the shoulders and it also suggests an air of courtly, stately grace.
- The manga adaptation of Cirque du Freak plays with this with Kurda. The one pacifist in a mountain full of Proud Warrior Race Guy vampires, he has a sleek, elegant long blond ponytail. Not that the other vampires all have short hair, they just clearly don't take care of it like Kurda does. However, once Kurda stabs his friend Gavner and reveals that he's betrayed the vampire clan, his ponytail snaps at that exact moment. With his hair out, he has a much wilder and fiercer look. For the rest of his appearances, it goes like that — his hair is tied back in front of those who don't know his secrets, and out once they do. Finally, when his ghost is about to return to the Lake of Souls, Harkat tears off a piece of his robe and ties Kurda's hair back, signaling acceptance and forgiveness.
- Code Geass has Nunnally, whose long, wavy hair shows her peaceful demeanor... but the series also subverts it with V.V., an immortal from the same royal family as Nunnally, but who isn't nearly as peaceful — he's the true culprit behind the death of Lelouch and Nunnaly's mother among many other crimes. There is also official art that shows Emperor Charles with his powdered-wig-esque curls out and being brushed by his consort while their young children peek in at the door — a peaceful family scene with a family that is neither happy nor peaceful, save for the aforementioned princess.
- Almost every Disney Princess ever, though averted by Snow White and Cinderella, who have shorter 30s and late 40s inspired hairstyles, and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, who lives in The Roaring '20s.
- In The Legend of Drizzt books, Drizzt Do'Urden is a heroic white-haired pretty boy.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, where Dothraki men wear their hair long. It's considered the height of masculinity, as a warrior must cut his hair if he loses a fight. The longer his hair, the longer he's been winning. Khal Drogo died with his hair never cut — not many men can say that.
- Morgana and Guinevere from Merlin. In Guinevere's Rags to Riches story-arc she goes from practical buns to long, flowing hair, whilst Morgana's Jumping Off the Slippery Slope arc takes her from shiny, flowing tresses to a bird's nest of messy hair that seems to include dreadlocks.
- On Smallville every single one of Clark's love interests have long hair, Lana in particular; contrast with his Unlucky Childhood Friend Chloe, whose hair never goes past her shoulders.
- In RPGs, it's usually the White Magician Girl who has the longest tresses.
- Midna from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess wears her hair in a very long ponytail (so that it can act as a hand); she is, however, a Tsundere instead. In her true form, she has an odd form of Ojou Ringlets, which are joined at her neck like bonnet strings.
- Subverted by the perceptions of the ancient Spartans, who considered their warriors as the pinnacle of masculine beauty with their muscles and long hair. There's a story that Spartan law required men to wear their hair long, as it made the handsome ones look even more handsome and the ugly ones even uglier. Before fighting, they would often get their hair styled as part of their preparation for death.
- Although according to legend this was because after a certain war against their eternal rivals Argos the Spartans, who up until then had worn their hair short, started to wear it long while it was vice versa for the Argives.
Unkempt, shaggy, or long hair
This type of hair on a man often indicates that he is a Nature Hero, or otherwise close to nature.
- Inuyasha: The title character, who is half dog-demon.
- Jiraiya from Naruto has hair down to his waist, which gets even longer when he enters Sage Mode.
- Wolfriders in ElfQuest.
- Jerom from Suske en Wiske (Spike and Suzy) has shaggy long(er) hair, and a beard. He's also a time-displaced caveman.
Film
- Radagast in The Hobbit looks like he's never even heard of the concept of washing hair. He even has a bird nesting under his hat.
- Wulfgar of the The Legend of Drizzt books has shaggy, long hair.
Multiple
- Tarzan: Tarzan is usually portrayed as having long hair due to living in the wild, though curiously he rarely has a beard. (This goes back to the original novel, in which he learns about shaving from an abandoned book and adopts the practice as a reminder to himself that he's a man and not an ape.)
- The Disney one has long dreadlocks.
Good Goatees
This type of facial hair is rare, but not unheard of. They often indicate that the character is mysterious or an outsider.
- Doctor Strange occasionally sports a goatee. All his incarnations (except for an Audience-Alienating Era version best forgotten) have had some variety of 'stache.
- DC Comics hero Green Arrow has a big bushy goatee (but he was clean-shaven on Smallville, where only Lionel Luthor may have facial hair).
- Oliver Queen started out clean-shaven in the comic-books as well. When Denny O'Neil started writing him and he became a hippie (Queen, that is, not O'Neil), he grew his goatee in part to signify that he was 'hip' and 'sticking it to The Man'. That, and it would offer a nice contrast with his clean-shaved temporary partner Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan.
- Ollie's goatee in its fullest glory was truly a thing to behold, as some artists would draw it long enough that it started to curl back up again at the end, and in extreme cases, made it actually fork into two distinct curls, one on each side.
- Both Comicverse and Movieverse versions of Tony Stark have been known to rock the goatee.
- Doctor Strange in Marvel Cinematic Universe has a goatee just like his comic book counterpart.
- Jack and Will both sport goatees in Pirates of the Caribbean. The "van Dyck" style goatee was popular in the era the films were set.
- It's debatable whether he's a good character, an Anti-Hero, or just a Magnificent Bastard, but Willy Wonka sports a black goatee. At least in the original book he does: both films and virtually all of the parodies have him appear clean-shaven. Douglas Hodge went with a (makeup-assisted) chin tuft and thin, neatly-shaped mustache as Wonka in the 2013 stage adaptation, a combination that suggests this particular Wonka is, indeed, antiheroic. His successor in the role, Alex Jennings, returned to the clean-shaven approach (though when he first publicly performed as the character at the 2014 Olivier Awards, he did have the hair, and understudies follow Hodge's example).
- Can we count Lord Vetinari as on the Hero team?
- No, but you can count the heroes on the Vetinari Team...
- Enchanted Forest Chronicles: Telemain the magician sports a goatee. While he is unquestionably on the side of good, his line of work puts him on the mysterious side for most people.
- Atticus O'Sullivan from Iron Druid Chronicles typically wears a red goatee.
- Telemachus Rhade from Andromeda is another Warrior Poet who carried a goatee.
- Marcus Cole of Babylon 5 has very villain-typical black hair and facial hair, despite being heroic, self-sacrificing, and occasionally outright silly.
- Entirely lampshaded by Abed in Community when he cuts out construction paper black goatees and gives them to the newly christened Evil Study Group, an alternate universe evil version of the Greendale gang.
- ReGenesis's Carlos Serrano, who's also balding.
- Ronon Dex of Stargate Atlantis is another goateed Proud Warrior Race Guy.
- Worf of Star Trek: The Next Generation brought honor to the goatee and little else.
- Likewise, Captain Sisko looked pretty badass with his facial hair in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- Ironically, the very goatee styled as "Very Evil" in the picture above sat one the only non-evil character in his entire universe: Mirror Spock, who was at worst an anti-hero and more likely a hero with a bad start, and either way a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
- Ezio Auditore da Firenze from the Assassin's Creed series. Since we meet Ezio when he is seventeen and see the rest of his life, we also see the development of the beard.
- Paul Denton, brother of the hero of Deus Ex.
- Adam Jensen of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, as one fanfiction puts it: "Take over the ship? Why does everyone suspect the worst of [Adam], hm? It must be the beard. That fine, Evil Overlord Beard worthy of Cesare Borgia." Adam is one of the unequivocally good characters in the Deus Ex franchise.
- Gordon Freeman of Half-Life fame mixes the mentor's full beard with a more compact cut when battling oppression and Eldritch Abominations. Apparently even the G-Man thought it was cool enough to keep, despite being a cold, logical person, and practically owning Gordon's soul.
- Jak trades in his soulpatch for a goatee at the start of Jak 3: Wastelander. His personality changes as well: though still bitter and an Anti-Hero, he's decidedly less tortured and no longer hell-bent on revenge.
- The Prince in the Prince of Persia series sports a goatee, but is a fairly classic hero much of the time.
- Hinjo from The Order of the Stick sports a goatee. He's also a paladin and is consistently portrayed to be a reasonable, sensible and above all noble person.
- In Justice League Unlimited, John "Green Lantern" Stewart both shaved his head bald and grew a goatee.
- Star Wars Rebels: Kanan Jarrus, for the first two seasons, before he grew a Beard of Sorrow.
- Shaggy on Scooby-Doo has always had a goatee, even as a pre-pubescent.
Villains
Fu Manchu Mustaches and/or Wispy Beards
This type of facial hair is usually on characters who are villains and/or are Asian.
- Since it was based on Journey to the West, so do quite a few villains from the original Dragon Ball.
- In The Authority, Asian dictator/terrorist Kaizen Gamorra is depicted with one.
- Ra's al Ghul—one of Batman's arch-nemeses.
- Mandarin, a Yellow Peril supervillain from the Marvel Universe, has a very prominent Fu Manchu.
- In Tragg and the Sky Gods, Zorek, the commander of the Alien Invasion, sports a green Fu Manchu moustache (all Yargonians have green hair). Not helped by the fact that Yargonians look vaguely Asiatic; having golden skin and slanted eyes.
- Big Trouble in Little China: David Lo Pan had the stereotypical Asian long and wispy beard.
- Flash Gordon: Ming the Merciless — the name says it all.
- Fu Manchu, obviously, has the Fu Manchu moustache (but only since the film adaptations, not in the original books).
- Pai Mei in Kill Bill is one of the few Asian heroes with one. He is, however, described as a rotten bastard who's massacred hundreds for reasons as petty as not returning to his friendly nod. He just happens to be mentoring the morally grey protagonist for awhile.
- Big Bad Shan Yu in Mulan has the Fu Manchu moustache.
- In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "A Witch Shall Be Born", Constantius makes up for not being Asian by twirling his mustache.
- Many Klingons sported one, especially in Star Trek: The Original Series.
- Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Ruddigore makes heavy use of this trope: Sir Despard Murgatroyd, the evil Baron of Ruddigore, usually has an evil goatee. Upon his Heel–Face Turn, he shaves it off, whilst his brother Ruthven grows a twirly mustache and does a simultaneous Face–Heel Turn, also donning a monocle and top hat. Upon Ruthven's Heel–Face Turn at the end, he discards these. Also, Ruthven's sidekick Old Adam's beard usually gets much scruffier when he is evil.
- Fructose Riboflavin of The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! sports a wispy goatee in his true form, though he disguises himself frequently.
- The Order of the Stick:
- Averted for Soon the paladin and Lord Shojo, who are heroic characters who sport Fu Manchus.
- Played straight with scheming noble Daimyo Kubota, even lampshaded by Vaarsuvius in this comic.
- Evil Chancellor Magon from Sluggy Freelance sports one of these. Torg even uses it as one of the criteria for determining whether he's a bad guy.
- In Kung Fu Panda 2 the villainous Lord Shen had a pair of feathers on the sides of his beak that resembles a Fu Manchu. He's noticeably one of the few characters in the franchise to have facial structures akin to human hairstyles.
- Averted with Mysto from Mixels. He is the heroic leader of the Nindjas, and sports a Fu Manchu to highlight his Old Master personality.
- The Transformers: The Movie: Unicron has a Fu Manchu, which is appropriate for a Planet Eater. Scourge from The Transformers has a metal Fu Manchu, as do his clones (made by Unicron).
The male Evil Twin
This type of character will invariably have a Goatee.
- Yoki, a former Corrupt Bureaucrat and Dirty Coward of Fullmetal Alchemist has one, although he later becomes more likable; Buccaneer also wears one, but he's an incredibly badass good-guy.
- In the Transformers: Shattered Glass series, the mirror universe Rodimus Prime has a goatee. It looks about as silly as it sounds.◊
- In the 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, the villain Tybalt sports a soul patch that ends up having the same effect as a goatee would.
- The Master from Doctor Who sports a goatee in the incarnations played by both Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley. And by John Simm in "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls".
- Another "Mirror, Mirror" homage comes from MST3K, in which Tom and Gypsy get transported into an alternate dimension version of Deep 13 run by an Evil Mike. Evil Mike has a goatee.
- Stargate SG-1:
- In the episode "Point of View", Apophis in the Alternate Universe had a goatee, as did Teal'c (who, in this universe, was still his First Prime). Perhaps inspired by "Mirror, Mirror" (Spock and Teal'c are both The Stoic of their teams), the alternate universe Teal'cs seem to be exactly the same except for their varying hair styles.
- In the fourth season, "our" Teal'c himself sported a goatee (actually it was more like a chin caterpillar) for a short while.
- Also, the villain Heru'ur also sports a goatee, complete with Bald of Evil.
- The evil goatee originated with one of the most memorable episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series, Mirror Mirror, with a trip to a Mirror Universe of evil duplicates. Spock's duplicate had the goatee; ironically, he was the only one who wasn't really evil.
- About 13 minutes into DS9 episode "Defiant", we see William Riker (a good guy; see way, way, above) pull off the sides to reveal himself to actually be... William "Tom" Riker, his transporter-produced twin, who now wears an ("evil") goatee instead of a ("good") full beard! Oh no!
- Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series has a moustache, and so does some of his robots.
- Spoofed in Saints Row IV. One mission has you take on an Evil Twin of your character, The Boss, who looks exactly like how you've styled your avatar, only with an evil-looking goatee. Even if you've chosen a female Boss.
- In this Darths & Droids webcomic, Governor Sio Bibble, Queen Amidala's trusted advisor, is described as having a goatee, although it actually seems to be just a beard. Based the description, the players immediately decide he can't be trusted. Bonus points for linking to both this page and Evil Chancellor.
- In the evil mirror universe of Dinosaur Comics, the protagonists all have goatees. Even being big reptiles. The arc begins here.
- Dave Davenport of Narbonic had one, blurring the line due the the main characters being villain protagonists.
- The Order of the Stick played this one straight: Elan's evil twin Nale sports a goatee — and Haley, being Genre Savvy, suspected he was evil well before it was actually revealed for exactly this reason. Nale later takes advantage of this by cutting off his own goatee and sticking it to Elan's chin with Sovereign Glue. Nale also later admits he sports a goatee in honour of this trope, saying it is not just for show, it is a part of the Linear Guild's whole evil opposites theme.
- Gaia Online's T-Bone, the mechanically-separated incarnation of Timmy's inner evil. Evilest act to date? Trying to have Santa Claus, who was a cow at the time, cooked for Christmas dinner.
- Mirror Universe Makes-Things in Protectors of the Plot Continuum.
- The Fire Lords of Avatar: The Last Airbender all have goatees. Ozai really should have read the Evil Overlord List Item # 35...
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Buzz's evil twin.
- Codename: Kids Next Door contains the same homage in the Mirror Universe episode, giving the 10-year-old evil leader negative Number 4 a goatee: "It makes me look e-e-e-eviler!"
- This was subverted in Futurama, when Bender's goateed twin Flexo turned out to be good, whereas Bender himself was basically the "evil" Bender. In case you're wondering, the "beard" is a metal accessory that sticks on like a refrigerator magnet.
- In Megas XLR's yet-another-parody-of the-Star-Trek-episode episode "Rearview Mirror Mirror", the evil alternate Coop has, you guessed it, a goatee.
- Then again, so does regular Coop. Evil Coop's primary difference was that he was skinny.
- Likewise, everyone from the evil parallel dimension in the South Park episode "Spookyfish" has a goatee, including the alternate version of Cartman, who is much nicer than the normal Cartman.
- In one episode of Sushi Pack, the Pack was sent to a mirror universe where all the males had goatees and all the females had heavy eyeshadow, regardless of whether they were good or evil.
Communists and Other Cold War-era Baddies
These type of characters will often have a Lenin open goatee, Stalin full mustache, or a full-on Marx beard.
- "By the Whiskers of Kürvi Tasch!" was the stock required greeting in Borduria, the Tintin series's expy for Eastern Europe. The Josef Stalin full handlebar moustache (black and red?) was also the symbol of the state party.
- Many James Bond supporting characters fall into this, although no Big Bad in any Bond film was bearded until Hugo Drax in Moonraker.
- In Hitchcock's Topaz, most Cubans had Fidel Castro's beard, and even uniform, maybe suggesting a personality cult or anything. They were sometimes hard to differentiate: the main villain, fortunately was red-bearded. Fortunately, female Cubans did not sport beards.
- Yuri in the video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 can almost be mistaken for Lenin. That is, if you ignore the tattoo and the psychic amplifier bolted to his head. And then we have Red Alert 3, which has Tim Curry.
Female Communists
This type of character may have helmet hair.
- Colonel Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
- Black Widow had a bob cut when she started out as an Iron Man villain.
- The same haircut is worn by the evil Empire's Ysanne Isard in X Wing: Rogue Squadron.
- Alias: Not quite the same role, but the same 'do — Sydney Bristow has such a wig when she pretends to be a Russian soldier.
- Star Trek: Every Romulan, female or male, after TOS.
- With the notable exception of Nero and his crew in Star Trek (2009), who all have the Bald of Evil instead.
- Star Wars Rebels: The Empire is fascist, rather than communist, but Governor Arihnda Pryce has exactly this kind of hair.
Female Dictators
These characters all have platinum blonde, white, or silver bobs.
- President Coin from Mockingjay.
- Jeanine Matthews from Divergent. (The book specifies that her hair is blond, but not that it is specifically a bob cut.)
- Harmony Cobel from Severance.
- Silver Sable from Spider-Man (PS4).
- Dr. Emilia from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.
The Mad Scientist
This type of character wears the wise wizard's long beard, but unkempt from mania.
- Dr. Reinhardt in the Disney movie The Black Hole — he gave the crew of his science vessel a fate worse than death when they wanted to go home.
- Daniel Curry's character Shepherd in the movie C.H.U.D. had a scraggly beard and wild hair, and yet was one of the film's heroes. He ran a homeless shelter.
- Dr. Morbius of Forbidden Planet, who turned his id into a jealous monster.
- Brent Spiner's character Dr. Brackish Okun in Independence Day gets gradually less clean shaven and much wilder hair.
- The Lord of the Rings has Gandalf's former peer and friend Saruman after his Face–Heel Turn. The Movie even shows how his beard gradually dishevels itself.
The Toothbrush Mustache
This type of moustache is so linked to Adolf Hitler currently that the only people that US media will dare show wearing that style positively nowadays are Charlie Chaplin and Oliver Hardy, because they already wore it when Hitler rose to power. In fact, as those examples demonstrate, it was a comic, silly mustache before Hitler ruined it. Even Chaplin took advantage of that growing stigma in his lifetime when he made fun of the Führer in The Great Dictator. Otherwise, if you see a character with such a mustache, outside of Spider-Man's J. Jonah Jameson, assume he is one of Those Wacky Nazis. Or Michael Jordan.
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- This print ad for Hut-Weber, a German hat retailer.
- The father of Suneo, one of the main characters in Doraemon has a toothbrush mustache which is edited out of the Disney XD localization.
- Shen/Hero from Dragon Ball has this kind of mustache.
- The perverted Chou-shan from Majokko Meg-chan has a toothbrush mustache likely to show him as a silly character as befitting of the In Effectual Sympathetic Villain leader of a Terrible Trio.
- Soul Eater features a librarian who looks suspiciously similar to Charlie Chaplin.
- Kosaka Shintarou from Witch Hunter Robin however is a good guy with the mustache.
- Many characters in the Anthology Comic The Beano have toothbrush moustaches including the Teacher from Bash Street Kids, Dennis the Menace's Dad and Minnie the Minx's Dad. All of these characters originated from the 1950s and nothing is often said about these moustaches they are just there.
- Dennis's father in Dennis the Menace (UK) has a toothbrush mustache, this is due to Values Dissonance as this kind of mustache is still used in Europe.
- Omni-Man from Invincible sports one of these. Given that he is secretly The Mole for a race of tyrannical conquerors with social darwinistic tendencies, it fits his character. It also leads to comparisons to J. Jonah Jameson, especially since both are played by J. K. Simmons.
- Mr Bumpo, the Plucky Comic Relief roommate of the The Punisher has a mustache, making him look like a more obese version of Hardy.
- Most versions of J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man have this kind of moustache. While the comics and pre-Disney cartoons can get away with it, the movies changed it into a pencil moustache likely to avoid Hitler comparisons and some of the comics followed suit.
- Zorg in The Fifth Element takes the Hitler 'stache and puts it on his chin.
- In The Flower Girl, a propaganda film from North Korea, the Japanese officer dining with the Paes (the Japanese were occupying Korea, and the Paes are Les Collaborateurs) has a Hitler mustache.
- Snoops the Bumbling Sidekick to the Big Bad from The Rescuers has a thinly haired version of this kind of moustache.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Roger Rabbit wears a moustache like this on a Wartime Cartoon poster featuring Baby Herman.
- One of Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers mysteries averts this when a distinctly admirable high-school principal is described as having "a brief moustache of the kind Adolf Hitler had put out of fashion for at least a generation."
- Barty Crouch has one of these in the Harry Potter books, for some reason. He's a textbook Well-Intentioned Extremist, and he had massive political ambitions in his heyday… it doesn't gel very well, but it does gel just enough to make you wonder if Rowling is just that riled up about government excesses.
Live Action TV
- Doctor Who: The Chief Caretaker in "Paradise Towers" sports a toothbrush moustache in keeping with the Putting on the Reich costuming of the Caretakers.
- Hogan's Heroes: Sergeant Schultz wears one in some episodes. Of course, since Schultz is a big teddy bear, a Minion with an F in Evil and played by John Banner, the sinster look is diminished somewhat.
Other
- The website, Cats That Look Like Hitler, features cats and kittens that look like Adolf Hitler, or at least have toothbrush moustaches.
- The kitten pictured on the picture of Horace Horsecollar◊ helping with Disney California Adventure's expansion has a nose that looks like this kind of moustache. Here is a bigger picture◊.
- In China, a trimmer version of this moustache is viewed as a stereotype of Japanese people, especially of Japanese soldiers from World War II.
- This style is depicted in the Tintin album "The Blue Lotus."
- A certain domestic rabbit pattern is called a Charlie after Chaplin, because they sometimes have an abbreviated moustache that resembles his.
- Stand-up comedian Richard Herring explored the negative connotations of the toothbrush moustache in his show Hitler Moustache. As part of the act he grew an actual toothbrush moustache and, in a particularly risky case of Dying For Your Art, kept it for a year.
- It was also included as a wearable item in the Nintendo DS version of Animal Crossing.
- This kind of moustache is featured as one the options for facial hair for creating Miis on Nintendo platforms.
- Some of the random background character men in Hanna-Barbera have moustaches of this type.
- Mr. Spacely from The Jetsons has this type of moustache.
- The Adolf Hitler caricature duck from the Looney Tunes Wartime Cartoon "Ducktators".
- In one skit of one episode of the Cartoon Network show, MAD, there is a light grey dog dressed up as his owner Rick who has a slightly lighter grey moustache of this type.
- Mr. Peebles from Magilla Gorilla has this kind of moustache too.
- The teacher from The Oblongs.
- Roger◊, the skinny cat in the two Open Season sequels, looks like he has an off-center variant of this kind of moustache.
- Sam Waldron, the mobile shop owner from Postman Pat.
- Captain Zog from Sidekick.
The Pencil Mustache
This kind of moustache is a classic look for black hat villains in Wild West serials. Extra points if it's curled into twin spirals. Other than Hercule Poirot, it's hard to imagine anyone but a villain or a Smug Snake with one of these.
A more restrained kind of pencil mustache that doesn't stick out or curl at the ends is associated with heroic characters played by the likes of Errol Flynn.
- Bumbling Dad Richard Moore/Mouri Kogoro of Case Closed has such a mustache (in his younger days, he looked a bit like Phoenix Wright).
- Subversion in The Film of the Book of Bram Stoker's Dracula: one of the good guys sports one.
- Two of the villains played by Harvey Korman in Mel Brooks' movies have thin mustaches: Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles and Dr. Montague in High Anxiety.
- In The Citadel, Manson the idealistic crusading young doctor is clean-shaven. But when he sells out to the Dark Side, and joins a clinic that makes a lot of money bilking hypochondriac old ladies, he grows a hilarious pencil mustache.
- Gone with the Wind: Rhett Butler.
- Parodied by Sheriff Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit movies.
- The con artist and male Gold Digger that is the villain of Tillie's Punctured Romance has an Obviously Evil pencil mustache. Interestingly, he is played by Charlie Chaplin in an early career Playing Against Type moment.
- Bertie Wooster once grew one of these, hoping it would give his appearance more diablerie. Jeeves told him it looked like a stain of tomato soup.
- Oddly, inverted in LazyTown by the hero Sportacus, who wears a pencil mustache so sharp it looks like it could double as a scalpel.
- This is further inverted by Harmless Villain Robbie Rotten, who is clean shaven to the point you wonder if the actor isn't wearing a rubber mask (actually, he kind of is). His otherwise meticulous good grooming is also a bit off on the evil-dress-o-meter, but being in a dark purple color scheme helps.
- Schneider the Casanova Wannabe on One Day at a Time.
- In the Peep Show episode "Wedding", Jeremy and his stag party all wear novelty fake moustaches from a variety pack. MarkCorrigan naturally gets lumbered with the toothbrush moustache.
- "Pencil Thin Mustache" by Jimmy Buffett is a paen to the heroic pencil mustache wearers of 1940s cinema, particularly detective Boston Blackie and anybody played by Errol Flynn.
- The unnamed villain in Airborne Avenger has a small handlebar mustache to compliment his Bald of Evil.
- Andrew Ryan from BioShock.
- One short for Dexter's Laboratory had Dexter artificially grow a super beard and pair up with Action Hank to fight a cartel of evil bearded men, all of whom use "beard fu". After beating the rasta and long bearded henchmen, Hank and Dexter face off against the Big Bad french chef, who along with his pencil mustache had a sheathed sword-sharp goatee!
- Captain Hook is usually portrayed with a wax-tipped pencil mustache, with or without the curls. See Disney's Peter Pan and the live-action Hook.
- Also the Hook from the World Masterpiece Theater's Peter Pan. Oddly, the Hook from Peter Pan & the Pirates was clean-shaven.
- Dr. Scientist from Jimmy Two-Shoes has a pencil-mustache.
- In the Superfriends episode "Universe of Evil", a pencil-mustache is worn by, of all people, the evil counterpart of Robin, the Boy Wonder.
- The pencil mustache was an iconic trait of Vincent Price, who was famous for playing many villains in movies.
The Handlebar Moustache With a Goatee
The Handlebar Moustache can be good or bad, but combined with a goatee is the mark of the traditional Vaudeville Villain.
- Gangs of New York: Bill "the Butcher" has an extravagant handlebar moustache, villainous Bowery Boys stovepipe hat about 16 inches long, and sideburns. Fear the 'stache!
Webcomics
- Girl Genius: Evidenty Maxim and Dimo's evil doppelgangers both had goatees, with Dimo's having two which they both think looked dumb.
- Snidely Whiplash of Dudley Do-Right.
- Dick Dastardly of Wacky Races.
- Oil Can Harry of Mighty Mouse.
Mutton Chops
- Les Misérables: “Evil” is probably not the right word here, but Inspector Javert is a very intimidating antagonist and has impressive sideburns.
- The much mocked beard of choice for Admiral Zhao in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- Star Wars Rebels: ISB Agent Kallus' spectacular sideburns/muttonchops head straight into Memetic Hair territory. After his Heel–Face Turn between Seasons 2 and 3, he no longer fits in the "evil" category, though he still has them.
- In Teen Titans, Trigon (who's basically Satan in all but name) has blood red skin, the face of an old traffic accident, long white hair, and menacing white mutton chops.
Slicked-Back Hair
- Sousuke Aizen of Bleach slicks his hair back after The Reveal.
- Brian J. Mason and later Largo in Bubblegum Crisis.
- Averted with Germany from Hetalia: Axis Powers, who is a decent person, if very grumpy.
- Yoshikage Kira of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, both in his original identity, and during the final battle with the heroes after assuming the identity of Kosaku Kawajiri.
- Ax-Crazy, Sinister Scythe-wielding Hidan from Naruto has his hair plastered to his head with industrial strength gel.
- Shinobu Sensui, YuYu Hakusho.
- Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. Amii Kirio takes off his glasses and slicks back his hair revealing he is actually an antagonist. Occurs episode 14 season 1 in the anime.
- Kevin of Adopting Terror
- Patrick Bateman, psycho, American Psycho.
- The "halfbreed" demon Balthazar in Constantine (2005) wears his hair slicked back very precisely.
- Orm from the DC Extended Universe has silvery-white slicked-back hair and is the Big Bad in Aquaman (2018).
- Dracula, blood-sucking vampire.
- Subverted by Cleric Preston from Equilibrium: he starts out as a bad guy with slicked hair, does a Heel–Face Turn, and keeps his badass hair.
- Michael Corleone, after he becomes head of the family in The Godfather Part I and II.
- Draco Malfoy in the first two Harry Potter movies.
- James Spader's drug dealer character in Less Than Zero.
- The psychopathic killer Leo Rook in Lighthouse has this, despite having been captured by the police for over two months.
- Big Bad Scar from The Lion King (1994) has a Slicked-Back mane.
- Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Played with, because he is the Big Bad in Thor and The Avengers (2012), but becomes an Anti-Hero in the next three films, and still keeps wearing his black hair this way. However, in The Avengers where he is at his worst it is very styled and oily, while later it gets looser and notably more curly.
- Agent Smith, The Matrix.
- Matt Dillon in My Bodyguard
- Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. In the books his hair is even described as "otter-like."
- General Hux from Star Wars.
- Gordon Gekko, greedy businessman, Wall Street.
- Artemis Fowl, because he's a Villain Protagonist (sort of).
- In Louise Marley's The Maquisarde, the dictator of the Northern Hemisphere, a Card Carrying Villain, has hair that is described as "plastered to his skull."
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- You can usually tell how villainous or sympathetic Spike is meant to be in a given episode by where his hair is on the spectrum between tousled (Anti-Hero) and slick (villain).
- Angel/Angelus. Angelus has... more menacing hair.
- The oily and arrogant Cardassians of Star Trek.
- Mark Trail villains are easily recognized by their hair: sideburns, long hair, mullets, anything but short and trim and they'll get a face full of fist sooner or later. Frequently called on by The Comics Curmudgeon.
- Ace Attorney:
- Matt Engarde from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, to go with his evil scar and his glass of something that looks like chocolate milk but probably isn't.
- Manfred von Karma has a Beethoven-ish hairstyle throughout the franchise.
- In Devil May Cry, Vergil, Dante's evil twin and main villain of the third game, has slicked-back hair. The game even includes two dramatic cutscenes of him slicking it back after it gets out of place, and seeing him do this in UMvC3 heralds incoming pain.
- Hilariously, this gets a Call-Back in Devil May Cry 5's Bloody Palace mode where if Dante defeats Vergil at the end, he'll then slick his hair back in a cheeky gesture to him. It can even be unlocked as a taunt!
- In Final Fantasy VII, Rufus Shinra has slicked back hair and starts out as a Corrupt Corporate Executive in the original game. In Advent Children, he retains the slicked back hair, but turns into a Magnificent Bastard working against Kadaj and his crew.
- Seifer of Final Fantasy VIII, a Rival Turned Evil.
- Inverted in Fire Emblem 7, where Hector sports slicked-back hair but he's Hot-Blooded and one of the three heroes of the game.
- Albert Wesker of Resident Evil series, full stop. He started off with brown slicked back hair in his debut, yet he is anything but a good guy, further cemented by having his hair turn blonde by V while keeping its slicked-back style.
- Nishikiyama, the Evil Former Friend whose actions drive the original Like a Dragon, has his hair slicked back. The remake, Yakuza: Kiwami, uses an Expository Hairstyle Change: after brutally murdering a rebellious subordinate, Nishiki pauses and stares at his bloodstained hands... only to use the blood to slick his hair back, signaling that he's beyond redeeming.
- Made fun of in this Onion article.
- Rick Point Blank: Don has slicked back hair AND a goatee. He must be bad news.
- Vlad Masters from Danny Phantom. Tied back to a ponytail, but slicked back nonetheless.
- Stewie Griffin from Family Guy as a Shout-Out to Hannibal Lecter.
- The first episode of Fillmore! has a boy named Julian who had curly hair back before he became a criminal. Current time it's slicked back.
- Scott, the main antagonist of Total Drama's fourth season, has slicked back hair.
Anti-heroes
Soulpatch
Antiheroes tend to have a soulpatch, which is a tuft right under the lower lip, as do normal heroes in dystopian futures.
- Morbius the Living Vampire from Spider-Man (who started out as a Tragic Hero antagonist, but became an Anti-Hero) is occasionally shown with one, most notably in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
- Black Zero from Superboy (1994) is an AntiVillain rather than hero, mostly by stint of not seeming to realize he is a villain and considering himself a hero and defender of clone rights due to being manipulated by his creator, wears a boxy soulpatch.
- Aliens: Private William Hudson had one.
- 24: Tony Almeida of CTU had one during his entire run on the show, from good guy to antihero to Almost Dead Guy to Back from the Dead Guy. In fact, "Soul Patch" was his nickname in all the Television Without Pity recaps.
- Future Hiro from Heroes has one of these. Unlike the energetic past Hiro, though, he fights in a dystopian future, and has stained his hands with enough blood to count as an Anti-Hero.
- Tommy Oliver, the most renowned Sixth Ranger from Power Rangers history, who through the early seasons went back and forth between good and evil, also sports an anti-heroic soul patch.
- Jack from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! sports one before getting his face sorta disfigured at the end of the base game.
- Marcus Fenix from Gears of War also sports a soul patch, and is also a soldier from a Sci-Fi dystopia.
- Jak acquired one in the switchover from the relatively innocent and idealistic Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy to the much grittier Jak II, with corresponding change in personality.
- Last Res0rt:
- Jason Spades has one, though he straddles the line between "dystopian hero" and Jerkass.
- White Noise sports an impressive tuft himself, but it just seems to highlight his tough-old-guy qualities.
- Duncan of Total Drama has one and qualifies as a Nominal Hero. Alejandro has one, but he's a Card-Carrying Villain (not to mention younger than he looks even without more facial hair).
A Five O'Clock Shadow or Perma Stubble
This kind of facial hair is a classic way of saying "gritty".
- The mercenary drow elf Downer, titular Anti-Hero of the comic by Kyle Hunter, sports tousled hair and shaggy side-burns despite the fact that D elves usually have no facial or body hair. But then, Downer is a tough-as-nails loveable rogue and proven loser who only survives by wit, reflexes, dark gallows-humour and a lot of fast-talking his way out of situations (except when he actually dies, which happens a couple of times, and is brought back from the dead by magic, usually to punish him further).
- Wolverine's face is pretty consistently fuzzy while rarely ever being clean shaven. One almost wonders if it's one of his mutant powers. Yet he never acquires a real beard beyond those sideburns.
- Wolverine is also notable for his super-hairstyle, which always forms two neat peaks at the sides, just like his mask. He once disguised himself beyond recognition by shaving his head.
- As a matter of fact, his hairstyle is a function of his regenerating ability, according to some sources. Notice how his hair returns to normal after he's reduced to a skeleton.
- In the Weapon X limited series by Barry Windsor-Smith, the crew at Weapon X remove all of Logan's hair before the procedure. However, just a few minutes in they notice it's growing back at a highly accelerated rate.
- Max Carrigan of Across the Universe (2007) isn't precisely in the antihero category (more like the leftovers in the Two Guys and a Girl setup) but features something resembling perma-stubble in his earlier scenes and something closer to a scruffy hippie beard in the later.
- Indiana Jones apparently shaves when lecturing students but gets instant perma-stubble when adventuring.
- In the films of The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn (though definitely a hero) sports perma-stubble for the first two movies, before growing a full beard in time to be crowned King of Gondor. Though one wonders how he managed to remain stubbly without growing a beard whilst wandering the Wild, presumably without a razor.
- The titular character from The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. always had a five o'clock shadow. In fact, it was once included in his description on a wanted poster.
- Wesley Wyndham-Pryce of Angel gained a permanent stubble when he Took a Level in Badass and started Dating Catwoman. Lampshaded in that he had a reason to suddenly stop shaving: his throat had been cut, and the wound rather got in the way.
- Dexter: Dexter Morgan.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold Luke Danes of Gilmore Girls has a stubble that is scientifically proven to always be 5.5 millimeters long.
- Gregory House of House usually has this. In fact, being shaved in a fifth season episode was an indication that he is a bit Out of Character.
- Jack Shepherd, from Lost, not only has five o'clock shadow, it DOESN'T GROW FOR 108 DAYS. After he leaves the island, though, he is shown with a Beard of Sorrow after three years. Think of all the money he saves on razors.
- They did actually show him shaving with scavenged razors at least once while on the Island. Most of the men of the show had surprisingly permanent shadows for a long time, although some did advance into full on beards.
- Shawn Spencer from Psych nearly always has stubble as well as an amazing head of hair in which he takes great pride. He and Gus also judge other people by their hairstyles.
- Bollywood Homicide:
Lassiter: At this point it looks like an accident.
Shawn: Like your hair.
Lassiter: Really? Down to hair jokes, now? - Extradition British Columbia:
Shawn: Lassie.
Gus: Wow.
Shawn: Is your hair starting its own cult? - Any Given Friday Night at 10pm, 9pm Central.
Shawn: Lassie, your haircut is worse than Joyce Hyser's in Just One of the Guys.
- Bollywood Homicide:
- Dr. Cox of Scrubs sometimes falls into this one. Usually head first.
- Dean Winchester and Castiel have this on Supernatural.
- The Tenth Doctor on Doctor Who has permanent five o'clock shadow. Seems due less to directorial intent than to the fact that David Tennant's face is too meatless and bony to hide even the tiniest hint of stubble.
- Jecht from Final Fantasy X and Dissidia Final Fantasy bears heavy facial stubble throughout both games.
- The legendary Solid Snake, from Metal Gear, sports stubble in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (and in the original Metal Gear, not that you can tell). As with many other things, he most likely got it from Snake Plissken.
- Averted with Henry of Silent Hill 4, whose perma stubble just makes him look sloppy, and Walter's unshaven mug adds to the Ax-Crazy.
The Pompadour or Regent
This hairstyle has been associated for a long time with greasers in America, and with delinquents in Japan.
- Himegawa Tatsuya of Beelzebub has an impressive example although some believe it has to be a wig. He denies this.
- Aizawa also sports a smaller version.
- Parodied in the Excel♡Saga episode "Butt Out, Youth!", where all the delinquents have ridiculous pompadours. The toughest of them all, Binbou, has a pompadour that extends about fifteen feet.
- Josuke Higashikata in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable wears a pompadour in honor of a deliquent who indirectly saved his life as a child. Because of this, he will erupt into a violent rage if his hair is insulted.
- Ditto Amamiya Ryu aka Bokuto no Ryu from Shaman King, who not only has a six-foot pompadour, but also a six-foot-long pompadour-shaped motorcycle helmet. He's also VERY pissed off when one of his rivals cuts his pompadour in half.
- Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk has one of these in the first part of the series. He shaves it later as self-punishment for the loss against Kainan.
- Space☆Dandy: The titular Dandy's pompadour is, well, dandy. And it's in space, too!
- Yusuke and Kuwabara in YuYu Hakusho
- Waldo "D.R." Dobbs from D.R. & Quinch is very much the delinquent and sports an exaggerated pompadour.
- In Captain Thunderbolt, The Gunslinger protagonist has a Teddy Boy quiff. The villainous Rabid Cop has a bushy beard.
- In at least one case, Spider-Man 3, the eponymous hero fixes his hair to match the evilness imparted by his badass new black suit. Taken from a thread discussing the movie: "Evil hair. Because that's what people do when they give in to the forces of evil and hatred. They mess up their hair."
- Similarly, Fonzie of Happy Days has "juvenile delinquent" hair and rides a motorcycle, but is really a nice guy.
- Gentarou Kisaragi, the hero of Kamen Rider Fourze, might sport of pompadour and wear clothes more like a delinquent, but the guy's the most nicest person you have ever met.
- Silvio Dante in The Sopranos.
- Winston Payne, of all people, has a pompadour in the flashback chapter of Ace Attorney (but loses it in spectacular fashion).
- Katamari Damacy: The King of All Cosmos had a pompadour as a teenager, as do most of the teenage boys you roll up in the game.
- Some of the Date soldiers from Sengoku Basara have pompadours. It should be noted that this is feudal Japan we're talking about.
- The Sims series has this type of haircut available for any character though it's popularized by womanizer pre-created character Don Lothario in trailers.
- Crimson Viper from Street Fighter IV boasts a pompadour. Not surprisingly, she possesses a very duplicitous nature, working as a ruthless Double Agent for both S.I.N. and the CIA.
- The male delinquents in Yandere Simulator all sport pompadours, and will knock Yandere-chan comatose if she approaches them while carrying a corpse or visibly holding a weapon. Considering they're knocking out a murderous Yandere, though, it's hard to think too bad of them.
- Beavis And Butthead: Beavis has one.
- Billy's father Harold in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy has a pompadour that actually houses his brain.
Harold: (to a Viking, believing him to be Billy misbehaving) Young man, you can be rude, break furniture, run up phone bills, shave the cat, and even harass your mother! But when you mess with the pomp, it's GO TIME!
- The Simpsons: Snake the valley-boy criminal has a high pompadour which curls up in the back. In one Halloween special, Snake donates his hair after being executed. Homer gets it, and his new evil hairstyle possesses him to go on a killing spree.
Varies
Power Hair is the usual symbol of a female politician.
Crew Cuts are associated with male Yanks with Tanks and other militaries.
The Mohawk. Good guys with this type of hair tend to be rebellious or gentle despite appearances. Bad guys tend to be savages or criminals.
The Mullet. In media made from about 1984-1995, good guys with the mullet are rock stars, sensitive heartthrobs, edgy Feminist Fantasy tomboys, or ass-kicking Hollywood Action Heroes, and bad guys with the mullet are the action hero's Evil Counterpart or sexy, androgynous beings. In media made after the mullet became a punchline, good guys with the mullet are parody/pastiche 80s Genre Throwback archetypes or tacky but loveable hicks, and bad guys with the mullet are psychopathic 80s action hero deconstructions or bigoted, our-of-touch fools who think they're hard men. See also: '80s Hair.
The Mullet
Oh dear.
The Mullet varies, as the style was not created fallen. In the Eighties, the flowing hippie locks of the 70s had fallen hard out of style, but a lot of men weren't ready to throw away their hard-grown length. This combined with influences from the heavily layered ladies' cuts of the time and the edgy, asymmetrical punk cuts to create what was intended to be the Ultimate Haircut - short at the front, long down the back, and either cropped or mid-length on the sides; a perfect balance between the traditional masculinity of short hair, and the stylishness and fun of long hair.
That's why in media made from the 80s to the early 90s, you'll find this hairstyle on any male character designed to represent a balance of strength and kindness. The Mullet, in the Eighties, is for Hero Protagonist men - the cool but sensitive teen heartthrob, the hard-bitten but Hunky Hollywood Action Hero, the traditional family man with a kind heart. A rarer variant can be used to suggest gender ambiguity (as the style is both masculine and feminine). One of the originators of the mullet, David Bowie, wore the style to emphasise the liminality and androgyny of his Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous Ziggy Stardust alter-ego; it's not uncommon to see cool female heroes in the 80s rocking a mullet to indicate their toughness; and fancy variants can be found on the Sissy Villain.
But eventually, the mullet fell, and once it did, it fell hard. The cut is tricky to pull off, with most of the men who managed to look amazingly cool and sexy with one - and there were some - being the kind of men who would look amazingly cool and sexy with any hair. On mortal men, it looks at best like an unfinished short haircut, and, at worst, unhygienic and repulsive. As the Camp conspicuousness of the 80s faded and was replaced with the disaffection, understatement and irony of the 90s, the hairstyle became an automatic punchline. Characters wearing a mullet after 1995 are either styleless middle-aged dads in the Midwest who didn't get the memo to cut their mullet, the Disco Dan, looking stupid in a flashback or period piece, or Pastichey Eighties Genre Throwback heroes. Only this last group may maintain some of the style, manliness and radness the Mullet was once believed to epitomise, but distanced with a layer of referentiality and irony. It should be noted that even in this era, the Mullet is rarely outright villainous - its humour value is too great for it to be used on serious villains, although you may see it on the odd reactionary old fart or sociopathic 80s Action Hero deconstruction.
It should be noted that softer, layered versions of the Mullet remain a fairly popular cut in Japan even to this day, and there have been several attempts to have a Hipster Mullet revival... but who would honestly bite? Cut the mullet, dude!
Anime & Manga
The Mullet varies, as the style was not created fallen. In the Eighties, the flowing hippie locks of the 70s had fallen hard out of style, but a lot of men weren't ready to throw away their hard-grown length. This combined with influences from the heavily layered ladies' cuts of the time and the edgy, asymmetrical punk cuts to create what was intended to be the Ultimate Haircut - short at the front, long down the back, and either cropped or mid-length on the sides; a perfect balance between the traditional masculinity of short hair, and the stylishness and fun of long hair.
That's why in media made from the 80s to the early 90s, you'll find this hairstyle on any male character designed to represent a balance of strength and kindness. The Mullet, in the Eighties, is for Hero Protagonist men - the cool but sensitive teen heartthrob, the hard-bitten but Hunky Hollywood Action Hero, the traditional family man with a kind heart. A rarer variant can be used to suggest gender ambiguity (as the style is both masculine and feminine). One of the originators of the mullet, David Bowie, wore the style to emphasise the liminality and androgyny of his Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous Ziggy Stardust alter-ego; it's not uncommon to see cool female heroes in the 80s rocking a mullet to indicate their toughness; and fancy variants can be found on the Sissy Villain.
But eventually, the mullet fell, and once it did, it fell hard. The cut is tricky to pull off, with most of the men who managed to look amazingly cool and sexy with one - and there were some - being the kind of men who would look amazingly cool and sexy with any hair. On mortal men, it looks at best like an unfinished short haircut, and, at worst, unhygienic and repulsive. As the Camp conspicuousness of the 80s faded and was replaced with the disaffection, understatement and irony of the 90s, the hairstyle became an automatic punchline. Characters wearing a mullet after 1995 are either styleless middle-aged dads in the Midwest who didn't get the memo to cut their mullet, the Disco Dan, looking stupid in a flashback or period piece, or Pastichey Eighties Genre Throwback heroes. Only this last group may maintain some of the style, manliness and radness the Mullet was once believed to epitomise, but distanced with a layer of referentiality and irony. It should be noted that even in this era, the Mullet is rarely outright villainous - its humour value is too great for it to be used on serious villains, although you may see it on the odd reactionary old fart or sociopathic 80s Action Hero deconstruction.
It should be noted that softer, layered versions of the Mullet remain a fairly popular cut in Japan even to this day, and there have been several attempts to have a Hipster Mullet revival... but who would honestly bite? Cut the mullet, dude!
Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball: Yamcha or Jeice.
- Fate/stay night: Kotomine Kirei.
- Ronin Warriors: Ryo or Shin/Cye. If you are the latter, you can actually make it look cute.
- Escape from New York: Snake Plissken, the tough-but-sexy action mullet.
- Ghost (1990): Patrick Swayze, a clear case of the cool-but-sensitive mullet.
- Hard Target: Jean-Claude Van Damme's greaseball Jheri curl mullet is a very late variant of the Action Mullet, appearing around the time both of these trends were on the verge of inglorious death.
- Labyrinth: Jareth the Goblin King has the Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous androgynous-type mullet.
- Lethal Weapon gives the batshit insane Cowboy Cop Riggs a ragged, poorly-cut mullet.
- The Terminator gives Sarah Connor an absolutely enormous femullet.
- MacGyver: MacGyver.
- Red Dwarf: Ace Rimmer, an ironic mullet.
- Billy in Stranger Things likely thinks his scraggly mullet is the height of cool, but, as the show was made in the 2010s, indicates to modern viewers his slightly pathetic nature.
- David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, an androgyny mullet as noted above.
- ECW: Mike Awesome.
- Ring of Honor: Michael Elgin's had to go though.
- Final Fantasy XV gives Gladio an interesting undercut mullet that's a cross between the action mullet, and the cool-modern-Japanese-boy mullet.
- Metal Gear is known for its mullets.
- Solid Snake has the 'throwback' mullet, although he started out roughly contemporary with the style. He's shown with one in a flashback in Metal Gear Solid (1998), but cuts it off before the start of the game, as a nod to the change in fashion since his previous appearance in 1990. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, it's supposed to be a reference to Snake Plissken's hair, mentioned above.
- Naked Snake/Big Boss has a mullet largely because Solid Snake had one, even in time periods before this haircut existed. A brief flashback image shows him with a mullet in the 1950s, before long hair was accepted on men whatsoever.
- The three main heroic male characters in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain all have mullets. Venom Snake has the established "Snake" mullet haircut, Kazuhira Miller has a pompadour mullet, and Revolver Ocelot has a sort of undercut mullet. Justified Trope as the game is set in 1984.
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Captain Planet.
- Regular Show: The rockstar incarnations of Mordecai and Rigby have ironic throwback mullets.
- The Venture Bros.: Brock Sampson has the psychopathic-hero-deconstruction mullet.
- X-Men: Evolution: Lance "Avalanche" Alvers.
Curly Hair. Curly hair, particularly if black/dark brown, often suggests evil and/or Ax-Crazy tendencies in adults. On the flip side, it can convey extreme innocence, particularly if seen on children.
Curly hair for the good side
- Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter book universe, who is not innocent, but definitely is Lawful Good. Straight-haired Emma Watson, however (whose hair has been getting smoother year by year!), plays her in the film franchise.
- According to Tolkien's Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, almost all hobbits have curly hair.
- Athos, from the Musketeer trilogy. He's about as Lawful Good as you can get.
- Black Dynamite: Black Dynamite.
- Frodo in The Lord of the Rings is a Pretty Boy and an All-Loving Hero with curly dark brown hair. Other hobbits also have curly hair, albeit of much lighter shades.
- Blake and Gan from Blake's 7 both have curly hair and are both (initially) the most innocent characters — Gan is literally incapable of killing anyone in a Life Is Cheap universe and Blake remains a comparatively innocent idealist in a crew comprised of convicted criminals — he is the only one innocent of the charges against him.
- Chuck Bartowski from the NBC series Chuck sports curly hair, and either an ear to ear smile, or a sad kicked puppy face.
- Doctor Who:
- Nyssa.
- OK, the Fourth Doctor doesn't quite count as innocent, but definitely on the side of the good guys. He's definitely one of the more light-hearted incarnations, and probably the most iconic.
- The Eighth Doctor has rather long curly locks, and starts out quite innocent and childlike due to an unfortunate spot of amnesia. Even when he starts getting his memory back, he's still very pacifistic and forgiving. Notably, the more world-weary Eighth Doctor who re-appears in "Night of the Doctor" has close-cropped hair.
- Fran Drescher of The Nanny belongs firmly in this category.
- In earlier seasons, Delphine of Orphan Black wears her hair in soft ringlets. As she becomes more ensconced in the nefarious happenings at Dyad, she's seen with her hair worn straight and sleek. When she is reunited with Cosima at the end of season four, her hair is wavy again
- Dustin Henderson from Stranger Things.
Curly hair for the evil side
- Griffith of Berserk has this as part of his White Hair, Black Heart package. He's more cold and ruthless than Ax-Crazy though.
- Count Cain's Jezebel, who is an Ax-Crazy antagonist and possesses a childlike innocence.
- Rue in Princess Tutu has wild, curly hair, which makes sense as she's the Dark Magical Girl. However, she later goes through a Heel–Face Turn and keeps the curls.
- Bellatrix Lestrange, as played by Helena Bonham Carter in the Harry Potter films.
- Pretty much every character ever played by Helena Bonham Carter in a Tim Burton film, with the exception of Emily (whom she voiced) in Corpse Bride.
- The vampires Lestat and Claudia of Interview with the Vampire both have long blond/e curly hair. This is a stark contrast to Louis, the closest thing to a "good guy" in the film, who has flowing dark hair.
- In the film, becoming a vampire actually causes Claudia's hair to curl itself.
- Anakin Skywalker from Revenge of the Sith.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
- Magenta is a spectacular example.
- Likewise, Dr. Frank N Furter himself has curly hair. In one scene, we even see his hair in curlers.
- Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
- Claggart in Billy Budd is described as having "silken jet curls". You can tell he's evil.
- Johnathan Teatime from Hogfather has boyish blond curls... and is also an assassin so depraved he scares the other assassins.
- The Prisoner of Zenda: Rupert of Hentzau.
- Doctor Who:
- Though certainly not Ax-Crazy, the curly-haired Sixth Doctor is one of the Doctor's nastier and more unstable incarnations.
- The Fourth Doctor belongs in both connotations of the trope due to being Creepy Cute in both appearance and personality. He's childlike and quirky and hopelessly adorable, but also capable of doing unspeakable things while smiling about it.
- River Song. She's one of the good guys, usually, but was raised from birth to be an assassin, identifies herself as a "psychopath," and makes Daleks beg for mercy.
- Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure: When Sirena is turned into a siren, the type of mermaid that lures sailors to their deaths, her hair becomes increasingly curly as opposed to its normal wavy style. By the time the others catch on, she's sporting poofy '80s Hair.
- Mad Meg, and a number of other Insane Heroines in the Gilbert and Sullivan tradition, are usually portrayed with spectacularly frizzy curly hair.
- The Makara family in Homestuck all have curly hair of an impressive size. They worship the main villain and his dragon. There's also )(er Imperious Condescension, who has spectacularly large and curly hair, to the point where one wonders how she can handle it underwater.
- Sabine from The Order of the Stick is one of the very few curly-haired characters in the comic, although it's her red leather outfit that actually tips off the Genre Savvy Haley to the fact that she's evil...
- Darla Dimple from Cats Don't Dance, who is a Dark Parody of Shirley Temple.
