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Idiot Hair

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BakemonogatariAhoge.jpg
No points for guessing what's going through his head.

"What the hell is going on with that hair? Everything else about him is fine, but that single strand of his hair is defying all laws of gravity. You could tie him to the end of a rope and use him to catch fish."
— ProJared on Brian, "Quest 64"

Ahogenote  (literally idiot hair) refers to the noticeable slim forelock of hair that sticks straight up from a character's head. Originally a hairdresser term for the "stupid hairs" or cowlicks that will not comb down, it later mutated into a reflection of a person's intelligence. Thus Idiot Hair suggests that a character is stupid, naïve, or strange. (This suggestion is usually accurate, but not always—sometimes a serious character just has funny hair.)

Even if a character is not specifically stupid, naïve, or particularly odd, the ahoge also usually represents a general mischievous quality about them in general. Goes hand in hand with the Cat Smile. It can also be used to show that Something Else Also Rises.

Idiot Hair is not to be confused with the two-stranded antennae-style hair, popularized by Love Hina or Ah! My Goddess. It isn't about idiot heirs, either.

Can be Truth in Television, as people with cowlicks can attest to.

Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In act-age, Kei's long, askew strand of hair emphasizes her quirky and slightly naive character, while creating a contrast with her "cool beauty" appearance. It's a family trait too, as both her late mother and her siblings sport a similar one.
  • Athena from ARIA has one, though she's more of a space case than an outright idiot. Akatsuki also has one.
  • Yuu "Nana" Nanami of Asteroid in Love has a tuft of hair that goes straight up the top of her head, and she's a Comically Serious character who is often lacking in common sense.
  • The top image comes from Bakemonogatari. The depicted Koyomi, as well as his sisters Karen and Tsukihi, have ahoge, but Koyomi's is the tallest.
    • While Koyomi has the "idiot hair" and does occasionally act the fool, let it be said that he's less an idiot than a Deadpan Snarker hero type with Expressive Hair. His ahoge manages to add amusing sequences to some episodes (like the page picture's source) that are less image-based and more talky.
    • It manages to forms question marks when he's confused and he even blushes through it in episode 13.
    • In episode 1 of Nisemonogatari, it formed the kanji for love.
  • Kotoishi Naru from Barakamon. She's a silly and carefree 6-year-old Genki Girl.
  • Asta from Black Clover has a strand sticking up from his spiky gray hair, which perfectly fits with simple-minded, energetic personality.
  • In Blue Drop, Mari's chemistry teacher Yuuko puts up her hair in this fashion to cheer Mari up. She also does it to Mari herself, much to the latter's delight.
  • Bocchi the Rock!: Nijika has an ahoge, somewhat ironically, as she's the most intelligent (or at least most reasonable) member of the band. Said ahoge is usually drawn as a yellow triangle, leading fans to refer to her as "Dorito." Her older sister also has the same Dorito-like ahoge.
  • Kururu and Hororo in Bottle Fairy, but it's more about not knowing human's customs, and the other two aren't better at it either, and when all four combine into one girl, she gets one that goes all around her head
  • A Certain Magical Index: MISAKA has MISAKA has one! (though she denies that it's an ahoge in volume 15.) Her 20,000 Sisters (+ 1) don't, though, at least not now. Mikoto had one when she was little, and if you look closely, that particular piece is still drawn distinctly on her hair in the present, it's just slicked down onto the rest of her bangs (this is especially obvious on her Nendoroid figure, where it is removable).
    • It is an inherited trait, as shown in the A Certain Scientific Railgun anime, where Misuzu (Mikoto's mother) springs one the moment she hears about the mysterious guy Mikoto may or may not be interested in.
  • Red Blood Cell AE3803 in Cells at Work! has one, perfectly fitting her adorably awkward personality and tendency to get lost in the blood vessels. Curiously, this has led some fans to believe that she may in fact be an abnormal sickle cell! Even her tongue, which screams with her whenever she freaks out, has one, and certain scenes in episode 8 show her standing out stuck in a mass of red blood cells thanks to her ahoge drawn BIGGER than it looks up close.
    • Her counterpart in Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, Red Blood Cell AA2153, has a similar ahoge, though he tends to be more competent and serious than her.
  • Kosukegawa in Change 123 has expressive idiot hair. It was also used at least once for the Something Else Also Rises trope.
  • In Crimson Grave the two heroes go dungeon-exploring with a treasure hunter whose expressive ahoge is apparently smarter than she is. It always points in the direction she should go, and she follows it without realizing.
  • Miku and Zorome from DARLING in the FRANXX: they even sword-fight with their Idiot Hairs while arguing!
  • Emilia from The Devil is a Part-Timer! has one, though she subverts the trope in that, while she is most definitely in no way stupid, she can be clumsy and paranoid at times, even if she is technically a Hero.
  • DieBuster: Nono's ahoge is epic, and it's certainly a good indicator of her personality in this case. It even stays in place (with a slightly more angular shape) after she goes into Buster Machine mode.
  • Yumeji from Dream Eater Merry. Merry, after falling out of a tree onto him (again), recognizes him by the "antenna".
  • Suzuna from Eyeshield 21 will suddenly develop it whenever another character's romantic subplot is brought up. It then homes in on them like radar.
  • Hanajima from Fruits Basket grows one and uses it as an antenna when she's using her psychic powers.
  • Several characters in Fullmetal Alchemist have this, although it's almost never indicative of their intelligence.
  • In episode 8 of Granblue Fantasy, Lyria's idiot hair guides Katalina, Lyria, and Vyrn to find the others as it points the direction towards Gran.
  • Shiki Nanaya from Hana no Miyako has a rather long and slightly curled one. She's not really an idiot, but she's definitely a bit off-kilter.
  • Haré and Weda in Haré+Guu. Weda isn't really an idiot but acts irresponsible and care-free because it's a more fun way to live life and to avoid facing her issues. Haré is pretty smart and the show's Only Sane Man, but this frequently causes him to run around like an idiot out of stress since he's the only one who can't go with the flow.
    • Interesting to note: Weda's mom has no ahoge. Weda has one. Haré has two. Weda's second child Ame has three. We can only imagine what Haré's own kids might look like.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler subverts this. He has an Idiot Hair at the back of his head. In keeping with that, he is sometimes an idiot (say, dealing with the girls), and sometimes hyper-competent.
  • Kyoko in Heat Guy J to show her innocence. (i.e. she's one of the very few characters that doesn't come from a dysfunctional family and didn't experience loss of a friend or family member).
  • Shimoda the Angel from Heaven's Design Team has a curly lock on top of his hair that sticks up whenever he's shocked, scared, or gets a Divine Approval. Quite fittingly, he's a Naïve Newcomer Butt-Monkey whose primary role in the manga is to ask questions about the designers' projects and why certain animal features do or do not work.
  • In Hetalia: Axis Powers, several characters have them.
    • And it seems some of these idiot hairs have meaning, representing several places (America's is Nantucket, Korea's is supposed to be Seoul, Austria's is Mariazell, etc.)
    • Several pictures of Roman Empire show that he has several idiot hairs and that they may have been passed on to his descendants (Both Italy brothers, Greece, and possibly Egypt.)
      • The Italy brothers are mirror images of each other. North Italy's is on his left side while South's is on his right.
      • One comic revealed that they get flustered when people touch them because they're erogenous zones for them.
      • The Principality of Seborga has a curl similar to North Italy's, but it has a more rumpled and bent appearance.
      • When North and South Italy's curls overlap, they form a heart. See here.
      • Greece has one that splits into two on the top of his head. The ends curl round in the style of an Ionic column.
    • Korea has one too. It's sometimes drawn with a face.
      • According to the notes, it's his soul, not Seoul. Hence the face. Stealth Pun?
    • Austria, normally The Stoic, will sometimes express emotion through his ahoge.
    • Taiwan has the longest of any known country, which seems to fit with her being the only girl with one.
    • America and Canada both have them.
      • It's no surprise that they both have one, being 'brothers' (or as related as a country can be). What is interesting is how different they are. America's is short, thick, and curves back over his hair. Canada's is long, thin, has a loop, and falls forward in front of his face.
    • Australia has two. AND England's eyebrows.
    • Norway's floats.
      • He also a strange dot◊ that floats alongside his idiot hair.
    • Turkey's splits into two at the nape of his neck.
    • Not only that but in the few times Italian and Austrian citizens are represented, they have the very same ahoge style of their respective countries.
  • Miki's relative Akiko in I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying and Metsuko ni Yoroshiku has idiot hair that not only floats upwards in blatantly disregard of gravity, it continuously wriggles in the air like a snake. It's also about 2 1/2 feet long making it more of a side ponytail than a single hair.
  • In the manga Inukami! Youko's idiot hair pops up from time to time, usually when she's acting like a ditz.
  • The eponymous Iono from Iono the Fanatics also has one. She's not really an idiot, but she's a lesbian Bunny Ears Queen who is very much led by her hormones.
  • Haruna from Is This A Zombie? has one that is expressive.
  • Halkara from I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level has this, as she is frequently making mistakes such as mixing up poisonous and edible mushrooms and getting thrown in prison for accidentally knocking out the Demon King.
  • Ixion Saga DT: Princess Ecarlate grows one in her "hyperactivity period".
    • She can grow up to three, and horrible things happen if she does. So naturally, it happens.
  • Jubei-chan has two characters with these. When engaged in a shouting match at one point, they came close enough for their Ahoge antennas to actually do battle with each other.
  • Ayano Kannagi from Kaze no Stigma. In episode 13 you can see her putting a great deal of work into making sure she has an Idiot Hair, including combing her hair a certain way and liberal amounts of hairspray. Why? Who knows. It fits, though.
  • Three characters, including both main characters, have ahoge in A Little Snow Fairy Sugar. It is played straight with Sugar but it's subverted with Saga, who likes to keep to schedules and only appears to be an idiot because no one else can see season fairies.
  • My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected protagonist Hikigaya Hachiman and his younger sister Komachi both sport an ahoge.
  • Nagasarete Airantou: A bit of Misaki's hair stands up when there's a youkai nearby.
  • In the Naruto epilogue, Naruto and Hinata's children Boruto and Himawari are both shown to have a small ahoge on their head, though Himawari sometimes has her's pulled up into a single pigtail.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Asuna has one of these in her hair, and she's a member of Class 3-A's "Baka Rangers" clique for the students who consistently get the lowest grades.
    • Yue Ayase has one running across her head, and is also a member of Class 3-A's "Baka Rangers". However, she's actually very smart, just really lazy.
    • Nodoka also has one, but she's ranked something like 23rd in her grade of over 700 students.
    • Chisame Hasegawa also has one, and she's the only class member without a Weirdness Censor.
    • A more straight example is Nagi "Five, Maybe Six Spells Tops Thousand Master" Springfield, Negi's missing father. Not to mention Negi himself, who is "an idiot in reverse" due to overthinking, and his obliviousness about girls.
  • Horus from Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God has a single curled strand of hair sticking out of his head (presumably modeled after the double crown he's often depicted as wearing in Egyptian art), fitting his naive and somewhat clumsy personality.
  • From One Piece Lulu, one of the Galley-la foremen, generally has a straight "spike" of hair sticking out of his head at a random direction. When he tries to push it down, it just pops back up again somewhere else and can get extra-ridiculous when it sticks out of his mustache or the back of his hand, and it eventually spreads to other people.
    • Marguerite is a more typical example, with a few stray unruly strands of hair.
    • After his upgrade, Franky can grow his hair in any style he wants.
    • The Skypiea Arc combines this with Idiot Crows, as the Strawhats' dial-boat Karasumaru has one carved into its crow-shaped figurehead.
  • Rufus Barma in PandoraHearts. Break actually calls him "ahoge."
  • Himeko from Pani Poni Dash! is given the nickname "Ahoge", for both mentioned reasons. Her cowlick even moves around of its own accord.
    • In episode 3, Becky briefly gets one, and she gets so frustrated with hers that she rips Himeko's cowlick right out of her head. This causes her normally Genki Girl personality to avert to one of somber depression, only able to weakly utter "Maho" until a replacement is found.
  • Place to Place has the main couple have ahoges. Neither of them are exactly idiots, but Io's known to be a bit... dense.
  • Ahiru/Duck in Princess Tutu has an ahoge roughly as tall as her head. This has botched a few of her attempts at stealth. Small birds have been spotted sitting on it and pecking it.
  • Emma from The Promised Neverland has a rather ironic one. A volume extra implies it has a mind of its own, and can dodge scissors. ETR3M8 even dubs her "Antenna".
  • Kazumi of Puella Magi Kazumi Magica has one. It doubles as a witch detector. Airi also has one, in her original appearance.
  • The Quintessential Quintuplets:
    • Male lead Fuutarou Uesugi has two of these, but subverts it by being a Straight-A student instead of an idiot. Apparently it's because he lets Raiha cut his hair and she always makes him this hairdo.
    • Itsuki has one as her distinctive trait. Doubles as Expressive Hair as it droops when she's depressed or standing up when she's nervous or excited.
  • In Taboo-Tattoo, the eccentric elderly samurai Tsugio Kobakura has a single dark ahoge sticking up from his otherwise bald head, something the other characters find highly amusing. This appears to be a family trait as his granddaughter Makoto, a.k.a. Cal Shekar the vice-commander of Brahman, also sports one.
  • Milim Nava from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime has a single large strand that curls around and makes it almost look like she has a halo. She is the Cloud Cuckoolander of the series, even though she is one of the most powerful characters in the story.
  • Lala of To Love Ru, fittingly enough.
  • Plucky Comic Relief Seidou Takizawa, from Tokyo Ghoul. He has a single lock sticking up, which adds to his youthful appearance (and personality) in contrast to his coworkers.
  • Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou: Koyomi have one and fit the ditzy and energetic personality type. However, both Misa and Yumiko also have idiot hair. The former is more level-headed, even though she has a carefree attitude, and the latter doesn't fit the character type at all.

    Audio Plays 
  • Exit Tunes Presents ACTORS has this on a few of its characters—the most obvious example being orange-haired Hinata—however, while he may not look the part, he is in fact calmer and more capable than most traditional examples of this trope.
    • Itto and Shirou also have these, though it's more obvious in their chibi art. Itto is more suited to the usual interpretation of this trope, though, considering his personality. Shirou is more on the 'mischievous' type of the spectrum, though.

    Comic Books 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg is given a cowlick (called a wimpy sprig in the Movie Diary) to imitate his book counterpart's three strands of hair.
  • There's Something About Mary, as seen here. There's also something a bit more to that one, though.
  • Kyoami in Ran; being the Court Jester to Lord Ichimonji, this makes sense. Subverted in that (like most jesters), he's actually very intelligent, using his humorous facade to speak (horrible) truth to power.
  • In the Our Gang shorts, Alfalfa's trademark is his hair: a part down the middle and a big old cowlick sticking up in the back.

    Literature 
  • In Maximum Ride, The Gasman (or Gazzy for short) is described as having a cowlick. In the manga, he has hair sticking up in the front of his head.
  • To Kill a Mockingbird has Dill Harris, who is described by Scout as having a cowlick that sticks up in the center of his forehead "like duck-fluff." It's one of the first things that Scout notices about Dill when she and Jem first meet him. Dill is also described as to be a "curiosity" to Scout and called "stupid" by Jem, although Dill is rather wise beyond his years.
  • Nyarko from Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!; since she's Nyarlathotep, it's prehensile to act as a stand-in for a tentacle. It's also a Malign Deity Radar, in addition to being able to form complex shapes like kanji and an at-mark (at least in the anime). Rather than outright stupidity though (she graduated top of her class and went to a prestigious university), it reflects the fact that she's The Ditz.
    • It seems to be a trait all Nyarlathotepians share. Both her brother Nyar-o (who is Book Dumb), and her cousin Nyarue (who is not said to be dumb, but gets nervous easily) also have one.
    • Hasta from the same series has the twin antenna version, but he's neither stupid nor especially ditzy.
  • Yamagi Noriko's design from Project NRI gives her an ahoge. According to her, she has been teased about it in the past.
    "Um... It wasn't. Don't worry. That's the first time anybody's ever said it was cute, though. Usually I get 'why is it up like that?' or 'haha, Noriko, are you a unicorn?'"
    • Noriko's example could be a mild subversion of the trope because Noriko is a brilliant mathematician and one of the more level-headed characters in the story.
  • In the Memoirs of the Duchess of Abrantès, Lavallette is characterised as the fool among Junot's friends, and is constantly struggling to bring down four or five outstanding strands of hair, so noticeable indeed that they each had a name.
  • In Chrysanthemum, the Alpha Bitch Victoria has a large cowlick with a star decorated on the top.
  • The Light Jar: In a flashback, Nate's mum unsuccessfully tries to smooth a tuft of hair on his head in preparation for her boyfriend Gary moving in.
  • Abel Hopton's stubborn cowlick in Grent's Fall.

    Live-Action TV 

    Stand-Up Comedy 

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney:
  • Saber in Fate/stay night. A non-indicative one for the most part, but for God's sake don't make her remove it like what Gilgamesh did; she'll turn into Saber Alter.
    • Fate/Nuovo Guerra seems to have made this a family trait of sorts. Her 'son' has it, and so does her father (both are summoned as Saber-class Servants too). The latter's profile even lampshades it.
    • Probably notable, is that due to the serious nature of the series, the canon stories themselves never points out her ahoge; however, like Akiha's small bust size, the fandom likes to play with it.
    • Lampshaded in Fate/Grand Order in the "Saber Wars" event (which deals with Saber trying to deal with her various expies), where the unique currency is "Artorium", which is just the ahoge common for all Saber-knockoffs.
  • From School Days, both Sekai Saionji, whose ahoge pretty much speaks for the entire cast, and Makoto Ito have one. Sekai's is larger and much more noticeable, and Makoto's is on the back of his head.
  • Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! has at least three: Momoyo, Koyuki, and Tatsuko.
  • Komari from Little Busters! has one and is the naive type.
  • Yo-Jin-Bo has Bo, whose hair is otherwise sleek and well-behaved, except for one strand that always hangs in his face. However, he's arguably one of the smarter guys.
  • Hatoful Boyfriend's Sakazaki Yuuya's faux-human appearance comes with two ahoges. He's far from stupid, but rather easygoing and flirtatious, and kind of the Butt-Monkey. In the manga, he seems unhappy about getting one to help differentiate him from the other two white fantail doves.
  • The Danganronpa series loves to gives its protagonists this. Started off by Makoto Naegi in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, it's continued by the main characters of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Hajime Hinata and Kaede Akamatsu and later, Shuichi Saihara, who keeps it under his hat, have it as well. It's become so synonymous with the role that it becomes outright symbolic as the series goes on, noticeably in Ultra Despair Girls where Makoto's younger sister Komaru - briefly appearing in the first game with normal hair - has become the protagonist and suddenly sprouted one, also true for returning character and Deuteragonist Touko Fukawa (though in the latter case it doubles as part of her new disheveled appearance), and in V3 the aforementioned Shuichi only removes his cap and makes his idiot hair visible after he takes up the protagonist mantle for good. In Danganronpa Zero, Ryoko Otonashi lacks one but Yasuke Matsuda has it, and in Killer Killer, Takumi Hijirihara sports it as well.
    • Though this isn't entirely exclusive to protagonists of the series, with Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair sporting one among his absurd bedhead, likely to further his resemblance to the aforementioned Makoto. He also briefly becomes playable during Chapter 4's investigation, and he does still serve as one of the most prominent characters in the story. Taken further in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, in which Rantaro Amami, K1-B0, and Miu all sport prominent ahoges. The former two turn out to be more than a coincidence with some of the endgame reveals regarding the killing game's true nature. Rantaro is a survivor and possible protagonist of the 52nd killing game, while K1-B0 is the audience-controlled in-show protagonist of the 53rd, aka Danganronpa V3. K1-B0's idiot hair also turns out to be a Justified Trope which takes the trend of the "protagonist hair" to its logical conclusion, by doubling as an antenna that allows the audience of the killing game to control his actions through user polls.
    • Naturally, the trend is lampshaded and parodied several times throughout the series, such as in certain conversations in Ultra Despair Girls, and in a chalkboard Easter egg in V3 featuring Monokuma sporting a ludicrously large one while asking “Can I be the protagonist now?”. It’s as funny as it sounds.
  • Averted in the fangame Danganronpa Another: despite being the protagonist, Yuki Maeda lacks an ahoge. Why? He was the villain all along.
  • Yukino in My Girlfriend Is the President has a rather large one AND a smaller one right next to it. It pulls double duty as Expressive Hair as well.
  • Asaga has a large ahoge in Sunrider Academy, which occasionally acts as Expressive Hair and emphasizes her ditzy, Genki Girl personality. Her main universe counterpart, who is not a ditz and originally did not have an ahoge, gains a small one thanks to Art Evolution in Sunrider Liberation Day (though it’s inconsistently applied; it shows up in the CGs, but not on her sprites).
  • In TRianThology ~Sanmenkyou no Kuni no Alice~, all students (and non-students) we ever see on-screen except for one in Academy Love Adventure have one. Starting with the main character Ibito, his friend Hidaka, Ichou, and the girls Noriha, Yukina, Hinata, Hinako, Miho, and Karen.
  • The Fruit of Grisaia: Michiru has one of these, which corresponds well with her equally ditzy personality, Yuuji manages to convince Michiru that her idiot hair, which he calls Charlie, is cat repellant, as it turns out, it's quite the opposite.

    Web Animation 
  • Bee and Puppycat's Bee has one of these.
  • Happy Tree Friends: Russell has a curly one under his hat.
  • RWBY: Penny has a single curl of hair sticking upwards from the top of her head. She is an awkward person with a strange way of talking and poor social skills. She latches onto Ruby when Ruby says 'see you around, friend', nobody having ever called her 'friend' before. She's a very high-quality and classified combat robot.

    Webcomics 
  • Most characters in Knowledge Is Power, with the exception of those whose hair is too uniformly short (like Colin) or long (like David) for it to make any sense. This extends to Ironychan's other webcomics as well, although it wasn't as obvious in Get Medieval.
  • The main character of TwoKinds, Trace Legacy, who also has blue hair! This character fits the exception of the rule in that he's not technically stupid. It's humored at in this picture that it's the source of his magical powers.
  • The titular character of Kurami has a fairly prominent cowlick. She's not an idiot, per se, but she is only a few months old.
  • Quite common in Fiyora Nya, with Ayako and Kyuuke probably being the most obvious examples.
  • While it isn't on a specific character, the website Gaia Online has an equippable avatar item known as the Idiot Hair (specifically modeled after the Hetalia ahoges).
  • Irya from Bits Fair has a giant idiot hair sticking out, in addition to having a hairstyle that looks like a pattypan.
  • Matt from White Dark Life has a large crescent of hair sticking out from the top of his head. According to supplementary materials, it actually saps up some of his intelligence sometimes.
    • Two of his children, Saru and Ne, also have his exact hairstyle, though Ne purposefully tries to copy it.
  • Queen Juno from Princess Chroma has a single green lock that hangs in front of her face, usually subtly but exaggerated when she's hurried and unkempt. Subverted in the sense that Juno is far from stupid, though she is more laid back than the other royals.
  • Several Consolers characters have these, like Sony, Square Enix and Apple. But like some Hetalia characters does Atari have a floating one.
  • Astyr Kaedermos from Sombulus has a perpetual bent strand of hair sticking out.
  • Questionable Content: Melon, an AI whose personal oddities are a regular topic of discussion among her friends, has a single upwards-pointing tuft in the middle of her green hair. In one case, it's initially absent but reappears after she snorts the robotic equivalent of a Gargle Blaster. In another strip, when she gets refitted with longer hair after a fire-related accident, Faye and Bubbles discuss how something's not right about it but they can't quite work out what, until it "poings" up.
    Melon: Ooh, my wifi signal just got stronger!
    Bubbles: Fascinating.
  • I'm the Grim Reaper: Scarlet has one, and while she isn't stupid, per se, she is noted to be a little dense at times, especially when it comes to people.
  • Se-Eun Ham from Surviving Romance has one. Fittingly she's known to be extremely gullible.
  • Sleepless Domain: Outrageous Apple, the smug jokester member of Team Outrageous, has a small tuft of her bright red hair perpetually sticking out to the side. As a result, her hairstyle ends up rather appropriately resembling an apple, with the ahoge as its "stem".

    Web Original 
  • While the V-tuber Ironmouse often changes her models, nearly all of them (even the most adult/realistic ones) have a strand of hair sticking up that forms an incomplete heart shape.

    Western Animation 
  • Rudy Tabootie from ChalkZone has one, but he's more Book Dumb and naïve than actually stupid.
  • Something of an inversion: everyone in Cyber Six has huge, thick forelocks of hair which are perpetually hanging in front of their faces. If you started selling hairpins in Meridiana, you could probably make millions.
  • In the Family Guy short "Li'l Griffins", Quagmire gets one for the rest of the episode in a Something Else Also Rises moment after seeing Lois.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: While not an idiot, but just a baby, Poof has one dark violet idiot hair that grows back a few seconds after it is trimmed.
  • Invader Zim: Dib's is a borderline example◊, but he's not stupid... relatively.
  • Luan Loud from The Loud House actually has two strands of idiot hair, though she's less stupid and more so a Plucky Comic Relief.
  • In the original animesque version of Miraculous Ladybug Marinette had a large, expressive idiot hair on her head. When the cartoon was switched to an All-CGI Cartoon they removed it.
  • Teen Titans Go!: Beast Boy has one hair that perpetually sticks out even when he makes the effort to gel his hair down to look dapper.
  • Gravity Falls: Cowlicks are a trademark feature in the Pines.
  • Penny Proud from The Proud Family actually sports a small bit of hair sticking up in her hairdo.
  • In Puppy Dog Pals, Bingo and Rolly's owner, Bob, has a cowlick, most of which sticks up in the front of his head, fitting his rather eccentric, excitable and goofy personality. He is far from being an idiot, as he is very smart, being a successful inventor and creative industrial product designer.
  • In The Owl House, the Golden Guard has one of these under his mask, though unlike most examples it’s a bit wavy. It seems to be a familial feature, as it’s shared with both the man he was cloned off of and that man’s brother (when he was younger), who Hunter knows as his uncle, Emperor Belos. He’s actually very book smart, but has no concept of how to interact with people outside of a mission context.

    Real Life 

 
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Video Example(s):

Sento Kiryu

Whenever he gets excited or ahead of himself, a section of Sento's hair will inexplicably stick out.

Alternative Title(s): Ahoge

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Sento Kiryu

Whenever he gets excited or ahead of himself, a section of Sento's hair will inexplicably stick out.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

Example of:

Main / IdiotHair

Media sources:

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