What's the narrative point in Hair Decorations?

I'm confused about Hair Decorations. It just seems to be "This character has a hair decoration" with no ulterior trope.

Its a character design distinction trope, but really only if its a signature fixture on their hair that they rarely ever take off. Said moments where its off, they will often make in-universe jokes how they are unrecognizable.

Its a big way to hide Only Six Faces as well as change their silhouette in a crowd.

IE like Haruhi in Haruhi Suzumiya went crazy with changing her hair and decs every day◊ till Kyon talked to her and said he liked the hairband and bam it stuck. Then when you see her with a ponytail in Disappearance you instantly know something is off.

Or Inami in WORKING!! and her hair clip she always wears, always a different one in every single manga chapter but always in the same spot. In a major Relationship Upgrade moment Souta gives one as a gift.

If they show up in 1 episode with a hair band without meaning.. that is not a trope.

Edited by Memers on Aug 11th 2019 at 9:08:43 AM

It used to be Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs.

As part of Garnishing the Story, giving girls hair decorations make them stand out compared to other characters (similar purpose to Nice Hat) and make them appealing to the reader.

If you think that sounds shallow, you're not alone - but that does sound like a trope.

The trope concept mentioned by 4tell does, I think, work as a trope, shallow as it is.

But Trope Decay is a thing, so I'm sure most examples don't follow those rules. Compare other costume tropes like Fingerless Gloves and Badass Longcoat, for other tropes with meaning but examples that don't said convey meaning.

Edited by WarJay77 on Aug 11th 2019 at 12:05:25 PM

It's also the problem with bland sounding titles.

Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs give a direction and a clue for the trope's meaning. Changing the title just to get rid of snowclones is basically short sighted.

And yeah, Fingerless Gloves have the same problem.

Badass Longcoat has a different problem: it assumes that whoever wears a longcoat is automatically a badass, and that affects the example writing.

I'd consider moving it back to the more explanatory old title.

Edited by rjd1922 on Dec 10th 2019 at 6:35:45 AM

I'd restore the snowclone, in this case - if the snowclone functions correctly in communicating what the trope even is, it doesn't need to be gone; in contrast to the "Everything's Better with [INSERT ANIMAL HERE]" family that doesn't make it clear that the members of the family are even meaningful tropes in the first place.

Edited by Albert3105 on Dec 10th 2019 at 7:53:33 AM

I would actually go with ' Unique ' instead of 'cuter. The narrative intent is that they stand out and are a signature thing.

Like to the point where you can identify the person simply via their hair decs and no other detail like◊ this.◊

If its not unique in the work then it really shouldn't be the trope. Its really the same with glasses, unique hair styles, exotic hair colors, non standard uniforms and such. Especially if its done to avoid Only Six Faces.

Hm, you have a point. Unique Hair Decorations or Signature Hair Decorations sound like something tropeworthy.

Any hair decorations that a girl/woman might or might not wear is very chairs-y. Women sometimes wear certain accessories to look nice, to spice it up or because they feel like it. It would be like troping dresses and jewellery. (These can be tropes if there is a pattern and some meaning behind them.)

Similar with hair: Twenties Bob Hair Cut: trope. Scifi Bob Haircut: trope. Bob Haircut: People Sit on Chairs.

I'd like "Signature Hair Decs".

Ditto.

I like "signature hair decorations", but "unique hair decorations" would be acceptable.

Signature is fine by me. It gives off the feeling like its their primary thing, which is good, cause IMO something they wear for 1 single episode wouldn't be an example... unless its a pattern like Inami from WORKING!! , in which while she wears a hairpin in the same spot every single episode it is always a different hairpin with not a single repeat all 3 seasons.

Edited by Memers on Dec 10th 2019 at 9:06:21 AM

Distinguishing Hair Decs would also work, I think.

Well, seemingly we have consensus, but renaming and fixing tropes is a job for TRS. Which is terribly clogged (obligatory reminder).

Or we can take it to Appearance Tropes maintenance thread in long-term projects.

However, those efforts often burn out because people are fine voicing their opinion and stating problems (which is a very important first step) but then the thread stalls or takes forever to resolve because it lacks people willing to work on checking and removing wrong wicks.

Thinking just repair shop it, it’s going to take at least a rename crowner.

Maybe it should be Girly Hair Decorations? They usually indicate girliness.

It depends, some of them have utility as well. I have seen some that are not intended to be cute as well.

The biggest thing IMO is its a unique thing and they make the person look unique, to the point where its easy to pick them out of a crowd. If a girl or a guy has hair decs they will be the only one in the work with that unless its a plot point or like Twins.

Are there enough examples of a hair decoration being symbolic of a character's powers or abilities to warrant creating something like Symbolic Hair Decoration?

Hard to say. I don't recally any such examples, but that doesn't mean there aren't any of course. It would be good to take it to TLP. Worst case scenario: the draft gets discarded.

Active clean-up discussion going on here.

Lala's from To Love RU. Which is Peke's face, a living outfit that talks from the hair clip.

Celine in To Love RU as well has a flower on her head that people assume is a decoration but its actually part of her body.

Aqua's in Konosuba combine with her hair loop to looks like H 2 O, being the Goddess of Water.

In A Certain Scientific Railgun People theorized that Uiharu's power was keeping the flowers she wears alive but much later revealed that they are fake and her power is being a human thermos.

In Date A Live, Kotori's personality is dictated by the color of the ribbons she is wearing at the time.

In a more meta thing, Yuno's hair clip and Nazuna's hair beads in Hidamari Sketch are their symbol and are very often pictured with them. In more artsy segments of the show the symbols are the only things pictured and move as if they were the character themselves.

In Negima Second Season Asuna's bells take on the same charactersitics as Yuno's clips in many scenes, the work being from the same studio and director as Hidamari Sketch. In the manga and other animes the noise they make easily tell when she is coming.

In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Lacus's barrette is different from Meer Campbell's so its easy to tell that Meer is just an imitation.

In Naruto Sakura and Ino wear their Village headbands as hair ties.

Mio in Nichijou's do not obey gravity and they may or may not be superweapons of the Fey kingdom.

Project Ako's C-ko wears Daisy Barrettes to symbolize her innocence.

Mami Tomoe's in Madoka Magica keeps her soul gem in her flower hair pin. If that is destroyed she dies.

• Madoka's hair ribbon becomes Homura's Tragic Keepsake.

Ranma's ribbon in Ranma½ is a limiter to his hair, in his male form if removed it will grow at a lightning pace till he goes bald. (anime only plot?)

Kafuka's yellow hairclip... She is a spirit haunting most of the class and they appear on whoever she is possessing. Also like Hidamari Sketch the hairclip is her meta symbol.

Almost everyone from Shugo Chara with a Guardian Character has a hair decoration which transforms to show a character change. Boys are not excluded from this.

Edited by Memers on Jan 17th 2020 at 11:00:41 AM

Do we need two separate conversations about the same trope? Come discuss at the appearance thread, y'all.

The appearance thread should be for a general use thing. We should discuss specific issues like this in specific threads like this.

But now we're talking about Hair Decorations there, and having two threads is confusing and could easily lead with miscommunication or something.