Needs Help: Multicolored Hair

Multicolored Hair is just…multi-colored hair and I don’t think that’s enough for the trope to stand on its own. The description doesn’t even go into detail about what multi colored hair tells us about a character. I think creators using Multicolored Hair to make a character design striking is worth noting but I think that and other possible meaning MH could have are covered by broader appearance tropes like Distinctive Appearances, Mark of the Supernatural, and Duality Motif.

If Heterochromia / Mismatched Eyes by itself isn’t a trope then the same thing does for Multicolored Hair.

I did a wick check for this trope at Multicolored Hair Wick Check.

Opened. I think we can disambiguate this like what was done with Mismatched Eyes.

You Gotta Have Blue Hair is another trope that could go on a disambiguation page, since some of those examples involve unusual hair colors.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Feb 6th 2022 at 10:53:54 AM

I've always thought we could have a trope for "hair dye indicates alternative personality" (eg. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the cool love interest Ramona regularly dyes her hair, and Scott's more "regular" first girlfriend Knives gets a hair streak to compensate), but that would have to start from scratch.

Disambiguate

Edited by Synchronicity on Feb 6th 2022 at 11:21:46 AM

Disambiguate.

I wonder if something that could be done is to expand Skunk Stripe to include other hair colors because a decent amount of example appear to be "character has dyed strip of hair" and that wouldn't necessarily fit into Delinquent Hair.

ETA: We also have Dye Hard for people/characters that dye their hair on a regular basis.

Edited by Hello83433 on Feb 6th 2022 at 11:19:33 AM

Disambig

You Gotta Have Blue Hair is also in the TRS queue for mostly being used as "character has colored hair" so that's in line for a fix itself.

I think Multicolored Hair's subtrope, Skunk Stripe, might also need a trip to the TRS since it can mean multiple things and I don’t think it should just be "a character has a dyed streak in their hair" but that’s for another day.

Delinquent Hair is a common usage. However, other types of rebel teenagers (like goths or emos), as well as rockers also feature this heavily. Can we create a supertrope to Delinquent Hair for characters with multicolored hair?

Edited by Dghcrh on Feb 6th 2022 at 12:56:16 PM

I also find it odd that the Norse goddess Hel isn't mentioned in Multicolored Hair. According to the Eddas (the main sources of what we know about Norse mythology), her scalp hair on one half is black and the other half being white.

it might be possible to create a trope combined with You Gotta Have Blue Hair for “unnatural hair color = personality”

But, like said above YGHBH is up for TRS itself and we’ll get to that one later.

to a disambig

Maybe we could introduce an "unconventionally colored hair" trope? For characters whose unusual hair color (natural or dyed) is a sign of them marching to the beat of their own drum?

Is that too close to Delinquent Hair?

There's a certain stereotype to quirky, artistic, alternative free spirits dyeing their hair. The Scott Pilgrim character I brought up above is not a delinquent, but cool alternative girl. (At least in the internet circles I run in, it became a joke for girls with dyed hair to be mistaken as Manic Pixie Dream Girl after Ramona Flowers and Clementine.)

Delinquent Hair is also broader hairstyle-wise and about people who regularly get in trouble, so it'd be a sister trope.

But like I said, it would have to go through TLP mostly-independent of this.

Edited by Synchronicity on Feb 7th 2022 at 12:05:50 PM

We also have Rose-Haired Sweetie and Shy Blue-Haired Girl, so I could see a supertrope of sorts covering the personality aspect.

I do think a trope for the alternative / rebellious / unconventional color style would make a good supertrope for Delinquent Hair. I have an example or two of my own where the character has colored streaks, but is just sort of a goth rebel type and hasn't done anything worse than pull a few pranks.

Lmao, it might also finally be a home for those “Asian hair streak” examples.

Actually sponsoring that sounds fun, I might take it to TLP. But again, that effort would have little to no bearing on the fate of Multicolored Hair.

Yeah, it'd mostly just be a place to throw wicks.

and lmao, I know a few wicks to toss in that pile.

What about someone's hair color being used to cast doubt on whether they're human or mark them as not a normal human?

That’s covered by Mark of the Supernatural. I don’t think we need a hair specific variant of that.

Edited by MacronNotes on Feb 7th 2022 at 4:03:37 AM

I would argue it would go on Ambiguously Human if it's Lampshaded or Discussed.

Natural non standard and impossible hair colors are a trope though, a visual one but still a trope. Blue, green, neon purple, multi colored whatever. And there are many reasons to why they might be that color.

But if someone dyes it that is an entirely different trope. One that does not exist I do not think.

Edited by Memers on Feb 7th 2022 at 2:28:49 AM

Well, it’s not that I don’t think it’s a trope to have an impossible hair color naturally. It’s just not usual to have example lists filled with nothing but "Alice has X color hair" and unnatural hair colors aren’t remarkable in works where a lot of characters have them.

Purple Eyes on its own wasn’t chairs but we had enough existing tropes to cover all of the possible meanings.

Edited by MacronNotes on Feb 7th 2022 at 6:02:01 AM

There's two tropes there, I think. One would be a setting trope, like "World Of Rainbow Hair", rather than an individual character trope. The other would be about giving characters unusual hair colors to make them stand out, and would be an individual character trope.

Dye Hard covers "dyed hair".

Might be worth mentioning that a wick check for You Gotta Have Blue Hair exists here.

Edited by WarJay77 on Feb 7th 2022 at 6:22:49 AM