History Main / ByTheHair

* At ''Fastlane 2018'', Wrestling/{{Carmella}} dragged Wrestling/{{Naomi}} across the ring by her ponytail.

* ''Film/HitchhikerMassacre'':In the first scene of the movie, when the killer recaptures his victim, he first grabs her by the hair and pulls a chunk of it out.

* During their Hell in a Cell match at ''Armageddon 2005'', after Wrestling/TheUndertaker was knocked against the cell, Cowboy Bob Orton, who was outside, grabbed his hair, holding him in place and allowing Wrestling/RandyOrton to beat on him a bit. Eventually, Undertaker used pure brute force to pull Bob against the cell and break his grip.

*** In a [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown "fight"]] that is already brutal as all hell, Spopovich grabs Videl by the hair, causing her to let out a bloodcurdling, high-pitched shriek, [[WouldHitAGirl shortly before kneeing her in the face.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DeadRising2: Off the Record'', when Stacy reveals herself to be a traitor, Frank angrily tries to stop her from escaping by grabbing her ponytail, only to find she was wearing a wig and her real hair is a boyish haircut.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': Tidus is attacked by a monster when a squad of Al Bhed show up to assist him in defeating it. He tries to thank them, only a tall one to grab his hair and lift him up, then they yell at him in a language he can't understand before knocking him out and abducting him.

* ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' warns men and women to cut their hair short to prevent this from happening. (Quickly shrugged off by most long-haired people, who state that everyone with long hair ALREADY knows how to contain it with [[BoringButPractical braids and buns).]])

* ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' warns men and women to cut their hair short to prevent this from happening. (Quickly shot down by most long-haired people, who state that tucking their braid into their shirt is functionally the same.)

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': When Lucy is captured by Phantom Lord, Gajeel yanks on her hair to make her scream, thus alerting the Fairy Tail guild members that she was their hostage.
* ''Manga/FruitsBasket'':
** In the last episode of the 2001 anime, Akito does this to Tohru when angry with her.
** During flashbacks, Rin's AbusiveParents are shown to have pulled her around by the hair.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** During the Chunin Exams, Sakura has to fend off a competing team of Sound ninja who have come to fight an incapacitated Sasuke. One of the ninjas, Kin, grabs Sakura by the hair and ridicules her for spending more time keeping it clean than training her skills. Sakura frees herself by slicing through her hair with a kunai.
** In the {{canon}} movie ''[[Anime/TheLastNarutoTheMovie The Last]]'', just before Naruto and Toneri's CockFight on the moon, Toneri grabs Hinata by the hair and throws her into a cage so that she'll be ForcedToWatch as he tries to kill Naruto.

* ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Sailor Venus is once apprehended when the villain pins her to the wall by her hair.

* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': Oz has this done to him by Alice and Lotti.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': It's somewhat of a RunningGag for Akane Tendō to grab her fiancé Ranprma by the pigtail to get him out of the way, or even to drag him to school when they're late. Although Ranma occasionally calls her a "cavewoman", he's beyond protesting it in the slightest and merely ignores it; he once keeps eating his breakfast while being horizontally dragged to school.
* ''Manga/Overlord2012'': Mare is sent to kidnap Hilma, the head of Eight Fingers' prostitution division. He does so by ''breaking her leg'' before [[http://overlordmaruyama.wikia.com/wiki/File:Overlord_Volume_6_Chapter_9.jpg dragging her off by the hair.]] Note that Mare is the size of a kid.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Occurs during the Eines Lobby Arc. [[spoiler: Spandam grabs Nico Robin [[StandardFemaleGrabArea by the upper arm]] at first while escorting her to the prison ship, while Robin's hands are cuffed behind her with power-suppressant shackles and she is mostly non-resistant. However, after Robin starts fighting back and trying to run, Spandam has to resort to beating her, striking her with his elephant-sword, and dragging her by the hair in order to keep moving.]]
* ''Manga/NijigaharaHolograph'': When Makoto asks his sister Narumi if she's been reading his diary and she denies it, he grabs her by the hair (and close to the scalp, making it extra painful) and turns her to face him, asking if she's lying.

* ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'': Izumo's dynamic with Akari often involves him grabbing her locks to get her attention, much to her frustration.

** During the Chunin Exams, Sakura has to fend off a competing team of Sound ninja who have come to fight an incapacitated Sasuke. One of the ninjas, Kin, grabs Sakura by the hair and ridicules her for spending more time keeping it clean than training her skills.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': It's somewhat of a RunningGag for Akane Tendō to grab her fiancé Ranma by the pigtail to get him out of the way, or even to drag him to school when they're late. Although Ranma occasionally calls her a "cavewoman", he's beyond protesting it in the slightest and merely ignores it; he once keeps eating his breakfast while being horizontally dragged to school.

* In ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'', when Virgina's hair is cursed to grow fifty feet long, the Huntsman drags her through the forest by it and even uses it to chain her up.

* ''Avengers of the Moon'', by Creator/AllenSteele. A FemmeFatale does this to FairCop Joan Randall during a BarBrawl. As the novel is a {{Reconstruction}} of a ''Literature/CaptainFuture'' 1930's pulp magazine series, Joan [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome punches her attacker in the face]] instead of it being played for CatFight fanservice.

* Muska does this to Sheeta in ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'' when he takes her hostage.

* ''Manga/FruitsBasket''

* Played straight in one of the ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' books, in which Barrett Bonden engages in a bare-knuckle contest with his plait tied around his head, with predictable consequences.
* ''Avengers of the Moon'', by Creator/AllenSteele. A FemmeFatale does this to FairCop Joan Randall during a BarBrawl. As the novel is a {{Reconstruction}} of a [[Literature/CaptainFuture 1930's pulp magazine series]], Joan [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome punches her attacker in the face]] instead of it being played for CatFight fanservice.
* OlderThanPrint: It's often lost in the translation, but if you read the original text of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', you'd see that the title character actually resorted to this in the battle with Grendel's mother.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheUltimateEvil'', Valerie Payne becomes several times a victim of this trope while fighting at different points Shendu, Hak Foo, and Bai Tza. There's also the canonical examples of Shendu pulling Valmont's hair during one of their [[FightingFromTheInside fights over the control over the crime lord's body]] and a Shadowkhan pulling the [[RewritingReality Demon World]] version of Jackie from the braid.

* In ''Murder at Drumshee'' [[spoiler: Colm]] apprehends Mahon and Ita by grabbing onto one of Ita's long plaits and holding a knife at her throat.

A close cousin to the StandardFemaleGrabArea where, if whoever it is can't grab hold of the woman's wrist or upper arm, they'll just grab onto her hair instead. Obviously a lot more realistic than a wrist being the weak point, as anyone who has had their hair pulled can vouch for how painful it is. While this typically happens to women with long hair, it can happen with short hair as well; the hair just needs to be long enough to pull. Although it is mostly a female trope, it can happen to men with long hair or beards as well, though examples are rare outside of ProfessionalWrestling.

It can be played either for comedy or seriously, depending on the nature of the scuffle. It's almost a defining feature of a CatFight, but may be less common in a DesignatedGirlFight as {{Action Girl}}s tend to rise above such tactics. If it's happening to a mean girl, then it might cause a HairstyleMalfunction if she's [[FakeHairDrama wearing extensions.]] [[NobodyTouchesTheHair Vain characters]] will react strongly to having delicate or elaborate hairstyle ruined in this way. If the girl happens to be badass, then expect her to sometimes overcome this problem by cutting the hair off at the point where it's being held. See also LifeOrLimbDecision and GivingThemTheStrip. Truly dark examples can combine this trope with others like SlashedThroat and OffWithHisHead where the vulnerable head and neck becomes easier to exploit when it is restricted in this fashion -- the grip also lends itself perfectly to making a DecapitationPresentation. This trope can fail as an attack if attempted on someone whose long hair is actually [[DodgyToupee a removable wig or toupee]], although emotional effects like distress or [[BerserkButton rage]] might be inflicted if the said target was seriously attempting to maintain a facade of having a good head of hair and end up being exposed by this trope.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'', Lee gives Clementine a haircut to prevent this kind of attack after one of the [[Main/ImAHumanitarian St. John brothers]] grabs onto her hair and pulls her back to keep Lee from attacking him, and one of the pieces of advice you can give her [[spoiler: as Lee is dying]] is to keep her hair short. At the end of the final episode of Season 3, Javier gives her a trim, making it more or less the length of a pixie cut, and in Season 4, [[spoiler: during her dream sequence, if that's what Lee's parting words of wisdom were to her, he examines her hair and says, "I thought I told you to keep this short," to which she responds that scissors are hard to come by.]]

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'': Rosa has done this to her daughter Maria.

* During Terra and Raven's mud fight in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' Terra briefly subdues Raven by grabbing her by the hair.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': During the Chuunin Exams, Sakura Haruno had to fend off a competing team of Sound ninja who came to fight an incapacitated Sasuke. One of the ninjas, Kin, grabbed Sakura by the hair and ridiculed her for spending more time keeping it clean than training her skills. Sakura grew some balls and cut it with her kunai, allowing her to escape Kin's grasp, and emerged with a short pixie-ish hairstyle, which she later kept.