Important Haircut / Anime & Manga

Important Haircuts in anime and manga.

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• In Akudama Drive, Ordinary Person (Swindler) cuts her hair short while on the run with Sister in order to better mask her identity. However, the haircut also serves to represent her coming into her own, perhaps no longer minding her classification as akudama.
• Aika in ARIA ends up burning her hair at a cookout in one episode after she intentionally grew it out long to be similar to Alicia, whom she idolizes. After this, she switches to shorter hairstyle, and several episodes are spent on her getting used to it. It's not until Al, her crush, compliments on her that she feels satisfied. Her hair stays this way into the next season.
• In Asteroid in Love, Moe cuts her hair short when the new school year begins at Chapter 32. The reason is, she keeps her hair long because she admires Misa, but as Misa leaves the town for college, she requests Moe to not admire her but live as herself instead.
• In Azumanga Daioh:
  • Tomo starts the second year growing out her hair in an attempt to be Lupin III's Fujiko Mine. When the third year starts, she has it cut back to her short style from the beginning. This confuses Chiyo-chan, leading her to ask Yomi if she broke up with a boyfriend, causing Yomi to bust a gut at the thought. Tomo just had it lopped off because she figured that was too high of a goal.
  • In the same period Tomo chopped her hair, Chiyo-chan moved her pigtails' positioning, freaking out Osaka.
• Berserk:
  • When we first meet Casca, she has close-cropped short hair symbolic of her Lady of War persona. In a flashback to her earlier days before joining Griffith's Band of the Hawks, she had long hair, meaning that she probably cut it off soon afterward. After the events of the Eclipse where she gets raped by Femto and Goes Mad From The Revelation, Casca has let her hair grow long again. When she regains her sanity, she has Danna cut it short again.
  • Additionally, Farnese, when she joined Guts on his journey, cut her own hair short as a sign of humility and apology for everything she did to him and Casca.
• Ayakashi Triangle: Suzu had long hair when she met Matsuri, which she considered a sign of her spiritual power. Matsuri told her it looked like it would get in the way, which inspired Suzu to split off a new personality without Past-Life Memories—the Suzu the series follows—right as her mother cuts her hair to the bob-style she's kept for the rest of her life. When the original personality appears in the new Suzu's mind, she still looks younger and has long hair.
• Black Butler: Agni was once a criminal condemned to hanging, when Soma jumped onto the gallows and saved him. Soma chops off Agni's hair to symbolize his new life and gives him a new name.
• Bleach:
  • Variation: Sosuke Aizen does an Important Hairstyle Change when he reveals himself as a Big Bad.
  • Inversion: Orihime Inoue used to have short hair after a group of junior high bullies cut it forcibly, but when Tatsuki Arisawa swore to protect her, she grew it back long and claimed she'd never cut it back short since it was now a symbol of their friendship. If one looks at her hair "progression" closely, the reader will notice that even after she has started using a Hime Cut, the rest of her hair has continuously grown longer.
  • Also, the Visored changed their hairstyles after leaving Soul Society. And have kept said styles whether they have returned ^note (Rose, Shinji, Mashiro, Kensei, and at the very end Lisa) or not ^note (Love, Hachi, Hiyori) to it, after their exoneration.
  • Towards the very end, a more mature Rukia Kuchiki is seen wearing her hair to her waist after keeping it short for the whole series. It's also timed with two very important hits in her life: forming a family with Renji and their daughter, and becoming a captain.
  • Kouga, the Big Bad of the Zanpakuto Unknown Tales filler arc, had one as well. In this case the hair wasn't important, it was the fact that it was connected to a hair adornment connected with his noble family, which he was disgusted with.
• Bokura no Hentai:
  • Satoshi cut his hair between his first year of middle school and his second year. He hit puberty and decided to stop crossdressing to school. Eventually he grew it back long though.
  • Ryousuke cut his long hair when he stopped dressing as his sister.
• In Boys over Flowers, after some nasty events involving Traumatic Haircut, Tsukushi must cut her ruined hair. Her mom attempts to help her, but Mrs. Makino fucks up so bad that Rui has to finish the work. In Mrs. Makino's defense, all she did was even out the hair that hadn't been cut. It's not her fault it made poor Tsukushi look like Kintaro.
• In Captain Tsubasa, Kumi Sugimoto cuts her Girlish Pigtails midway through the WYC arc, to offer it as a sacrifice to a Shinto goddess and bring good luck to the Japanese team.
• She didn't do it to herself, but Sheeta in Laputa: Castle in the Sky experiences an Important Haircut by getting her braids shot off, symbolic of her maturing and loss of innocence through the traumatic experiences of the movie. Note that the change in hairstyle happens in the same scene where she finds the strength to stop running and take control of the situation.
• In Chapter 193 of Chihayafuru, Taichi cuts his hair short right before his Meijin qualifier final against Arata, symbolizing his desire to be seen as a serious threat to his rival.
• In the manga Chrono Crusade, Chrono's braid is cut off during a duel with Remington. This symbolizes Chrono learning to control his temper, which serves to be a key in later battle.
  • Also, a flashback shows that Chrono used to have long, flowing hair in his true form when he was a Sinner, but had most of it burned away during the battle that gave him the title "Slayer of a Hundred."
• In Claymore, Clare gets her haircut during her final exam and first yoma hunt, to use the hair as a decoy.
• Ange does this in Cross Ange once she has accepted her fate as a Norma, shedding her long princess hair to symbolize her transition from a prissy Fallen Princess of the Misurugi Empire to a cold, stubborn, pissed-off Action Girl who fights DRAGONs to survive.
• In Devilman Lady, right before the final battle against Lan Asuka, a nude Jun Fudo cuts her hair short in front of the candle. This has been long after the deaths of Kazumi and Bates.
• In D.Gray-Man, it's a combination of this and Traumatic Haircut. During her battle with a Level 3 Akuma, Lenalee Lee's long Girlish Pigtails are burned off, leaving her hair boyishly short. It counts as an Important Haircut as she discovers the depths of her resolve.
• In Dirty Pair Flash, Lady Flair gets her long hair shot off as she makes her heel-face turn.
• In DNA², Ami's best friend Kotomi Takanashi keeps at first her hair in Girlish Pigtails. She cuts it into a pageboy style when she wants to change her whole personality, making her more open in wanting to date Junta. It takes her a while to learn that a new haircut doesn't make her a different person, but she does improve on speaking up about things.
• Happens a few times in Domestic Girlfriend.
  • Hina cuts it when she's forced to break up with Natsuo and then grows it back when she makes the decision to move back home and try to get back together with him.
  • Rui grows her hair out after Hina leaves because she thinks Natsuo prefers long hair and cuts it again after she returns and Natsuo remains loyal to herself rather than get back together with Hina.
  • Miyabi cuts it after she finally works up the courage to tell Natsuo she loves him, only to get rejected.
• Somewhat subverted in Boys' Love manga Doushitemo Furetakunai in which Shima cuts his hair shorter to signify that he renounces any hope of keeping up his relationship with Togawa only to have Togawa calling him out on it so that he ends up going back on his resolution. Shima at one point reflects that girls tend to cut their hair when they're dumped thus acknowledging the validity of this trope.
• An unintentionally hilarious example in Dragonaut. Kazuki gives himself a haircut following a Wangst-fueled hissy-fit (one of many.) The result has been described as looking like his head got raped by a lawnmower.
• Videl in Dragon Ball receives an important haircut which lasts throughout virtually all the Buu Saga when Gohan asks her to do it, and his flimsy reason being it will get in the way when she fights. Yeah, right! He just prefer girls with shorter hair. Nonetheless, she did it anyway, despite initially being very angry at his silly reason, which indicated she liked him, despite looking observably annoyed.
  • Gohan himself gets a haircut after reaching Super Saiyan for the first time. Later on, he cuts it again off-screen before the Majin Buu arc, which has been his de facto hairstyle (excluding Resurrection F) to signify his transition into adulthood.
  • Krillin grew out his hair, from no longer having to live the life of a (somewhat) celibate Shaolin monk to a family man with a smoking hot wife, and a cute daughter. Interestingly, Krillin's appearance, even changes to it, receives Lampshade Hanging even going as far as for one character to break the fourth wall, more so than anyone else. Even when there's a clown, a triclops, a green pointy-eared man with bulging muscles (Yes, even more than Piccolo), and a pink genie on the same team roster. During Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' and its Dragon Ball Super adaptation, Krillin has Android 18 shave it to prepare for the battle against Frieza and his army, grows it back afterwards during Super to reaffirm his retirement from martial arts, then 18 re-shaves it when his resolve is restored and he returns to martial arts prior to the Tournament of Power.
• In Elfen Lied, Nyu cuts off her long hair to impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae to signify Lucy's guilt over killing her.
• In Eureka Seven, Eureka gets several hairstyle changes reflecting... other changes about her. Her hair is cut in the episode Acperience 2, and grows back in Acperience 3.
  • Talho also trims her normally unkempt hair as part of her complete outer (and inner) makeover in Episode 30.
• In Eyeshield 21, Sakuraba gets a crew-cut after quitting Jerry/Jari Productions to focus on his football life with the Ojo White Knights. He also grows a noticeable mustache and goatee.
  • And Yukimitsu Manabu starts combing his hair forward at the start of the Kanto tournament, before the first game he would actually play in.
  • In flashbacks we are shown that Hiruma started dyeing his hair shortly after discovering American Football. One character has speculated that this is to further enhance his demonic appearance so as to intimidate his opponents everybody.
  • Mamori, Musashi, and (briefly) Ishimaru also change hairstyles before the Kanto tournament — this is less likely an Important Haircut than a group meme among the team or the artist getting tired of drawing the same hairstyles all the time.
• Yumi in the Fafner special Right of Left cuts her hair short once she becomes a Fafner pilot.
• Fairy Tail: A few instances, most notably when Fried Justine shaves off his waist-length hair after Laxus is excommunicated from the guild as a result of trying to overthrow his grandfather and forcing everyone to fight each other, a plan for which Fried was Laxus' accomplice. Lampshaded in Lucy's narration when she remarks that he "seems to have taken the old-fashioned position of 'contemplation = head-shaving'." Notably, he grows it back to its original length not much later (probably with the aid of, y'know, magic, namely Lucy's Summon Spirit, Cancer), so it's possible it was either done for the sake of the joke, or else someone pointed out that he looks silly with a shaved head.
  • During the Edolas arc, Erza impersonates her Edolas counterpart by stealing her clothes and styling her hair so she could help her fellow wizards. Once said counterpart realizes what happens, she's so pissed that she cuts her own hair down to a bob so no one would make that mistake again.
  • Also Juvia cuts her hair to signify her change and after the Edolas arc her hair gets restored somehow.
  • As of Chapter 388, Wendy has followed suit, which makes her look even more like Katja than she already did, partly as a vow of determination, and partly because some of her hair got cut off in her battle with Ezel. At the end of the arc her hair is also returned thanks to Cancer.
• Ninamori from FLCL cuts her hair at the end of the 3rd episode.
• In Fruits Basket, both Rin and Akito get important haircuts. Rin has her long hair hacked off by Akito when she's locked up. In this case, the Traumatic Haircut is symbolic for both of them. Akito is enraged and hates long, black hair because it reminds her of her mother, Ren (A Smug Snake who abuses her daughter constantly, and in fact is the one who manipulated Rin to act against Akito which is what got her caught in the first place); Rin, meanwhile, wears her hair short for the rest of the series and it symbolizes how she is calmer and eases up on her determination to break the curse (which was pretty much driving her to an early grave, due to her being Delicate and Sickly). Akito gets an inverse at the end, when she grows her hair out to symbolize how she's free to live her life as a woman, rather than forced to hide her identity and pretend to be a man.
  • Kazuma Sohma, A.K.A. Shishou, is no exception either. He originally grew his hair long to gather Kyo good luck, but after he succeed on getting him get accepted for his true zodiac form by Tohru, who refused to turn her back on him for it, he eventually cut his hair short afterwards.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • During Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, Alphonse grew his hair out like Edward. It's symbolic, as he wants to be like Ed; he even wore the same clothing as him. Near the end he cuts his hair, to the same style as before he lost his body.
  • In regards to original manga and the Brotherhood anime, there is an inversion with Riza Hawkeye. Back in her younger years as a soldier, she kept her hair rather short and tied up. However, after meeting Winry Rockbell (from when she and Roy met the Elric brothers), a discussion between the people that matter to them led them to make a change in appearance as a result. While Winry got earrings like Hawkeye, Hawkeye grew out her hair (though it was still held up in a similar way)as a form of kinship to her and how Winry reminded her of what was important. It remains as such for a majority of the series though it's seemingly back to its short cut in the epilogue.
• Fushigi Yuugi:
  • Tamahome's hair is cut off by Suboshi's weapons when he confronts Suboshi on the murder of his family.
  • It's also mentioned in the author's notes that Yui Hongo used to have long hair, but she cut it short to stop guys from chasing after her. She lets it grow back later.
  • Nuriko cut his hair off when he decided to stop living the life that his dead younger sister would've lived.
• Bleed Kaga from Future GPX Cyber Formula cuts his long braided tail in the final episode of SIN and dyes his hair black, a symbol of wanting to settle the score with Hayato.
• Ruru in Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu cuts her hair short upon her promotion to Captain of the Daiku Maryu.
• In the same vein as the previous two examples, Shiki's hair in The Garden of Sinners grew long in the gap between the second and fourth movies, and she cuts it herself during her first post-coma fight. In the original novel, The Dragon of Chapter 6, Misaya Ouji, also cuts her hair in a similar fashion after discovering that she has been emotionally manipulated by the Villain of the Week all along and resolving to kill him in revenge.
• In the manga Get Backers, Kazuki chopped off his hair to express his determination to rescue Fuuga and 'get back his lost time'. The scene took up one full page, so that ought to classify it an important haircut.
• given: After an incident with Akihito, Haruki cuts his beautiful long blond hair, as a sign of his confusion over his feelings for him, until they reconcile.
• Glass Mask has Ayumi stereotyped as a princess in her acting, something that she starts to detest. When she becomes determined to expand her repertoire in roles and prove to everyone and herself that she has the makings of a first-class actress, she cuts her long, curly hair to a pixie cut. She ends up growing it out and, reflecting her character development, it ends up in waves instead of curls.
• Prior to becoming a cyborg Henrietta from Gunslinger Girl had long hair. Present time it's in a bob style.
• In the manga Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, known as Hana-Kimi for short, Mizuki cuts her hair in the first few pages because she wants to disguise herself as a boy. This is to sneak into an all-boys' school as a student so she can get close to a student athlete she admires. The gender-reversal is so key to the plot that the reader does not actually get to see Mizuki with long hair. When she is depicted cutting it, her head is not shown until after she has cut it short. later, Mizuki is shown in a flashback taking place before she cut her hair, but some clever art tricks are used so that the sight of her with long hair is again denied.
• In Heat Guy J, Giovanni has to go destroy J, even though he knows it will hurt someone to whom Giovanni and his best friend owe their lives. Before he does so, he tries to look like a different person by shaving his mullet into a mohawk and dyeing it blue. Meanwhile, his best friend looks on nervously, knowing that this isn't going to go well.
• Heavy Metal L-Gaim: In Episode 9, to prove that her Heel–Face Turn was real, Lecce unsheathed her rapier, stated that she would cut the most precious thing for a woman, and then cut her hair and offered it to Daba (crying as she did so). That did it, and the main characters believed her.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Liechtenstein already has short hair in her introduction, but the dialogue with her older brother Switzerland points out that she has just cut it, since it's the first time he has seen her like that. When asked why, she tells him it's both because she's more comfy with shorter hair and because she wants to look and be more like her very tough older brother. This is slightly expanded in the anime: the episode featuring Liechtenstein and Switzerland opens with her sitting in front of her mirror and cutting her braids.
  • Parodied in a strip with young England and young France. Tired of being bullied, England lets his hair grow to look tougher, but soon it's matted and ruined so France offers some help... and actually cuts it to its former short shape, much to England's horror.
  • According to author's notes, Female!Japan used to have long hair in a Hime Cut, but once she broke off her 200-years long isolation, she cut it shorter to prove that she could now interact with the rest of the world.
  • When Hungary thought that she was a guy, she kept her hair in a Tomboyish Ponytail. As an Older and Wiser mix of Action Girl and Team Mom, she now keeps it loose and much longer.
• After accidentally causing the ribbon to run out of time and getting Hime-chan stuck as Hibino Hikaru, Erika from Hime-chan's Ribbon cuts off her gorgeous, extremely long blonde hair so that she can impersonate Hime-chan at home and school until they can find some way to reverse the transformation. The next time we see her after she goes back home, her hair has grown out to shoulder-length.
• In the manga Horimiya Miyamura gets one to prevent the other students from talking badly about Hori for having 'such a bad taste in guys'. Hori doesn't like it and wants him to grow it back, which he slowly seems to be doing.
• In the movie adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle, Calcifer needs to move the wrecked castle but needs something of value for the energy to do so. He suggests he use Sophie's eyes, but Sophie quickly cuts her long braid and gives it to him. It's good enough.
• Kaoru from I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying dyed her hair blonde after getting married to Hajime, probably to distance herself from the time she spent alone and miserable before meeting him. It also has the bonus effect of making her look like her mother.
• Ino-Head Gargoyle: Maruyama orders Saejima to shave his head to prove he's serious about police work. He complies, though he wears a wig afterwards.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, every time Koichi Hirose evolves his Stand to a new ACT, it's accompanied by a new hairstyle. He starts the series with his hair slicked down, but it becomes messier once he unlocks Echoes ACT1, then he cuts it into a flat-top when he evolves Echoes to ACT2 (stopping in the middle of a battle with his psycho stalker to cut his hair so as to tell her, "You can't control me anymore!"), then his hair somehow takes on a style of its own accord that can only be described as 'Super Saiyan' when he finally achieves ACT3.
• During the class trip arc in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Hayasaka cuts off her ponytail with a knife in order to prevent one of Unyo's servants from holding onto it. This keeps her from being able to wear the scrunchie Kaguya gave her anymore, marking the metaphorical end to their master-servant relationship (she ends up keeping it as a wristband instead). After the arc is over, she styles the remaining hair into a bob, similar to her mother's.
• Kaitou Saint Tail kept her long, red hair down as Meimi, but kept her hair in a pigtail as Saint Tail. At the end of the manga series, after she'd quit being Saint Tail, she cut her hair short.
• While not cutting it herself, Layla Hamilton fits this trope in the Kaleido Star OVA, "Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari". After a journey to find herself, Layla goes from her Defrosting Ice Queen persona to a person who won't hide her feelings anymore. Then, she asks Sora Naegino to cut her long blond hair for her.
• The lead character of Kaze Hikaru has already cut her hair at the beginning of the series to join the Shinengumi, but Okita Souji remarks on the depth of her sacrifice.
• In the finale of Kill la Kill, Satsuki is shown to have traded in her long hair for a stylish chin-length bob. Along with her warmer attitude and more relaxed clothing, it fully illustrates how much she's changed now that she's completed her goal of saving humanity and free from her family's dark past.
• In the Kino's Journey prequel movie/episode "life goes on", Kino has their long hair cut into the shorter style seen throughout the series as the result of it being stained with blood from the first person they killed.
• Both subverted and respected in the Boys' Love manga Koi ga Bokura wo Yurusu Hani. Yamazaki tries to change his hairdo to make it look less girlish in an attempt at revamping his image but it does not work. Miku gets a radical haircut once she finally decides to accept the relationship between Eiji and Yamazaki, thus moving on from her emotional hang ups.
• Last Exile: Slightly twisted for Sophia's hair-down-to-there upon taking the Imperial Throne. Dio's braid is unwrapped, and his bangs re-brushed to show off his Mark of the Covenant, after being brainwashed for the Rite and turned into a remorseless killing machine.
• The Law of Ueki: Rinko's long pigtails are chopped off accidentally by her teammate as she does a Heel–Face Turn and protects Ueki, which they are fighting.
• Ayumu from Life (2002) cut her hair when she began middle school, around the same time she became depressed and started to Self-Harm herself. She cut it shorter later in the story, when she became more happy with herself.
• Motoko Aoyama from Love Hina cuts her long hair into a short bob when she decides to become a nun as penance for lying to her sister. Kaolla Su even has a laugh at the idea of her shaving her head bald.
• Hanako in The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer cuts off her own ponytail to symbolize how she's decided to become a warrior and avenge her not-boyfriend's Heroic Sacrifice.
• While only shown for a moment in a 'growing up' montage MÄR's Ginta gets his hair cut at one point during his first trip into the Shuuren no Mon.
• Marmalade Boy:
  • Another male example: Ginta shaves his head to apologize to Miki after he accidentally breaks her heart. Meiko also suggested Miki cut her hair before they saw that Ginta had, but Miki laughed it off; back then, her hair was much too short already. Echoing the above incident, when Yuu leaves Miki (apparently for good, after finding out he may be her half-brother) in the anime, Miki's efforts to overcome it include cutting her long hair into a pageboy style and piercing her ears.
  • When young, Anju Kitahara had long hair, but when she returns to Yuu's life she's already cut it real short.
  • Also spoofed: Miwa has shoulder-length hair which he wears loose, and once he tricks Meiko into believing he has cut it short by tying it in a ponytail.
  • Spoofed again when Tsutomu, as the series's Butt-Monkey and Small Name, Big Ego, has to shave his head after losing a bet to Ginta.
• Gets a lampshade hung on it in the dub of the OVA of Master of Mosquiton when Inaho cuts off her ponytail to signify her search for the O-Parts and Mosquiton, the vampire, complains about her doing "the hair-cutting thing."
• The second ED of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 prominently features Lockon cutting Setsuna's hair, which seems to be a deliberately symbolic invocation of a particular scene where Lockon shot through some locks of Setsuna's hair.
  • Louise Halevy got one when she evolved from Bratty Teenage Daughter to a mix of Broken Bird Dark Action Girl. Once the series is over, though, she lets it grow again as a symbol of her Character Development.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam F91, the Lady of War Cecily Fairchild cut her Ojou Ringlets much shorter after she returns to the Ronah clan, and did not grow it back until later on.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Guel Jeturk, who started off the series as an arrogant man with a long mullet extending past his shoulders, cut his hair short after changing into a more serious man and swearing to revive his father's company.
• In Moriarty the Patriot, Irene Adler cuts his hair as he declares his new identity as James Bond.
• Naruto:
  • During the Chunin exam arc, Sakura Haruno is discovered by the three Sound Genin participating. Having her hair held by the kunoichi of the Sound Squad (Kin Tsuchi, whose hair is even longer than Sakura's, and who actually mocks her for paying so much attention to her beautiful hair), Sakura cuts her hair to free herself from Kin's grasp. It also symbolizes her wish to become as strong as Naruto, Sasuke and Rock Lee, who have always been there to protect her. Oddly enough, in one flashback after the timeskip that shows Sakura training with Tsunade, her hair has grown back to its pre-Chunin Exam length, but it's short once again in Part II. Late into Shippuden Sakura's hair grows to chin length, and as an adult it's a bit longer, but neither have any ulterior meaning.
  • Later in the Chuunin exams, during Sakura's fight with Ino, Sakura mocks Ino by saying she's the one putting too much emphasis on her looks now. Ino gets pissed off and cuts off her hair with a kunai right there... and actually uses the discarded strands as a tie rope to keep Sakura in place and use the Shintenshin no Jutsu/Mind switch Jutsu on her.
  • In the Konoha Gakuen Den feature set in a High School AU, Sakura's Important Haircut in this universe (shown in the ending sequence this is based on), is initially thought to be the result of a breakup until Ino produces photos that reveal that Sakura had laid down on the grass and accidentally got gum in her hair.
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's title character.
  • In the manga, Nausicaä receives the haircut (and a scale mail) when leaving for war. Also in manga, Kushana cuts her considerably long braid to honor the death of a considerable part of her men in an Ohmu attack engineered by the Dorok.
• We see in a flashback why Mireille of Noir has a peculiar "half-bang" style. Lady Silvana is to blame: when they were playing as kids, Silvana used a knife to cut little Mireille's bangs, and she's kept a similar style since then.
• Now and Then, Here and There provides a rather tragic example of this trope. After being repeatedly raped and assaulted at Hellywood, Sara manages to kill one of the rapists and escape into the desert where she proceeds to cut her hair short (despite the fact that she's American and shouldn't appreciate the symbolism). Or she may have cut her hair so nobody would mistake her for Lala Ru again, which pulled her into this mess to begin with.
• The beginning narration of Ojamajo Doremi 16 (which is a spinoff/sequel Light Novel series to Ojamajo Doremi) states that Doremi cut her hair to a shorter length in order to deal with her feelings being rejected by Kotake.
• Franky from One Piece cut his hair to a buzz cut after the Time Skip, but can revert to his old style or change to a new one by pressing his nose for more than three seconds. It doesn't really seem to be important so much as funny, however, as the hairstyles Franky's displayed so far include his original pompadour, his new buzz-cut, a mohawk, and bull horns.
• Perhaps in an inverted example, in Book Two of the manga Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Abbott Arikoto grows his hair out when he breaks his vow of chastity.
• In Otaku no Musume-san, Haruka cuts off her fringe to emphasise to her elder sister how serious she is about following her own path.
• PandoraHearts: Leo gets one in Retrace 61. For a while, he had been using his hair as bangs so he wouldn't have to see or hear things anymore. By that point, he was "tired of hiding".
• In Pastel, Manami cuts her hair short after she finds out her crush is in love with someone. The translators include a note about the traditional implication that she's moving on.
• In the final episode of A Place Further than the Universe, Shirase cuts her hair after getting closure about her mother. With her new hair, she is told she looks just like her mother when she smiles
• In the sixtieth episode of Pokémon the Series: XY, Serena cuts her hair short and begins to wear a different outfit to signal Character Development after losing in her first Showcase..
• In Princess Mononoke, Ashitaka cuts his hair before having to leave his village (due to a curse) to seek his destiny, it was a proof of his determination to resist returning.
• The Prince of Tennis definitely loves to play around with the trope, whether using full haircuts or mere hairstyle changes:
  • Shishido Ryoh is kicked off the Hyoutei tennis club after an embarrassing defeat, and then sets out to get back on the team through ridiculously harsh training; finally, he cuts off his long hair in front of the team's manager, Tarou Sakaki, as a symbol of having become a different person (Atobe, the captain of the team, says "This guy hasn't lost" after the haircut as a way of endorsing him).
  • Atobe himself (the series's most popular rival) arrogantly vows to shave his head if he loses his match against Echizen Ryoma... which of course he does, because Ryoma is the main character and Atobe had promised to shave his head in public, with lots of witnesses. In the manga, since Atobe is unconscious by the end, Ryoma shaves his head for him; in the anime, Atobe shaves it himself, even when sub-regular Taki offers to have his own hair cut instead of Atobe's. This devolves into a joke, as a lot of things do in Prince of Tennis, when several chapters later, Atobe shows up with his hair intact (although muttering about his beautiful hair) and no explanation for it has been given, which has caused the fans to heavily speculate about it.
  • Kabaji, Atobe's long time friend, also cuts his hair short after Atobe's loss. He cuts it even shorter, practically in a buzzcut.
  • In his Kyushuu days, Fudomine captain Kippei Tachibana used to dye his long hair blond, which earned him the nickname of "The Lion". After he seriously injures his best friend and rival Chitose, however, among his penances for such a deed Tachibana cuts his long hair and dyes it back to its natural black. For the Nationals he keeps his hair short, but actually dyes it back to blond.
  • When he was Inui Sadaharu's doubles partner, Yanagi Renji from Rikkaidai had chin-length hair in a pageboy style. Four years later, when they meet again, he has cut it much shorter. It's hinted he did so after the end of his first year in Rikkai: a picture taken when he, Yukimura and Sanada were titulars in their first year shows Yanagi with long hair. And if you take a close look at the picture, you'll notice that the actual Rikkai subcaptain Sanada has his hair longer and more messy than he does in the present, and that Yukimura used to have two long bangs while keeping the rest of his hair fairly short.
  • In the anime, Yanagi's teammate Jackal Kuwahara shaves his head as a tribute to a good friend.
  • And *again* , Oishi Syuichirou changes his hairstyle every year in all canons. The first one is theorized to be an Important Haircut that came when he became a regular in his second year in Seigaku: his formerly messy hair became a simple buzzcut.
  • And don't forget the Kisarazu twins using different hairstyles (long for Ryou, short for Atsushi) to distinguish each other. Atsushi's manager Mizuki cut Atsushi's hair short after mistaking Atsushi for Ryou and taking him along for the ride by mistake.
• In Queen's Blade, Leina cuts her long hair short as part of her resolve to become a warrior.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets:
  • At the start of the story Nino is the only quintuplet who had refused to cut her hair at all, which was a symbolic way for her to cling to the past. During the Seven Goodbyes arc, she has Miku cut it to a shoulder-length bob style once she accepts that she can't cling to the past forever as well as her own feelings for Fuutarou.
  • Later chapters reveal that Yotsuba had also kept her hair long, but decided to cut it after they were transferred from their old school due to flunking their tests. As it turns out, she did so because she was the only one to actually fail, but her sisters pretended to have cheated so she wouldn't be transferred alone, and from then on she decided she would put their happiness over her own.
• Akane Tendo in an early episode of Ranma ½. Notable in that she didn't actually have a choice in the matter, but then decides to ask her big sister Kasumi to get it more or less cleaned up and, from then on, chose to not grow it back. That's because she grew it long originally to attract her first crush, Dr. Tofu, but by that time she gets over her love for him. In the Anime and Manga Ryoga accidentally chopped Akane's hair when she was caught in the crossfire between a fight with him and Ranma, she blames Ranma too since she got in the mess to try helping him anyway; in the live action special, it was one of the gang members who did it with a sickle.
• There's an interesting contrast in Rumbling Hearts — Mitsuki cuts her long hair short to make a break with the past; meanwhile, Haruka's short hair grows long during the three years she's in a coma.
• Narrowly averted in Sailor Moon: Usagi almost gets a sorrow haircut upon Minako's suggestion when Mamoru dumps her, but the Monster of the Week apparently makes her forget that she was in the beauty shop for a new 'do. It really doesn't help that the monster had a hairstylist theme going.
• Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold has an Important Beard Cut: Deathmask spends the early part of the series as The Hedonist, but after failing to protect Helena he finds back his resolve and goes in the final battle clean shaven.
• Sakura Gari: Masataka gives one to Souma to signify his Missing Mom Abigail's definitive passing, and Lord Saiki's acceptance of such a fact.
• Kenji Harima of School Rumble gets several haircuts as the series progresses — from a mustache and goatee to bearded to clean-shaven and partially bald. All of it done for Tenma.
• A Flashback chapter of Keroro Gunsou reveals that Momoka gave herself an Important Haircut when her dark side emerged for the first time upon seeing Tamama on the bad end of a Curb-Stomp Battle. Coupled with Action Dress Rip.
• Shadow Star has a few examples of this: Akira cuts her beautiful long black hair after Komori comments on how nice it is. Shiina adopts a shorter haircut after the death of Hiro-chan and she also cuts her father's hair.
• There is a sort of inverted example in SHUFFLE! Asa Shigure's short hair grows longer when she uses magic to save Rin's life after he attempts suicide... to force her use said magic and stop bottling it inside her body. This change signifies that Asa has finally come to terms with her heritage as a half-demon and the daughter of the first being experimented on by the gods and the demons.
• Two different characters in Simoun give themselves the same Important Haircut at different dramatic moments, with the second one echoing the first, and one of them later follows up with an additional Important Haircut. Also, another pair of characters have a set of Important Hair Clips.
• Sket Dance:
  • Switch is a straight example in his Back Story, for his own reasons. Tsubaki also makes such a decision when appearing as a minor character in Bossun's backstory.
  • Himeko is an inversion and a straight example though. Her hair was shorter when younger and was definitely not blonde, but later she grew it up to go as the image of the yanki she became. Much later, Himeko cuts it just to start fresh when the Sket Dan officially formed.
• In Skip Beat!, after discovering she has been deceived and used as an step by the person she loved the most, Kyouko not only cuts short her hair, she also dyes it, as a symbol of her new attitude and personality.
• In Slam Dunk, the main character Hanamichi Sakuragi shaves his head as self-punishment after being the cause of the Shohoku team's loss against Kainan. And before him, Hisashi Mitsui cuts his own hair to symbolize his redemption. Later, Haruko Akagi also cuts her hair short; it doesn't seem to be for a specific reason, but by that time she assumes that her crush towards Rukawa is a hopeless one. Mitsui's haircut is noted by one of the members of his former gang whom he runs into after a check-up at the hospital (his reaction is important because it symbolizes his acceptance of Mitsui putting his life back on track):
  "What's up with the 'do? You look like a jock. But seriously... It suits you fine."
  • Perhaps a deconstruction in Hanamichi's case, given that he gets endlessly mocked for his new haircut. Also Rukawa had previously told him that assuming all the blame for the loss was actually very arrogant of him (of course, being Rukawa, he did it too), making the haircut just another of Hanamichi's over-the-top reactions in the eyes of the readers, rather than an important moment of character development. Though Hanamichi eventually becomes even more serious about basketball than before, so the trope can be seen as Played Straight with some time.
• In the first chapter of Snow White with the Red Hair, when a prince demands that the heroine Shirayuki become his concubine because of her rare hair color, she flees the country, leaving her cut off hair behind.
• Happens twice in Star Wars: Visions
  • In "The Village Bride", the order 66 survivor F slices of her padawan braid before going to save the villagers, symbolically knighting herself.
  • More tragically, in "Lop and Ochõ", Ochõ cuts of her braid to symbolize her turning her back on her family and becoming an imperial soldier.
• In Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C³, after briefly experimenting with various hairstyles in episode three to stop her hair getting in the way during airsoft battles, Yura just cuts her hair shorter at the end of the episode to signify her increasing determination to take airsoft seriously.
• Sara of Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry cuts her hair going into her new identity as she chases her brother.
• In the Strider manga, Hiryu cuts off his ponytail at the end of the second chapter, and leaves it in his friend Sheena's grave, now fully-determined to destroy the MegaCorp and anyone responsible for their mind control project.
• In the Sukeban Deka OAV, Saki rejects the advances of a classmate by saying that she hates guys with long hair. In response, the boy whips out a set of clippers and shaves himself bald right there in front of her. He doesn't graduate to love interest, but he does become one of Saki's allies.
• In the third Tenchi Muyo! OVA, Noike lops off her long hair early because she absolutely hates the idea of having long hair, saying she'll wear a wig for important matters. For those not in the know, Juraians have incredibly long hair as tradition. Noike's adopted.
  • Not an actual haircut, but supplemental information revealed that Ayeka actually has blue hair and that she had it geneticly modified to impress Yosho.
• In Gurren Lagann, Nia's hair is cut by two bullets from Yoko's sniper rifle the episode after she decides to shun her previous life. Unlike many cases, this time the accidental cut doesn't give a clean cut at all, and she has Yoko clean it up, solidfying their new friendship.
• The moment that Knives in Trigun cuts his own hair begins his descent into madness. Vash, on the other hand, has two important haircuts, the second of which settles his commitment to abide by Rem's advice.
• Fay in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- somewhat subverts this by letting his hair grow out and into a ponytail to emphasize that he's taken a darker turn and developing cracks in his Stepford Smiler persona.
• Occurs early in Uzumaki, when Kirie receives an Important Haircut after her hair is contaminated by the Spiral.
• On Vandread, the stuck-up ship's navigator Bart develops an Intergenerational Friendship with Littlest Cancer Patient Shirley on one of the planets they visit. The people there make dolls to leave as proof they existed, due to their bodies being harvested by Earth after death, and she is working on a doll of Bart when she dies, leaving it bald but otherwise complete. Bart shaves his own head to match, and from there on is slightly less of a jerk. Oh, and additionally he has both control over the cool ship's weapons and a willingness to use them, lets not forget that.
• The protagonist of Vitamin by the same mangaka as Life cuts her hair in the last chapter, to show she's become more confident.
• In the second episode of The Wallflower, Nakahara Sunako cuts off the bangs that obscured her face and blocked her view of "the bright creatures" in a dramatic scene. She then almost immediately suffers from The Nose Bleed, now that she can see the tenants.
• Wandering Son:
  • Subverted. When formerly depressed trans girl Nitori cuts her hair short everyone thinks she's decided to be a boy after all, when in fact she wanted a "pixie" haircut like the female model in a magazine (think Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby). It's used as a plot point as the style looks masculine on her. She's hitting puberty and growing out of her androgyny.
  • Played straight in the same series with the resident trans boy, Takatsuki. He cuts his hair early in the first volume, from a bob to a pixie. In middle school he grows it back into a bob due to a female friend of his saying he looks better with it. After being told how it makes him look like a tomboy and he's "cute" with it, he cuts his hair. At the beginning of high-school he begins letting his hair grow again though, which signifies Takatsuki's confusion about their gender identity and their beginning of identifying as female.
• In The Weakest Tamer, Ivy cuts her long hair as part of her decision to disguise herself as a boy and avoid being identified. It also serves as a symbol of her cutting all ties with her hometown.
• Prior to setting out for the climactic battle of Weiß Kreuz Glühen, Aya uses his own katana to cut off the waist-length braid he'd grown between series.
  • The epilogue of the original series shows that Sakura, who had previously grown her hair out in the hopes that it would appeal to Aya, has gone back to her previous bob cut.
• Haru from Xam'd: Lost Memories cuts her hair short after officially enrolling in the army.
  • And male lead Akiyuki's grows out after he gains complete control of his powers.
• In Yona of the Dawn, Yona's haircut had a reason similar to Sakura's since she was being held by her hair and need to get away. It isn't until a little later when she definitively starts to change from a sheltered princess to a warrior in her own right.
• Ena from Yotsuba&! had even longer hair in the early chapters, suggesting that she cut it a bit shorter during the early summer vacations.
• Your Name: Right before the impact of the comet Tiamat, Mitsuha suddenly decides to cut her hair, which shocks Tessie and Sayaka. The reason why isn't disclosed until later in the film. A day earlier, Mitsuha had gone to Tokyo to finally meet with Taki, but he didn't recognize her, because the one who had been switching bodies with her came from three years in the future. Feeling dejected by the botched meeting, Mitsuha asks her grandmother to cut her hair, which in Japanese culture is a symbolism of relationships breaking apart.
• In YuYu Hakusho Keiko starts out with pigtails, then loses them in favor of shorter hair after they get singed in a fire trying to save Yusuke's body. They both would have perished in the fire (well, Yusuke was already dead, but with his body destroyed he wouldn't have a vessel to return to), but Koenma agreed to save her life in exchange of "something very important" for her - Yusuke didn't care what so long as he saved her life. Later on, Koenma reminds him of this tradeoff and shows Yusuke what he meant, so basically he was trolling Yusuke without being a liar. She has extremely long hair again at the end of the series, though.

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