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Following

By the Hair

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/by_the_hair_933.png
Lemme help you with that cowlick.
Josh Matthews: Well, it's against the rules.
Bill DeMott: Is it Doug Basham's fault for grabbing the hair or Rob Van Dam's for having it?
— WWE Velocity, Billocity!

A close cousin to the Standard Female Grab Area 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 long-haired women, it can apply to anyone with enough length to grab — even a man's hair or beard (though male examples are rare outside of Professional Wrestling).

It can be played for comedy or drama, depending on the situation. Hair pulling is almost obligatory in a Cat Fight, but may be less common in a Designated Girl Fight as Action Girls tend to rise above such cheap tactics. If it's happening to a mean girl, then it might cause a Hairstyle Malfunction if she's wearing extensions. 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 Life-or-Limb Decision and Giving Them the Strip. Truly dark examples can combine this trope with others like Slashed Throat and Off with His Head! 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 Decapitation Presentation. This trope can fail as an attack if attempted on someone whose long hair is actually a removable wig or toupee, although emotional effects like distress or 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 a non-malicious, though still harmful way, this can be a form of Lacerating Love Language among younger children, mostly of boys towards girls.

Covers the classic "caveman dragging a woman by the hair" bit — the man finds a mate by clubbing her over the head and then dragging her off to his cave by her hair. For the record, while hair pulling is painful, the commonality of the "dragging her around by the hair" bit in film and television is because it's fairly easy to stage and relatively painless. Notice that when the man grabs her by the hair, she immediately grabs onto his wrists. Usually at this point, the puller lets go of the hair, and instead drags the woman around by the arms instead. All the kicking and screaming? She's usually digging her heels into the ground for leverage and trying to help him by making herself lurch ahead.

Note that historically, long hair was not as much of a disadvantage as it is sometimes portrayed. In a real fight, unless one side is completely unarmed, there's much better ways to attack an enemy than grabbing their hair, especially if the opponent is armed. For that reason, hair grabbing is often a tool of last resort or a dirty fighting move while both combatants are unarmed.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • ARIA: Izumo's dynamic with Akari often involves him grabbing her locks to get her attention, much to her frustration.
  • Castle in the Sky: Muska does this to Sheeta when he takes her hostage.
  • Digimon: LadyDevimon employs this against Angewomon whenever they meet, much to Angewomon's outrage.
    • Digimon Adventure: During their first battle, LadyDevimon manages to catch Angewomon defenseless and from the behind while Angewomon is struggling to repel LadyDevimon's Darkness Wave. However, instead of delivering a killing blow or using her powers, LadyDevimon chooses to further humiliate Angewomon by grabbing Angewomon by her long blonde hair and swinging her around like a rag doll.
    LadyDevimon: "Never did like that bleached look!"
    LadyDevimon: "This game is over! You're grounded, goldilocks!"
    • Digimon Adventure 02: LadyDevimon once again catches Angewomon from behind in their second battle, and she once again grabs onto Angewomon's hair in lieu of finishing Angewomon off, igniting yet another Cat Fight between the two.
    LadyDevimon: "You'd better stay out of it, blondie!"
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Contrary to initial appearances, Krillin is bald by choice, specifically to avert this trope. When he retires from fighting, he grows a thick mop of black hair and a rocking 'stache
    • Dragon Ball Z:
      • After sending Vegeta flying into a lake, Frieza grabs the barely-conscious Saiyan by his hair and proceeds to beat the shit out of him some more.
      • In a "fight" that is already brutal as all hell, Spopovich grabs Videl by the hair, causing her to let out a bloodcurdling, high-pitched shriek, shortly before kneeing her in the face.
    • Dragon Ball Super:
      • Vegeta does this to Goku Black, picking him up by the hair after a beatdown and headbutting him.
      • Later in the Tournament of Power, Jiren ends up doing the same to Goku in their first fight. He then punches him in the stomach and launches an energy blast that nearly rings him out.
    • Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan: Piccolo grabs a handful of Vegeta's hair when trying to force the unusually cowardly Saiyan prince into joining the fight.
      Vegeta: It's no use... This is the end...
      Piccolo: What do you think you're doing!? Why don't you stop whining like a baby and fight like a man!?
      Vegeta: Why? What for? Broly's unbeatable...
      Piccolo: You call yourself the prince of Saiyans?
  • Fairy Tail: 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.
  • Fruits Basket:
    • In the last episode of the 2001 anime, Akito does this to Tohru when angry with her.
    • During flashbacks, Rin's Abusive Parents are shown to have pulled her around by the hair.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: Haruta, upon finding himself at the wrong end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Nanami, attempts to flee, only for Nanami to grab him by his ponytail and continue his beating of him.
  • 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.
    • Played for Laughs when Hidan is decapitated. Kakuzu picks up his head by the hair and Hidan starts whining that it hurts. Kakuzu comments on how strange he is since he barely reacted to getting stabbed and decapitated.
    • In the Canon movie The Last, just before Naruto and Toneri's Cock Fight on the moon, Toneri grabs Hinata by the hair and throws her into a cage so that she'll be Forced to Watch as he tries to kill Naruto.
  • Nijigahara Holograph: 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.
  • One Piece: Occurs during the Eines Lobby Arc. Spandam grabs Nico Robin 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.
  • Overlord (2012): Mare is sent to kidnap Hilma, the head of Eight Fingers' prostitution division. He does so by breaking her leg before dragging her off by the hair.◊ Note that Mare is the size of a kid.
  • PandoraHearts: Oz has this done to him by Alice and Lotti.
  • Ranma ½: It's somewhat of a Running Gag 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.
  • Sailor Moon: Sailor Venus is once apprehended when the villain pins her to the wall by her hair.
  • Soul Eater:
    • A chapter has a rather jarring example: Maka and Soul try to fix the damage Crona's black blood has done to some DWMA members. They even join hands as they use Soul Resonance together, and enter the room where the members are being held. The next thing we see is Soul dragging Maka out by her hair, as his own black blood has started to act up the moment he got close to another source.
    • Stein also does this to Maka when he pretended to want to dissect her.
  • Chapter 73 of Tokyo Ghoul reveals that Mutsuki's father abused him by grabbing him by his bangs, dragging him to the bathroom and trying to drown him until he praised him. It's then implied that he raped him.
  • Yona of the Dawn: Early in the story, Tae-Jun grabs Yona by her long red hair. Her solution is to slash it off.

    Comic Books 
  • Batman:
    • When Batman meets Batwoman for the first time post-Final Crisis, he warns her that having long hair is a liability in a fight, since any Mook could grab it. She smirkingly replies that she'll take it under advisement, but the joke's on him since Kate is smart enough to know this, and her long hair is actually a wig that covers her real hair, which is much shorter, as well as helping disguise her identity. Later on when someone actually does try this they are quite surprised when they pull off her wig instead, giving her time to escape.
    • Batwoman (Rebirth): Played with in issue #4. Knife grabs Kate by the wig and swings her into a rock pillar, even though the wig reasonably should've detached, as it's been shown to do in earlier Batwoman comics.
    • In Batgirl story The Attack of the Annihilator, the eponynmous Big Bad grabs onto Supergirl's hair while he's draining her life energy.
  • In issue 19 of Pocket God, a giant killer robot grabs Kinsee by her ponytail, but Sun cuts her ponytail off before it can kill her.
  • Robin (1993): When Ra's is yelling at Talia for not handing over Damian so that Ra's can kill the boy and use his body for himself he grabs her by the hair and yanks her head back to shut her up when she spitefully tells him that she will protect her son from him.
  • Sillage: In the first issue, Heiliig grabs Navis' ponytail and lifts her into the air, but she cuts it off with her knife.
  • Superman:
    • In Who is Superwoman?, Reactron grabs a handful of Supergirl's hair to keep her still while he irradiates her with Gold Kryptonite (which disables Kryptonian powers temporarily).
    • The Great Darkness Saga: During one battle between the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Darkseid's minions, a Servant of Darness grabs Dawnstar's hair and pulls her inside a dimensional portal.
    • Crucible: After Supergirl's powers have been blocked by an inhibitor device, Roho grabs Supergirl's long hair in order to hoist her up into the air.
    • The Great Phantom Peril:
      • During one battle, Superman grabs Faora Hu-Ul's hair and flies upwards, but a blow in his midsection forces him to let her go.
      • Later, Faora is snooping around the Fortress of Solitude when a Superman robot lunges from behind, grabs her hair, and pulls backwards. Nonetheless, Faora tosses him off her easily.
    • The Hunt for Reactron provides a rare male example. As fighting the heroes, Reactron grabs Nightwing's hair to pull him upwards and smash his head against Supergirl's.
    • The Phantom Zone: Jax-Ur takes advantage of Supergirl being focused on fighting Kru-El off to grab her hair and slam her through a wall.
    • Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom: The titular villain takes advantage of Supergirl's charging attack by grabbing her hair and tossing her against one car.
    • Adventures of Supergirl: After knocking her down, Rampage grabs Supergirl's hair to pull her up and drag her to her lair.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1: Priscilla Rich tries to have Diana Prince's mind read by Gail Young by having Diana's hair pinned down by someone posing as a hairstylist who then left the room. Since Diana is Wonder Woman she just got up and broke the thing pinning her down by her hair.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • In The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea Scuttle attempts to stop Morgana by pulling her hair with his talons.
    Scuttle: You are a very! Bad! Lady! (Morgana whacks him in the face with the trident) Very bad.
    • This happens to Ursula in The Little Mermaid (1989) as well, when Ariel pulls her hair to throw off her blast from the Trident to save Eric. It was an especially impressive move because Ursula has extremely short Power Hair, meaning there wasn't much to grab.
  • Rapunzel in Tangled has this happen to her a couple of times, understandable since she has over 70 feet of hair. It even gets used as a gag at one point. She also uses it to subdue other people, notably when she ties Flynn up after he breaks into her tower.
  • Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. While fighting a female supervillain who's an Evil Counterpart, Wonder Woman gets her hair grabbed and used as leverage to throw her into a wall. Fortunately she's only stunned temporarily.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Alita: Battle Angel: After Grewishka slices Alita's body up during their second fight, leaving her as nothing but a torso with one arm, Grewishka pulls her up by her hair to taunt her.
  • Played seriously in the Soviet film Come and See, where a Nazi soldier drags a peasant girl off to be raped.
  • Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers: Michael Myers grabs Kara Strode by the hair from the other side of a cell door and pulls her against it. Tommy Doyle has to shoot him to make him let go.
  • Halloween Kills: Michael Myers reaches into a car window and grabs Marion Chambers by the hair. Marcus pulls her free, ripping out a chunk of hair.
  • In one Harry Potter film, Bellatrix grabs Harry by the hair after his face got hit by a spell from Hermione.
  • Hitchhiker Massacre: 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.
  • John Wick dispatches a mook by grabbing his beard, using the leverage to smash his head against a table, and quickly double tapping him.
  • Kate. During a Brutal Brawl a Yakuza goon grabs Kate by the hair. She takes his tanto from him and slices her hair off...and his fingers along with it.
  • Matilda: On Matilda's first day at school, the Trunchbull grabs a young girl by her pigtails and throws her over the fence. The girl learns her lesson and makes sure the Trunchbull never sees her with pigtails again.
  • In Moonraker, Bond fights a mook while Holly Goodhead is strapped to a stretcher. When the mook gets knocked near her, she grabs his hair. He stands up anyway, ripping out a chunk of his hair in the process.
  • In RoboCop (1987) while searching for the criminals who killed him, Robocop drags Leon Nash by the hair on the way out of the club after Leon's attempt at a Groin Attack fails epically.
  • In Sixteen Candles one girl at the party gets her hair stuck in a locked door, leaving her stranded for a lot of the night.
  • In The Spiderwick Chronicles when Thimbletack gets annoyed that Mallory destroyed his nest, he ties all of her hair around the iron bedstead. Naturally Jared gets blamed for this too. The next time we see Mallory her hair is up in a ponytail but when it's down at the end of the film, it seems their mother just untied the hair rather than cutting it to free her.
  • The Three Stooges: A common way for Moe Howard to yank Larry around. Sometimes others would grab a hunk of his hair too. Another gag would have Moe, after manhandling Larry, to try this on Curly ... nyuk nyuk nyuk.
  • Under the Shadow: While Shideh is in a tussle with the djinn under a sheet, a hand grabs her by the hair and yanks a chuk of it out.
  • The film We Are Not Angels has a flashback where the main character thinks of his abusive father, who did this to his mother. She asks for scissors, ostensibly to cut her hair, and stabs her husband through the thigh with them while he's off guard. Smash cut to the protagonist sighing that women with long hair are prettiest and we have a really weird Freudian outcome of this trope.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: En Sabah Nur grabs Quicksilver's hair to expose his victim's neck so that Psylocke can cut his throat.

    Literature 
  • Aubrey-Maturin: Played straight when Barrett Bonden engages in a bare-knuckle contest with his plait tied around his head, with predictable consequences.
  • Avengers Of The Moon, by Allen Steele. A Femme Fatale does this to Fair Cop Joan Randall during a Bar Brawl. As the novel is a Reconstruction of a Captain Future 1930's pulp magazine series, Joan punches her attacker in the face instead of it being played for Cat Fight fanservice.
  • Beowulf: It's often lost in the translation, but in the original text, the title character actually resorted to this in the battle with Grendel's mother.
  • When women sneak into the men's quarters and abduct Jerin in A Brother's Price, they seize his long-braided hair, and he screams.
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: In The Last Battle the last Tirian sees of Jill is a Calormene soldier dragging her away from the battle by her hair.
  • In Forbidden Sea, the mermaid attacks Adrianne and Cecily while they're in a boat in the lagoon. The mermaid holds Cecily underwater, and to make her let go, Adrianne yanks her hair.
  • In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fall of Gondolin, Maeglin grabs Idril by the hair and tries to drag her to the battlements during the battle, so she sees him throwing her son off the wall; he was not counting on she actually fighting back, though.
  • Implied in the Goosebumps book The Blob That Ate Everyone. Zackie and Alex are checking out a damaged antique shop after a storm, and they suddenly hear the owner come in, to which the two children decide to hide. When the owner finds them, she roughly grabs them from behind them so they can face her. Although he doesn't exactly see it, Zackie notices that Alex's ponytail had come undone, and her hair was now wild around her face. This seems to suggest that the owner grabbed Alex by her ponytail and yanked her forward.
  • On Gor a semi-standard way to control a slave girl without using chains is for the man to hold his hand at about waist-height, and the girl places her head there where he grabs her hair and basically pulls her about.
  • In The Iron Teeth web serial, Blacknail the goblin frequently grabs the hair of people he's fighting with. This usually causes them to expose their throats.
  • The Mermaid in the Millpond: After Bess's second escape attempt, Miss Tucker pulls her back to the mill by her hair.
  • Mermaid's Song: As Elan is swimming out of the Bottomless Pit used in the last trial of the Choosing, her ruthless rival Kili grabs her by the hair in an attempt to drag her down. After Elan fights her way to safety, Kili lies that Elan almost died and Kili had to pull her to safety by the hair.
  • In Murder At Drumshee Colm apprehends Mahon and Ita by grabbing onto one of Ita's long plaits and holding a knife at her throat.
  • The Murderbot Diaries: When Wilken pulls a Bodyguard Betrayal in Rogue Protocol, she grabs her target by the hair and says "It's not personal" before trying to shoot them — an utterly pointless bit of cruelty that slows her down enough for a bystander to stop her.
  • In A Series of Unfortunate Events book "The Wide Window" the person who looks like neither a man nor a woman grabs Violet by her hair, swinging her over his shoulder. Strangely, little reference is made to how painful this must have been, and it doesn't seem to have damaged either her hair or her neck.
  • Shock Point: During Peaceful Cove's soccer games, inmates work out their anger and misery by committing lots of fouls. One girl yanks Cassie to the ground by her ponytail.
  • In Sisters... No Way! during an argument at the breakfast table, Aishling grabs Cindy by her hair to try and calm her down.
  • Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love.
    Lazarus Long: Not only does long hair need a lot of timewasting care, it gives your opponent something to grab in close combat and can obscure your view at a critical moment — either one can be fatal.
  • Tortall Universe: Guardswoman Beka Cooper is well acquainted with the dirty fighting tactics of the Lower City, and has a spiked strap in her braid in case anyone tries this on her.
  • Vorkosigan Saga: In Cetaganda, a Cetagandan haut-lady is imprisoned by trapping her hair, which works because her culture has strong taboos around hair-cutting, so it's effectively a Life-or-Limb Decision.
  • Where Are the Children? features a rare sympathetic example. During the climax, Carl has hold of Missy atop a widow's walk and loses his balance. Nancy lunges for Missy and grabs the nearest part of her she can reach, which is her long hair. She clings on until Ray arrives to pull them both to safety.
  • The Zombie Survival Guide 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 braids and buns).

    Live-Action TV 
  • If a Cat Fight breaks out in a Latin American Soap Opera, you can be certain that this trope will occur at some point.
  • Lifetime Movies love this one. If the movie involves an abusive husband (which they oft do), expect to his him drag his wife, kicking and screaming, down the hallway, often to the bedroom.
  • In a BBC series that modernised fairytales, the episode of Rapunzel has the stepmother grabbing onto her daughter's long hair to stop her from leaving. The daughter grabs the scissors and hacks the ponytail off to escape.
  • In The 10th Kingdom, 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.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • In "What's My Line?", Buffy does this to Kendra after lampshading the Cat Fight trope.
    • In "The Initiative", Xander comes across vampire Harmony and after mutual Badass Boasts, they have a comical Wimp Fight that ends with them agreeing to let go of each other's hair on the count of three, then go their separate ways and never speak of this again.
    • In "Family" the Scoobies pull a Go Through Me when Tara's abusive family tries to take her home. When Dawn steps up Buffy warns Mr. Maclay to take her seriously because "she's a hair-puller".
  • Karen in Coronation Street loved doing this whenever she got into Catfights with Tracy Barlow. The universe gave her some form of comeuppance when her long hair got caught in one of her sewing machines, forcing her to remove her extensions.
  • During his Paso Doble on Dancing with the Stars, Joey Fatone grabbed his partner Kym by the hair and dragged her about ten feet across the floor.
  • The Ghost Whisperer episode "Last Execution" Melinda was washing her hair in the sink and a ghost caused it to get caught in the garbage disposal. Jim had to cut it to free her.
  • The Good Detective: Played for Drama. The second season opens with Cheon Sang-woo hitting a woman and then dragging her by the hair. When Sang-woo's brother-in-law Tae-ho arrives, Sang-woo is in a daze and the woman has been brutally beaten.
  • Jonathan Creek in the episode "Angel Hair" a man's wife gets into a Cat Fight with his mistress where she grabs the mistress by the hair and drags her across the garden. This ends up being one of the clues Jonathan picks up on that a video showing the mistress having her hair cut off, which was supposedly recorded before the fight, has to have been recorded later as no wig or extensions could have stood up to such rough treatment.
  • In the Scrubs episode "My Lucky Charm" Elliot and Carla get into a catfight that only ends when Elliot gets her watch caught in Carla's hair, restraining them both from moving.
  • Star Trek: Picard: In "Nepenthe", Narissa grabs Hugh's hair in order to pull his head back so that her dagger has better access to his neck.
  • True Blood: Jessica Hamby really doesn't like it when Steve Newlin tries to pull this sort of move while threatening her, so she does it right back to him.
    Jessica Hamby: [exasperated] Hair pulling! Really?! [gets Steve in a headlock, one hand pulling his head back by the hair] How do you like it? The next time you think about crashing my party, don't. [grins] My dad's the king. [tosses Steve out the front doors]
  • Batwoman (2019). Kate Kane uses a long red wig both to hide her identity and distinguish herself from Batman, whom everyone initially thinks has returned to Gotham after a three-year absence. Unlike the comics the wig is attached to her cowl, causing this trope to happen in the Batwoman Cold Open of "If You Believe In Me, I'll Believe In You".
    Kate: Trafficker got away—some asshat yanked my wig, almost pulled off my cowl.
    Luke: Who could have predicted that 30,000 strands of "grab-me" red hair would be like waving a flag in front of a bull?
    Mary: What if you ran an electrical charge through the cowl so that the next person who tried to get grabby would have 10,000 volts of "hands off"?
    Kate: As much as I love the thought of wrapping my head in lightning...
    Mary: Right. Dumb.
  • El Chavo del ocho: La Chilindrina is often on the receiving end of this in early seasons, due to her long Girlish Pigtails. Later fades away when she gets them cut short.

    Music 
  • Troglodyte by the Jimmy Castor Bunch tells us this is how cavemen went courting.
    He'd go down to the lake
    where all the woman would be swimming
    or washing clothes or something.
    He'd look around and just reach in and grab one.
    "Come here...come here".
    He'd grab her by the hair. You can't do that today, fellas,
    cause it might come off.
    You'd have a piece of hair in your hand and she'd
    be swimming away from you.
  • In The Who's Rock Opera, Tommy, one of the many things sadistic Cousin Kevin does to Tommy:
    I'll drag you around by a lock of your hair
    And give you a push from the top of the stair

    Manhua 

    Myths & Religion 
  • The heroine in Irish mythology Grace O'Malley had long black hair and her father joked she wouldn't be allowed to become a sailor because the hair would constantly get caught in things. She took the joke a bit too literally and shaved her head before becoming a captain.
  • Beti-Pahuin Mythology:
    • Akoma Mba’s shiny bald head was the handiwork of Andome Ella during their fight. Andome grabbed his locks and spun him around like a cyclone.
  • The Bible:
    • In the Books of Samuel, King David's son Absalom rebelled against him. He was defeated at the Battle of Ephraim's Wood when he rode under a tree and his really long hair got tangled in the branches, leaving him dangling in the air and a sitting duck for the soldier Joab to kill him.
    • In the Book of Ezekiel chapter 8, God grabs Ezekiel by the hair and takes him to Jerusalem to show him the detestable things that are being done in His Temple.

    Pinballs 

    Pro Wrestling 
  • It's a common dirty heel tactic in women's wrestling for the heel to throw her opponent across the ring by her hair. Sometimes also happens for extra leverage in a submission hold (a common one in Diva's matches is to stand on their hair while they're on the ground, then pull them up by the arms; shoulder, neck, and hair pain all in one shot.) Can sometimes happen to men as well if the hair is long enough.
  • It used to be a tactic in intergender tag matches for the man on the team to grab the woman by the hair and slam her down to the mat when she hit the ropes.
  • It's so widely seen for the hair to be grabbed as leverage during a snapmare, that it has a technical name - "hair-mare".
  • One of The Fabulous Moolah's signature moves was to simply grab someone by the hair and whip them across the ring by it.
  • Pampero Firpo was rumored to get his strength from his Wild Hair and would No-Sell any pulling of it.
  • Low Ki tried to give Sabu a hair assisted tornado DDT in their first Impact Championship Wrestling match. It didn't work.
  • MsChif likes to pluck hairs out of the heads of opponents she has in submission holds, and prior to matches will sometimes pull her own hair to show it won't work on her. This backfired against Amazing Kong, who proved she could pull MsChif's hair much harder than MsChif could and later lead to an iconic SHIMMER image where Kong interrupted a photo session meant to hype a title match by taking MsChif and LuFisto in this manner.
  • Prince Nana dragged Daizee Haze this way as a trap to lure out Roderick Strong and Matt Sydal. Daizee Haze had actually betrayed Generation Next and joined the embassy, as Strong and Sydal (and Jade Chung) painfully discovered.
  • During their Hell in a Cell match at Armageddon 2005, after The Undertaker was knocked against the cell, Cowboy Bob Orton, who was outside, grabbed his hair, holding him in place and allowing Randy Orton to beat on him a bit. Eventually, Undertaker used pure brute force to pull Bob against the cell and break his grip.
  • Melina once tied Beth Phoenix's hair to the ropes as well but it didn't hold for very long.
  • During a triple-threat steel cage match, nonparticipant Velvet Sky tied Awesome Kong's hair to the cage. The tactic neutralized Kong for the rest of the match, ending with Angelina Love pinning Taylor Wilde. After the match, Kong had to be freed with scissors.
  • Before the main event of Vintage End Of The Line, the referee found a ring of hair pullers circling around him, instigated by Brittney Savage, followed La Rosa Negra trying to make her let go of Santana Garrett, then Luscious Latasha in turn trying to help Savage...
  • Gail Kim really benefited from this. During a ladder match with Taryn Terrell, she tied Taryn's hair to the ropes which kept her stuck long enough for Gail to climb the ladder and retrieve the contract.
  • Eddie Sapaluci took down Jim Nye, science guy, in a Fringe Pro match by reversing an Irish whip by his beard, causing Nye to face plant.
  • Inverted by Malia Hosaka, at SHINE 30. She had already participated in the crushing of La Rosa Negra's throat prior, just to threaten Leah Von Dutch, and went so far as to grab her own hair just to get something around Dutch's throat.
  • El Patron Alberto restrained Ray González Jr this way while fish hooking and delivering "The Reason You Suck" Speech about González being a lowly Puerto Rican.
  • At Extreme Rules 2014, John Cena grabbed Erick Rowan's beard and rammed his head into the steel cage several times.
  • During Eric Young's feud with, MVP, Bobby Lashley and Kenny King over the winning and defenses of the TNA World Heavyweight Title belt in 2014, Kenny King an unusual glee in pulling on Young's beard.
  • At Fastlane 2018, Carmella dragged Naomi across the ring by her ponytail.
  • During his 2019 run with WWC's Universal title, The Precious One Gilbert would claim Hiram Tua had pulled his hair at any point he managed to create separation after being outwrestled by him. Thus it was "fair" when Gilbert put his hands in Hiram's afro. As Jovan began associating with Gilbert at this time he also began calling phantom hair pulls during his and La Violencia's matches with La Potencia, which was really silly considering Violencia wore a head covering mask and Jovan was bald at the time.
  • At SummerSlam 2023, Seth Rollins grabbed Finn Bálor's beard and headbutted him several times. He then grabbed Finn's hair and kicked him a few times.
  • On October 9, 2023, Kofi Kingston grabbed Ivar of the Viking Raiders by the beard and hurled him through a table.

    Sports 
  • Long hair is strongly advised against for American Football players, as grabbing an opponent by his hair is completely legal.

    Video Games 
  • In Dead Rising 2: 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.
  • Final Fantasy X: 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 for 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.
  • Ibuki's Third Strike ending in Street Fighter sees her being held by her hair while a kunai is held at neckpoint by an older student who is messing with her.
  • In The Walking Dead (Telltale), Lee gives Clementine a haircut to prevent this kind of attack after one of the 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 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, 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.

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 
  • In Drowtales a Sarghress soldier decides to pick a fight with Ariel and does this in addition to other dirty tactics such as striking at her unarmored head (which she is immediately called out on by a superior) and then attempt this only to get a nasty surprise as Ariel had recently discovered her Prehensile Hair powers and uses it to throw her to the ground.
  • Girl Genius: Zeetha pins Bang by getting Bang's long hair tangled in one of her own throwing knives during their fight in England.
  • In El Goonish Shive Greg grabs a fire summon by what resembles hair on top of its head and swings it around to hit 2 others. Dan lampshades the absurdity of this in The Rant.
  • In Grrl Power Vehemence grabs Anvil by the hair and hurtles her away while telling her that long hair is an awful idea in a fight.
  • A common tactic when the gangs fight in Weak Hero, and a showing of how brutal and lawless said fights are.
    • When Helmet grabs Gray from behind, Gray reprimands him for not immediately throwing a punch or instead grabbing him by the hair. He then demonstrates the effectiveness of it by grabbing Helmet's hair and smashing him into the nearby wall.
    • When Alex tries to avoid a fight with Jimmy Bae, Jimmy leaps forward to drag him into the room by his hair and then beat him down brutally while continuing to hold him in place.
    • To show his superiority to the previous Arc Villain, Wolf grabs Forrest by the hair and pulls him close for a verbal beatdown. Donald does the same when it's Wolf's turn to be taken down a peg.
    • When Alex offers himself up to be beaten in Ben's place, Donald grabs him by the hair to assert his authority. Fortunately, he's called away before either of them are hurt.
  • Unsounded: Siya grabs Sette by the hair and yanks her back to scream at her in her grief when Sette shows up yelling for Sara, Siya and Ruffles to try to protect them after Sara died.

    Web Original 
  • In Christmas Story 2, when The Nostalgia Critic has had enough of Hyper still following him after he keeps telling her no, he drags her by the hair to rant at her. Luckily for Tamara the Hyper hair is a wig.
  • Cobra Kai: In the big battle of Season 2 ("No Mercy"), this is how Tory drags Samantha down a flight of stairs.

    Western Animation 
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: Jimmy of all people does this to Nazz when he becomes convinced she stole his shampoo.
  • In Book 3 of The Legend of Korra, Bumi does this to Ghazan the lavabender, as seen in the page image. (Along with biting.)
    • In the very first episode of the show, during the chase with the police officers, one of them grabs Korra's ponytail with his grapple line. She responds by waterbending a huge wall of ice behind her, causing said officer to slam straight into it and slide off it.
  • In The Owl House, Hunter's Palisman Flapjack drags him around by his Idiot Hair like a leash whenever he's making bad decisions. Flapjack did this during "Eclipse Lake" to get Hunter caught by Amity, Eda and King, and in "Labyrinth Runners" to get Hunter to open up to Gus about the fact that he ran away from the Emperor's Coven.
  • During Terra and Raven's mud fight in Teen Titans (2003) Terra briefly subdues Raven by grabbing her by the hair.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Entrapta has her hair pulled by Adora in her debut episode "System Failure" so she would be saved by a rampaging robot. Since her hair is prehensible and sensitive to touch (she giggles when someone tickles it), it must hurt more than regular hair, but that doesn't keep her from having it pulled a lot during Season 5:
    • Mermista pulls Entrapta's hair apparently to stop her from commiting suicide by running into a group of Horde Robots (and probably out of frustration, too), after the scientist runs away in tears because the princesses yelled at her. Entrapta has to explain she wants to track the signal of Horde Prime, so they'll be able to save Glimmer (who is kept as a hostage by Prime), for Mermista to release her, and the latter never apologizes for being such a bully.
    • During "Saved the Cat", she has her hair pulled by a clone she mistaken for Hordak. Bow saves her by electrocutating him with an arrow, but that disconnects the clone from the Hive Mind, causing him to burst into tears. He ends up adopted by Entrapta with the name of "Wrong Hordak".
    • In the final episodes, Horde Prime does that twice. First, he appears in a hologram, holding an unconscious Entrapta by her hair; and after Hordak kills his body, he possesses him and drags Entrapta by her hair again. She is saved by She-Ra.
  • Total Drama:
    • For the determination she showed during her first dare in "No Pain, No Game", Lindsay gets to choose the next victim and the dare they have to complete. She wants to pass on it, but Eva, who has it out for Bridgette, grabs Lindsay by the hair and pulls her close to give her instructions. Properly intimidated, Lindsay tells Chris to put Bridgette in a barrel of leeches.
    • In "One Million Bucks B.C.", Heather is bothered that Lindsay still has a full head of hair when she is the reason Heather lost all of hers. An opportunity for some revenge presents itself when Lindsay asks for help getting a knot out. Heather offers and painfully yanks on Lindsay's hair with a brush multiple times until the knot comes out.
    • Sierra makes Team Amazon look bad in front of Team CIRRRRH in "Can't Help Falling in Louvre" with her bawling and ice cream munching over Cody's rejection. Since Heather can't get her to stop, she instead grabs Sierra's ponytail and drags her away to the then-unoccupied common area.
    • During a confessional in "This Is the Pits!", Scarlett shares that her brother pulled her hair once. In retaliation, she made his remote controlled toys attack him every night for six years.
    • This came back to bite Scarlett in "Scarlett Fever" when Sugar beats her up and hogties her with her own hair in order to stop her from controlling the island and destroying it.

    Real Life 
  • Alexander the Great ordered his soldiers to shave their beards to deny their enemies something to grab onto preparatory for cutting off the head.
  • Ditto for the Romans. The military crew cut was invented by them so their enemies couldn't grab onto it during battle.
  • Many women's self-defense courses offer specific instruction in what to do if grabbed by the hair in various positions (from behind, from the front, etc.). Short-haired students are grabbed by the collar instead and learn the same technique.
  • This trope can and has been simultaneously exploited and defied by people in street fights with a sufficiently thick head of hair by putting sharp objects within the hair to punish people who would take advantage of this trope.
  • Kathleen Durst's brother described an incident in which her husband Robert did this to her when she was taking too long to leave a Christmas party. This moment was depicted in one of the above-mentioned Lifetime movies about their troubled marriage and her eventual disappearance.

 
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Video Example(s):

Flapjack

Hunter's palisman Flapjack has a habit of pulling on his forelock whenever they want him to do something.

Rubber Band hair

Alternative Title(s): Caveman Carry

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Flapjack

Hunter's palisman Flapjack has a habit of pulling on his forelock whenever they want him to do something.

How well does it match the trope?

4.36 (14 votes)

Example of:

Main / ByTheHair

Media sources:

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Flapjack

Rubber Band hair