Devilish Hair Horns

"I mean, that is some fuckin' evil hairdo. That's like the devil's haircut, if the devil had hair. Good job to the fuckin' makeup department for making her look evil as fuck."

—Explained by an Idiot, on Nurse Ratched, "One flew over the Cuckoo's nest Explained by an idiot"

Hair, that infallible representation of a person's moral compass. In an effort to shape the world of fiction into something more logical than the unpredictable real world, authors have long given their characters physical traits that provide artful hints about where said character stands on the good-evil spectrum. Triangular shapes are the preferred way of telling the audience that a character is one bad dude or chick, but few are more unsubtle and in-your-face than a threatening hairstyle. And as far as that goes, you can't get much more direct than likening them to Old Scratch himself. A hairstyle shaped like horns is almost always a surefire sign of a heart as black as soot.

Not to be confused with a joke seen in cartoons in which a character's hair (feathers, if it's an avian character like Donald Duck) come together briefly into little devil horns whenever they have a truly malicious idea.

Horns of Villainy trades symbolism for the real thing.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Lord David, one of the many villains whom Kenshiro meets during his journey in Fist of the North Star.
• Kaiju Girl Caramelise: Kuroe Akaishi has two tufts of hair that stick up in a way resembling horns. Kuroe isn't evil, but she involuntarily turns into a potentially dangerous Kaiju called Harugon, and in this form those hair horns turn into actual horns.
• Akira Kongoh, as well as the rest of his family, from Kongoh Bancho appears to have this. In reality, it's the actual shape of his skull.
• Elyse in My Balls is a demon with real horns that turn into gravity-defying Ojou Ringlets when she disguises herself as a human.
• Blueno from One Piece, befitting his bull Animal Motif. Luffy even calls him a cow on multiple occasions.
• Garou from One-Punch Man has hair that starts out like this but slowly transforms into actual horns as he becomes a monster.
• Sailor Moon. Chibi-Usa/Rini has pointed buns that evoke her Rascally Rabbit nature (and the Moon Rabbit) and certainly apply as an indicator of malice when she transforms into Black Lady/Wicked Lady. They also evoke the horns of a crescent moon, and her heroic nature as a moon princess.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad member Cooan's cat-ear hair would be a more straight example.
• Shiki:
  • Akira. He's not evil though; just a victim of a series with crazy amounts of Anime Hair.
  • Tatsumi, who actually is evil, arguably has them, but they look more like cat ears than horns.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Turles, the Evil Counterpart of Goku, has Goku's hairstyle with two horns.
  • Videl, the daughter of Mr. Satan, has her hair point up into horns occasionally when she's flustered or angry. This is mostly just part of the pun, though, as her name is actually an anagram of "devil".
• The president of Lala's fanclub in To Love Ru sports such a hairdo when she (apparently) goes Super Saiyan and starts beating up Rito.
• Andore of Team Unicorn from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, who's not quite evil, but more of Manipulative Bastard. As you might guess by his team's name, his hair has a very prominent unicorn horn, which begs the question: how can he wear a biker helmet with that thing sticking out of his head?

Comic Books

• Subverted by Bananaman — his civilian alter ego Little Eric has horned hair, but it's supposed to represent the shape of a banana, instead of having anything to do with the devil. And far from being evil, he's a bumbling superhero.
• Daimon Hellstrom had horn-hair in the front during his Bronze Age Son of Satan years. As Hellstorm he's let them go and just worn his hair long. In Ultimate Marvel he's a minor character with emo spikes.
• Former The Dandy character "Lil Imp"◊ has bunches that form horns.
• Cain and Abel, the respective Horror Hosts of House of Mystery and House of Secrets; in Abel's case, Depending on the Artist, the effect is about as subtle as any example you'll find, reflecting the fact that he's not really a sinister or dangerous figure even if he's preoccupied with the macabre.
• Klarion the Witch Boy in the DC Comics universe. He's a bad boy.
• Daredevil as he appears in Marvel 1602.
• It is probably no coincidence that the miller, who delivers the final punishment on the Villain Protagonists of Max and Moritz (1865), has only two locks of hair which look like horns.
• In The Sandman (1989), Lucifer looks this way.
  • The hairdo follows Lucifer into his own comic book, although it's subtler there.
• Wonder Woman (1987): The White Magician (the Villain with Good Publicity who killed Artemis) wore his hair combed in such a way that it resembled horns, foreshadowing his One-Winged Angel look where he had actual horns.

Comic Strips

• The Pointy-Haired Boss from Dilbert has two horns of hair and nothing more, although his amorality is generally overshadowed by his gross incompetence.

Fan Works

• The succubus Sunshine in The Return gains a literal pair when Odango Hair are braided over her horns.

Film — Animated

• Despicable Me: Mr. Perkins has the "Pointy-Haired Boss" look going.
• Abraham Van Helsing in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation has a hornlike haircut, which is ironic because he's a human who hunts monsters. But since he is He Who Fights Monsters, he is a monster to them.
• Lock from The Nightmare Before Christmas has devilish bangs as part of his costume. He's also a well-known troublemaker in Halloween Town.
• The Coachman in Pinocchio shows these as he makes his infamous Nightmare Face. Even Honest John and Gideon are rightfully frightened!

Film — Live-Action

• A Wachootoo warrior arranges Ace Ventura's normally duckbilled hairdo like this during Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, in mockery of his nickname of "White Devil". Ace does not take it well.
  Ace: All right... that's it! This "White Devil" thing has gone far enough. Nobody! Messes! With the 'do!
• Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy wears her hair like this in Batman & Robin.
• Raven at the end of Cecil B. Demented has this. She loves everybody, but she's still a Satanist.
• In The Constant Nymph, Florence wears very severe looking victory rolls, and unsurprisingly, is our antagonist.
• Pennywise in It (2017) sports this with his hair curling up at the ends.
• In The Mad Magician, The Great Rinaldi wears his hair swept to resemble devil horns as part of his Stage Magician persona of 'The Master of Black Magic'.
• In O Auto da Compadecida, Satan wears his hair as horns.
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Although slightly more subtle than most examples, Nurse Ratched's hair is curled up in a way that resembles horns.
• One of Grace Jones's many, many styles in A View to a Kill is a red outfit and hairdo shaped like devil horns. Subtle.
• Will Ferrell as evil fashion maven Mugatu in Zoolander.

Literature

• "Ole Devil" Hardin, in the novels of J.T. Edson, deliberately combs the hair over his temples into horn shapes to emphasize his Mephistophelean appearance.
• Whateley Universe: The supervillain Dr. Diabolik has devil horn-shaped forelocks. Both his children, Jadis and Mal Diabolik, inherited this trait from him. In addition, Jadis has an actual devil bonded to her soul which influences her powers, giving her PK field a demonic appearance.

Live-Action TV

• Quico in El Chavo del ocho has a couple of small locks sticking out of his cap like horns, intended to signal his childish naughtiness.
• Bandora / Rita Repulsa from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger/Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
• In My Hero (2000), Mrs. Raven's triplets are said to have gelled their hair into horns.
• Vyvyan's tangerine tri-hawk on The Young Ones looks a lot like horns.

Music

• French singer Mathieu Chedid has this, but whether he's evil is questionable. His stage name being "M", the hairdo (with a widow peak) is rather to suggest this letter.
• Keith Flint from The Prodigy, during the Fat of the Land era.
• Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown of the Spice Girls.

Professional Wrestling

• Spike Dudley had a horned beard in his "boss" phase, where he took over The Dudley Boys.
• Toshie Uematsu has three, sometimes as many as four, hair spikes or horns on the front of her head.
• Mad Man Manson shaved the center of his head and then spiked up the remaining hair on the sides.

Theatre

• Satine in Dracula: A Love Stronger Than Death.
• Madame Corporation in Nouvelle Experience is not evil, but she is a sometimes intimidating Trickster and as such has bright red hair styled in this manner.
• Ms. Lovett in the original Broadway staging of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She has it in the movie too. They're hidden in the general rat's nest of her hair, but she definitely has pointy odango there.

Video Games

• Morgana from Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. She is an Umbra Witch, a member of an order of not-necessarily-evil demon summoners, and fittingly, has her hair styled into four massive curling, ram-like horns. She's Cereza's Stern Teacher and emotionally distant
• Catherine and her really weird pigtails that just add to her mystery. For good reason too, as she's a succubus.
• The Wolf Queen, in Dark Parables: The Red Riding Hood Sisters, has black hair which pulls itself up into two pointed hornlike shapes on the top of her head. They're actually supposed to look like wolf ears, not horns, but the effect is basically the same.
• In Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey, Zara's hair is styled into points.
• Flemeth's character redesign for Dragon Age II includes these. Also, in both games she transforms into a dragon, meaning she has actual horns at certain points.
• Final Fantasy
  • Ultimecia from Final Fantasy VIII and Dissidia Final Fantasy.
  • Final Fantasy X: Seymour Guado. The guy basically has hair antlers, just in case everything else about him didn't tip the player off to the fact that he is a Devil in Plain Sight.
  • Possibly also The Emperor from Final Fantasy II, although some of them might be actual horns. Maybe. He was designed by Yoshitaka Amano in the eighties, it can be hard to tell.
  • Mewt Randell from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, when he gets to be the Royal Brat in Ivalice.
• In the 2009 Final Fantasy Legend II remake, New God(dess) Venus is redesigned to have these.
• The Witchkins in Harvest Moon wears her hair like this, though she's more mischievous than evil.
• Inazuma Eleven: Kogure's hair is styled into four horns, two on each side of his head. He also has pointy ears. He's not evil, but he's still a potty-mouthed Bratty Half-Pint and a prankster.
• Batreaux from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has these once he's transformed from a demon into a human. It's actually so hornlike that it takes a bit for the player to realize that's hair, not horn.
• Parodied in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies. Jinxie Tenma, the paranoid daughter of the head of the Tenma family, immediately assumes Apollo is a demon in part due to his Idiot Hair that forms two horns at the front of his head, immediately slapping Paper Talismans on his forehead.
• Cassandra from the Pico series has a distinctive horned hairdo. She's introduced shooting up her school and turns out to be an member of a malevolent alien race.
• When Volo from Pokémon Legends: Arceus reveals himself to be the game's true villain, his hairstyle changes to reveal a pair of hornlike points. Ironically, the horns are meant to resemble those of the franchise's benevolent creator god, the titular Arceus, whom Volo worships. When seen head-on, however, the hair horns look more like those of a demon, making him look that much more sinister. For bonus points, he's also colluding with the Pokemon World's resident Satanic Archetype, Giratina.
• The cave hermit from Red Dead Redemption II has these, fitting his claims of being "the devil."
• Scooby-Doo! First Frights: Tim Toiler from Episode 2 has hair shaped like a pair of horns.
• Juri Han from Super Street Fighter IV, which fits since she's a cyborg assassin working for Big Bad Seth.
• Seems to be a genetic trait of the Mishima bloodline in Tekken who are some of the most morally-compromised people in the series. It's most obvious in Heihachi who looks like he has a pair of horns. Kazuya and Jin loosely show signs of it, but mostly through the pointiness of their hairstyles.
• There's a hidden model in Warcraft III of an Orc warrior, who's bald with very long horns of hair on the sides.

Visual Novels

• Chachamaru Ashikaga from Full Metal Daemon Muramasa has a pair of very distinctive bangs that has the appearance of downward bent horns giving her an almost imp-like quality to her. Fitting for the local trickster and eventual reveal as the other half of a Big Bad Ensemble as well as a Satanic Archetype. The bangs also serve the purpose of hiding her Pointy Ears, revealing her emishi heritage and nature as a bastard child.

Web Animation

• Tord from Eddsworld, although they were just spikes in the classic era and have only become horns recently.

Webcomics

• Charby the Vampirate, though nowadays he has become somewhat non-evil. Still not a nice guy, however.
• Elijah and Azuu has main character Azuu (and all of his family) sporting some variation of horned hair. Has crossed over with Charby above, which joked about the hair.
• Dusk in Faux Pas crosses this trope with Ears as Hair — her normally fox ears curve inward and have a very sharp point.
• One of the first characters we meet in The God of High School is Mujin Park, whose hair (despite his best efforts) always has a few tufts spring back up like horns. As for his morality, it goes back and forth a bit, but he's utterly ruthless and kills the main character's grandpa the minute they are finally reunited.
• Chase, in I'm the Grim Reaper, thinks Scarlet has "weird hair flicks" on the top of her head for a good chunk of the series. They're horns.
• Skin Horse: Mr. Green, the leader of Anasigma, has short, pointy tufts of hair that stick up at the edges of his head and subtly resemble horns.
• Zebra Girl, who has real horns a well. While basically good, Zebragirl has been transformed into a demon, with the darkness and violence that entails.

Western Animation

• Jimmy's evil clone from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius.
• Aunt Trudy in The Amazing Spiez!, an annoying, but not evil, example.
• Norbert from The Angry Beavers has his Spiky Hair occasionally take this shape, such as when he was possessed by the pond scum in one episode that turned him into a Jerkass, or whenever he has any ideas that only benefits his self-gain.
• Mrs. Dave from As Told by Ginger very unsubtly has hair shaped like horns. She's the overbearing mother of Lois' boyfriend.
• Cricket Green from Big City Greens has this visible in the curved center portion of his bowl cut whenever he is hanging upside-down or if his hair is pushed up. It's especially noticeable in "Backflip Bill" when he wears a sweatband and goes full-on Drill Sergeant Nasty.
• Danny Phantom:
  • Vlad Plasmius sports this in his ghost-form.
  • Likewise, Penelope Spectra also sports a similar hairdo. Hmm...perhaps they go to the same stylist?
• Futurama: Nurse Ratchet, being a parody of Nurse Ratched, has her Robot Hair styled this way, though it's not as obvious.
• Get Ace: Villain Ned Krinkle has a very messy-looking version of this. So does his cousin Egbert, foreshadowing that he's not the sweet kid he initially appears to be.
• Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
• It's not consistent but Big Bad Eric from Jem is often drawn with his hair messy in a way that obviously mimics devil horns.
• Neighbors from Hell: even in their human forms, some members of the Hellmans family still have horn-like hairstyles. Back in Hell, Balthazor's hair horns are even longer than his regular ones! Although it is downplayed as they aren't actually evil, with Balthazor in particular hardly qualifying for it.
• Sylvester Sneakly, the alter ego of the Hooded Claw in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
• The Simpsons
  • One episode sorta does this: Mayor Quimby is making a speech of some sort, but he's extremely sweaty, so when he passes his hand through his hair, he ends up looking like the Devil. Naturally, the TV crew filming him add hellfire surrounding him.
  • Similarly, in "She of Little Faith", while the town is discussing fund-raising ideas to rebuild the church, the shadow of a horned figure falls upon them. It is then revealed that the silhouette belongs to Mr. Burns, who quickly slicks down his hair.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Cloak of Darkness", Captain Argyus of the Senate Commandos has an interesting hairstyle that includes two horn-like shapes at the back. He turns out to be The Mole.
• Holly Blue Agate in Steven Universe. Her role in the Fantastic Caste System is basically that of a drill sergeant, and that her position was a way of being Reassigned to Antarctica does not help her overall disposition.
• Jinx from Teen Titans (2003). She starts out as a villain, but the horned hairdo stays after she has a change of heart.
• Klarion the Witch Boy from Young Justice (2010) sports a particularly pointy hairdo.

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