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Boyish Short Hair
aka: Tomboyish Sidetails

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It's short for "all business".

Since long hair is generally seen as a more "feminine" trait, when a girl has short hair it tends to mean she's decidedly less feminine than the average girl, maybe a Tomboy or Action Girl. This choice of having short hair usually indicates a girl has a more masculine personality, is tough and aggressive or is lacking in vanity. Girls may cut their hair short because they don't want to put up with the maintenance that longer hair requires. Other times it's short so no one can easily grab it in a fight, which Braids of Action and Tomboyish Ponytail are sometimes prone to be.

The contrast of a short-haired girl with a long-haired one can sometimes be used to portray a Tomboy and Girly Girl. If taken to extremes, a girl with Boyish Short Hair could be a Butch Lesbian, many of whom have this as an indicator. Maybe the result of an Important Hair Cut, with the new short hair being an indicator that the girl is ready to take action. Also, sometimes necessary for a girl to go undercover as a Sweet Polly Oliver.

Particularly in Anime and Manga, Tomboys may wear short hair with longer grown out sidelocks. The hair is still boyish, but the tails supposedly make it just girly and cute enough. It also makes them look a bit less professional, and more combatant than having short hair even all around.

When an Iron Lady or other woman in power wears short hair, it's usually not this but the much more carefully styled Power Hair, which says feminine and no-nonsense.

Compare Tomboyish Ponytail and Long-Haired Pretty Boy, the direct opposite of this trope. Contrast with Long Hair Is Feminine. Also, compare its ancestor, the '20s Bob Haircut, and possible successor, the Sci-Fi Bob Haircut.

It should be noted that Real Life adult women with this type of hairstyle often have careers that do not allow long hair or have young children which makes maintaining long hair impractical. It should also be noted that short hair on women was quite fashionable in The '50s.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 

  • Asteroid in Love:
    • When Mira and Ao first met, Ao has a very boyish short haircut. This, combined with her Gender-Blender Name, led Mira to think Ao was a boy.
    • Megu's hair is usually shorter than her shoulder, which fits her status as the most athletic of the entire cast.
  • Azumanga Daioh:
    • Kagura, a tomboyish superstar athlete and Unknown Rival to Sakaki, who is a naturally gifted Shrinking Violet, has short hair complete with Hot-Blooded Sideburns.
    • Minamo Kurosawa also has short hair (though she also has two longer locks in front), fitting with her job as the school's gym teacher and her athletic abilities.
  • Casca from Berserk had short hair back when she was a tomboyish and extremely capable Action Girl. After the Eclipse, she was driven insane and now has long Messy Hair due to her status as The Ophelia and an Empty Shell. As of Chapter 359 Casca cured of her mental regression has gotten her hair cut by Danann, it's longer than her original cut but still symbolic that she's returned to her Action Girl status.
  • Bleach:
    • Tatsuki has short, dark spiky hair and is the class tomboy. She's a karate expert who trained Orihime to black-belt level. Chizuru once comments that she would have found Tatsuki attractive if not for the masculine vibe Tatsuki always gives off. After the time-skip, she grows out her hair.
    • Soifon is the Gotei 13's top Ninja and neither gives quarter nor asks for it. She's a grim, aggressive personality who has worked hard to build a ruthless reputation. Although she spends much of the story with braids, after the time-skip, she loses the braids and switches to this trope instead.
    • Rukia is a short-haired action girl. She's had a rough life and possesses the rough, aggressive personality to match. After the time skip, she sports chin-length hair, shorter than her shoulder-length hairstyle (which her older sister Hisana had the same hairstyle). Later averted towards the very end, as a more mature Rukia 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.
    • Jackie Tristan is X-Cution's only physical fighter, whose power centers around improving her kick-boxer attacks and morphs her clothing into a Badass Biker theme. Although appearing to be quiet and aloof, she becomes very rough and aggressive in battle.
  • Bokura no Hentai:
    • Downplayed with Akane. She's tomboy to her best friends Girly Girl and has a bob haircut. She's not too masculine though, having multiple stereotypically feminine interests like baking. As a toddler she loathed skirts while Marika was in the opposite situation, being a "boy" who preferred dresses over shorts.
    • When Miki was little she didn't get along with girls much. She was One of the Boys to the point where her friends would joke she really was a boy. After she hit puberty precociously she grew out her hair.
    • Yui, Ryousuke's younger sister was a short-haired bifauxnen once. Ryousuke said she changed when she became a model.
  • The Bush Baby: Jackie, to the point you'd actually be forgiven for thinking she's a boy - it goes right above her shoulders and barely below her face.
  • Downplayed with Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura; while she has very short hair and is athletic (with P.E. being one of her favorite subjects at school), she's otherwise a very feminine girl. She also tends to style her hair in feminine ways despite it being so short, wearing numerous hair decorations and often sporting short pigtails.
  • Nozomi, from A Centaur's Life. Her boyish appearance is frequently commented, due to her hair and figure.
  • Code Geass: Kallen is a Ms. Fanservice version of this. She is the Black Knights Ace Pilot and Lelouch's bodyguard. Her short hair indicates that she is not to be trifled with.
  • The official art book of Daimos reveals that Raiza had this hairstyle as a child - in contrast, as an adult, her hair nearly touches the ground.
  • Lenalee Lee from D.Gray-Man ends up with this hairstyle from Episodes 63-103, due to having her long Girlish Pigtails being burned off during her fight with a Level 3 Akuma in Episode 62. At the end of Episode 103, her hair grows back to a bob haircut, and it carries over into the 2016 series, Hallow.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Bulma's hairstyle after the Namek story arc, in which she had a shoulder-length bob before then.
    • Videl, Gohan's future wife, cuts her hair short when Gohan suggested her Girlish Pigtails would be a hindrance in a fight (and also because she thought he liked girls with shorter hair).
    • Colonial Violet the sole female officer of the Red Ribbon Army has short military hair, which is purple.
    • Fasha (or Celipa) from Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku the first pure-blooded Female Saiyan shown, has short hair befitting a Proud Warrior Race Girl. The other female member of Bardock's squad Gine (his wife), has long hair and is gentle-hearted compared to Fasha.
    • Cheelai from Dragon Ball Super: Broly the Green-Skinned Space Babe and Love Interest of the titular Saiyan, has short white hair and is quite tomboyish.
  • Fena from Fena: Pirate Princess cuts her long hair to a very short pixie haircut in the second episode as a sign that she had made up her mind about her destiny to find Eden in her father's stead.
  • In Fushigi Yuugi, Yui did once have long hair but cut it short in 8th grade to avoid all the attention she was getting from boys. She is noticeably more hot-tempered and considerably less ditzy than Miaka.
  • Girls Bravo: Both Kirie and Kosame keep their hair cropped short. Both are tough as nails, with Kirie regularly dispensing justice on perverts with haymakers and suplexes - while Kosame is a professional covert operative.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • Toyed with in the case of Ukraine, who has extremely short hair and dresses like a boy but is more of a Nice Girl in personality.
    • Played straighter with Belgium, who's quite straightforward and has wavy hair that reaches to her neck.
    • Nyo!Germany, who probably has many of the drill-sergeant-esque mannerisms of her male counterpart.
  • Hikari no Densetsu: Fitting for a competetive Passionate Sports Girl, Megumi's hair is inches above her ears and shaved into a flat cut. In contrast, Hikari has a Tomboyish Ponytail and Shiina has a Prim and Proper Bun.
  • Iga No Kabamaru: While Mai has short hair, she's rather feminine - apart from her enjoyment of sports and riding on Kabamaru's (who's a ninja that runs at hyperspeed) back.
  • Invoked in Isabelle of Paris where the titular Isabelle cuts off her Ojou Ringlets to become a spy for France's sake and keeps this hairstyle even after her war duties are over.
    • Kaze no Shōjo Emily: Ilse Burnley is a Tomboy who loves wearing blue and scrap-fighting, and has short golden hair and golden eyes. In contrast, the titular Emily wears a lot of pink, has long hair styled in plaits and is a bit of an introvert.
  • Ryoku from Kill la Kill has shoulder-length hair, in contrast with the other female characters who have longer hair, highlighting her status as a Japanese Delinquent in contrast to Satsuki's regal Hime Cut.
  • Invoked in Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl: Mizuki initially had long hair but being an Insecure Love Interest she was afraid of looking too plain at Moe's side. So, she cut her hair to give a more tomboyish vibe, which makes people call their couple the "prince and princess" of the school now. But she's still a shy and insecure girl deep down, contrary to Moe.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S:
    • Subaru Nakajima, tomboyish Genki Girl Cute Bruiser martial artist who fights by punching enemies really, really hard.
    • Minor character Alto Krauetta, resident mechanic and helicopter pilot who actually went through a portion of her childhood thinking she was a boy since she was raised in a mostly male environment.
  • Miyaji Madoka from Mei no Naisho.
  • Allenby from Mobile Fighter G Gundam has very short blue hair and a boisterous, fun-loving and fight-loving attitude. Ironically, her Gundam has a very girly aesthetic with very long blond "hair," which actually serves as radiator fins for her Berserk Mode.
  • Kashima of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun has very short hair, which complements her looks and status as the school's "prince" well.
  • Satsuki from My Neighbor Totoro, when she and Mei visit their mother in the hospital, she asks Satsuki why she has her hair cut so short, she replies that she likes it that way.
  • Naruto:
    • Sakura had short hair for most of her childhood, but grew out her hair because she heard a rumor that her crush Sasuke likes long-haired girls. Though Sakura starts out as quite girlish, by the start of Shippuden, she's picked up more and more tomboyish attributes. Her friend Ino, who grew out her hair for the same reason, kept her hair long and is the more feminine of the two.
    • Hanabi is shown to have a bob haircut during Shippuden. She's depicted as slightly more tomboyish than her sister Hinata. By the time of The Last: Naruto the Movie, she's undergone a Girliness Upgrade and grown her hair back long.
  • Hajime from New Game! keeps her hair short, rides her bike to work, and likes to move around in the office a lot. At least the last part is justified by her wanting to properly animate the models.
  • One Piece:
    • Nami pre-Time Skip from the age of 8 to 18 has had short hair and is often The Lad-ette. Two years later in the new world she's grown long waist length hair and even more physically mature.
    • Kuina fitting her tough swordswoman nature had very short hair. Tashigi who resembles Kuina also has boyish short hair but like Nami grows longer hair in the timeskip.
    • Aisa the little Shandia girl from Skypeia due being a self-proclaimed warrior has short hair. At the end of the arc Laki a Cool Big Sis figure tells Aisa that she can grow her hair long since they don't have to fight anymore.
    • Among the Kuja tribe in Amazon Lily Rindo has the shortest hair, carries a bazooka and smokes. Marguerite and Nerine also have short hair which does not reach their shoulders.
  • Mariya from Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling For Me: Every character, including the male lead, is The Ojou. Mariya is less ladylike than the rest of the cast, including the male lead, and she drops her facade only when she's alone with him. While still feminine (a true tomboy would be very out of place at a high-class all-girls school) she occupies the tomboy role.
  • Haruhi Fujioka of Ouran High School Host Club sports very short hair, and the fact that it allows her to pass for a guy helps to kick off the plot. It turns out that her hair being so short wasn't done on purpose, since she used to wear it long until she cut most of it off after a kid stuck some gum in it. The epilogue of the manga shows that she's starting to grow it out again.
  • Noa Izumi from Patlabor, due to her tomboyish appearance. Kumagami also counts though despite being a bifauxnen, she's a Tomboy with a Girly Streak.
  • Most tomboyish Pretty Cure protagonists have short hairstyles, often shoulder-length at the longest, in contrast to the more feminine Cures having long hair.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
  • Pokémon Adventures:
    • Sapphire won't be winning any awards for femininity anytime soon and her hair isn't particularly long; the bangs are rather exaggerated though. Averted in the past where she was a big girly-girly and sported the same haircut.
    • Midway in the XY arc, Y gets her hair trimmed really short, even shorter than X's hair.
  • Princess Mononoke has San, whose appearance is justified since she was literally raised by wolves.
  • Princess Nine: At least four, and possibly five or six, of the girls, have Boyishly Short Hair. This is a show about girls playing baseball on even terms with boys, so tomboys are to be expected.
  • Sayaka Miki from Puella Magi Madoka Magica has the shortest hair out of the main five girls in the series, only reaching to her chin. She tends towards wanting to be the Knight in Shining Armor as a Magical Girl her outfit resembles that of a knight and she uses swords to rush into the action.
  • Irma, of Queen's Blade, would be this, plus, a white-haired pretty girl if she weren't so tomboyish and set to tsun-tsun all the time. But considering her upbringing in an assassin's guild and having been betrayed by her Sexy Mentor/love interest, who abandoned her, leaving her hurt and bitter over it.... Wait, does this remind you of anything?
  • Raideen: Rei Asuka has short, ginger hair, though it is styled in a feminine way. She's also an Action Girl with psychic powers.
  • R.O.D the TV:
  • Ryu's Path: Maria has very short hair that's held with a hairband. It's ruffles point upwards at the bottom. She's also an Action Girl who's skilled with a gun and viewed as a Cool Big Sis by her little brother Jimmy.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Haruka Tenou/Sailor Uranus is a short-haired Bokukko, in explicit contrast to her lover, long-haired and feminine Michiru Kaiou/Sailor Neptune. She often wears masculine clothes in civilian form — not because she's specifically crossdressing, but just because she likes them. (Though it should be mentioned that this happens more in the anime than the manga).
    • Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury is also known for her short hair (although it's worn in a bit more feminine style) which is used to highlight her intelligence. When a possible future version of her was shown with long hair the fandom had a collective fit.
  • Two in Sand Chronicles:
    • Kaede has short hair that becomes even shorter as years pass, is a doctor that lacks a few feminine traits such as cooking skills and girly fashion and is quite blunt at times. She also had short hair in her school years when she was very studious and athletic.
    • Ayumu Narasaki has short hair, is in the judo club during middle school and has become quite smart by the time she reappears. She's also rough, outspoken and bossy, though she mellows out after her prank on Ann goes too far.
  • Inverted in Strawberry Shake Sweet, short-haired, boyish-looking Ran is the Girly Girl to Julia's Tomboy.
  • Subverted in Uzumaki, from the end of chapter six onwards Kirie sports this type of haircut as the result of having to cut it all off after it comes to life and nearly kills her. However, her personality doesn't change at all, and she remains fairly feminine.
  • Variable Geo: While Satomi's hair is always short and mussy, due to living in poverty, it's mainly meant to convey that she's a tomboy. Which is further emphasized by her athletic figure and her immense fighting ability.
  • Hitomi from The Vision of Escaflowne, who was an athlete at her high school, Van comments on her short hair in the movie.
  • Wandering Son: Takatsuki is a trans boy who wears his hair very short to look more masculine. He grows his hair past his shoulder at the end of the manga, when he has doubts about whether he really wanted to be a boy or if he just hated being a girl.
  • When Marnie Was There: Anna has short hair that reaches her jawline. She is also a tomboy who dresses androgynously. This is in contrast to Marnie, who has long hair and is very feminine.
  • Tsubaki from Your Lie in April has a bob haircut and is a sporty, tomboyish girl. In comparison, Kaori is more conventionally feminine, and her hair goes past her neck.

    Comics 
The DCU
  • Batgirl (2000): Fitting her highly trained Tyke-Bomb nature, Cassandra Cain has far shorter hair than Barbara, Stephanie and Helena.
  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Carrie Kelley has very short tomboyish hair.
  • Batwoman:
    • Kate Kane had short hair from high school all the way through her time as a cadet and typically sports an even shorter buzz cut in the DC Rebirth era. Ironically, her early appearances have her with long hair before being ultimately depicted with a chin-length bob.
    • Kate's cousin Bette, who is more usually seen with a Tomboyish Ponytail, also cut her hair short when she enrolled at West Point.
  • Black Canary: In the 1990s, Dinah usually has short black hair when not using her wig. She is a huge Action Girl. She eventually grows out her hair and dyes it blonde.
  • Catwoman: In all modern comic portrayals, Selina Kyle has very short hair that she can fit easily in her cowl. In the 1960s, Selina has longer hair coming out of the back of her mask, similarly to Batgirl.
  • Power Girl: Karen is really just an older version of Supergirl from an Alternate Universe. Aside from being very muscular (and much curvier), she's also distinguished from Supergirl by having much shorter hair to reflect her assertiveness. While her hair has been a Sci-Fi Bob Haircut for much of her existence, she did have her hair cropped to crewcut levels during her period as an Atlantean.
  • Robin (1993): Near the end of her freshman year of high school, Callie Evans crops her light brown hair into a short pixie cut and dyes it orange.
  • Supergirl (2011): The post-Flashpoint Supergirl — who is a short-tempered, hot-blooded brawler and not feminine in the least — wears her blond hair this way.
  • Wonder Girl: Cassie Sandsmark originally had an incredibly short boyish hair cut to reflect her tomboy sensibilities, which she hid underneath a black wig while in uniform.

Marvel Universe

  • Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers has worn this since 2015 — some time after Secret Wars (2015) — and up to a short time before the film (and its follow-up) had Brie Larson's Carol adopting the haircut as well. Doubles as Power Hair. It's also the initial hairstyle of her Ultimate Marvel incarnation, before going for long hair as well.
  • Silk: While Cindy initially had long hair, she commonly has a short bob nowadays.
  • Spider-Girl: May Parker has short brown boyish hair much like her dad, though she's still more popular than him during her high school days.
  • Spider-Man: Betty Brant has kept her short hair since The '60s — she's still very feminine, though. The only adaption to change this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which Betty has long blonde hair, ironically making her resemble Gwen Stacy.
  • Ultimate X-Men: Jean starts off with short hair along with a Tomboy attitude. After a while, she lets her hair grow out to a shoulder-length bob similar to her main universe counterpart's.
  • X-Men:

Other

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animated 
  • In Up, Ellie has short, messy hair as a kid and she also used to be a Tomboy.
  • In Tangled Rapunzel gets her massively long and magical hair cut short by her Love Interest Eugene in order to defeat the Vain Sorceress who's been using it's power to stay alive. As many have pointed out Rapunzel still looks beautiful with her sudden haircut if not even more so. Though she gets her long hair back in her show.
  • The Squadette Sergeant Calhoun from Wreck-It Ralph.
  • Intrepid Reporter Roxanne Ritchi from Megamind. Combined with Brainy Brunette.
  • Ella from Happily Never After, no explanation is given as to why her hair is cut so short.
  • Ratatouille: Colette's hair is short and neatly cut, most likely so it doesn't get in the way while cooking.
  • In Turning Red, Mei's aunties Lily and Chen have short hair and are more passive aggressive in their remarks to Mei.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Aliens: While Vasquez having short hair is justified by her being a marine, and in this universe females wear their hair short too, it's styled more masculine than Ripley's and even the other two female marines. This solidifies her as an ultimate Lad Ette. Her first scene has Hudson snarking...
    Hudson: Have you ever been mistaken for a man?
    Vasquez: No, have you?
  • Anna: Maude sports a buzz cut, though her looks and interests are otherwise feminine. However, she is a lesbian.
  • Jules from Bend It Like Beckham has short hair fitting her Tomboy nature. This becomes a plot point when Jess' sister's fiance's parents see them laughing together on the street and mistake Jules for a boy due to her short hair. The deeply conservative parents are outraged at the sight of Jess supposedly kissing a white boy out in public and call off the wedding, driving a temporary wedge between the sisters. Her mother later assumes she's a lesbian because of that and her passion for sports.
  • Below Her Mouth: Dallas has this, as part of her overall butch looks.
  • Blue Is the Warmest Color: Emma wears her hair short whatever its color. She's a lesbian, and butch in her style.
  • But I'm a Cheerleader: Jan and Graham have it (the former especially, who sports a mohawk), which feeds into True Direction's belief that they aren't "gender conforming" and this made them lesbians. Yet ironically enough Jan is really straight.
  • Conan the Destroyer: Zula has a very short haircut, while being a tough, formidable warrior woman.
  • Holly of The Descent is the least feminine of the girls; an adrenaline junkie and snarker whose only girly streak is admitting that she'd like to have "loads of babies" one day. She of course has very short hair, while the others wear theirs longer.
  • The titular character in Domino has one, as befitting a tough Action Girl and bounty hunter, as did the real Domino Harvey on whom the film was based.
  • In Firefighter, a biopic of Cindy Fralick - the first woman to become a firefighter at the Los Angeles County Fire Department. She is informed that she must cut her long hair above her ears and above her shoulders to conform to the safety regulations - which of course were written for men. Her superiors are unhappy with it and insist she cut it even shorter. On seeing the new result she cries that she looks like a boy.
  • Ghost (1990): Demi Moore's Molly, probably the Trope Codifier of boyish short hair on women in movies. Much of her wardobe is masculine too, yet despite this she still manages to be a 90s sex symbol for the now iconic hot and steamy "clay modeling in a singlet" love scene she has with Sam (Patrick Swayze) alone.
  • Girlfight: Diana actually has long hair, but she achieves this affect during the first half of the movie anyway by pulling it back, making her look like she's just got corn rows, which fits with her tomboy looks.
  • In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Lauren Griffin, a talented Ace Pilot who flies the G-Team into and out of Kaiju battles, has a short haircut.
  • How It Ends: Ricki has hers very short and messy, keeping with her other tomboy traits.
  • How To Blow Up A Pipeline: Xochitl cuts her hair short right before committing herself to violent direct action.
  • Joan Webster, in I Know Where I'm Going!, sports short hair, and is assertive, determined, and stubborn at times.
  • Beverly in It (2017), unlike the book or the previous adaptation, has short hair after an Important Haircut. She is the only girl of the Losers' Club so it makes her fit in. Notably she was quite feminine in the book, but becomes much more tomboyish here. In the sequel, as an adult her hair has grown out a little. It's still short but at a more recognizably 'feminine' length.
  • James Bond:
    • Of the earlier Action Girls among the Bond Girls, only Pam Bouvier from Licence to Kill sports this, trimming it down from '80s Hair after an (offscreen) Expository Hairstyle Change; during the Pierce Brosnan era there's Jinx from Die Another Day. Both of them are notably active intelligence agents themselves who could keep up with Bond in the field and provided direct assistance in taking down their respective movies' Big Bad.
    • Judi Dench's M in both the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig era films wears her hair short as a reflection of the fact that she has to suppress her femininity in order to lead an organization like MI6 in a field as male-dominant as national intelligence. She notes in The World Is Not Enough that she had to ignore her instincts as a mother when advising Sir Robert King not to pay the ransom for his kidnapped daughter, intending to use her as bait to try to draw out the terrorist behind her abduction.
  • Tomboy Scout Finch has short hair in the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird (in the book, her hair length is not mentioned).
  • Mad Max: Fury Road: Imperator Furiosa has short hair cut very close to the scalp which helps her to blend in with the War Boys who are all bald due to their poor health. Of the Five Wives, only Toast the Knowing has short hair and she's easily the toughest of the group as shown by her knowing how to handle a gun.
  • Maggie & Annie: Maggie and her lesbian friends have their hair cut short. Eventually Annie follows suit, along with her daughter Jenny, copying the style as she embraces being bisexual.
  • Margarita: Margarita's girlfriend Jane has hers close-cropped as part of her butch look.
  • My Animal: Heather cuts off most of her hair, leaving it at buzz cut level, after her dad's death. She's a butch lesbian and it makes her look more masculine than earlier.
  • The Novice: Dani has short, very curly hair as one part of her Butch Lesbian looks.
  • Ophelia: Ophelia gets her long hair cut short near the end to pass as a man.
  • Princess Cyd: Butch lesbian Katie has this, wearing hers in a mohawk.
  • Rafiki: Kena wears her hair in a very short style, as part of her boyish style overall (she's a lesbian as well).
  • Riot Girls: Punk girl Scratch sports a mohawk, and she's a butch lesbian too.
  • Sappho: Sappho has hers cut into a bob as part of her cross-dressing. Bobs were a common style among many women then however, so this doesn't stand out that much.
  • Signature Move: Zaynab has hers very short as part of her Butch Lesbian style, with her mother saying she should grow it out to attract men (she's unaware of her lesbianism at the time).
  • Somebody I Used to Know: Cyrina, a band mate and friend of Cassidy's, has very short hair that's dyed pale blue as part of her pretty butch style.
  • In Some Kind of Wonderful, tomboyish teen Watts only wears masculine clothes and has a short haircut.
  • They/Them (2022): Butch bisexual girl Veronica has very short hair in a punk-like style which is dyed partly red.
  • In Tomboy, Laure's haircut is sufficiently boyish that no one sees any reason to doubt her when she introduces herself as "Mikael".
  • The main character in Train is shown to have cut her hair short in the end, after killing all the villains. It also probably symbolizes how she's serious about being on the wrestling team now since witnessing your teammates being horribly tortured to death will apparently do that.
  • Tragedy Girls: Sadie sports a pixie cut she dyed platinum blonde throughout the film. Initially it's just to lure Lowell, who targets young women with short hair, but Sadie likes how it looks so she keeps this. It fits pretty well with her slightly masculine clothing style.
  • We Are the Night: Lena has short, dyed black hair at the start as part of her goth style. She's also something of a tomboy, dressing in a very masculine way at first and fighting off Tom (although she gets a more feminine style later).
  • What Keeps You Alive: Jules has very short hair, in keeping with her masculine clothing style. She's a lesbian, then revealed as an action girl too.
  • Yes Or No: Kim has a short, masculine haircut like most Thai men, which makes her often get called a tomboy and suspected of being a Butch Lesbian. She however denies being either at first. It turns out that she really is a lesbian though. Other butch lesbians shown also have the same style.

    Literature 
  • Heroines Alanna and Keladry, both female knights, wear their hair short in the Tortall Universe books, being tomboys. Alanna went undercover as a Sweet Polly Oliver, but Keladry didn't, she just keeps it short because it's practical. Subverted by a later (but chronologically earlier) heroine, Beka, who despite being boyish and knowing that short hair is better in combat, keeps her long hair (as her one vanity), but braids a strip of spikes into it so anyone who grabs it in a fight will get a nasty surprise.
  • Most women above a certain age in A Brother's Price have short hair; the Whistlers in particular, whose grandmothers were soldiers, keep short military-cropped hair, and Eldest disapproves when Corelle starts growing hers out. In this world, it's the men who have long hair.
  • Vin in Mistborn starts out with this; it's quickly established that she wears her hair so short, and male clothing all the time, because she's very frightened of appearing feminine (and therefore, she thinks, weak) in front of other thieves and criminals. She grows it out a bit as she gets more comfortable with her femininity later in the series, but never so long that it would get in the way in a fight.
  • Dirty Pair: Kei makes up the tomboy half of the Lovely Angels, and she's typically depicted with much shorter hair than Yuri's. Though she and Yuri are among the 3WA's top trouble consultants, she's better known for her hair-trigger temper and her itchy trigger finger. Which often spells disaster since she packs a friggin' hand cannon! She's also a Lad-ette.
  • In the Dresden Files novels, we have 5' tall Lt. Karrin Murphy who wears her blonde hair short. She is the epitome of Badass Normal (as a master of firearms and a wide variety of martial arts) and works on an X-files style job of the Chicago police department. According to Harry, "she is so cute I want to put her in my pocket, but she'd break my arm if I ever said that." Since this is the woman who once took out an ogre and a giant plant monster with a chainsaw, after a severe knee injury, it's not hard to believe it. She and Harry have so much UST that several people in-universe have commented on it and eventually they get together at the end of Skin Game.
  • In the Dragonriders of Pern novels, we have some female dragonriders who keep their hair cut short. This is a practical choice since they a) wear helmets and b) fly freaking dragons. Long hair would get in the way.
  • Kino in Kino's Journey has boyishly short hair. She is a Bokukko variant of Tomboy and often uses masculine pronouns to refer to herself.
  • Cat from the book Take Back the Skies dons one after escaping from her father so that she can pass as a boy amongst the commoners.
  • In the Phryne Fisher Phryne is a flapper in the 1920s. Her hair is cut short.
  • The Hunger Games: Johanna Mason in the books, representing her tough and haughty personality. Averted in the film.
  • Honor Harrington wears her hair shorter than some men in the early books, partly for the practicality of needing to don a spacesuit in space combat, and partly due to some serious body-image issues. She grows it out when she becomes a Grayson Steadholder (essentially a feudal lady) and uses Braids of Action when needed thereafter.
  • Maya's Notebook: While working as a drug courier in Las Vegas, Maya wears her hair bleached and short. In Chiloé Island, after losing a Humiliating Wager (the boys' soccer team she coaches loses a game), she ends up shaving it all off. Despite a kind soul's offer to buy her some cute hats, she sticks to her regular knit cap that fits better with her style. Later on, after the Big Bad attacks her and nearly kills her, she needs to get stitches on her scalp and gets her head shaved. Again. She muses that it must be her fate to go around bald-headed.
  • In Poster Girl the protagonist Sonya Kantor wears her hair short for pratical reasons ever since she has been locked up in a ghetto. A comment by another character implies that women having short hair was considered a punishable infraction under the old regime.
  • In The Wheel of Time, Min Farshaw keeps her hair short and exclusively wears breeches instead of skirts, to the despair of the aunts who tried to make a "proper lady" out of her. When the Farm Boy Rand meets her on his first trip away from his village, he's quite startled by the boyish style. She later spends some time in disguise and is quite annoyed to have to keep her hair in curls.
  • City of Bones by Martha Wells: Elen the Magic Knight has her hair cropped short, though it's because her upper-class society inverts Long Hair Is Feminine rather than a mark of self-expression.
  • Soldier Dogs: Juliette is a spunky tomboy with a bob haircut. At the start of Battle of Bulge, the other kids complain that she's too boyish.
  • Master Fy-Tor-Ana from The Last of the Jedi series has hair that's barely even long enough to be called boyishly short.
  • Alice, Girl from the Future, tomboyish and adventurous Action Girl, wears her hair very short.
  • Tell Me How You Really Feel: Rachel, a butch lesbian, has hair that's kept short with quite unruly curls.
  • Several of the more tomboyish fairies in Rainbow Magic have short hair, with a notable example being Izzy the Indigo Fairy, the most masculine of the Rainbow Fairies.
  • The Vor Game: Miles Vorkosigan finds that Elena Bothari (his childhood friend, with whom he is deeply infatuated) has cut her hair upon becoming an officer in a mercenary space fleet:
    She's cut her hair, Miles thought, stupid-stunned. Gone was the straight-shining black cascade to her waist. Now it was clipped out over her ears, only little dark points grace-noting her high cheekbones and forehead, a similar point echoed at the nape of her neck; severe, practical, very smart. Soldierly.
  • Florinda: As part of her male disguise, Florinda has her hair cut short.
  • A Master of Djinn: Fatma and Siti both have short hair, while they're skilled women warriors along with being lesbian lovers.
  • Swan's Braid & Other Tales of Terizan:
    • Swan is a Butch Lesbian warrior with short blond hair.
    • Terizan, a tomboy lesbian thief, also has short dark hair herself it turns out.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Mary Margaret Blanchard, aka. Snow White, from Once Upon a Time. Helps display that this version is significantly more of an Action Girl than the Disney princess version. Somewhat inverted in that her Storybrooke persona has the short hair and is a wholesome school teacher, while her Enchanted Forest counterpart is the Action Girl and has waist-length hair.
  • Gabrielle, Xena's sidekick on Xena: Warrior Princess is a perfect example, with her impromptu haircut being a symbolic conclusion to her Coming of Age Story, and of her maturing from being Xena's young sidekick and protegee to a mature, independent, strong woman, and fighter, with skills on par with Xena's own.
  • Marcy had a short haircut in a large part of Married... with Children, demonstrating her lack of femininity (she was mistaken for a boy several times).
  • Djaq from Robin Hood. The first series involved her as a Sweet Polly Oliver with cropped hair; by the second series, she was no longer hiding her gender but kept the short hairdo.
  • Captain/Major/Lieutenant Colonel/Colonel Samantha Carter of Stargate SG-1 is a good example. She's definitely brainy (an astrophysicist) and an Action Girl (she didn't get all those ranks for nothing.) However, she doesn't have much of a stereotypically masculine personality (though she is a Straw Feminist for the first couple of episodes) and she is definitely portrayed as super hot, though not sexualized. This is in large part justified by Air Force dress codes, and the show's military advisers were known to complain if Sam's actress Amanda Tapping let it get too long.
  • Major/Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie, the Semper Fi Hello, Attorney! in JAG.
  • Starbuck, The Lad-ette and Ace Pilot from Battlestar Galactica (2003). She tends to reject many staples of femininity (for example she has little to no interest in having kids) in favor of trying to outdo the boys: fighting better, being tougher, drinking more, sleeping around more, etc. Notably, the only time when she in a position of helplessness for a prolonged period of time, (being a Cylon prisoner on New Caprica during the entire occupation) is also the only time that her hair grows out (she's also forced to adopt the role of housewife/mother by Leoban at the time, when she's his prisoner with their daughter (who it turns out is really someone else's). Her actress Katee Sackhoff however was annoyed at having to keep her hair short for the role (often experiencing producers trying to cut or dye her long blonde hair whenever she is cast as an Action Girl) and pushed for the character to grow her hair out.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Arya, the feisty tomboy, has this while passing as a boy, and keeps it fairly short after. She loathes medieval female roles such as sewing, cooking, and dreaming of marrying a prince, and instead prefers beating her older brother at archery, learning how to fence, and so on. Cemented in season 2, when Tywin notes her unusual passion for history and warrior women from the past, and says that most girls prefer romantic tales about maidens with flowers in their hair and such. Arya's response? "Most girls are idiots." She does grow her hair out in Season 5 and keeps it that way for the remainder of the series.
    • Warrior woman Brienne's short and simple straight hair makes an interesting contrast to Ser Loras' opulent curls.
    • Inverted for Tyene Sand, who's the only member of the Sand Snakes to have short hair, and she's actually a seductress and poison expert, which the setting describes as "the woman's weapon". Her two sisters Obara and Nymeria have long hair and are more physically aggressive. Likewise, Ellaria adopts a shorter hairstyle around this time, and she's physically inactive too.
  • Tasha Yar, the first Security Officer in Star Trek: The Next Generation certainly had this trait and the attitude to match.
  • Alina, a member of the Polish Resistance from the German World War II drama Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter.
  • Meg's vessel in Supernatural originally had longer hair (up to shoulder length) and wore girlish clothes. When Meg possesses her, she cuts her hair and "dressed [her] like a slut". Her boyish short hair is a plot point to show how horrifying it is when demons possess and control humans.
  • In Orange Is the New Black, Pennsatucky gets a haircut in the second season so that she can get in on "the gay agenda". Healy doesn't approve.
  • As of Season 8 of The Big Bang Theory, Penny sports this hairstyle and although she appears girly, she has a Lad-ette streak a mile wide and is more masculine than the guys are. She has the shortest hair of the women in the main cast and she's the most guy-ish out of all of them, though by the show's end, her hair is longer.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • Badass soldier and former freedom-fighter... sorry, proud terrorist Major Kira has a short haircut to start with, although it becomes slightly longer when she has a Fanservice Pack part way through the show.
    • Inverted with Dax. As the long-haired Jadzia, Dax was very much one of the boys, and often immersed herself in their activities, ranging from Ferengi gambling to Klingon combat. However, her successor, the short-haired Ezri, is more timid, doesn't like many of Jadzia's interests, and is far less of a Ladette in general.
  • Power Rangers:
    • Power Rangers Mystic Force's Vida has very short hair, is a tomboy through and through and is not pleased when she becomes the Pink Ranger.
    • In Power Rangers Dino Fury athletic and tomboyish green ranger Izzy Garcia has her hair cut relatively short. She's also a butch lesbian. Funnily enough, Tessa Rao had more of a problem with cutting her hair for the role than she did with the fact that her character is lesbian. (Of course, that's also awesome.)
  • In Space: 1999, Main Mission operations officer Sandra Benes (Zienia Merton); her image somewhat belied her on-screen personality; she was a sort of female Pavel Chekhov, an emotional barometer; her principal function was to scream her head off at the first sign of danger or to get the crap kicked out of her by the "Monster Of The Week" on a regular basis.
  • Kara's foster sister Alex Danvers sports this hairstyle in the fourth season of Supergirl (2015) after wearing shoulder-length hair in the first two seasons and chin-length hair in season 3.
  • Eleven from Stranger Things throughout Season 1 has a short buzzcut not by choice as The Government shaved her while experimenting on her, she's even mistaken for a boy a few times and she likes wearing a wig to cover it up. At the start of Season 2 Eleven has grown her hair long.
  • Straw Feminist Maggie from Northern Exposure used to keep her hair cut short, but she eventually adopted a Tomboyish Ponytail in later seasons as she mellowed.
  • Cameron Howe sported one in the first season of Halt and Catch Fire as part of her Tomboy image.
  • Blake's 7:
  • Lip Service: Both Frankie and Sam, the two butch lesbians, sport this (in the latter's case it's actually a bob, though she frequently pulls it back). Fin also has it.
  • Carnival Row: Vignette sports this throughout the series, aside from a single widow's braid in the back (which she cuts off later), both in the present and the flashbacks. It fits her image as a tomboy.
  • Abby Maitland of Primeval was a tomboy who had short hair for the first three seasons of the show. She loved kick boxing and was an Action Girl who hunted dinosaurs (though she had a girly streak with a love of animals and Chick Flicks all the same). Her hair grew out in Season 4, after spending a year trapped in the Cretaceous Period, and coincidentally the character became a little less tomboyish.
  • We Are Who We Are: Sarah's hair is cut short (she's in the military). However, it also aligns with her mildly butch look overall (she's also a lesbian).
  • Tipping the Velvet (2002): Kitty has hers cut short to perform in her drag king act, with Nan later doing the same when joining it. They also become lovers as well, with this echoing Nan's self-realization that she's a lesbian.
  • Feel Good: Mae has very short hair which she compares with corn and to Bart Simpson's. For her, this cut indicates she's bisexual and then nonbinary.
  • S.W.A.T. (2017): Chris has hers short, and she's The Lad-ette.
  • Paper Girls: Mac, as part of her tomboy style, has very short hair in a cut common for boys in the 80's.
  • Motherland: Fort Salem: Raelle, a tomboyish lesbian, keeps hers up in a short style initially. Then she has it down in Seasons 2 and 3, however it's still not that long, only just reaching her shoulders.
  • Reservation Dogs: Jackie, a tomboy Action Girl who's One of the Guys in her gang, has hers cut very short.
  • Chasing Life: April's hair is very short after the first half of season one, as it's slowly growing back after her chemo treatments. It isn't her usual style, and she's very feminine otherwise. She jokes how it makes her look like a lesbian. Brenna, a bisexual girl, snarks back at this being a stereotype.
  • Willow: Kit has hers cut short in keeping with her tomboy style and love for Jade, another woman.
  • In the earlier seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Olivia Benson had this style, to near crewcut levels at times. She grew it out after Alex Cabot left the first time and has had it at a modest length ever since.
  • The Mandalorian: Elia Kane's a sturdily built, muscular and rather butch female officer in Gideon's Imperial remnant with a very short haircut.
  • The Rising: Neve, an Action Girl and professional motocross competitor, has a short haircut with it hanging to her jawline. She's also attracted to women along with men it turns out.
  • Peacemaker (2022): Keeya's hair is cropped short, making her look a bit androgynous along with her clothing style. She's also married to a woman.

    Music Videos 
  • P!nk had short hair early in her career, selling herself as a tomboy, and "Don't Let Me Get Me" even references the label's attempts to give her a Girliness Upgrade to look like "damn Britney Spears". She has had long hair at various points in her career though.
  • Tears for Fears: In the "Head over Heels" music video, the Hot Librarian has short hair, which underlines her demure, bookish personality.
  • Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs sported this style in the band's music videos for the singles from Our Time in Eden as well as the band's MTV Unplugged special. As she'd decided to leave the band by then, it also likely counts as an Important Haircut.

    Pinball 

    Podcasts 
  • Sid from Sequinox has hair in a pixie cut. Chell's hair is also pretty short, though it enters a "liminal space" during the second arc when she starts growing it out but isn't sure what to do with it.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • GLOW girls Col. Ninotchka and Major Tanya, both of whom were typical 80's anti-American Russians.
  • Molly Holly had her head shaved at Wrestlemania, and has kept a pixie cut ever since.

    Roleplay 

    Theatre 
  • In West Side Story the tomboyish would-be gang member Anybodys is almost always depicted this way.

    Video Games 
  • Advanced V.G. II has two examples between Satomi Yajima and Kyoko Kirishima:
  • Art of Fighting/The King of Fighters:
    • King is a bifauxnen kickboxer, whose prowess nearly rivals that of deuteragonist Robert Garcia. She becomes a Team Mom in The King of Fighters since she's usually in charge of the All Women's Team.
    • Athena Asamiya cut her hair like this in The King of Fighters 2001. In the game prior (2000), it's short but tied into a bun. She normally wears her hair long (which it goes back to in 2002 and beyond).
    • Yagami Team member Vice also has this.
    • Najd from The King of Fighters XIV also sports this in her concept art and promotional artworks. It's a downplayed trope, however, as she usually hides her hair underneath a hijab.
  • BlazBlue gives us Makoto Nanaya in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and Bullet in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma. Both have short hair in a series rife with long hair, and both are fist-fighting Action Girls.
  • Bayonetta 2's titular witch sports a haircut like this, in stark contrast to the previous game. Read 'em and weep. In the first game, it was Jeanne who had the short, boyish 'do, but swapped the look for long hair in the sequel.
  • Bloody Roar: Primal Fury: Jane Gado, aka 'Shina', is a highly trained mercenary and the adopted daughter of Alan Gado. She's known for her frankness and tenacity both on and off the field of combat. Her most striking feature is her spiky blonde hair, resembling her adopted father greatly.
  • Fallout 4: Your companion Curie changes her appearance as part of her personal quest. Her new look has new short hair like a boy's, but this is not a personality marker.
  • Fear & Hunger: As a trained since childhood knight delving into a dangerous dungeon for the sake of her captain, D'arce's hair is cut short.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy VII: Yuffie the Tomboy Princess has quite short hair perhaps in contrast to Aeirth and especially Tifa who has massive long hair. Elena from the Turks has short hair as well reflecting that she's One of the Boys.
    • Final Fantasy IX: In one scene, when Garnet (aka Dagger) cuts off much of her hair into a bob hairstyle it signifies her having Took a Level in Badass and also becoming a bit more boyish. She grows it back out to its original length in the ending after she reunites with Zidane and becomes Queen of Alexandria.
    • Final Fantasy XII: Ashe is less feminine than other princesses in the series and has shorter hair.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, there's Sully, the Masculine Girl to Stahl's Feminine Boy, who dons short hair and is a gruff tomboy keen on getting stronger. At least part of that was because she was the only girl in a family full of boys, and desired to emulate her older brothers. Her daughter Kjelle, while having slightly longer hair, is much the same way as Sully. It IS possible to give the Female Avatar this haircut.
    • In Fire Emblem Fates, Princess Hinoka of Hoshido is a tomboy obsessed with getting stronger, a lean body, and Boyish Short Hair. It's not obvious at first glance, due to the headdress she wears, but Rinkah of the Flame Tribe also sports this haircut, with a Hot-Blooded personality to match. Then there's Scarlet, a rebel from Cheve and a Blood Knight. Again, it's possible to give the Female Avatar this haircut.
    • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Priscilla's hair isn't even shoulder length. It's hardly an indicator of personality, however. She has a pretty run-of-the-mill feminine personality, albeit with a stubborn streak noted by other characters. Vaida, on the other hand, is a perfectly straight example. She's got very short blonde hair, scars on her face and leg, is a "Wyvern Lord" (short version: she flies into melee combat on the back of a goddamn dragon), and if it weren't for her breastplate being rather aptly named, she'd be 100% masculine.
    • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, pre-timeskip Leonie and post-timeskip Ingrid have this hairstyle. Leonie has very few feminine characteristics and is a clear-cut Tomboy, and if not for her bust size, could easily pass for a boy, although she does grow it out slightly into a short side ponytail after the timeskip. While Ingrid has loosely braided long hair pre-timeskip, she cuts it to barely chin-length after, and even before, she's dedicated to her training rather than her looks. Ingrid's voice is also one of the deepest among the female cast.
    • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War has Larcei, who has her hair cut short at the back with long sidelocks, and is the tomboyish, outspoken, and proactive counterpart to her Childhood Friend Seliph's sensitive Long-Haired Pretty Boy.
  • Vivi in Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos has her hair in a very short style, about the same length as her brother's, though not as wild. She's a frequent traveller and often goes into hot or cold regions on her own, with enough experience to prepare for anything. She does couple her short hair with a very simple, but still elegant top and pants, necklace, and overall has an almost elegant demeanor.
  • Both Kairi in Kingdom Hearts and Xion in Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. Promotional material for Kingdom Hearts III indicates that she is back to this look for this game.
  • Princess Daisy's hair in Super Mario Bros. hair was originally long but she cut off a good chunk for Mario Party 4. She's a more sporty and loud Tomboy Princess than either Princess Peach or Rosalina.
  • In Mass Effect series, female Shepard's hair can't go past about chin length without modding; most options range somewhere between "short ponytail" and "recently shaved". Also, of your female teammates in 2 - those that have visible hair, anyway (which discounts Samara, Tali and Kazumi) - the more conventionally feminine (although still badass) Miranda has long hair, while The Lad-ette Jack has a recently shaved head, and her Character Development into a more well-rounded and less Ax-Crazy persona is marked by letting her hair grow out a bit.
  • During the flashbacks in Metroid: Other M, teenaged Samus is shown with very short hair that reflects her hot headed personality and attitude. She constantly butted heads with her superior officer, Adam, and hated how the other soldiers treated her like a child or went easy on her just because she was a woman.
  • Kumatora from Mother 3 has this. Likewise, she hates wearing dresses and other girly clothes, often uses less-than-elegant language and is overall depicted as a tomboy. Interestingly enough though, her short hair is pink.
  • Joanna Dark of Perfect Dark has a pixie cut in the original game. (In the prequel, she has a Sci-Fi Bob Haircut instead and her hair is inexplicably strawberry blonde instead of brown.)
  • Persona 4:
    • Chie Satonaka from has shorter hair than her friend Yukiko and is into more "boyish" things like martial arts. Although their Personas invert this. Chie's Personas Tomoe Gozen and Suzuka Gongen have long hair, while Yukiko's Personas Konohana Sakuya and Amaterasu have short hair. This is meant to symbolize how Chie admires Yukiko's femininity while Yukiko respects Chie's energy and enthusiasm.
    • This trope is later taken to its logical conclusion when Naoto Shirogane is revealed to be a Bifauxnen Sweet Polly Oliver... with, naturally, boyishly short hair.
    • In the epilogue both Chie and Naoto have grown their hair out slightly while ironically Yukio has cut her hair short.
  • Resident Evil:
    • Rebecca Chambers of RE0 fame has very short boyish hair in contrast to the shoulder length bobs of Jill and Ada or the Tomboyish Ponytail of Claire, ironically Rebecca is far more girly than any of them.
    • Zoe Baker from RE7 has short messy hair which fits her tough and serious attitude.
  • Rival Schools has Natsu Ayuhara, the captain of Gorin High's volleyball team. According to her character bio, her teammates look up to her as both a Cool Big Sis and a role model, because of her natural athleticism and because they know she'll protect them.
  • Soul Calibur II: Cassandra Alexandra, is another example. Unlike her sister Sophitia, she's brash and somewhat impulsive but usually means well. In the fourth game, she's determined to destroy Soul Edge and free her sister once and for all. The length and style of her hair vary depending on the costume the player selects, but it's usually kept short.
  • The Story of Seasons series sometimes has short-haired bachelorettes as options.
    • Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, its spinoffs Harvest Moon DS and DS Cute, and its remake Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life have Nami, a drifter with a Mysterious Past. Unlike the other bachelorettes, she never wears a dress even after you marry her, and always wears shorts (pants in the remake) and keeps her bright red hair short. She's also more aloof and a lot harder to woo than the others, who all can be romanced with flowers—the only flower she likes is the Autumn Trick Blue (which in the remake turns crops a bright shade of blue if mixed with their seeds) and much more prefers weird cool things from the dig site.
    • Story of Seasons (2014) has Agate, who has short hair and is the animal ranger—she wears short shorts with thigh high socks and boots, lives independently unlike any of the other bachelorettes (except new resident Licorice), and is fond of animals and nature. Lillie also has short hair and used to be a Tomboy growing up and went to an all-girls school, but is a lot more feminine now.
    • Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns has bubbly Komari, the waitress in Tsuyukusa. She's a Tomboy who played rough with boys in the past and isn't always as refined as she wants to be, and wants to be more feminine than she comes off.
  • Street Fighter:
    • Sakura a massive Tomboy has always had short hair since her debut, her hair is longer in her SFIV ending where some time has passed but even it's doesn't go past her neck.
    • When SF III: 3rd Strike originally debuted, gamers couldn't tell whether Makoto was a boyish-looking girl or a feminine looking boy. At least, until they saw her dizzy animation. Elena also sports short white hair which is ignored due to her fighting in a tribal bikini that emphasizes her long legs.
    • Out of the Dolls Juni has the shortest haircut similar to King from King of Fighters.
  • In The Walking Dead: Season One, Clementine's hair used to be above her shoulders for the first two episodes. In Episode 3, after Lee's Important Haircut, her hair is much shorter, but still long enough for some small Girlish Pigtails. Episode 5 of Season 3 has Javier cut her hair even shorter than it already was.

    Visual Novels 
  • CLANNAD: Ushio has shorter hair than her mother, while being rather tomboyish as she plays with toy robots and does baseball.
  • The short-haired Heidi from Daughter for Dessert is a hard-nosed businesswoman who runs a tight ship and doesn't take shit from anyone.
  • Morgan from Double Homework is a former gang leader who isn't shy about fighting, verbally or physically.
  • Rin from Katawa Shoujo keeps her hair above chin-length, which is understandable given that without hands any longer hair would get in her way. She also dresses in boys' uniform, making gynophobic (and short-sighted) Kenji mistake her for a fellow male student.
  • Mahiru from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is a no-nonsense yet kind-hearted Fiery Redhead who has short bright red hair cut in a bob.

    Webcomics 
  • Paige from Aecast is the most tomboyish of the six main protagonists, and the only one to have short hair.
  • Nanase from El Goonish Shive gets this haircut after coming out of the closet.
  • Action Girl Captain Jordan Lee from Skins has short boyish hair. Coupled with her toned build and pretty yet somewhat androgynous features, she looks a bit like a Bifauxnen.
  • In Slimy Thief one of the recurring characters is a tall, muscular, Amazonian warrior with short hair to boot.
  • In The Order of the Stick Haley's hair is cut down to this style due to the petty cruelty of her spiteful rival, Crystal, who also sports such a cut. While Haley does become more action-orientated around the same time, (she receives a major upgrade to her bow, gets a wicked melee weapon rather than being helpless in close quarters combat, concludes her rivalry with Crystal, etc.) she's also rather uncomfortable with the look and buys a new, somewhat skimpier set of armor to show off that despite the haircut, yes, she is a girl. And while the cut lasts awhile, (about 140 strips) she also takes advantage of the first chance she finds to magically grow her hair back out.
  • Eerie Cuties: 14 year old Brooke Lyn is another bifauxnen example. She also happens to be a Melusine though she tries to hide it... with good reason. Ash learned this the hard way, when he made the mistake of pushing her too far and nearly paid for it with his life.
  • Death Brigade: Demi has really short purple hair, leading to some Viewer Gender Confusion.
  • Vampire Cheerleaders: Suki immediately stands out from the rest of the cheerleading team, being she's the only one with short hair. Plus, she's Japanese/American. She's also got an attitude, is quick at the lip, and even quicker to pick a fight if someone pisses her off. Most of which wouldn't be a problem if she weren't such a ditz.
  • Gender flipped in Sword Princess Amaltea, thanks to the setting being a Matriarchy. Unlike all the Long Haired Pretty Boys Ossian has short hair. Considering Ossian is this world's equivalent of a feminist, his short hair is a sign of rebellion.
  • Deities Uriel is a tomboy who wears her hair short.
  • Princess Princess: As part of her overall more masculine look as an action girl tomboy, Amira has hers in a mohawk.
  • Contrasts: Barriss' was longer in her younger days. However, by the present she's got it cut short. We rarely see it though, given her head scarf. This may be part of her being an action girl, or veiled sign that she's also into other women.
  • Sleepless Domain: Gwen Morita, a quiet and tomboyish Magical Girl Warrior, has short brown hair.
  • The Guy Upstairs: Rozy has noticeably short hair, especially in comparison to her best friend Hawa. Lucky for her, considering Adam's "type" consists of women with long, flowing hair.
  • My Impossible Soulmate: Chiaki has pretty short hair, though she used to have longer hair when she was a little kid.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Inverted with Caitlin from 6teen; she has the shortest hair of all the main girls, but she's far from tomboyish and is easily the girliest out of all of them.
  • Arcane: Tomboy Vi has a simple short haircut as a child, like her younger sister Powder. As they get older, Powder moves onto a bob with some short braids while Vi keeps her red-pink hair short, with a front poof and an undercut only on the left showcasing both her unconventional fashion sense and practicality avoiding longer hair as a close range boxer. As an adult, Vi has somewhat longer front hair parted to the right while maintaining the undercut on the left. Not for nothing, this hairstyle is stereotypically popular among lesbians. Powder turned Jinx meanwhile has completely abandoned short hair for the floor length braids she has in League of Legends much as she feels Vi abandoned her as a child.
  • Pauline from Atomic Puppet has this kind of hair, befitting of her tomboyish attitude and interests. It's coloured pink however.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Averted for Toph, whose hairstyle (which gets mistaken for this trope) is actually a hair bun since she is seen with her hair down twice: In a bedhead variant in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" and in a non-bedhead variant at the end of "Korra Alone".
  • Biker Mice from Mars: Charley Davidson has much shorter hair in the 2006 revival.
  • Sypha from Castlevania unlike her game counterpart has short messy hair and has tomboy traits having been raised among men by her grandfather. Sypha reveals her girly side when with her friend turned lover Trevor.
  • Sported by Action Girl Fontaine in The Deep (2015). When you spend as much time in the water as she does, short hair is way more practical.
  • Patti Mayonnaise fills this spot in Doug. She's best friends with Doug and Skeeter and often participates in sports. One episode even has her pull a Sweet Polly Oliver in order to try out for the school softball team, which didn't work out for her. So she made her own team to challenge the school's! In the Disney series, she gets her haircut even shorter.
  • Laney Penn from Grojband is the tomboy bassist and One of the Boys in the eponymous band with red hair so short she's often mistaken for a guy by others.
  • In Invader Zim, Dib's little sister Gaz is a gruff and tough Gamer Chick who grunts, growls, and shoves her way to vengeance should anyone come between her and her video games or pizza. She sports an inverted bob cut shaped like a set of jaws, befitting her menacing personality. Also worth mentioning is Tak, an equally tough Dark Action Girl villain on the show who sports an even shorter spiky, punky bob cut (while in her human disguise mode).
  • As an adult Aja from Jem has quite long hair but flashbacks showing back when she became Jerrica's foster sister have her with short hair. Even as a child she was interested in mechanics and that made her friends with Rio.
  • The Legend of Korra: Korra fashions her hair in a ponytail for the first three seasons, but near the beginning of the fourth season, she cuts her hair short into a shoulder-length bob while she's roaming the Earth Kingdom in secret during her Heroic BSoD.
  • The Loud House:
  • The Modifyers: Agent Xero's hair is usually near floor-length, but thanks to her spy ring, she can shorten it as part of her disguise as Lacey Shadows. She then takes on a tomboyish attitude and affects a British accent to further mask her identity.
  • Molly of Denali: Connie Williams, the town mechanic, wears her hair in a pixie cut.
  • My Adventures with Superman gives Lois Lane a tomboy makeover, complete with shorthair to go along with her preference for casual wear, T-shirts, gym shorts, and yoga pants. And she's portrayed as being best friends with Clark and Jimmy, her fellow interns at The Daily Planet.
  • Scootaloo has possibly the shortest mane of any pony on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, male or female, and she's more tomboyish than her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders.
  • The Owl House: Luz Noceda has a slightly outgrown pixie cut that is just long enough to cover her earlobes. Turns out this wasn't intentional — it was because Luz was being careless with a sword she got at a convention. She slowly grows her hair out in between seasons, although the Distant Finale epilogue has it cut back to an even shorter pixie cut.
  • Buttercup from The Powerpuff Girls has her hair in a stylized bob haircut, and is the tomboyish Blood Knight of the group. Her more feminine sisters Bubbles and Blossom have Girlish Pigtails (though her hair is barely longer than Buttercup's when down) and bone-straight long hair, respectively.
  • Brainy Brunette Velma Dinkly has short hair that reaches up to her chin in most continuities of Scooby-Doo, excluding Mystery Incorporated!, which gives her slightly longer hair. While she's not exactly a tomboy, she is less feminine than Daphne, who has much longer hair than Velma.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
    • During her time being mind controlled by Horde Prime before ultimately pulling a Heel–Face Turn in the first half of the final season of, Catra sports this hairstyle and would continue sporting it after being freed from Prime's control.
    • Scorpia sports an undercut, but despite having a butch look, she's surprisingly more feminine than Catra.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks: D'Vana Tendi's hairstyle is very short (it's shaved around the sides and the back, so her locks are limited to the top of her head), unlike the long hair that's normally associated with Orion women. Being a Cultural Rebel among her species, she would want to distance herself from the stereotypical image of a sultry (Femme Fatale pretending to be a) Sex Slave.
  • Inverted with Pearl in Steven Universe. Pearl's hair doesn't even reach her shoulders, but she's the most feminine of the Crystal Gems.
  • Pidge in Voltron: Legendary Defender has chin-length light brown hair. Prior to this, she had long hair and was a Tomboy with a Girly Streak before she was banned from the Galaxy Garrison after finding clues that the details of the Kerberos mission in which her brother Matt, her father and Shiro took part were covered up. As a result, she cut her hair short, wore her brother's glasses and underwent a more tomboyish look in order to disguise herself as a boy on finding more clues.
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Marie Owens has very short hair, and isn't all that feminine.

    Real Life 
  • Tilda Swinton wears her hair short, leading to her androgynous public image.
  • Miley Cyrus's short, bleached blonde haircut in the early 2010s marked her transition from feminine former Disney star to a Hotter and Sexier-stroke-Darker and Edgier image.
  • Milagros "Mili" Hernandez, an eight-year-old girl and her team were kicked out of a soccer tournament because of her short "boyish" hairstyle. There was a typo on one form that the officials are using as an excuse, even though her father offered to show them medical records proving she is a girl. The fact that this girl was such a good player, the league had bumped her up to play with eleven-year-old girls caused speculation that the opposing team was trying to get rid of a good player and cheat.
  • Jake Zyrus originally had long hair when he was performing as Charice Pempengco. He eventually cut his hair to a tomboyish style, came out as a lesbian, and then eventually as a trans man.
  • In 2016, Azuki Shibuya of i☆Ris started to first cut her hair short, then also bleach it, and wear pants more often, making her stand out from the others. However, her bandmates have pointed out that despite her new look, she still remains the most girlish member.
  • Melanie C of the Spice Girls had short hair during 1999-2000 before ultimately growing out it to chin-length. Fittingly, she was the "sporty" one of the group, although the cut was mainly due to people confusing her with Victoria.
  • Amber Liu of the K-pop Girl Group f(x) has short hair, due to her Bifauxnen image and tomboyish fashion style.
  • Otokoyaku (male role actresses) for the Takarazuka Revue have short hair as part of their Bifauxnen Kayfabe.

 
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D.W. and W.D.

D.W. and W.D. are both girls, but D.W. has stereotypically girly interests like princesses, fairies, and unicorns, while W.D. has a stereotypically boyish interest in racecars.

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Main / TomboyAndGirlyGirl

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