Long hair in literature

[Arctic]

Finnish Author, Sofi Oksanen has her entire newest book Norma entagled with super-long hair. Not saying more, otherwise it might spoil the novel!

[Miata]

There's a reference to granny weatherwax's hair in one of the discworld books, the vampire one but the name escapes me right now. It's when she lets down her bun to use a single strand to make a halter for a unicorn.

There's also Agnes Nitt:

"It wasn’t simply big hair, it was enormous hair, as if she was trying to counterbalance her body. It was glossy, it never split, and was extremely well-behaved except for a tendency to eat combs."

[Christi May]

Tolkien based her on his wife.
I can't find a photo of Mrs. Edith Tolkien when young with her hair down but he talked about her black hair and how she danced for him outside when young and that he based this character on her. He was forbidden to marry her by his guardian because she wasn't Catholic. When he was 21 he went and found her and proposed and she converted. They were married until she died in her 80 s and he put Luthien on her tombstone and Beren on his.

Oh, this is so cool! I never knew! I'll have to look her up, even if only for the story.

[Christi May]

Here's a couple:

People already mentioned Anne and Leslie from the Anne of Green Gables books, but what about the man (Marshal, or something?) in one of the later books who vows not to cut his hair or his beard until the political party he likes is in power, which leads to him having hair down almost to his knees? (And an amazing beard, too.)

A lot of Gene Stratton-Porter's heroines have explicitly mentioned long hair (some of them too long to brush in one stroke, because it's longer than the girl's arms).

There are also a ton of fairytales from lots of different cultures/time periods that mention girls with very long hair.

[Hairy-Fairy]

Here's a couple:

People already mentioned Anne and Leslie from the Anne of Green Gables books, but what about the man (Marshal, or something?) in one of the later books who vows not to cut his hair or his beard until the political party he likes is in power, which leads to him having hair down almost to his knees? (And an amazing beard, too.)

A lot of Gene Stratton-Porter's heroines have explicitly mentioned long hair (some of them too long to brush in one stroke, because it's longer than the girl's arms).

There are also a ton of fairytales from lots of different cultures/time periods that mention girls with very long hair.

Yes! But sadly his political party DID get into office later and he cut it all off. He woke his barber up in the middle of the night to shave his face and cut his hair. Then nobody recognized him when they ran into him next.
The ones I can think of have already been mentioned. I grew up reading the Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables series and Little Women and others where long hair was mentioned, coveted or a key factor in a character's description. I suppose it biased me towards long hair right from the get-go, though not necessarily in a positive way.

[embee]

My first longhair idol was the g-g-grandmother in The Princess and the Goblin. Silver hair like a cloak. Sigh.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/File:...oblincptr3.jpg

[Sarahlabyrinth]

My first longhair idol was the g-g-grandmother in The Princess and the Goblin. Silver hair like a cloak. Sigh.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/File:...oblincptr3.jpg

Her hair is so pretty!

[Nefcerka]

Apart from famous Granny Weatherwax´s hair, I like Susan Bones Stohelit´s hair from the author Terry Pratchett. She has white hair with a single black streak - a quirky genetic inheritance (her parents were mortals, but her grandfather is Death himself). Her hair is also absolutely cool because it styles and re-arranges itself, according to her mood. (I wish my hair would style itself!) She usually wears various buns, or loose wild waves when she is angry.