The Big Chop (in Fiction)

[Hatsune Miku]

Hello all! I've been wanting to make this thread for quite a while, so here it is :)


Basically, I've noticed that when characters in fiction have very long hair, there is a tendency to cut it off. The most famous example of this has gotta be Rapunzel. I cringe every time I watch/read that scene D:


I think there's a couple reasons behind this. First off, I suppose it symbolizes a new beginning for the character, as it usually happens near the end of the story (after they have overcome a trial of some sort).
The second reason is relatability. To take Disney's Tangled as an example (spoilers!), Rapunzel goes throughout the movie with 70-foot long, thick, golden, beautiful hair. Now, since most people don't have hair that long and thick, she becomes much more relatable to people once she has a brown pixie cut.


Of course, this doesn't ALWAYS happen to long-haired fictional characters, but I wanted to compile a list of those who do. I'll go first (Spoilers)...


Howl's Moving Castle:
The main character, Sophie, has a tailbone length braid. Near the climax of the film, she feeds her hair to the fire in order to power it.


This movie is based on a book, so I don't know if the same thing happens there.


Castle in the Sky:
Sheeta has two thick, dark brown (black?) braids that each reach about tailbone length. At the very end of the movie, she gets her braids shot off one at a time by a gun. What a way to get a haircut!


Mulan:
Most of you have (probably) seen Disney's Mulan, right? There's the scene where she is getting ready to leave home. In order to help disguise herself as a man, she cuts her waist length hair with a sword to about APL.


Tangled: Rapunzel has 70 feet of hair cut to a pixie with a knife.


Rapunzel (Barbie Version): Rapunzel!Barbie has her ankle-floor length hair cut to APL or BSL (I forget which) with MAGIC~ XD


That's all I can think of for now. So I ask, what books/movies/TV shows and other media have you seen characters chop off all their hair? How did they lose it?


Also, does anyone know if I can use spoiler-tags? If so, could you please inform me on how to do it? Thanks!

Edit: Thought of another! Here's a Kagamine Rin song where a girl cuts her super-long hair off with a pair of scissors. It's called "Shoddy Utopia Policy:

http://youtu.be/W6Csc0zkREQ

This is definitely one of those "moving on in life" examples.

[neko_kawaii]

I think there is some symbolism of sacrifice in there. For example, in Howl (the only one on the list I've seen) presumably the sacrifice of her hair makes the magic more powerful.

Another common reason for a Big Chop in fiction (and many cultures) is mourning.
One of my favorite long hairs in fiction is Clearbrook in ElfQuest. When her partner dies she cuts her very long braid off. In the rest of the series it grows back.

Big Chops can also be plot points, such as Mulan's chop to better look male.

I think Rapunzel is both a plot point and a symbol of change.

And different cultures view Big Chops differently. Here is an example from Japan. (http://folklore.usc.edu/?p=24685) You might try digging around in that folklore collection a bit, its a fun one.

[elsieivy]

I agree that big chops can have different symbolic meanings in different works and in different cultures. I think in American culture there is sometimes a feeling that long hair is something for little girls and it is something their parents force them to have so when they cut their hair it symbolizes growing up and being their own person. (My mom doesn't like long hair very much and always wanted me keep my hair short when I was little so growing my hair out was me making my own decisions and asserting my autonomy, but that isn't as dramatic.)

I think there was one Baby Sitter's Club book where Mary Anne cut her hair and it represented her growing up and being more assertive.

An example of cutting long hair in a sacrifice is when Jo in Little Women sells her hair because her family needs the money.

[Mimha]

(...)

Basically, I've noticed that when characters in fiction have very long hair, there is a tendency to cut it off. The most famous example of this has gotta be Rapunzel. I cringe every time I watch/read that scene D:

(...)

That's all I can think of for now. So I ask, what books/movies/TV shows and other media have you seen characters chop off all their hair? How did they lose it? !

Hi Hatsune Miku :)

Instead of many words, I will just put a link to a scene from a movie that I love :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiZz5r8jbLU

Aaaaah Keanu Reeves is sooooooo amazing in this role !... :crush: :crush: :crush:

I think that the haircut is significant of a new consciousness of the world and a will of new start on other basis. It's a way to show that a part of your life is now behind you. At least I experienced it myself when I had the 3 big chops of my life.

[DreadfulWoman]

Of course the one that always gets brought up is Jo selling her hair in Little Women. Definitely along the lines of self sacrifice. I love the scene after where Beth wakes up in the middle of the night to find Jo crying over losing her beautiful hair. Like, you can do something brave even if you don't feel completely brave. I also think the short hair sets her apart for the rest of the book since all the other girls would have had relatively long hair. It makes her outwardly ugly (by the standards of the time), but is also an outward display of her inner beauty, and the way other characters react to it gives you a glimpse into their characters and what they value.

The other one that comes to mind is Anna Karenina, who has her long hair cut off to prevent "brain fever" while she's sick. It really kicks off her decent into madness in that case. Anna with long hair is respectable and respected, a pillar of the community, etc. But Anna with short hair is just some nutcase who's abandoned her family and is living in sin, and has discarded everything in her life that had any lasting value.

[Aurum]

Jo in Little Women is the first one that comes to mind for me. I hated seeing that, even if it was just a wig. The look my mom gave me during that scene was pretty scary, too.

[Alexa]

It didn't necessarily involve really long hair necessarily, but several of the characters in Avatar cut their hair, or grow their hair, at very points to indicate their status and emotions.

And I love Elfquest, too, neko_hawaii!

[Entangled]

Since hair is the easiest thing to change, much easier than losing weight, much more possible than growing or shrinking or changing our bone structure, and much more effective than simply adding makeup, it definitely has some bearing on our psychological state. Hair takes years to grow, but a minute to cut, and is often a sign of beauty. So, cutting it could be a sacrifice, it could be freeing and allow the character to change, or it could be an act of dominion over a character. Cutting it is not like losing a limb, for hair isn't usually useful, but it still often affects the way we view ourselves. A person's lack of concern for their hair can also be defining, for those who's hair grew long because they just didn't care enough to cut it.

In Tangled, Rapunzel's hair cut freed her from the constant presence of her gas lighting mother and signaled a shift in priorities: now she's gotten to the point where she cares more about Flynn than protecting herself and hair from the danger he brings. (She cries for him rather than the hair, though I think shock is a huge factor: everything she knew about life is wrong.) So, Flynn forces it from her(bad) but her eyes are opened(good.) It's controversial because Flynn chose that for her and forced it upon her.

Another thing with Tangled: before, her hair was the reason she was different and special. When she found out she was a princess, getting her hair cut didn't (visibly) devastate her, because she learned on her journey that her worth was inherent and not dependent on her hair. Maybe I'm reading in to this too much, but this haircut is loaded with symbolism. You could see it as Flynn taking control over her, and her hair is her vulnerability. (Her mom controlled her by its length and Flynn controlled her by cutting it when she said she would sacrifice herself for him.) Basically, it's loaded because hair is significant, and Rapunzel's hair is symbolizing something, whether it be her power or shackles or both. The Rapunzel story utilizes hair as a symbol, since it forms a lot of our self perception.

Fantine, from Les Miserables, cuts her hair as she tries to support herself and child, right before she sells her teeth and body. Her golden hair and pearly teeth were her greatest beauty aspects, and then they're gone, a sacrifice forced by a cruel world and her love for a child. She truly grows up, and gives up something that used to matter for something she now values more. Her hair is a reflection of the past, and the happiness she lost. It's the life she gave up. Again, the haircut is bad, but also good.

In the Old Testament, Samson's hair was the source/symbol of his strength and covenant with God. When he allowed it to be cut, he lost that strength and broke his vow. Still, in the end, he regained his strength for a final sacrifice and (in my opinion) moved beyond needing a symbol of his covenant. He understood the sacrifice and significant behind his covenant.

Mulan's hair is a symbol of beauty and cultural acceptance, and she cuts it before doing something drastic. It's a significant sacrifice, because she's giving up what's easiest and most accepted for what she feels is right and most important.

Those are some examples of hair giving power or dignity to the bearer, and there are examples, though fewer of hair holding the character back.

For example, in Cress (possible spoiler), a take on the Rapunzel story, Cress' hair is long because she's imprisoned on a satellite and had no access to scissors. She uses it as coping tool(she braids/fiddles with it), but when it's cut it's a release and she's free to move in with a new life on earth. She wouldn't have cut it unless it was a necessity because it was too large a part of the life she knew, but was freed to move on once it was gone. This is more of how society views long hair: as a burden that longhairs don't realize they're carrying that they would be better off without. For some people, this is true. For many others, especially here, long hair is something that sets us apart and is an item of pride or self worth. (Though our self worth doesn't hinge on our hair; it's just a part of it, and cutting it (especially if it was against our will) would definitely reflect our state of mind)

Why is it in books and movies a lot? It's a shortcut--not exactly a cliché, but not exactly an archetype. All of the baggage associated with hair can be conveyed in a haircut. You don't have to explain it; the audience understands. Maybe it's sloppy, maybe it's genius, or maybe it's something in the middle. Pretty much every culture I've seen places some significance on hair and it's condition. (Unkept, dirty=crazy, homeless, poor, etc... Short=stylish, super short=edgy, long =youthful, vital (until a certain age), etc...)

Long story short, hair is significant in the time it takes to grow and care for it. Cutting it is significant and can be used to symbolize many things. My thoughts, anyways. :shrug: Of course, hair isn't the only thing to show that, and change can come without a haircut. However, it comes with the territory, just like many but not all girls cut or dye their hair after a breakup.:twocents:

[Lightningfury]

In the anime Ranma 1/2 the hero's love interest has waist length hair for the first few volumes before she dives into a fight between her fiance and his rival and the rival's spinning bandana cuts through it leaving it chin length. Both boys are horrified and immediately stop fighting to apologize. They even offer to let her take potshots at them which she does and then walks home silently completely in shock.

The boys quickly shake off the punches and are confused at why she's so down citing the fact that she shouldn't have gotten involved in the fight in the first place. Akane's friends quickly yell at Ranma (her fiance) and Ryoga (his rival) citing that of course she was in shock at such a devastating and shocking cut.

Backstory: Akane's a complete tomboy and has been since she was very small. She was always rough and tumble girl and frequently had to see the local doctor to get patched up. Akane had a crush on the handsome young doctor who is completely besotted with her oldest sister, Kasumi, who's the opposite and a very beautiful, feminine girl who has taken the role of mother in the household after the girl's mother's death. Doctor Tomoe comments on how lovely Kasumi is and Akane decides to grow her hair out in order to be more feminine like her sister.

Fast forward ten years and Akane has waist length hair, wears dresses and is generally a very sweet girl who's considered one of the prettiest in school. She's also perhaps the 3rd best martial artist in the area after her father, who owns a dojo and the Kendo captain. Akane regularly beats up the entire male population of her school who are striving for the honor of dating her and is the one girls come to for help.

Enter Ranma. Akane's fiance through a marriage contract before either of them were born. Ranma has done absolutely nothing but train in martial arts since he was two years old and defeats Akane in a friendly sparring match with literally one finger. Ranma also has zero social skills and he and Akane argue constantly.

Eventually Ranma's rival, Ryoga, finds him and challenge's him to as fight. Akane is frightened by how overwhelmingly strong Ryoga is and dashes around trying to help forcing Ranma to save her as she has no clue just how strong Ranma is in comparsion and unfortunately just how horribly out classed she is.

After the haircut Akane asks Kasumi to even it up while Ranma watches. Ranma has figured out Akane's crush by now and tries to comfort her but as Akane comes out of her stupor she realizes she's out grown her crush and instead supports the doctor in his pursuit of her sister.

Akane keeps the short pixie cut the rest of the anime. In some ways it represents that she realizes she doesn't need long hair to be feminine and she happy with herself just the way she is.

[picklepie]

Yentle.... to disguise herself as a boy, to study at yeshiva.

[Bene]

As far as I can tell, it's usually a sacrifice for something more important. The hair is either an impediment to some larger goal or its cutting is a solution to something large problem. So, sacrifice seems to be the main objective. "I have x, I want y, but x needs to go so I can get y. Get rid of x"

[emilia1992]

In Wuthering Heights, Cathy goes from long to shoulder length because she's got an illness.

In one of the Sherlock Holmes stories (can't remember which one) a young lady is offered a job as a governess by a very strange employer - but a condition is that she must cut off her hair. There's a plot reason for this (don't want to give spoilers), but she does go ahead and do it.

[neko_kawaii]

Why is it in books and movies a lot? It's a shortcut--not exactly a cliché, but not exactly an archetype. All of the baggage associated with hair can be conveyed in a haircut. You don't have to explain it; the audience understands. Maybe it's sloppy, maybe it's genius, or maybe it's something in the middle. Pretty much every culture I've seen places some significance on hair and it's condition. (Unkept, dirty=crazy, homeless, poor, etc... Short=stylish, super short=edgy, long =youthful, vital (until a certain age), etc...)


I was thinking about this yesterday.

Books and movies tend to be to the point or they risk loosing their audience. Details either set tone, provide a prop that will be necessary at some point, or foreshadow. Using symbols is a great short cut to get something across to an audience. Symbols are based on folklore and cultural stereotypes. Of course, a work that is nothing but stereotypes without reflecting on them or adding something new is not usually successful. Douglas Adams has a great paragraph or two about how authors shouldn't be in the business of propping up cultural stereotypes in Last Chance To See and so he gives a common stereotype a subtle twist to make the story he is telling "fresh" but still something his audience can connect to without a lengthy explanation.

Hair cut = change/sacrifice/mourning. Character gets hair cut, boom we can move on with the story because we understand what is going on in the mind of the character without being told more.

Reminds me of reading Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants in high school.

[Entangled]

...so he gives a common stereotype a subtle twist to make the story he is telling "fresh" but still something his audience can connect to without a lengthy explanation.

That's why I enjoy thinking about Tangled. Her haircut means a lot of things, because it's not just the symbol of her relationship with her mother. Thinking about its variation from the standard story is fascinating. Oringinally, Mother Gothel cuts the hair and uses it to get the prince because she wanted to punish the person who warranted the breaking of the mother/daughter bond. The daughter disobeyed her and (depending on the version) gets pregnant, which makes the mother send her on her way, but not without a little vengeance on the man who took her daughter. In Tangled, the hair can't be cut, and Mother Gothel can't and won't kick Rapunzel out. She's going to enslave rather than estrange her. She's not going to spare Flynn, and she needs to distance her daughter from him so she can keep Rapunzel's heart, and get rid of the evidence that anything is wrong. He cuts the hair and breaks her away from her mother.
Tangled
Evil mother
Magic important hair that mom covets
Girl is innocent/ignorant
Boy is separated BUT by (near)death
Hair cut by boy to free her from mom's entanglement
Loses hair after experiences the world--> no longer her most important trait
Hair isn't special any more, but she is still important
Hair loss signals mom moving away, so mom tries to keep her close and hair intact

Rapunzel
Antagonist mother(not really evil, but causes the problems--she shows that actions have inescapable consequences)
Hair=neglect, isolation, but then breaks her free (allows boy in)
Girl is innocent/ignorant
Boy is kept away from girl because he cannot see her/wounded by Mother
Hair is cut by mom to send her away and ensnare the boy
Hair is cut by mom after she is no longer ' innocent' and is pregnant
Hair is just hair, and she has to make her own way in the world now
Hair loss signals change, but mom initiated it as a consequence/natural result from broken rules

Sorry for another essay; I just find this fascinating.

[Lightningfury]

Kind of the opposite thing happens in Sailor Moon. After Sailor Moon realizes she's the Moon Princess she wakes up the next morning with hair as long as the princess had a 1,000 years ago. She quickly locks her door and refuses to come out because while she had classic length hair before the princess hair drags the floor for several feet.

The rest of the Sailor Scouts come over later and she lets them in but they stop in the doorway in shock when they realize that her hair literally covers every surface in the room. They seem to salvage as much hair as they can by tightening her buns up but cut her hair back so it looks like it's original length. As the series continues Sailor Moon's hair grows out to ankle length. It's implied that any time she has to revert to her true form as the princess her hair grows out again and has to be cut back in order to keep her identity a secret.

When we see her in the future as Queen she retains the super long royal haircut.

Her hair is a reflection of her true self. When she's the Princess/Queen she can let her hair down and free but as long as she clings to her identity as a normal human girl her hair must reflect that. As she series goes on and she grows in power and is more comfortable with her destiny her hair grows longer to reflect that. The series covers two years where her hair appears to grow 2-3 feet were as before she kept it at around classic.

[Angels+Eyeliner]

If anyone is really interested in a long list of examples, I'd recommend this website
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ImportantHaircut

I don't think I have anything to add for Mulan or Rapunzel, which were my first thoughts.

It's often done as a disguise method in fiction (usually to disguise a female as male). This happens to Sarah from Sarah's Key (in the book, in the film they cop out and tuck her hair under a hat: like the Nazis aren't going to think that's suspicious).

Sophie's hair in Howl's Moving Castle doesn't seem to me like the sacrifice of herself as much as it is her past. By the end of the film, her hair is short and silver. She can't go back home because she looks like a different woman. Calcifer initially asks for her eyes, so she definitely picked the right option (I'm sure however much you love your hair, you'd prefer to cut it than lose your eyes to a fire demon).

Also, this is subverted in Mockingjay. Katniss, who has had a long braid (presumably waist to tailbone length) expects to have her hair buzzed off when she joined the Rebellion. They don't give her as much as a trim because Katniss's true value to the cause is her looks (not in her beauty: but in her recognisability as the symbol).

[Jennah]

I suppose it symbolizes a new beginning for the character, as it usually happens near the end of the story (after they have overcome a trial of some sort).


That could be... I remember the scene in "Frida" where Frida Kahlo chops her hair off after she found her husband cheating on her (watch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HadRbtEI7KU)).

I think it was to make herself look hideous the way that she was feeling, and also to make herself look like a boy as she went and put on boy´s clothes maybe as a way to say goodbye to men.

[Lightningfury]

In the anime Naruto, Saruka and Ino grow their hair long because supposedly the boy they like likes long hair on girls.
However they're both ninjas and their hair is an impediment. When they get in a fight and grab each other's hair they cut it off with a knife in the middle of the arena to free themselves show that they're through with childish crushes and are ready to be true ninjas.

Saruka keeps hers short but Ino grow hers out long again. Her family in general are all long haired ninjas. Her father's hair is in a high ponytail but is still knee length and he's a renown badass. Apparently she learns to compensate for it.

Personally given Saruka's fighting style I think she should grow her hair long again. It was a liability when she was young and weak but as she grows older she becomes a melee powerhouse who no one wants to get in close with. If she grew her hair long again she could use it as a trap to lure her opponent into melee range so that she could take them out. Her mentor who use the same fighting style has ankle length hair.

This anime has some interesting uses of hair. One man actually turns his into needles and uses them to attack people.

[DreadfulWoman]

That could be... I remember the scene in "Frida" where Frida Kahlo chops her hair off after she found her husband cheating on her (watch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HadRbtEI7KU)).

I think it was to make herself look hideous the way that she was feeling, and also to make herself look like a boy as she went and put on boy´s clothes maybe as a way to say goodbye to men.

I remember reading something once that Frida Kahlo said about her relationship with her husband. She said that she played up her femininity and her traditional Mexican-ness because it pleased him, so I think in that case it had a lot to do with casting off his expectations of her, and wanting to please herself rather than please him.

In that scene you definitely get a sense that she is cutting her hair as a way to mourn a loss as well.

[chen bao jun]

Bernice Bob Her Hair by f. Scott Fitzgerald is an interesting short story written during the flapper era when girls were cutting their hair off to show they were 'modern' and liberated after the war. the 'old-fashioned' older people considered it to be shocking and to be a symbol of how civilization was coming to an end (as were short skirts and makeup). In the story, Bernice is dared to get a flapper haircut by another girl. She does--and discovers short hair does not look attractive on her at all. I won't spoil the rest of the story in case you want to read it. it takes place in a small midwestern town in the USA sometime in the 1920's.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's beautiful wife, Zelda, was possibly the most famous flapper (besides the actresses Clara Bow and Louise Brooks) and had very short blond hair. But interestingly, in the story, short hair is not seen as positive.
There's also a story, THE Gift of the Magi, that you all probably have heard of, and there the wife in a married couple gets a haircut for sacrificial reasons.
A lot of characters in 19th century novels get haircuts because they are ill. It was thought that having the long hair that women had then made you worse when you had a fever and often a woman would wake up after being ill to find she was short-haired, or even bald!!!
At the bottom of this page, there is a photograph of the four Russian Grand Duchesses, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia with bald heads after having had the measles. When they were tragically shot to death a year later, all of them still had short hair, which you can see in the photo on the right side, opposite, very close to the page bottom.

[chen bao jun]

In the Tale of Genji, the most famous classic Japanese novel, one of the heroines gets her hair cut off to become a nun. Women at this time in Japan had hair that trailed behind them on the floor and the longer it was, the more beautiful they were considered to be. (they also painted their faces dead white and blackened their teeth completely, so they probably would not have appealed to us). Anyway, all the characters weep and mourn, more over her haircut than her decision to go to a nunnery. It clearly is not considered to be a liberating act in any way to get a haircut. and there is another story from Japan from the same time, about 1,000 years ago. I forget the name. the girl who loved insects? something like that. The main female character won't blacken her teeth, won't wear makeup and I believe she has short hair (short in this case probably being, shorter than the floor---?). She is considered to be eccentric to the point of being crazy and of course no one will marry her.