Long hair in literature

[chen bao jun]

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.

[The-Young-Maid]

Hey ladies! I thought I'd revive this thread and treat you all to a couple quotes from books I've recently read. The first is The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim.(South Korea 1930s) "Jaeyun had bobbed her hair, and in another attempt to convince me to cut mine, said how refreshing the air felt on her bare neck. I discounted her argument by twisting my braid into a bun secured instantly with a twig."

This next one really has more to do with soapnuts but... (Malaysia? 1920-40s) "Before the occupation I had always washed the children's hair with a special seedpod from India. It came tied in bunches. You soaked the bone-hard dark brown pods before boiling and mashing them. The resulting dark brown mush was the perfect shampoo. It cleaned the hair until it squeaked. I improvised and washed all my children's hair with ground green beans." The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka. Has anyone ever tried green beans?!

[AZDesertRose]

One that came to my mind that hasn't been mentioned yet is the books by Jane Yolen about the women of Alta. I can't remember if it's in Sister Light, Sister Dark or White Jenna, but in one of those two, a man (the character's name is escaping me) reminds Jenna that as long as she has her long braids, she's not without a weapon, and she ends up strangling someone who needs killing with her hair.

(Seriously, that character was incredibly evil. He needed killing.)

I need to get myself a copy of The One-Armed Queen, which is about Jenna's adopted daughter, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

As others have noted, fantasy characters seem to have the coolest hair. This series is YA fantasy, and well worth the read even if you're technically past the age for YA.

[LauraAlaina]

Oh i love this thread! I constantly read historical romance/drama novels- currently i'm reading the heretic's wife by brenda rickman vantrease. they almost always talk about their hair and haircare which i find so interesting! and I love the covers..

[Thoughtcriminal]

Gunnerkrigg Court is webcomic whose main character (Antimony)'s hair is a big plot point, especially in the more recent chapters.

[dancingrain91]

Crown Duel/Court Duel and other books by the same author have very long hair. The author has some questionable ideas about how it can be secured, but I suppose everyone is usually noble so maybe it would have worked. Though her work can be interesting it isn't terribly well written.
In the Hunger Games book series, Katniss has uncut hair before she goes into the games. It might make people cringe though, because by the end of the series it is gone do to the serious abuse she survives, though they imply it grows back... They completely leave a lot of this out in the movies but the movies would have been rated R if they hadn't.
Game of Thrones, though the constant talk of hair, food and baths gets so annoying I had to completely give up the series.
The Night World Series has several characters with really long hair. These are by LJ Smith from the nineties and no matter what is said she is probably never going to finish this series. It's a teen fantasy series and full of the tropes of that genre.
Although they're quick reads and don't include super long hair, everything by Christine Pope has a long haired heroine and since she isn't specific you can imagine them as long as you like. Otherwise they're just little romance series that are cheap or free but don't seem to have all of the terrible typos. So I find them readable enough.
Since nobody mentioned them yet, Laura Ingalls Wilder has knee length hair at least though it is almost never mentioned. On that vein, Little Women, anything by Jane Austen and anything by LM Montgomery have long haired characters since they are from time periods where long hair on a woman was the norm.
In the Sing the Light series, all of the characters except the itenerants have long hair. The itenerants are guides and outdoorsy types and keep their hair cropped. The only exception is the main character who keeps her hair cropped all the time even when she is living in a House.
I know I've read more, but most books I read describe long hair as waist length or shorter and I can't remember any others at the moment. Great thread idea!

[Entangled]

I found the best bun description I've yet seen in Phantom of the Opera.

Mme. Giry has a "tempestuous chignon."

[Bill D.]

There's the Japanese folk tale of Kaguyahime, the moon princess, which has been made into various films, books, etc. I especially like the depiction of her by Kagaya.

Bill D.

[Nuala]

Most books by Thomas Hardy have heroines with long dark hair, for instance Tess of the d'Urbervilles is described as having beautiful, long, thick dark hair.
"Her figure looked singularly tall and imposing as she stood in her long white nightgown, a thick cable of twisted dark hair hanging straight down her back to her waist."

[cat11]

In the Tale of Genji almost all the women have very long hair, mostly from knee range to past the floor. It's always decribed really well wether it looks good or not, and attention is paid as to whether the person has nice ends or not, if it's nicely trimmed, the color. There's a couple people with short hair which was rare in that time and they are described well too. Great book.