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Generally speaking, hairstyle in anime represent the character personality, like short hair girl should become tomboyish or ponytail make a girl seems sporty, etc. But what about the others? Like long straight hair, or idiot hair, twintail, etc.

What is common hair style for girls and guys in anime and what are the character represent?

ADD There's a really fine blog about anime hair colors here thanks to @user1306322 comment below, I want an answer like that, but it's about hair style

Darjeeling
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    The answer here is relevant: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/5650/what-is-this-hairstyle-called – Maroon Apr 29 '14 at 02:20
  • @Maroon that's only for one hair style – Darjeeling Apr 29 '14 at 02:21
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    How about this question? http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/2872/why-do-many-characters-tend-to-have-crazy-hair-colors-and-styles – Hakase Apr 29 '14 at 02:24
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    And check out [this fine blog post from the internet](http://annesanimeblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/anime-hair-colors-what-do-they-mean-an-all-in-one-personality-guide/). – Hakase Apr 29 '14 at 02:25
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    @user1306322 I've seen the question and Dimitri's answer give one example. I want to know the others – Darjeeling Apr 29 '14 at 02:26
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    In a _specific_ series it probably is reasonable to conclude that there's some relation, but I'm hesistant to generalize across _all_ series, since there can be a lot of variation (e.g. with idiot hair). – Maroon Apr 29 '14 at 16:43
  • There are a huge amount of hairstyles in anime, I doubt you can get an answer that will address them all – Toshinou Kyouko Oct 05 '14 at 15:39

2 Answers2

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Yes, there can be some common traits that similarly haired characters share. Of course this is not a definitive guide to a character's personality and there will be many counterexamples.

Here are a couple of hairstyles and their common personalities:

Short hair is often seen on tomboys or alternativly 'average' characters. This is presumably so that they seem boyish or have a hairstyle that is not very exciting.

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  • Kanbaru Sugura , Monogatari Series - a sporty fujioshi who is perhaps more boyish than the main , male, lead

  • Ranmaru Rindou, Binbougami ga! - a female delinquent who was brought up in a dojo like a male

  • Yuki Nagato , The Melancholy off Haruhi Suzimiya - emotionless

  • Kumin Tsuyuri - Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! - a member of the club who naps a lot.. And not much else

Twintails are often childlike or are childhood friends, this is because twintails are uncommon among older women, but more popular with young girls and society has associated the two:

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  • Lingyin Huang - Infinite Stratos, a childish childhood friend

  • Azusa Nakano - K-on! , a new (childish) member of the light music club

  • Yuno Gasai, Future diary, a childhood friend of the main character with simple motivations.

Drill hair is usually a sign that a character is either wealthy or refined. This is probably because rich characters tend to be braggarts.

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  • Selnia Iori Flameheart - ladies vs butlers - from a rich family

  • Mami Tomoe - Puella Madoka Magi Magicka - an experienced magical girl with refined taste

  • Akira Kogami - Lucky Star - drills?

  • Celestia Ludenberg - Dangan Ronpa - from a prestigious family

And let's not forget the dudes. If you see this delinquent hairstyle, you can almost certainly categorise that character:

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  • Mondo Owada - Dangan Ronpa, Member of a biker gang

  • Kazu, Redline - a rebel race driver

  • Eikichi Onizuka, Shonan Junai Gumi

I could go on and on, There are quite a number of examples including the somewhat well-known hair antennae linked earlier

But I think this should answer your question - Yes there can be a relationship between a character and their hairstyle, but its not a solid rule.

Also you should bear in mind that hairstyle trends will have changed throughout time - what was once in is now out and visa versa.

You don't see many girls like this in anime today:

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Amano Ai - Video Girl Ai -

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Toshinou Kyouko
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Absolutely there is, when speaking generally, though this is not utilized in every single anime. The easiest way to familiarize yourself with the standard hair/personality types is to look at unapologetically harem (bishoujo) and reverse-harem (bishounen) anime and video games, because they heighten the main stereotypes with the aim of every viewer/player finding at least one type that is their ideal girl/guy. However, older anime from the 80s and earlier have a fairly different (though not completely different) set of standard types than more modern anime do.

For bishoujo, check out: ToHeart, Ai Yori Aoshi, Love Hina‎, Tokimeki Memorial, Kakyuusei, Debut, etc. For bishounen, check out: Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yuugi, Haruka naru Toki no Naka de, Hakuouki ~Shinsengumi Kitan ~, Ouran Koukou Hosuto-bu, La Corda D'oro, Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%, Starry Sky, Brothers Conflict, Free!!, Kamigami no Asobi, etc. You will recognize the same basic character/hair types repeated amongst these series. For 80s and older anime, check out: anything by Tezuka Osamu, Versailles no Bara, Glass no Kamen, Ace wo Nerae, Attack No. 1!, Ashita no Joe, Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman, Ginga Tetsudou 999, Candy Candy, early Gundam and Macross, etc. Recent moe series have recurring types as well.

seijitsu
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