22507


![The hair of death...](https://i.stack.imgur.com/weiEB.png)

I've seen this joke float around various social media sites lately. Is there a
particular reason for why characters with this hairstyle - particularly mother
figures - seem to die so consistently?

For instance, is it an allusion or symbol that I don't understand?

Alternatively, are there any strong counter examples?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-16T21:18:54.657
22498
2016-01-19T11:47:58.843
15060
question
tropes anime-history
Is there a reason for the "Hair of Death" hair style?


This meme seems to be a conflation of two very different things.

First, Hyakuya Akane from _Owari no Seraph_ (the girl on the lower part of the
image) does not share the low below-the-shoulder ponytail that the women in
the top of the image share; she has a loose braid. Today I was handed this
event flyer by a friend (a Japanese college student involved in subculture),
which features a girl with a one-sided, front-of-the-shoulder loose braid and
long bangs. I mentioned this SE question to her and she said **the hairstyle
has no association other than looking gentle** and seemed incredulous that
someone would come up with such an idea.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/pLQrA.jpg)

A loose braid, or two, or a single low ponytail on one side at the neck, or
two low/loose pigtails, or are fairly common for contemporary pre-teen/teen
girl character designs, since this is a **current fashionable style** among
real-life Japanese pre-teens through college students. So Akane doesn't
necessarily fall within a grouping of mother figures or people fated to die
any more than the following characters do:

![](https://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131023101354/kancolle/images/7/7a/145.jpg)
![](https://upic.me/i/9i/minitokyo-nagareboshi-lens.jpg) ![enter image
description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sBW2m.jpg)
![](https://wir.skyrock.net/wir/v1/profilcrop/?c=isi&im=%2F4193%2F91554193%2Fpics%2F3225848697_1_16_jDtfwy7a.png&w=298&h=447)
![Himegi Hotaru in Kono Oozora ni, Tsubasa wo
Hirogete](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cisnD.jpg) ![](https://s-media-cache-
ak0.pinimg.com/236x/52/60/fd/5260fd5507eb671538e5c1b138085608.jpg) ![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KelWv.jpg)

Second, mothers can be given the low ponytail because it is **one of a number
of soft, gentle hairstyles** (contrast this to styles such as a short page-boy
clipped cut, or a long past hip-length luxurious cut, or spiky hair). Not all
mother characters, but many are portrayed with a nurturing, warm personality.
However, plenty of kind mother characters in anime -- both those who die and
those who don't -- sport other hairstyles. (Also, the hairstyles in the
pictures in the meme are not that strongly similar to one another when you
look at the styles of the bangs.)

Third, there are largely **no moms in classic literature** (a wealth of orphan
stories: Heidi, Anna of Green Gables, Tom & Huck, David Copperfield and
basically all of the Dickens' boys, little princess Sara, Mary of the secret
garden, etc.) or in Disney animation either. Dads trying to marry off their
daughters, yes. Cute, plump, bumbling dads, yes. Absentee fathers, yes. But in
many cases, we have orphan protagonists with no parents around at all. We can
**feel empathy for the characters whose loved one died** and a **death can be
a strong motivation for characters to resolve to take a stand against evil** ,
but more importantly for drama, for suspense, for excitement: **without a mom
to take care of them and worry about them and discipline them and tell them
which things are too dangerous to do, orphans are freed up to go on
adventures**. No questions asked! No curfew! If you have an eccentric, sweet
little papa or dad who works long hours or lives separately from you, it's
also easy to slip out of the house to go on adventures. Where are the moms?
Well, evil stepmoms are okay, since the caring mom is already dead and safely
out of the way for the story to move forward. A common plot element in stories
is that kids only get an adventure if mom is already dead. So the unfortunate
message we get is, motherhood is boring, and mothers make their kids' lives
boring. **Mothers who exist at the start of a story, irrespective of
hairstyle, will often need to be killed off in order for the protagonist to
achieve the freedom to do dangerous things that a responsible mom wouldn't
stand for.**


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-17T06:18:07.153
22507
2015-06-18T06:27:16.953
2017-03-10T09:42:45.900
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22498
answer