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I always forget what this special hairstyle is called, which is shared by some
characters. I'll give some examples, I think it should be clear what I mean.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JUAbF.jpg) ![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9I9rI.jpg)

Edward Elric also has this wisp(?), but I can't find a good image of it.  
What is it called? What does it stand for?


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2013-10-30T17:51:31.300
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2018-06-10T11:18:11.023
2014-08-05T03:40:19.457
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question
tropes
Name of hair style with one strand sticking upwards


TV Tropes lists it under the name of "[idiot
hair](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHair)", which apparently
has an equivalent term in Japanese judging from the TV Tropes entry and by
some Googling. "[hair
antennae](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HairAntennae)" is also
similar to that.

As for actual meanings, it probably depends on the specific work - for
instance, in Fullmetal Alchemist, the wisp doesn't seem to mean anything in
particular, beyond acting as some sort of identity marker in some cases (e.g.
the characteristic curled strand of the Armstrongs) or as some sort of
personal idiosyncrasy with regards to appearance (in the case of Edward,
judging from, for instance, an episode where he intentionally makes a strand
of hair stick up like that). Other series I can't answer for as much for lack
of having noticed this detail as much, but given this I'd suspect that whether
this "stands for" anything depends a lot on the context and on the specific
work in question.


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2013-10-30T18:41:19.713
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2013-10-30T18:50:46.117
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The other answer is technically correct, but I don't think the term "idiot
hair" is actually common in the English-speaking anime community apart from on
TVTropes. The Japanese term for this is _ahoge_ , which literally translates
to "idiot hair", but that translated term isn't particularly frequently used.
A search 'Ahoge anime' gets around 700k Google hits for me, while '"Idiot
Hair" anime' only has around 10k hits. Among the translated anime I've seen,
some more liberal translators will keep the term "ahoge", while others
translate it to other English phrases such as "cowlick". I can't think of any
cases where the term "idiot hair" itself was used.

The hair style and the use of the term were both popularized by the gag
anime/manga Pani Poni Dash, specifically by the character Katagiri Himeko.
Given her personality, the term "idiot hair" is justified in that case. The
anime for this aired in 2005, but characters with similar hairstyles have
existed for a lot longer.

However, while the hairstyle can signify a childish or idiotic personality, it
does not always do so. There is no single correct meaning for it, and it's
quite common nowadays for it to be used only for stylistic reasons, similar to
the strange colors often used for hair in anime.


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2013-10-30T21:52:17.213
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2014-08-05T03:44:56.783
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