I have a child OC who when she was younger and lived in an orphanage she was forced to straighten her hair because they told her that this way she would have a better chance of being adopted, but when she is adopted her family leaves her hair curly because they love her the way she is naturally, as a way of showing that she is stopping changing herself to make others like her more
@@IsabellaJones-ln8nr I'll raise ya. I'm biracial. I look like NO ONE!!! green eyes, freckles somehow, curly hair that still flows. One side is lucky if they have ANY waves, the others are such tight curls they don't need to tie the braids assuming they don't just twist or dread it. None of the awesome hairstyles I saw work on my hair. So I wear scarves a lot. I have a hairstyle I want. Just need to find a professional that can pull it off.
I. LOVE. HAIR. DESIGN. Symbolism in character design is my jam, something about showing a character's personality, ideology, hobbies, or even how they're feeling at times with just a hairstyle or outfit is *chef's kiss*
i have an OC who gets introduced in the series with REALLY HORRIBLE hair. at first it just looks like i don't know how to draw curly hair but it's because she used to straighten her hair like a maniac, so even when she stops straightening her hair her hair is just. horrible. she used to straighten her hair because she felt very insecure about her curly hair (not me projecting LMAOOO, i dont feel insecure about it anymore though). anyways, i agree completely! i love hair symbolism SO MUCH its amazing
Omg that's some great hair symbolism right there! I just love that your OCs first appearance is almost like the middle of her arc, so that the past can be revealed later and the healing could start in the future! Or now, haha. idk how you wrote it 😭 but regardless I love the concept of hair symbolism surrounded by hair health, that's super cool!!!
I find it fascinating that you think of hair cutting as gaining control..in my world, I only see as losing control. I was born with Sickle Cell Anemia; & I grew up with other sick kids, especially those with cancer. So cutting hair was often a heartbreaking thing, a symbol of having no control of one's own body . After lovingly growing out my hair for years, it was painful to cut it after spending half a year in the hospital with zero access to any haircare. I have 4type easily tangled & matted hair, so the hospital's cotton pillowcases wreaked havoc on my hair. I'd wake up with hair on my pillow & was physically incapable of self care. As I write, I now totally understand what you mean by the red door. I'd never heard that term before. I love learning new things. Unrelated pet peeve: Hair doesn't always grow back.
Context 100% matters when it comes to hair symbolism! While losing hair might have been a sign of gaining control like Mulan or Zuko, losing hair can be a sign of a loss of control like with Heather or Azula! Anyways, context does matter! When I was initially doing my research, I was curious about this very thing about people who are sick with cancer or other diseases, and I found two things. Some patients embraced being bald and saw it as their way of being strong. Other patients were angry and depressed about it. But they found ways to express themselves in other ways by wearing scarves or wigs. It was certainly interesting how people in this same circumstance took it, and chose how to depict their own baldness. Whether it's empowerment, embarrassment, anger, or whathaveyou, I think all of these feelings are completely valid! I didn't speak on it mostly because I didn't want to talk over anyone with certain diseases, because that experience seems to be a very personal one. I'm for sure glad that you commented and gave your experience because it does give more insight on that aspect of hair symbolism 💕
@Rosemadi.artist What a lovely & thoughtful response. I'm glad I don't have much else to say or add. Context is very important. I have seen people online responding in both positive & negative ways to forced baldness. I was a little girl in the 80's. So, my experience was long before we had positive role models everywhere. In fact, I don't know of any from that time.
And thanks for your response! I'm glad that the times are getting better and knowledgea about certain diseases are being shared! It makes for a very inclusive view when it comes to certain experiences!
I LOVE hair symbolism, like im on my gravity falls grind atm and when stanley is living out of his car and he mentions his mullet as an example of how well he’s doing. Not doing your hair or not being able to do your hair because of circumstances like your situation or mental wellbeing is something i delve into in my work the most. Probably because it takes some of the free control away but also gives it back in a visable way? Its a very good visual tell for change
I totally agree with that! Someone once told me that you can have the most beautiful gown, but if your hair is unkempt, the whole outfit can fall apart. So yeah, your hair can tell a lot about someone's health, and its often reflected in both irl and in fiction! But anyways I like how you use Stan's mullet as an indicator of his current mental health!
@@Rosemadi.artist I love to use hair as a design motif for my characters. Like one of my characters is named Azalea so she has Bantu knots since they look like flowers
@rosarolli it also helps remembering the characters name! I have a character named Cheize (pronounced like 🧀) and her hair is that color XD okay my example isn't as cool but you get what I'm saying
@@rosarolli A friend of mine told me the name of the Bantu knots style a while ago. At the moment i didn't know the name of it, so i referred to them as "blackberries". Now you're making me want to look into different Bantu knot designs. And try my hand again at drawing another character of mine with different hairstyles. She's a kind of monstrous humanoid with purple skin and light blue teeth, wearing a black business suit/dress and tie with a formal shirt under it, and her hair's normally done up like a high ponytail but with long thin braids instead. I've been wanting to draw her with different hairstyles such as Bantu knots, a hi-top fade, and... i don't know many more, i need to look into different styles again.
Hair is my weakness because i am terrible with hair But i do have three examples for hair connecting with personality 1) this character has been stuck in a loop , forced by an entity to relive what essentially is groundhog day till she broke ( she's fine now dont worry :333 ) , her hair is messy , not symmetrical ( one side being longer ) , it could either mean messiness , inside and out , or her uncaringness to the world since she's been through alot 2) she's been a soldier all her life , so the only thing she knows is life in the barracks , and *war* , her hair is short ( although she has been growing it out ) , you could mistake her as a male due to how androgynous she is 3) A farmer's daughter turned soldier ( for a while , she somehow survives from girl 1 saving her from dying ) , she embraces both the femininity and masculinity , her clothing is rather conservative , and so is her hair , long and wavy , but she compensates with her hot temperness and FISSSTTTT
I think you did a pretty good job with hair! If I were to overanalyze this and maybe speculate a bit XD, I think being stuck in a time loop would cause that character to not focus on her appearance. If she's forced to be in a loop, her hair may be forced onto her, and in a way, that messy hair symbolizes the struggle she's been through! And with the soldier OCs I believe the short hair and androgynous nature of it is exactly how you said it! I mean, soldiers in real life cut their hair for hygiene and safety purposes, but the extra step of being a woman and deciding to cut the hair off for sure says something about her gender identity! You're good with hair, don't cut yourself short. Pun intended XD
I have a character named Suikara who’s hair changes every time I draw her. She’s supposed to have hair that changes often because she studies cosmetics and likes to try things on herself. A small detail I like about her. Jasper keeps his hair kinda floofed over his eyes because he thinks it looks cool. When he’s older, he grows it out more but lets it hang naturally instead of trying to fluff it again because he’s calmed down more and settled into his life. Blu had alopecia and didn’t grow any hair anywhere until around 22 years old. She moved into her new home with her new wife and started growing out of her past. She also got medicated for her schizophrenia so she definitely feels like a new person and I guess her hair represents that. Lunar had short hair they straightened then started keeping it long for a while because Suikara liked it that way. Then some bad stuff happened and they moved past it cutting their hair. They stopped straightening their hair and kinda just kept it free for a while. When they started receiving hrt, he cut his hair super short except for these two sections on the sides of his head, which he kept long lol.
Omg all of your OCs sound pretty cool! Btw this is my first time ever hearing the name Suikara and I just love that name! But anyways, I like that the theme with your OCs is mostly centered around change! Whether it's trying new things, maturity, getting medicated, or hrt, your OCs do what's best for them and I love that fact!
@Rosemadi.artist awww that’s sweet of you to say. I got Suikara’s name very slowly. When I was like- 13, I was kind of a weeb and wanted to give her an asian sounding name which was Suki💀. I changed it to be a little less cringe but people seem to not know how to pronounce her name. Everyone thinks it’s sue-E-car-uh, but it’s sue-car-uh lol.
The 13-year-old weeb faze is completely a mood. I used to have an OC named Akira bahaha which is a super generic Japanese name (love the name though) and then Kathy used to be Japanese, but I made her Chinese now. Regardless, the name Kathy is so not Japanese 😭😭😭The long-lasting effects of making an OC when I was 15. ANYWAYS I just like that you took a Japanese name and gave it some extra flare, the letters together just make it pretty!
Honestly love this video because it’s making me think of hair symbolism for ocs i didn’t even intend for. Like how my dnd character was almost killed by by a party members father and how the scar he left is actually present and shown in the hairstyle change to signify how prevalent and how recent that was for them. Sort of a “look what your father has done to me.” Thing.
Most of my characters are nonhuman but I love hairstyles! I use to have straight hair as a teen when I was going through some stuff. I always hated having curly hair and how it looks. But now I'm happy with it, I love my natural curls and how it looks when I style it. Hair is important to me growing up and I love it :]
Omg, yeah, there are nonhuman characters without hair that exist. T.T. I guess in that case, shape language and color theory kick in, haha. Anyway, I'm so happy for you that you're embracing your curls! After making this video, it makes me want to go back to the hairstyles I used to hate!
3:00 Aye, as a pixie cut girly it's not the shortness, it's the CHUNK. They couldn't have trimmed her up a little after everything settled down 😂 😂 😂???
Related, I was using hair symbolism and i just didn't have a name for it. I have a witch character who used to have these hideous four pigtails on her head, after the death of her parents she cuts them off leaving her with an asymmetrical bob. In doing so she severes the lovingly flawed and girlish hairstyle her parents gave her because she feels she doesn't deserve it. But the asymmetry of her current hair proves that she's still connected to their love. I haven't finished the story yet but maybe I'll change her hair again once we finish the found family thing.
Okay wait cause why does the emo cut kind of eat? I may use that haha but anyway I definitely love your use of hair symbolism! I feel like with it, you can be as intentional as you want, but sometimes hair symbolism can be spontaneous. And I allow the spontaneity to progress as I progress the story! Your witch character sounds pretty cool, I've always enjoyed when characters have very unique hairstyles and go to another unique hairstyle! It definitely draws attention to itself in the good way!
My main oc Peyton is mixed and a big part of his storyline is about trying to learn you’re allowed to be happy and kind no matter how badly you’ve been hurt, and because he’s very visibly black and openly bi and he lives in a primarily white cishet community he constantly feels broken and like he has to uphold stereotypes about being gruff and macho and shit, so he dyes his hair pink, a color representing femininity and love and care and happiness and health, as a way to show himself he doesn’t have to conform to it no matter what sort of features or identities he has that are out of his control, and while I am a white person as a trans and roughly in the area of polysexual to pansexual I find him very relatable and he’s incredibly important to me, he kind of feels like proof that I’m not broken or alone or anything and even though awful shit’s happened in my life I’m still allowed to be kind and good Sorry this got off topic lol-
There is a common overlap between being a POC and being trans, simply because they're both groups who've been marginalized for just being themselves. That's why I can always empathize with a black character or lgbtq+ character, anyways your use of hair symbolism is amazing, and I love how you use it to break gender norms!
this video has been SOOO eye-opening!! i havent even considered half of what you talked about!! i feel like the characters ive drawn in the past/the ones in my yt videos have hair as an afterthought, and im definitely going to start putting more thought into the hair that my characters have now!! 🥰
oh my gosh honestly!! I love that aspect of hair symbolism too when the status quo is completely flipped on its head. The life someone was used to is now gone, and they free themselves, freedom symbolized through hair! It's just the best!
I never understood cutting your own hair when stressed because to me it was always like "I like it long! It takes time to get it normal again, its precious" but then I remembered that ny mom had cancer when I was little and I stopped seeing her for a while, she came back bald, before cancer, she had long hair but after growing her hair back she always kept it short, I got so sad as a kid because I wanted long haired mom back, maybe it was because Im autistic and have difficulty handling change, but I wonder how much this experience affected me. The way I "gain control" in a way over my situations is with meltdowns, stuff like screams, biting my arms, throwing chairs, and its not healthy for me to bite myself but i dont know what else to do, everyone just makes it worse
Biting yourself in a way is a form of self-harm, even if it's not as intense as a knife to the wrist. But anyways you probably bite yourself as a way to calm down. With my neurodivergence, I tend to just break things around me when stressed. Which is not a good way to cope. The hair cutting just feels like a less destructive way for me 😭😭 anyways change is painful, not having control is painful, these are for sure relatable experiences handled in different ways!
OH MY GOSH YESSSS FINALLY IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO LOVES HAIR SYMBOLISM It's so prevalent in one of my stories I can't. Won't explain his entire backstory but protag starts off with messy hair to show his general lack of care and cynicism. It then progresses to a complete tangled mess when he gets desperate and has nothing left to lose. Then it becomes well combed and gelled to show his loss of identity and his father's influence over him, but it's not his style, it's his father's. Then in the end when everything is resolved and the father is out of the picture (rest in piss will never be missed) his hair takes on a messier but clearly intentional look. It's distinctly him and shows that he cares. It's slightly messy on purpose because that's his style B) His wife also styles her hair very elaborately as a form of gratitue towards him. Like "I'll do my best to be beautiful for you because I love you". Prior to that she had her hair in a ponytail because of her insecurities that she overcame only thanks to him I could rant for ages abt hair i love hair did i mention that i love hair oooh aaah hair 😍
We love a character with some daddy issues 😭💕but anyways, I really do love your character's hair journey in this story! From cynical to conformist to being truly himself! Ugh, that's like the freaking best when it comes to hair symbolism! And the wife really seems like a sweet person! We often talk about hair as a way to distance yourself from someone, but I like the idea of using it as a way to get close and show love!!! I swear if I didn't run out of time I would've brought it up ahhhhhh!!! Anyways I love your OCs, they're super cool!!!
As someone who only had the vaguest idea of hair symbolism 25 minutes ago, this was such a good video! You did such a good job of explaining this. I love how you used cartoon characters as examples and explained their character arcs, it made it more interesting and easy to understand. I honestly had no idea hair could tell you so much about a character. You definitely did a better job of explaining symbolism than my English teachers, lol.😂
Lmao maybe because I am your English teacher disguised as a youtuber 😂😂 but in all serious, I'm glad this video helped! I love cartoons and there's so much symbolism within it, because at the end of the day, cartoons are made by writers and artists!
Thanks for the final encouragement about looking into our own culture :D Here's a viewer from Ecuador who grew up in a big city, where culture and tradition are almost erased. I lived a pretty modern life since people, institutions, businesses there wanted to copy the US so badly. Now I have moved to the mountains for uni and I have a newfound appreciation for how culture is still alive in these areas. People are living their everyday lives speaking kichwa and cha'palaa and wearing traditional clothes. I want to learn more so maybe I could represent a bit of my country in my art :)
Omg that's great to hear that your culture in Ecuador wasn't completely erased in some regions! But omg I totally understand how people try to copy the U.S., it just makes for a world that seems more boring. That's why I'm glad you'll use hair symbolism in your art!!
*Quietly brings up my oc Heiwa* Heiwa's hair changes as she grows throughout my series, one resembling her hiding her chaotic personality, she eases out of it where she meets her potential husbands from different regions. Prodigy's hair hides half of his face so he doesn't accidentally use his powers on others, one eye activates his power, the other exposes part of his beauty, he has discolored eyes, and his hair is long, beautiful white locks that hide his true hair color, it also represents himself distancing from others, isolation is what I'm going far. Toidi (no name) his hair is well kept, short and fluffy representing his subtle craziness. I'm still playing with other hairstyles to fit their cultures, unless it's one of those characters who don't want to conform to their culture for the fun of it, or if your Heiwa you'll be changing your hairstyle constantly, lol. Beautiful video!
The hair symbolism with your OCs is definitely spot on and peak! I love the idea of Prodigy hiding half his face while at the same time he is hiding his powers! That's like parallelism or something haha! BTW do you have a Toyhou.se I'm so curious about your OCs, especially Heiwa since you bring her up a lot! but anyways thanks for liking the video!
@Rosemadi.artist Prodigy originally belongs from a different clan but is in hiding in hopes of the tension of the war to die down. Also I don't have toy house this is the first time I heard of it I believe, I'm too scared to branch out on different platforms, the closet ever I gotten to share my artwork is with my friend. 😅 And Heiwa she is going to be brought a lot more times compared to my other ocs. Heiwa really exposes my favoritism.
I have a lot of characters with Hair Changes. one Protagonist, Nelly, was forced to bleach his naturally black hair by mainly his father to match him. He always had to keep it styled and short. There is this whole prim and propper appearence thing in the Household. Whenever they would get out of that Household they would let their hair grow - black roots showing untill it was all black. and in the presence their hair is long due to more traumatic events leaving them a shut in. But whenever they are supported and reach a better Place, Nelly cuts thair hair a little shorter and begins to do some more creative hairstyling again. The other Protagonist character also used to have dark Brown Hair with 2 Braids a traditional school girl hairstyle. In middle scool their hairstyle would be more open but still long, then a mayjor shift in their identity happened and THEY started to bleach their hair blond and keep in middle lenght, that still persists to the present day. Then theres another Character whose Hair is naturally red, as a child it was a brighter orange, but she dyes it green to hide from her old life as a new identity once, and goes back to red when she finds another New Life. One Villain Character Starts with Brown hair and dyes it, into a salmon pink color whenever he starts leaning into his role of a leader (he also makes a clone of himself that would have a "natural" salmon colored hair. If that has any symbolism.)
Your story is for sure packed with a lot of hair symbolism and it's all great! I especially love Nelly's story and their journey! Also, I think that's super cool that you give your villains hair symbolism! I forgot to mention that in the video, but it's just as important to show the villain developing (whether good or bad) as much as the protagonist developing! Your story sounds hella cool!
@Rosemadi.artist thaanks. Its heavily inspired by Just Dance (the Game) and takes place in that universe so the story ideally would be told in choreography videos without any actual dialogue (though the story could be told in any other way pairing it with the songs and dancing definetly elevates it because its also just... kinda edgy and convoluted) - And yes. came up with a bunch of stories and characters from songs alone 😅 Recently I started drafting a timeline to get the story events in order and, well... if Nelly and Tipp are "generation 1" the timeline goes back to "generation -2" 😵💫 thats a lot of people and conflicts and developments (but it all really fits together in such a satisfying wayy) I just need to design all of the characters in their various states of being throughout time, no big deal at all 🥲 (This is the burden i have to bear for having the creativity autism)
This made me look through my ocs and I'm shocked how much sense went into design subconsciously? Like i have this one oc with whose hair i wasn't totally satisfied with and was thinking about changing her hairstyle. But now I've realized that, yeah, she would wear it like that.
I'm so glad I got recommended this video, because hair is one of my all time favorite things to play around with when it comes to characters, and I personally love pushing that to its extremes (something I find easier to get away with by using a more cartoonish style of drawing). One of my favorite places to look for inspiration is pokemon characters, especially the designs for gym leaders, because of the ways that shape design/language will be utilized as well. Using shapes in hair design is something I take a lot of joy in, like for my two main characters, one having hair shaped like a star silhouette (representing his ability with celestial magic), and the other with lots of hearts (which I play around with even more throughout their growth as a character, and in certain stages, having it so that the hearts look 'broken'). Or a blacksmith with hair that looks like fire in the most literal sense without being actual flames. It really is a fun way to get across either personality, occupation, both, and more :D
You're right! The gym leaders in Pokémon are a great source! This also reminded me of spinel from steven universe, who's hair goes from being heart shapes, to just becoming loose and unkept ponytails after waiting for 6,000 years! Anyways I love that you use shapes in hair design, especially in fun ways like stars and hearts!
Great video!! It really made me think about hair symbolism in my own OCs, since even though I don't really consciously think about it when designing them, cultural attitudes and tropes about hair still inform how they're designed. The best example that comes to mind is my OC, Leela, whose natural hair doesn't grow very long, and she has an assortment of wigs that she wears to express herself. She's also chronically ill/disabled, which is what causes her hair not to grow, and her extremely long colorful wigs kinda let her take back that avenue of self expression! Most of them are in pigtails to represent her childish personality. But sometimes she doesn't wear a wig at all, and shows her natural hair instead. This can be either when she's too depressed to bother putting on a wig, or when she's on a self-confident streak, so it really depends on the context. Hair is one of the most recognizable aspects of a character design and it's really important to pay attention to!
I agree that it's super important to pay attention to! And I really love your OC Leela, the hair symbolism is definitely strong here, especially how she takes autonomy with her choice of hairstyle whether it's a wig or natural hair! I can definitely see how her disability doesn't entirely define her, but instead, she chooses how to present herself based on how she's feeling. That's the right kind of representation imo!
Awesome breakdown! I don’t usually think about hair that much for my characters outside of overall design, but now you gave me a newfound appreciation for it. I’m glad your video was in my recommendeds!
CANNOT stress how fast i clicked this video.......I LOVE HAIR SYMBOLISM. I have thought about this a ridiculous amount with my own OCs. So, since everyone else is OC infodumping in the comments, and it's so fun to read, I will contribute. - One has long, messy, and wavy bleach blonde hair with dark natural roots that they keep prominent on purpose. This character has an extremely rare power that is often associated with "holiness," which draws tons of attention to themself because they have a strong aura of magic everyone else can feel almost always. Their hair represents their relationship with this concept. - One is a Black girl who wears different colorful wigs all the time in the first half of the story, then natural hairstyles in the second half (now with colorful accessories instead.) She starts out as extremely indecisive, anxious, and even jealous at times, always trying to put on a front and be the "cheerful one" in the room. Even as she mellows out, however, she remains very artsy as well. - One has long auburn curly hair. Her hair is shown to have been shorter up until she met her best friend who encouraged her to grow it out. She is genderfluid/transfem, and her growing out her hair long coincides with her beginning to accept the more feminine part of her identity. She's very reserved usually, so the color and curliness are meant to hint at her true nature. - One has short, shaggy (naturally dark) hair with long bangs, and one very long bit of fringe in the front. Despite trying to push people away out of paranoia and fear of attachment, it's still super easy to tell he's actually quite friendly if you try to strike up a conversation with him anyways. He is as edgy and rebellious as he is caring and gentle. A true emo...
OMG I LOVE YOUR USE OF HAIR SYMBOLISM WITHIN YOUR OCS! These are all great examples, and I like how you tend to use hair symbolism to denote their current personality and how they're feeling in the story, to later use hair as a way to symbolize growth and healthy change. Especially when it comes to the genderfluid OC and the black girl OC! All of this is great hair symbolism!
My favorite hair related OC has to be a character whose family made him keep his hair in a long braid all of his childhood and he kept his hair short and overly gelled for years before in the story he finally puts the gel bottle down and lets his hair grow out a little and be a bit more messy as he eventually learns to trust himself and truly do what he wants with his life.
oooo yeah that's definitely some good hair symbolism right there! Being able to break away from the chemicals and pressures of family norms--- 100% some good hair symbolism!!
i love using hair symbolism in things, for example I wanted to show that two characters (A, B) aligned with another character C, character C is known for having a long prominent braid so I gave them each a single small braid in their hair. When character C betrayed the group they changed hairstyles. Then also with character A, she has an absentee dad but it took her a while to move on, so for a very long time she kept her bangs similarly to him before cutting them off in a hairstyle more like her new father figure and dying it to the same color as the rest of the family she joined.
That's one of my favorite hair symbolism aspects! When the hair correlates to someone's alignment and you basically did it perfectly with the braid! Also with character A, I love this aspect too of using hair to literally and metaphorically cut off what's bugging you!
I have an OC where he has a really Long low ponytail thats binded together in some string. It symbolizes his elegance and strength, especally when he's fighing. He even at one point took out his ponytail to let his long hair flow to help teach his friend to fight/defend properly who couldn't control her hair. And in their last battle at the end of the story, his ponytail was chopped off in the conflict, nearly missing him. He was pretty sad about losing his long hair because it was a part of his identity, but his friends helped him to be ok with it in the end. After all, it was physical proof that he lived from the fight and saved what him and his friends needed to save.
It's super risky to have long hair when you know you have to fight, and I'm sure your OC knew that. That's why it's so much more tragic when it does get chopped off. That's a part of him. Anyways great use of hair symbolism!
I have a fantasy world and one of the fastest ways I build culture is by creating a standard for hair! For example I have a group of sheep satyrs whose hair represents what job they do in the community. My main character is a farmer so she gets twin braids. I have a group of Centaurs whose hair remains covered because other groups of people would cut the hair off of them to use for various purposes. So now they hide their hair as a safety precaution. There is also a group of Cervitaurs (centaurs but deer instead of horses) who add twine and beads to their hair to denote rank/status. My main character Rain struggles with Amensia, yes yes I know but she hit her head and lost an eye so the amnesia is warranted. She gets separated from her people who no one has seen in 300 or so years right? So she clings to any remnants of her culture she has that being her hair in twin braids. She doesn't know why but any other style she tries just doesn't feel right to her. So she wanders around this fantasy world trying to find information either about her people or their whereabouts.
Omg I love the idea that hair in your universe is something that needs to be protected (like in the case with the centaurs) or something that signifies their occupations! I also think there's something here about the centaurs that are interesting! Instead of shaving their heads bald, they'd rather hide it. And that in itself says a lot about how much they respect their hair and despise the deeds of others. Especially since they need their hair to denote status!
I guess I’ve never really noticed or thought of hair symbolism that much in terms of the story, but I DEFINITELY will be focusing on it now! I think without even realizing it I have hair symbolism in SO MANY of my OC’s. I did consciously know I was putting in some symbolism, with representation, and most of my characters being POC, and the classic thing, which most girlies can relate to, where when life gets a bit too stressful you just go and chop all your hair off. But now after watching this, I’m definitely gonna hyper analyze my characters hair styles, why I drew them that way, why their hair has changed, how WILL their hair change, and the SYMBOLISM BEHIND IT!! I am SO excited rn, I’m gonna add SO much hair symbolism into my story now! This is the first video I’ve watched on your channel, will definitely be checking more of your videos out!
Yay!!! I'm so glad that the video helped you realize hair symbolism! Omg, I feel like with some of my OCs starting out, they didn't have much hair symbolism, but as I continued to write the story and learn about it, it just became so much more organic and natural to their development. I for sure wish you the best when it comes to the hair symbolism in your story!
I have a OC who keeps his hair long throughout his life, being a heir he needs to be presentable. Another important fact about his hair is the relationship with his mother, she has always taken care of his hair since childhood so no one else is allowed to touch it. 🥰
I have a few characters with different hair choices. One is a pair of sisters, the younger having long hair she really can't take care of herself because she's a very young free spirit, and the older having short side parted hair that can cover one of her eyes if she wants it to. There's another Character who I made for DnD who I have a curly hair type similar to some black peeps, to show that she's an outsider to the majority mideval European influenced setting, as her deal is trying to learn all she can about her new surroundings. (Also it's just a very pretty hair type, and I'm so glad her design pushed me to learn how to draw it) Another character has feathers instead because she birb. She's fun. Feathers are hard to draw as well lol.
4b hair textures can be very hard yet very fun to draw and I'm glad that you've experimented with drawing it in your story! Also I for sure love the concept of your pair of sisters characters and their hair! You can really get an idea of their personalities from that alone! Also also I need to see how you draw feathers that make it hard lmao
@Rosemadi.artist It's just that I didn't know how the layers in hair worked yet, and always drew it as one giant shape. I still kinda do, but I'm trying to move away from it. But people assume a shape on the head is hair (hence why it worked until this point), so that wouldn't work with feathers because it's already assumed to be hair. So I stared drawing them as though she had scales on her head, although more bendy and soft if possible. If her head feathers were longer that might have still given me issues tho
I have an OC who starts off straightening and dyeing her hair brown (naturally curly and ginger), and keeping it in a bun because she was trying really hard to come across as down to earth and serious, and was sucking up to people. Then she starts letting her hair be more natural as she loosens up, and doesn't tie it up as much. Ends their arc when she dyes their fringe teal and stops putting her hair in a bun , since they've completely freed themselves from the expectations put on her. Their husband starts with under-the-shoulders length hair that he ties back which is meant to be prince-like, things start going to shit for him and he ties it higher up, things get much worse and he cuts it short (like, chin-length), and then he gets better and his hair is shoulder length and half up because things will never be the way they used to :) In a completely different universe, having braided hair means your a traveler because braiding is similar to weaving, which is associated with the goddess of life, who is associated with both art and travel. Most cultures keep their hair half up and half down except for the one under the goddess of earth's protection, who do either fully up or fully down, to symbolize that they're more grounded and committed whilst the others are more free-spirited and indecisive. They keep a part of their hair really long for the duration of the mourning process and cut it off once it's over to make a rope they tie on the branches of the closest tree to the deceased's body. The longer the hair/rope, the more you care about that person. Hair symbolism is really fun to play with! No wonder it's my favorite thing to draw, it's great
Omg yesss!!! I love that concept of having your hair tied up and then having it loose as a way of showing freedom from such a former rigid lifestyle! Even the touch of teal is such a good idea! One of the main traits of the color teal is its calmness effect, so I can totally see how the dye can symbolize that calming aspect to her growing personality! Also your other universe with the braided hair is so in depth omg wth I love it so much! I think that's great that you've already tied hair to characteristics like being free spirited and indecisive, while also giving it that cultural meaning within the story! That's like some top tier-esque hair symbolism haha!
I think the first instance I really noticed hair with intentional symbolism was when Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance showed Riku having cut his long hair he grew from Kingdom Hearts 2. A lot of the fandom at the time (and even now in some spaces) were pretty mad cause they liked his long hair look, but I remember reading an interview from the series' creator Tetsuya Nomura that the hair cut was symbolism for Riku trying to make a real fresh start in his life. His long hair in KH2 was less of a choice he made and more a reflection of Riku not taking care of himself and choosing to hide from others, so cutting his hair was a sign that he was ready to put his past behind him and move forward.
Man this situation sounds almost similar to Tangled where people are upset that a character looks less hot when they cut their hair. But honestly there's inner beauty behind the haircut. I really like Tetsuya Nomura's reasoning behind why he chose to cut Riku's hair!
I have this one OC- possibly my favourite by far- and he is cursed by the very god he worships to be reborn again and again each time he dies. Every different version of him has a different hairstyle, usually symbolizing how much of his past he carries with him and how much he is breaking free from who he was in his past lives. This video was incredible, despite you saying at the end it "doesn't make any sense" I found you explained it very well and the fact that you added your personal experience with this just made it even more impactful! Symbolism through hair is one of my absolute favourite things in character design and I hope more people will see this video and find new ways to express themselves and their characters!
Awww thanks, I'm really glad this video helped! But anyways your OCs dilemma sounds super excruciating omg, but I do love how you use his different hairstyles to symbolize breaking free from a past life!!
THIS IS A REALLY GREAT VIDEO, I ADORE IT SO,, AS SOMEONE WHO LOVES CHARACTER DESIGN THIS IS SUPER DUPER INSIGHTFUL AND AWESOME!!! I HAVE A LOT OF DIFFICULTY DESIGNING CHARACTERS THAT ARE HUMAN,, MOSTLY BECAUSE I LOVE OBJECT HEADS AND CARTOONISH ROBOTS. SO A LOT OF THE TIME I REALLY ZERO IN ON HOW I PRESENT THEIR HAIR! ALBEIT IN A VERY EXAGGERATED AND CARTOONY WAY,, SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT DANGANRONPA BUT I REALLY LIKE HOW THEY HANDLE CHARACTER DESIGNS,, ESPECIALLY THEIR HAIR! EVEN IF ITS WILDLY RIDICULOUS IT REALLY MAKES IT EASY TO IDENTIFY A CHARACTER FROM THEIR HAIR ALONE. SO YEAH,, HAIR IS AWESOME,, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T CHANGE IT CAN STILL SAY A LOT ABOUT A CHARACTER OR JUST SIMPLY MAKE THEM MORE ICONIC,,
IF YOU EVER GOOGLE DANGANROMPA SILLOUTTES, YOU CAN TELL THAT EVEN FROM THE CHARACTER'S HAIRSTYLES, THEIR DESIGNS ARE ICONIC! THAT'S SO IMPORTANT WHEN IT COMES TO CHARACTER DESIGN AND STORIES WITH A LOT OF CHARACTERS IN IT! EVEN TOTAL DRAMA WHICH IS LIKE DANGANROMPA DOES IT! ALSO THANKS!!!!
Great video! I've always been obsessed with drawing and designing hairstyles and kinda vaguely knew a lot of this but it's nice to see someone talk more in length about it!
I LOVE crazy hairstyles so much, they can show so much and tbh, i sometimes just love to draw a certain character js bc the hairstyle feels good to draw my honest experience is not that deep, as a mixed person with curly hair feels so nice, cuz you don't see that a lot in my zone (argentina) so is basically part of my identity! ive recently started taking more care of it and i just feel so nice! some pepole even call me "Rulos" which means curls in spanish, i find it kinda sweet 4 sum reason
Omg same! Sometimes when I'm drawing a page for my webnovel, I get excited cause I can draw my characters and their hairstyles at different angles! Also anyways that's definetly a nice nickname to have haha, and I'm happy that you're embracing your natural curls!
My little pony was my everything when it came to hairstyles. Including equestria girls but even past that show any character with hair that caught my attention?? Had to draw
So I have two D&D characters whose hair is significant to them: One is a half-elf warlock who was kidnapped as a teenager by Lolth-sworn drow and forced into servitude in Menzoberranzan. They shaved her long white-blonde hair, symbolizing a control over her situation and her lost autonomy. When she made her pact and escaped, she began growing her hair back out. In the present day, she’s still very sensitive about her hair: she refuses to let anyone touch it and only cuts it if it grows too long. No one can ever take her autonomy again. My other one is a human druid who used to be a noblewoman and she was well known for the long, beautiful natural curls that fell to her waist. After she abandoned the nobility to find fulfillment in nature, she locked her hair but she still tends to it regularly and even adorns her locs with jewelry. You can take the girl out of the nobility, but you can’t take the nobility out of the girl. Sorry to ramble, I just get really excited whenever I get the opportunity to infodump about my OCs lol
Omg I love your DND characters and their lore honestly!!! The trauma and extra precaution in your elf OC are super tragic. The way she was kidnapped at an early age (and I'm assuming she had the same haircut as the other servants) it's just super sad all around! But your human druid character, her story is so heartwarming in my opinion! The way she basically gave up a lavish lifestyle to a lifestyle more in tune with her soul! This may be a stupid question since I've never played DND, but does the human and elf ever meet? 😭😭I'm sure their conversation would be an insightful one
I have 5 ocs who have really long hair but they have different hair styles this symbolism means even if there personalities are different they still have a very tigh bond and look out for each other
So, you want hair examples? I am a gijinka artist, which means I make human versions of nonhuman things. Most of my characters only have one hairstyle through the whole of their appearance to keep them recognizable. But! I still have made some choices that relate to the character. Let’s take Canada as an example. She is a sniper who uses both guns and bows, so she keeps her hair short on one side and shaved on the other. It also shows her military associations, for despite being seen as a passive country, she’s actually very good on combat.
Yes, I did want some hair examples haha! But anyways I love Canada's hairstyle, I believe that the short hair shaved combo really creates the version of Canada that she wants to be and not the version of Canada others perceive her as, and that in itself is pretty cool!
I used to be very ashamed of having curls and waves until I decided to cut my own hair short. The character I draw often is a longer-haired guy with plenty of curls because he’s a pretty boy type character and I want to portray non-straight hair as a beautiful thing. He canonically would not allow anyone to straighten his hair or cut it too short.
redefining and taking back beauty standards is something I love about the modern day! Your pretty boy OC is honestly pretty based for that. I don't know if you're living vicariously through your OCs, but I'm living vicariously through my OCs and giving them the hairstyles I used to hate but now love/appreciate!
@ I tend to explore femininity with him not only through him having longer hair than me but also his clothes, makeup, and behaviors. It’s very fun drawing a guy who is so sparkly and likes partaking in effeminate hobbies.
I actually love short hair Rapunzel!! She was one of my inspirations for chopping all my hair off, lol. I was kind of sad when I realized she was gonna have the long hair again in the series.
Super interesting video! I haven't really given hair symbolism a lot of thought until now, mainly because I've had robot fandom brainrot for a few years XD (we do new paintjobs and body mods for symbolism instead) Sooner or later I'll be back in human-focused fandoms again (or heck, maybe even my own writing if I can muster the energy), so I'll try to remember this video for then. I can certainly think of a few characters who *should* get a symbolic haircut at one point or another, and one character who maintains a specific hairstyle for work should get to let her hair down when she has time off, because she values that divide between work and family time. P.S. Sorry people gave you shit for your hair. For what it's worth, cornrows and small braids are easily among the top 5 coolest hairstyles in my opinion. They just look really *neat* in a way I can't really articulate well.
Awe thank you!!! Because of my own video, I planned to have my hair braided next month, so that's a thing that's happening 😭😭💕💕 I feel encouraged by everyone! Also i've been able to help people from the warrior cats fandom find hair symbolism 💀💀💀so I could probably help the robot fandom! But yeah you can use different colors, stencil designs, dents and rust, size and material as symbolism! also also with your human character, that's some good hair symbolism right there! Letting your hair down on your down time!
Symbolism in anyway is something i should really work on adding to my OCs. I have some who go through hair change that ARE symbolic but i didn't think of it that way when i made them lol. Rachelle is is a transgender woman who was kicked out at 16 by her bigoted parents. She was forced to keep her hair somewhat short and boyish until she was kicked out (a "friend" outed her thinking it would be fine, thinking she would get support. She didn't.) Then she was rescued by grumpy male parental figure ™ who didn't give a sh!t about her hair. She let them grown a bit, then came out to him. After some shenanigans with magic and a demon possession her hair now naturally grown bubblegum pink lol. Ana has naturally pretty curly, ginger hair. Due to living in some entities cult she was forced to have them strained, and always attached in some way (pony tail, ect.), it can represent the way she was trapped in this cult. After breaking free physical AND mentally from the cult she let her hair be free and wild and natural. (Btw they're girlfriends lol) Grumpy Father Figure™ use to have really short hair when he was in some sort of bad guys army but after leaving he started growning out his hair. I noticed i actually put more Symbolism into my warrior cats/feral OCs. Since they don't wear clothes, my mind go more naturally toward making noticeable change in their appearances. Whatever it is getting scare(s), some accessories, gaining or losing weight, their fur length and all. I really need to think more of that stuff lol And honestly, i myself is going through a "my life is changing and so is my hairstyle" moment. I always had super long hair. Due to potential autism any physical change to my body i cannot immediately reverse is horribly difficult for me to do. It's only recently that i allowed the tip of my hair to be cut and that i dyed a part of if for exemple. And guess what? Soon I'll be getting a wolf cut. I'll need to cut more than half of my hair. I am terrified but also i can't wait, I've been wanting to cut them for more than 3 years now. I have 2a hair, and there is a possibility that with that much weight taken off of my them, they will grown more into their curls and my hair will be more natural fluffy which i can't wait for. I specially want to cut my hair for them to be less feminine, I'm genderfluid and while I'm very open about it, i look very much afab physically. Which is eeeh cause i trend to both feel and want to present more on the andro and masc side. So it's kind of a big step towards physically being myself, not just verbally. I'm also slowly getting my more alt clothing styles little by little and i can't wait to look in the mirror and see myself just a bit more, instead of this strange I'm simply used to see for the last 18 years
Omg first and foremost, congrats to you and making more steps towards the Andro and masc side! I know it's difficult asf trying to be genderfluid when you're under 18. My mom would scold and make faces at my boys clothing during early high school, so yeah honestly more power to you and congrats! also I honestly need to know where are all the warrior cats fans are coming from 😭😭😭I think it's like half my audience at this point lmao, and I keep telling myself I'll read the books! Anyways, I was telling someone else that it's 100% possible to show hair symbolism through fur. You can make it like spikey, curly, long, short etc. And also the color is a big thing as well! And also I love your OC Rachelle, her story honestly is very impactful, and I'd even say hopeful!
OOoo!! This is such lovely insight into a topic that's incredibly important when showing character development :o Now I'm thinking ab how to incorporate hair symbolism in my own stories, especially when connecting it to each character's backgrounds. This also made me realize my own hair journey, especially during your own hair journey segment. I've realized how my hairstyle progression is connected to discovering my gender and the fading fear of being true to who I am identity-wise and personality-wise. Going from conventionally long and straight to shaving half of it off to now having a shaved and curly/wavy hair balance that I've had for many years. Excellent video! And likely one I'll revisit when seriously building characters ^-^
Yay! I'm glad that this video helped in some way! But yeah, the best source of understanding hair symbolism is just finding it within yourself. There was a time too when I was figuring out my gender identity, and would have hairstyles that were more gender neutral, pair it up with some guy's clothes haha and no one could tell, but then I started having it longer. Idk, I can just see old photos of myself and tell exactly how I was feeling during that time, I'm sure you can too!
One day I thought about making hairstyles unique. I wanted to go afro with a character because I thought it would suit her really well, taking inspiration from a random girl in an ad on tv There are other styles I experimented with them like Envy's in FMAB which now was a bit modified and is in a side character of my main fun project. But I gotta give the award to a pretty new character, cause I wanted to shape her hair like an upside down mezzaluna knife, because of her cooking skills. And I just did it
Omg I love when the hair shows what a character's occupation is, and I think the upside down mezzaluna knife is a great way to demonstrate that! Also some of the best inspiration comes from the most unlikely sources haha, I love that a random girl on TV inspired you and she probably doesn't even know!
This was really well done and had my full attention the entire time! It's a really interesting topic and i love hearing different perspectives on it! Leaving a comment for the algorithm :)
Hair symbolism has got to be one of the greatest writing devices. One of my absolute favorite tropes is when a character changes their hair after a traumatic and/or life changing event! (Silly little video idea for ya: killing off characters)
One of my main OCs will die eventually in the story! Once I finish writing that I'll make that video, cause I'm still going through a roller coaster of emotions lmao!! But I'll for sure make that video one day 😭😭😭
Majority of hair changes happens in my OCs that are teens and children, cause you really change a lot and it's fun to think how it's gonna work. But for me hair is just a part of the design. Face, body, gestures, colors, expression of emotions, that all can change. And even though for me personally my hair does not mean much, it can for my characters. I cut my own hair, after first year of doing it, I'm better then most salons I've been to. I did shave it off twice, one time cause I've made a little mistake at cutting and decided to just let it be gone fully, the other to get rid of dandruff (it was a good decision actually). I like my natural color, but if I feel like having fun, I will just go and dye it. In real life hair tells less then in fiction. Like, if you see me with green hair and some shaving on the back of the head, where I can't see it, you can tell that I probably don't work at a bank or have money to get it done professionally. Also I am less concerned about my appearance then people usually do, yet it's not zero, cause then it'll be head shaven, only some hair left so scalp won't be fully exposed (it's uncomfortable while being comfortable, odd stuff). But depending on the story, OCs hair is gonna have way more of red door effect, while affected by problems like mine less (unless story is specifically focused on it)
Yeah for sure, hair in real life can just simply be because you like the style! I usually put my hair in a bun, not because I'm going to exercise or attend a business meeting or something. I just have it because it's convenient for me. I agree that it's good to have OC hair changes from children, to teens, to adults! A lot of the time, the child doesn't pick their hairstyle.
Hmmm... I did have some minor stuff with that with SOME characters, but maybe I should do it more often. I have a few characters like North who gets a piece of hair that grows over her right eye, which is where her boyfriend and kid typically stand. Not because she's blind to what they do, she just allows herself to be vulnerable around them.
My mc of my video game project has bedhead but ties it all up to stay out of her face. She’s in a survival horror game, she’s only got time for dry shampoo and shooting demons in the face 😂 The allegory of the entire game (bahaha I can spoiler since this is a lurker account) is embracing your hair going grey. She doesn’t “attain her true powers” until she accepts that she’s aging, along with coming to terms with other things all at once, just like the chaos of real life 🤭 I just think that message should be there for us girlies getting older, and you can still be ENTIRELY YOURSELF otherwise.
Omg that's so important, letting your hair go grey! Bojack is one of those characters who's maturity is shown through his hair as it goes from black to grey. And also Lilith from the owl house lets her hair have a grey streak as well overtime! Anyways your game sounds great like there's a lot of thought put into it!
10:00 THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABT TTS OH MHG GOOODDDDDDD I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH JRKDNFJDMD!!!! Pointing out the idea of nonconformity and unnatural hair color within the series is so interesting to me! When you mentioned Varian’s rebellion, I thought I’d also point out that he’s shown to be a bit of an outcast within old corona, so maybe his goofy ass streak could symbolize that as well as his extensive criminal record? AND WITH CASSANDRA, usually soldiers keep their hair short, so it could also be her desire to be part of that!!
YESSSSSSSS ANOTHER TTS FAN! I can't even express how much I love this cartoon and there's so much I wanted to say about Cassandra's hair that I kind of spared for time omg, but yes, I 100% agree that her hair was cut short because of her desire to be a guard! If you look at every named woman in the palace from Queen Arianna to Faith to even Friedborg (That one freaky chick who gets confused for Cassandra) They all have medium length to long hair. Meanwhile, Cassandra's hairstyle sticks out so much compared to the other girls in Corona! That's why I have a headcannon that when she's in her lady-in-waiting outfit, she hides her short hair under her bonnet to assimilate more, make it seem like an updo. Cassandra is very aware of what's prim and proper, she corrects Raps all the time. But despite this, Cass hates that freaking lady in waiting bonnet. She loves pulling it off any chance she gets. And the moment she took over Corona and visited her old bedroom, she struck that bonnet with a rock 😭😭😭 I do notice that she shows her short bob in her royal guard outfit though! It's very intriguing, so why does she hide it as a lady in waiting? she doesn't have to hide it, cause Friedborg doesn't hide her hair. Omg gears are spinning; I think it's very intentional! but omg I believe you're right with about Varian and his goofy ass streak! It shows his criminal record and since he's had it from the beginning and it doesn't change, I wanna believe he did some random alchemy experiment to cause it 😭😭😭It's clear that Varian wants to be accepted by society (since he was willing to wipe everyone's mind in season 3 💀💀💀) but at the same time he also wants to be himself. So his hair reflects that conformity and experimental side of him!
I was well familiar of shape and color symbolism but not as much with hair, primarily because a good chunk of what I draw doesn't have hair. So when I'm left with an opportunity to give a character a hairstyle (or something mimicking that), I often drew a blank. I learned ALOT, thank you for making this!
Yay I'm glad this video helped! Shape and color symbolism are super important as well! And even though I didn't touch on it on this video, you can apply shape and color symbolism in the design of a character's hair!
When I think about hair symbolism I think of one of my ocs who acts extremely prim and proper, he’s basically extremely polite and a bit of a neat freak and obsessed about everything being neat and organised, but the one thing that deviates from that clean look is his hair. It’s short but noticeably uncombed and just kinda washes it and leaves it there. This (hopefully) indicates that he’s not all that he seems and he actually comes from a former home of untidiness, and his lack of hair styling is one of the few things that manages to slip through the cracks of his past. Another interesting thing about this character’s hair is that complete baldness in men runs in his family, and he spends a lot of time doing preventative haircare and in a strange way this kind of can symbolise his desire to remove himself from the cycle of generational trauma. He has permanently lost quite a bit of hair before he started preventative haircare and in his story when he was starting to lose his hair he was also starting to slowly fall into continuing the cycle. But he managed to stop it in time.
Yeah I can for sure see with your OC that his hair is tied to his family, whether it being unkempt to show how he used to be in untidiness. Or how it's balding to show that he has something from his family in his genes, no matter how much he tries to distance himself by being tidy and do preventative haircare, a part of his generational trauma is still there!
I love hair symbolism!!! That's why its a big part of my webcomic as well. Right now im diving more into the color symbolism than hairstyle/length. Its such a good visual storytelling device 🙏
I love this video! I also have a LOT of hair symbolism for my characters. One of my character has the same hair style, locs, for basically their whole life (which is intentional, they love consistency and routine) but small subtle things change throughout. The kind of locs they have change (from very manicured to semi free form as they become less rigid and conforming), how they style their locs change (completely covers their eyes as a child, out of their face and pulled up and back as a professional adult in a work environment not accepting of their hair, shaved sides and less manicured when their professional life falls apart and they're in a more nonconventional but accepting environment, cut off entirely and regrown into a new swt of bob length locs for the first time in 20 years as they move past some very traumatic changes and start life again), etc. The entire reason they have locs at all is connected their personality (they like conventional feminine beauty of having long hair even if the rest of their appearance is fairly androgynous, but the pragmatism of a relatively lower maintenance hair style). It is also connected to their childhood experiences. They have hair that is often framed as 'difficult' (high density, type 4) and are trans, specifically tranfeminine, so while their mother was not judgemental of their desire for long hair, she didn't see the same necessity to dedicate time and effort to upkeeping it as she did for their cisgender sisters (of which there are a whopping five, in addition to 5 other kids, so time was also a factor). They're also autistic, so the constant manipulation of hair, and the sensory overload that can come with that made things harder for them and their mother. Wash day was a battleground 😂 i have personal experience of how much of a nightmare it can be to both do the hair of and have your hair done when you're neurodivergent AND tenderheaded. The healthy medium was 'you can have long hair but you either learn to take care of it yourself or get locs, which are easier for me and you to take care of. Otherwise off the to barber you go'. So a hairstyle kinda born out of less than ideal circumstances but becomes a huge part of who they are and an extremely recognizable feature. All of this is also in direct contrast to their romantic partner and foil, who is constantly changing her hair, occasionally shaves it bald, and dyes it different colours. Obviously the reader won't know most of this, but I do love knowing it myself and letting it bleed into the narrative. I love hair, especially Black hair! Can you tell? 😂
You know, being autistic and finding change difficult is a thing that is studied often I believe! So ofc I'm sure that hair changing can be a very big leap for anyone who's on the spectrum! That can be a sign of symbolism too when it comes to their story and honestly I feel like we need more stories with neurodivergent characters! I also like how you use their hair to symbolize gender identity as well! I don't know why, but your comment triggered a flashback of the first night after getting freshly done cornrows or box braids, THAT HURT ALOOOOTTTT, but the hairstyles were always pretty! I love black hair too omg!!!
Fun fact! I actually have a charater who's long hair is an act of rebelling! Maria, an experiment oc, had her hair often cut very short(and poorly cut), so training and testing was much easier. But when she regained freedom as the site went into chaos, she let her hair grow back long and straight just like she hadn't before becoming an experiment! Letting her hair grow was a way to show she was making her own choice and it's also because shes inscure about her body. Long hair feels much more covering for her and makes her feel more pretty. It's also often wet as she loves to swim around and chill in small pools of water! I cant belive one of my most fleshed out characters is for the game Pressure 😔
Omg yeah that's some great use of hair symbolism! The way that Maria uses her hair growth as a way to distance herself from her past life! A way to have a hairstyle that she chose and is more akin to what she wants since she didn't have the choice before. All good, super good use!
I have this character who's from a royal family yet has been severely neglected and malnourished. her hair is thin and stringy, while her sister and brother have thick, poofy hair that's clearly well-groomed
I did this age meme of the mc in my comic (I should do that with more ocs, it was fun), where basically it's them at the ages of kindergarten, grade school, middle/junior high/high school, and their present day age. I had a lot of fun with it, since my MC has straightened hair when you see her in present day, but she's straightening it. I also have her emotion express via her hair, like a cockatoo/or what I took it from, a chocobo. But her natural hair is waaaay more curly and cute. The symbolism here being that she's suppressing what she's really like, due to trying to live up to imaginary standards that she thinks her family has of her. I do plan on her hair changing as she progresses through the story and becomes more relaxed and open. Thank you so much for taking us on this journey. I never see enough videos talking about the hair of black characters, so please, talk more about it if you want to! ^^
That's so true! Hair growing for character development should be used more! I'm currently blanking right now if any character has had that happen omg! Maybe Luz in the finale of the Owl House, but I don't think it's anything deep, it's just she got powers and grew hair lmao. Anyways, I like that your MC has hair symbolism in her development, I think that's another thing that should happen more! Themes of letting go, relaxation, and expression comes the best with hair symbolism! I'll talk about black hair more in my 2152 the trifold article hair symbolism video, if I ever make that lmao.
thank you SOOO SO MUCH for making this video!! Omg, I’m so glad to have randomly stumbled upon this channel! For almost a year, I have been working hard trying to develop a graphic novel series, and coming up with character designs have been one of my biggest struggles. This video is especially helpful since my main character is an Amputee- BIPOC teenager who has to learn how to survive on her own when she’s been “sheltered” for the vast majority of her life, in a post apocalyptic world. :) I think I have an idea now of what direction I want to take with her, Visually and Symbolically! 😁
Also post note: I want to give an example how I show hair symbolism.😅 Along side my main Gal, she befriends and ends up forming a Musical resistance with this Frankenstein/Vampiric Cyborg creature, :) his name is DOWNER. My character of DOWNER is a very “no F’s given” rebel at heart kind of soul, with a total flair for the dramatic. :) in the beginning of the series, his standard design I gave him has him sporting a mullet- as to also show as to how “out of touch” with the current decade he is.😅 He takes heavy inspiration from the likes of “Rocky Horror”, as well as a lot of the styles from within the 70’s 80’s wave of punk and post punk. 😊 His hair style is shown to be shorter and more “conservative” as we glimpse into his past (specifically in the 80’s, the decade where he was created!)
I feel like you and I could high five or something 😭💕 cause I also have an OC who goes from a mullet to a shorter hairstyle! But it's for a different reason, more so that he wouldn't stand out so much in society! BUT ANYWAYYSSS your story sounds great and your use of hair symbolism is amazing! It's also cool that you have an amputee BIPOC character in your story! There's a youtuber named Oakwyrm (I don't know him personally lmao) He talks about disabilities in cartoons, and I think that'll also be a great reference for you when creating your story! Anyways thanks for checking out the video! 💕💕💕
9:20 oooooo there's actually some cool history stuff with this (this is spur of the moment I don't know if you mention it in the video.) this is based off of the Chinese Queue hairstyle. This was enforced by the Qing dynasty on Han men as a signifier of shame.
Alright time to force my characters on people againnnn This time with symbolism. Harumi first because she's easier. Hair length I think I tried to come up with some symbolism for but NAHHHH In her story when her friend Mieko dies, she chops her hair off into a messy bob cut. Her reasons? Mieko was her world (Not in a healthy way) and she didn't know what to do without her. She also is also feels guilty about letting Mieko die because Mieko killed someone for her, but she couldn't bear to let others die. But the interesting thing is when she cuts her hair the interaction she has after that is with Asuka (friends oc) who was also Mieko's friend. He offers to try and help her make her hair look better and they talk about Mieko. The two characters never became close but they both understood how the other felt about Mieko in a way the others couldn't. They might not have come out of it as friends, but they gained an understanding no one else could. ALRIGHT IT'S MISS TRAUMA TIMEEEE Mieko :> Mieko has long extremely straight white hair. Her hair has a sharp look to it, and it always pulled back into a high ponytail with a giant pink bow. The only time it's not like this is when she is asleep (When she is most vulnerable) when she is upset and on her own, when she was a child and when she gets to be someone else other than who she has been forced to be. I chose her hair to be up like that cause "haha mean brat school bully girl go brrrr" But it also is seen as a representation to her popstar work because when she was a child it was mostly down with two thin ponytails. Once she gets to have a happy life hopefully (I know shocker) It's first a long braid when she is on the streets to hide her identity, but as she becomes more comfortable with herself, she starts to wear it long and out or in the style she had as a child and once she's an adult she wears it in a low bun. She even occasionally wears it as ponytail without a bow showing she has come to terms with her past (mostly) and can feel okay wearing it. (She usually wears the bun though cause that's her adult design lol) Now usually you would assume that in such a change she would have a haircut phase. The fun thing is she doesn't. Why? Her mom had a sharp bob cut and also had white hair. And Mieko is terrified of looking like her parents because they neglected her so much and the idea of looking like them makes her upset because she doesn't want to be like them at all. Like I'm convinced if someone chopped her hair off, she would break down. Anyways enjoy that hopefully there aren't too many typos or grammar mistakes Oh yeah kinda on topic but I actually plan on going into cosmetology (Makeup, hair, nails) so I just LOVEEE different hair style fr they are so pretty T-T
Well, well, well 😭😭Long time no see! Anyways as soon as I saw the comment I was wondering what AU of Harumi and Meiko this was, but I'm now assuming this has to be the main timeline! Anyways I think your use of hair symbolism is great, and I believe that a lot of hair symbolism comes when a major event happens in someone's life. When I say major event, it's basically canon event XD so play the spiderverse music. BUT ANYWAYS IM GETTING DISTRACTED, so basically, I think grief can be shown on a character's face, but the moment that grief is represented in a hairstyle I think that's pretty powerful! Also, when it comes to Meiko, I like that in your description of her hair, you can see that she's both trying to disguise her identity while keeping her identity separate from her parents, which can be pretty difficult. But that's just a testimony to her difficult life!
@Rosemadi.artist hi lol yeah this is the og timeline. Mieko in other time lines usually has gotten past her trauma and can now live a functional life or shes just a complete jerk lol Harumi's hair changes rarely actually. Her hair as a kid was short, in middle school and highschool it was long until she cut it in her reaction to Mieko's death. When she gets older though she puts it up and it's longer again. Mieko really does try her best to not be like her parents. And once she has her redemption/therapy arc of that gets to happen she starts trying to shift away from the J-pop persona she has on stage and starts trying to open up more and be the actual person she might be. Throughout her whole hairstyle journey though she keeps her bangs and the strands near her temples. From a character design point of view it's just cause it makes her look like herself because if I give her a side part of something she does NOT look like Mieko lol but if you wanted to try hair symbolism it could be symbolism of her actual self that she can't change like how she looks cause her mom also has bangs idk
This is perfect for my characters because the change in their hair predominately shows their growth. The protagonist of my story wears a downwards bun to represent her practicality which mixes with their logic as they desire answers (she was raised in a tyrannical military regime so she clearly had no opportunities to gain the full picture than the propaganda fed to her) It also represent her anxiety in a way; how she tries to present as collected to hide from her true emotions and desire. Later on, when she finally escapes the military and now is on a journey to find a home with her friends, her hair eventually changes. I planned on changing it to double buns to represent her becoming more 'free' in a way while still keeping her practicality. Then, by the end of the story, her hair is fully down to show her growth in her easing her anxiety and to now be open with herself. I'm not sure if I should add a upwards bun somewhere in the story to represent when the story's stakes become more high per say although it's still in development. This video helped a lot though in considering the hair symbolism of my characters.
As someone who always wears buns for that practicality and logic reason, I for sure approve. (Though you don't need my approval lmao what am I yapping about) anyways I really love the fact that your character's hair is in a bun for what seems like the majority of the story! I think for sure when she lets her hair down, it'll be a pivotal and significant point! Anyways when it comes to the upward bun, I think you should totally go for it! I like the idea of when the stakes go high, so does her hair haha.
Hair and what it symbolizes culturally/socially/spiritually became a recent interest of mine. Fun fact I ended up doing a research project on it! There’s a Wikipedia page on hair with some interesting articles. (Specifically the one labeled “Hairstyle”). Some may be blocked because they’re on JSTOR or other gatekept university websites :(
Also in terms of my own OCs: I both think about hair symbolism and don’t (if that makes sense). Like I mostly think about it from a design standpoint. Making each stand out from one another and making it “cool”. But I change it over time mostly signify age. Or have it copy another character’s hair for story reasons
Omg I agree that hair is so interesting when you do research on it! And yeah I can name a couple of my OCs who have certain hairstyles cause I think they're just cool lmao. Hair to signify age is good as well!
Another great video! Lot of great point brought up about hair and character arcs. The red door metaphor was fun too. Bro I have ideas for what my character look like in the future (that I haven't drawn yet aaa) but theres a lot of emphasis on their hair. I've noticed the bigger the character arc the bigger the hairstyle change its fascinating. I think there's also a lot you can say about gendered hairstyles and how that can relate to a characters gender or sexuality expression a lot of fun stuff to play around with. 7:14 Why is this SO funny to me LMAOO, I need an AU of Trifold thats exactly the same but everyone has Emmitts face. 11:01 Omg what happened to them, they go through the TRENCHES huh. Also is Emmitts hair dyed?? Thats the biggest plot twist in the story imo. I'm sorry you had to go through that in school, teenagers are literal monsters. People need to learn BOUNDRIES.
OMG I NEED TO SEE ALL OF YOUR OCS AND THEIR HAIR DEVELOPMENT! Also, I need more Wipeout content, I'm growing insane and impatient (Take your time I'm joking 😂) But literally I love how you draw hair so I can't wait to see all your characters and whatever development they go through!! Also, I 100% agree that gender identity and certain hairstyles go hand-in-hand! and in turn, it says a lot about a character and how they want to be perceived! and if you laughed hard at 7:14, I'm sure you and I have the same sense of humor 💀💀💀 I was laughing at it as I imagined it, I was laughing at it while drawing it, and I laughed at it every time I saw it on my editing timeline. That thing is so cursed 😂😂an AU for that would be perfectly disturbing. And omg they do go through hell 😭😭😭when it comes to Emmitt his hair is actually blue, I just dropped a hint about how it turned brown through the "favorite OC" video haha 🧬🧬🧬 also middle schoolers are cruel 😬😬 and just the early 2010s in general 😭😭but anyways thanks for watching the video as always!
Hi! I found this video very helpful and informative. I repurposed an old oc form awhile ago and had do decide on a specific hairstyle. I use Gacha life 2 for creating ocs because it helps me design characters better, and I had to choose between 2 bang styles and I chose the one that suited her personality the best. Im very glad I chose the ladder because yeah hair does show a lot about the individual! I’m really glad that I watched this because it made me realize I made a good choice for my character design! Thanks for the recommendations and Info you provided! I hope you have a good rest of your week!👍
Thanks and thanks, I hope the rest of your week is good too! As people who create OCs, I feel like we subconsciously know what hairstyles best represent our own characters, and the fun part after you find out, you take it and then find the red door meaning behind it haha!
I came for the hair explanation, stayed for your fun personality. I unno what it is, but it's fun to hear you talk, so subby sub Teach meh more bout character design 🥰
I write, but I like to imagine my main character-Rowen-has her hair dye fade out as the story progresses. The hair color (dark blue) is something her old friends/teammates helped her choose. Friends she feels responsible for after they croaked. So, the dye fading out is like her learning to move on.
OOOh yeah. Hmmm well for me, the more I write, the more these decisions become clear XD Like a crystal ball or something! So you should continue to write/outline until you know around that point haha
*Me watching this with a cast of OCs made up almost exclusively of furries Although even then I still get some mileage out of fur and wool. Paying attention to fur shape is useful for differentiating between characters of the same species. I’ve got this one sheep character that I gave wool bangs to make her difficult to read; she’s very quiet and non-obtrusive, to the point where some people forget she’s even there.
I have a character who is a barbarian who deserts his cult after raiding an innocent village. His hair is a beautiful gold that is unkempt and greasy due to poor hygiene, matching his gaunt and scarred face. His hair is long enough to tie a little bit of it back. After deserting his cult and taking care of a little girl from the village that was raided, he grows his hair out and starts braiding it. He also grows a beard giving the vibe of a bushman as they are in the wilderness, but also giving him a tenderness he gains from looking after a child, a fatherly sort of look. The braided hair giving the appearance of a warrior who has more grace rather than brute force as he learns to hold back his anger. After being imprisoned and tortured for a few years his hair is long and frayed. Only a few streaks of his original blond remains, the rest is just grey. His beard has grown long and unkempt much like his hair. Appearing as a vagrant, he has been broken and hollowed from the trauma. The control, care, and restraint he learned is gone, all he feels is hate and despair. His hair is no longer controlled, all frantic and dead, much like his spirit.
Omg your Oc sounds very cool and this is also some great hair symbolism! The way it goes from unkempt to tidy to unkempt, really shows his barbaric past, his maturity and growth, back to a forced barbarism which is truly tragic!
I have one who is going to change her hair, but I have two that is a bit more interesting. Mokusei and is Sister, Kumo. As children, Mokusei used to help Kumo brush her hair and braid it. That was back when they had parents. But when their parents went missing, they were in one of their grandfather's care. Said Grandfather, only wanted to keep Mokusei as he was related to their father, while Kumo wasn't(They have 3 parents.), so she was kicked to the curb despite being 7. The police weren't going to find their parents and no orphanage in their town. By the time both joined a club with kids their age to find their parents and to solve crime in their town, when they were 10, they weren't close as they were used to, and it got even more harder to bond as Mokusei was forced to take on his father's business despite not wanting it and being a kid. He has a hard time standing up for myself against his grandfather and has a hard time even trying to talk to Kumo outside of the cases and school work. He doesn't seem to recognize her due to how different she acts even if she still likes some of the same things and has some of the old traits. The crimes weren't easy and Kumo started to act more like her father, more rude and closed off. She cuts her hair to make finding gems and making jewelry easier, but in the process, lost one of the ways she used to bond with her brother. The only thing that was never cut was her Ahoge, something she got from her father. By the time they found their parents (Spoiler: They were murdered) she kept cutting her hair. While Mokusei has been dying it and snipping small chunks off in response to all the things he went through. Messing with his hair was a trauma response. The worst thing is that they aren't close to each other at all. They can work together at school or on a case, but outside of that, they act like strangers. They lost their Intermediate family either by lost or just not being able to bond anymore. Kumo, as much as she wishes she could, can't bring herself to get close to Mokusei and Mokusei is having a hard time getting himself to do the same. They will get close, but as the story is now, they aren't able to bond with each other, purely because they don't know how to anymore. For Mokusei, he uses his hair to cope with the trauma he had gone through, even if some of it was willing. For Kumo, her hair being cut is her growing up but losing the bonds she held so dearly. (Sorry this was a bit long, but it's easier if you know the timeline and both siblings have completely different reasons for their hair to be said to have changed.)
Yeah, for sure I like that idea of Kumo cutting her hair as a way to cut off that bond from Mokusei, and honestly that's super tragic, but does carry a strong message. I'm not sure if Kumo's hair grows super-fast or not, but if it does grow slowly, there will be that slow time for it to heal. and even if it gets to like bob length, it'd be somewhat difficult to braid and brush! and even even even if Mokusei was able to brush and braid Kumo's short hair, it'd be a short session, therefore short bonding time! Anyways there's so much you can do with the lore here that makes it great hair symbolism!!
7:03 I do find it amusing when people bring up the faces of the Frozen movie as an example of same face syndrome. At least here you also brought in Tangled, with the Queen and Rapunzel there, but there's also a popular fan-theory that they're related to the sisters in Frozen anyway due to Rapunzel's cameo at the coronation. But either way, people love to point at Elsa, Anna, and their mother as an example of same face syndrome and it's kinda funny because those three women are relatives of course they look really similar. I'm not saying it's inaccurate, because yeah, they kinda did have that issue in those two movies - but if you're going to use those movies as examples it'd make more sense to use characters that aren't related.
Yeah, but like despite being siblings, they shouldn't have the exact same face unless they're twins 😭😭😭Me and my sister are close in age, like 10 months apart and though we look almost the same, and people confuse us all the time, there's still differences in our noses, eyes, lips, the only similarity is our face structure. Anywaysssss the only pass I give Disney---Tangled was their first 3d princess movie, and frozen was their second. So, I doubt they had that much to play with when it came to their character models but still 😭
TW mentions of physical and parental abuse One of my ocs Kay has bangs overing her face for the reason similiar to your oc Kathy, not to convey weakness but rather then unpredictability one eye is visible to convey intimidation and to always watch people with one eye open. And well, Kay has Anisocoria, shes not ashamed of it exactly but its more a painful reminder of her childhood, her pupil permanently damaged due to a incident and her letting her guard down escalated such a delicate situation, she didn't think her father would hurt her in front of her sister and he did and it landed her in hospital. She keeps her hair short so not to be grabbed easily while fleeing from her dad when she needs to. My oc Frellos hair doesn't change at all whereas everyones does in one way or another, does share that he would like longer hair or to see how long he could get it if he was living, to convey that he is dead and never got a chance to grow, he grows with his sister in appearence despite dying as a child but his hair remains the same. As you can see, I am not a nice person to my ocs lol I like this to think about my ocs abit more, thanks for inspiring me further
yay I'm glad this helped you think about your OCs more! But anyways Kay's story is super cool the way that she hides her intimidating eye. Even way the eye is damaged revealing a backstory. Honestly I think hair symbolism is some of the best when it tells a backstory! Frello's story is interesting too! It's okay I torture my OCs too, that's the only way they can grow lmao
Omg yes for sure! And how she went from that flat ironed bun to the braided bob closer to her Egyptian ancestors! Unrelated, but people in highschool set my pfp on their phone to season 2 Libby cause I supposedly looked like her 😭
18:40 yup! when I clicked on the thumbnail and the title was only "the importance of hair symbolism within ..." I thought "black community/culture? that'd be interesting".
Eey i recognize this channel! Was there on your "importance of names" video. Almost brought up the exact same characters in this comment as i did in my message on that one, before i realized it ws you. Those characters being the punk/jester woman and the monstrous warrior/sage figure. The punk/jester named Estri has a light green flat mohawk, ith a very short black, spiked ponytail on the lower back of her head. The mohawk is key to her. A symbol associated with punks and delinquency, and the colors are her main color scheme. Black and light green. Combined with white from her permanent facepaint. (and sometimes purple. Associations with delinquency fit her well, for she loves playing the villain. Two years ago i've drawn two pages full of various mohawk designs for her. Some normal ones, like liberty spikes, or silly ones, like a shark fin with the short ponytail having the shape of a tail fin. A mohawk inspired by Xadhoom from Paperinik New Adventures/The Duck Avenger, a sidehawk shaped like a buzzsaw, a mohawk inspired by Greaser/Johnny Bravo-type pompadours, a line of short spiked tails, a line of pipe curls in spikes, even ones resembling wings. They get silly and weird and out-there and totally impossible, and that's how she likes it. If it makes people laugh, good. If it makes them recoil from being an affront to fashion, good. If it confuses people, good. She's here for all of it. Fulkrost is a creature of grey skin, yellow eyes, eyebrows with teeth on them, nostrils shaped like a downwards-facing number 3, spiked teeth and sunken eyes. He normally has fairly long red hair and a long beard. I've imagined the top of his head being bald too. His hair can be different depending on the setting he's in, but generally i depict him with - His hair done in dreadlocks or something other tube-like. - Two long side-locks, with dark golden-brown straps on the upper and lower part to wrap the hair into such locks/tubes - and his beard, equally done in some kinds of locks or tube-like design, with similar straps at the ends. I want him to feel, like i said on your "importance of names" video, like an old, strong figure with authority, like a Mesopotamian king statue or engraving. But he needs to keep his monstrous aspects. (Helps that Mesopotamia is one of the oldest recorded civilizations. They have quite a few monsters to their mythology, such as Tiamat, the Lamassu, the Girtablilu, Humbaba and more.) Dreadlocks i've simply always found cool, and to me they're often associated with warriors in more tribal settings. That is part of the setting in Fulkrost's world: an ancient monster world of warriors, artists and sages. In terms of personality: All he seeks is power and energy. He's straightforward, pragmatic and with little emotion. But he can display curiosity and confusion to the things around him. He's willing to learn. In some ways, Fulkrost is innocent and naive like a child. Hardly comprehends the concept of lying and operates by a "one favour is worth another" - rule rather than morality as we know it. Put it like this: He'd prefer a studying chair or a sparring partner to a throne. Immortal as he may be, he can do things in the here and now. Studying, training, being directly among the people that can teach him. Even directly helping them in exchange for favours. Even to the monsters he has authority over, he is more of a compass than a king. The other monsters look at him for a direction to take. They allow him to start up a journey or project and take the lead, can respect or dislike him too, but they don't strictly *need* him to function. I think they're the strongest characters i have in terms of hair symbolism. Even without symbolism, it's fun to play around with hairstyle designs.
Heyyyyyyyyyy welcome back lmaooo! Anyways I love your use of hair symbolism, omg you make me wish that I had went more into the drawing aspect of hair symbolism, because what you did with Estri's mohawk is a crucial part of character design. Just experimenting with different hairstyles until you find one that you know is perfect! Also learning more about Fulkrost, it makes me want to learn about Mesopotamia more! There's so much culture, heritage, and symbolism just packed into his locs, that it really makes it known that it's essential to his character! I love it!
I have a couple ocs that I actually think about hair symbolism! Though my thought processs may be different, haha Caleb is an oc I’ve had since I was in sixth grade (I’m eighteen, almost nineteen now) and throughout that entire time, I’ve always drawn him with either shoulder length or long hair that’s tied into a ponytail. For him, I look at him having long hair as a boy to be breaking away from the average masculine norms of having short hair. He’s also been through a rough home life, so that’s his way of taking control- if that makes sense. Move over to my other oc, Harvest. Harvest is someone I hold a lot of love and care with. An oc I poured a lot of research into because I wanted to do it right (autism, being intersex, aromantic spectrum). Much like your oc, mine also has chopped hair in the back and longer hair in the front. Though it’s more like fluffy hair with longer side bangs and short in the back. For the world they live in and being a moth fae, this hairstyle is one that lets others know they’re just that. It’s a very traditional hairstyle to have. Show the beauty in front but allow strength in the back. It’s a part of Harvest- the only part, really- that actually cares about being traditional. Mainly because the rest of them can be seen as taboo (autism, intersex, queerness). Hopefully that all makes sense! Apologies for this comment being so long, haha
I've always enjoyed characters like Caleb who break away from gender norms and demonstrate that exact fact with their hairstyle! Taking control by using long hair, even in a ponytail, 100% makes sense and that's super great! Also the name Harvest, I don't know if that name was part of your research, but anyways I find that name to be very unique and nice! Anyways it's always great to have Autism representation in your characters, as well as being intersex and aromantic! Using their hairstyle to tell a story within a story is the best part about hair symbolism, and from them being traditional yet strong is an amazing way to show representation with this character!
‼️ As for the Rapunzel conversation I just want to say that all of the dolls and stuff have her with her long beautiful hair. I'm not saying we couldn't have also had a short-haired Disney princess. But to take the ONE Disney princess who is famous for having extremely long hair and chop it all off was a terrible marketing decision. In all of the Disney artwork anything that features rapunzel, she has her long hair back. And in the Rapunzel TV series they immediately gave her, her long hair back in the first episode. It was just a bad decision on the part of the character designer and artist. He could have cut it at waist length and she still would have had the longest hair out of all the Disney princesses! Little girls want to buy the dolls with the long hair because it's fun to style. I just feel like there were better ways they could have symbolized all of that other than giving her a pixie and then immediately retconning it. Because the hair changed color too. So if he had just chopped off the bottom she would have still had all of the symbolism.
from a marketing and business standpoint, I guess the short hair Rapunzel is a nightmare, but in terms of hair symbolism I still think it's pretty good! I feel like if we just had more time with her having short hair, it could've been fine for marketing. I mean the only time her hair is short is 1. The ending of the tangled movie 2. The start of the TV series 3. The end of the TV series 4. any flashback seen in the TV series 5. The wedding short I think we should've just had more exposure to short haired Rapunzel. I mean it's not a total retcon since the TV show reverts it back to being short, but I get what you're saying.
I don't know if my speech has any connection with the topic of the video (and I'll start by saying that I'm ignorant on the subject and also on the types of cuts), but I noticed a particular trend in the hairstyle of a fairly famous character from science fiction cinema /fantasy of recent years, namely Rey. Rey begins her journey with a hairstyle that channels her hair into three buns. Although that type of cut doesn't drive me crazy, I found the hairstyle he sported in The Last Jedi much more interesting, where there was always a sort of bun, but the hair fell down and harmonized better with the character's face, recalling the Qui Gonn Jinn cut in The Phantom Menace. In my more than modest opinion, if they had continued on this path and made the protagonist's hair grow, always keeping the back bun, I would have found it nicer than completely reversing course and going back to the three buns. Little rant that I've been keeping inside for a few years, sorry.
Omg I need to get more into the Star Wars fandom, I need someone to keep me up to date with all the lore, but I do know who Rey is! But anyways, hair symbolism could really come off so uninspired when there was no thought put into it. When aang reverts back to his old hairstyle, there's a reason. When Rey does it, it's like why?
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Omg I remember deep frying my hair too took 2 years to get it back to wavy again 😂😂 that's totally my character arc...the deepfried arc
Omg im glad I'm not the only one who remembers 😭😭 the fact that we came out of that mostly unscathed, just a couple of split ends, but unscathed! 🤣🤣
I have a child OC who when she was younger and lived in an orphanage she was forced to straighten her hair because they told her that this way she would have a better chance of being adopted, but when she is adopted her family leaves her hair curly because they love her the way she is naturally, as a way of showing that she is stopping changing herself to make others like her more
Omg that's absolutely beautiful in terms of hair symbolism! It's such a heartwarming yet powerful message tbh!
*Throws all my curly redheads and their blonde parents in the ring* As you can see, the parents and the children dont have strong familial bonds.
The battle will be legendary 😭
*Looks at my family, they all have hazel eyes. Meanwhile me: Brown eyes.* I’ve been robbed.
@@IsabellaJones-ln8nr I'll raise ya. I'm biracial. I look like NO ONE!!! green eyes, freckles somehow, curly hair that still flows. One side is lucky if they have ANY waves, the others are such tight curls they don't need to tie the braids assuming they don't just twist or dread it.
None of the awesome hairstyles I saw work on my hair. So I wear scarves a lot.
I have a hairstyle I want. Just need to find a professional that can pull it off.
I. LOVE. HAIR. DESIGN.
Symbolism in character design is my jam, something about showing a character's personality, ideology, hobbies, or even how they're feeling at times with just a hairstyle or outfit is *chef's kiss*
OMG that's like my jam as well! It's almost like how how a character carries themselves can tell a silent story! Many chef kisses!
@@Rosemadi.artist Subtle details that enhance the character or story are always top tier.
i have an OC who gets introduced in the series with REALLY HORRIBLE hair. at first it just looks like i don't know how to draw curly hair but it's because she used to straighten her hair like a maniac, so even when she stops straightening her hair her hair is just. horrible. she used to straighten her hair because she felt very insecure about her curly hair (not me projecting LMAOOO, i dont feel insecure about it anymore though).
anyways, i agree completely! i love hair symbolism SO MUCH its amazing
Omg that's some great hair symbolism right there! I just love that your OCs first appearance is almost like the middle of her arc, so that the past can be revealed later and the healing could start in the future! Or now, haha. idk how you wrote it 😭 but regardless I love the concept of hair symbolism surrounded by hair health, that's super cool!!!
that's so cool, so creative! 😄
@@Rosemadi.artist gahh thank you!
I find it fascinating that you think of hair cutting as gaining control..in my world, I only see as losing control. I was born with Sickle Cell Anemia; & I grew up with other sick kids, especially those with cancer. So cutting hair was often a heartbreaking thing, a symbol of having no control of one's own body . After lovingly growing out my hair for years, it was painful to cut it after spending half a year in the hospital with zero access to any haircare. I have 4type easily tangled & matted hair, so the hospital's cotton pillowcases wreaked havoc on my hair. I'd wake up with hair on my pillow & was physically incapable of self care.
As I write, I now totally understand what you mean by the red door. I'd never heard that term before. I love learning new things.
Unrelated pet peeve: Hair doesn't always grow back.
Context 100% matters when it comes to hair symbolism! While losing hair might have been a sign of gaining control like Mulan or Zuko, losing hair can be a sign of a loss of control like with Heather or Azula! Anyways, context does matter!
When I was initially doing my research, I was curious about this very thing about people who are sick with cancer or other diseases, and I found two things. Some patients embraced being bald and saw it as their way of being strong. Other patients were angry and depressed about it. But they found ways to express themselves in other ways by wearing scarves or wigs. It was certainly interesting how people in this same circumstance took it, and chose how to depict their own baldness. Whether it's empowerment, embarrassment, anger, or whathaveyou, I think all of these feelings are completely valid!
I didn't speak on it mostly because I didn't want to talk over anyone with certain diseases, because that experience seems to be a very personal one. I'm for sure glad that you commented and gave your experience because it does give more insight on that aspect of hair symbolism 💕
@Rosemadi.artist What a lovely & thoughtful response. I'm glad I don't have much else to say or add. Context is very important.
I have seen people online responding in both positive & negative ways to forced baldness.
I was a little girl in the 80's. So, my experience was long before we had positive role models everywhere. In fact, I don't know of any from that time.
And thanks for your response! I'm glad that the times are getting better and knowledgea about certain diseases are being shared! It makes for a very inclusive view when it comes to certain experiences!
I LOVE hair symbolism, like im on my gravity falls grind atm and when stanley is living out of his car and he mentions his mullet as an example of how well he’s doing.
Not doing your hair or not being able to do your hair because of circumstances like your situation or mental wellbeing is something i delve into in my work the most. Probably because it takes some of the free control away but also gives it back in a visable way? Its a very good visual tell for change
I totally agree with that! Someone once told me that you can have the most beautiful gown, but if your hair is unkempt, the whole outfit can fall apart. So yeah, your hair can tell a lot about someone's health, and its often reflected in both irl and in fiction! But anyways I like how you use Stan's mullet as an indicator of his current mental health!
Great cmment but alsoooooo GRAVITY FALLS!!!!!!!!
I cried when I was little and rapunsel got her hair cut off, but now that I'm older I think it looks cute
Yeah omg same! I feel like it comes with maturity 😭
I have an anarchist character that's heavily inspired off of 70's queers and he has a lotus shaped Afro
That's my favorite thing about Afros, they can take pretty much any shape! I love the concept and inspiration for your OC!
@@Rosemadi.artist I love to use hair as a design motif for my characters. Like one of my characters is named Azalea so she has Bantu knots since they look like flowers
@rosarolli it also helps remembering the characters name! I have a character named Cheize (pronounced like 🧀) and her hair is that color XD okay my example isn't as cool but you get what I'm saying
@@rosarolli A friend of mine told me the name of the Bantu knots style a while ago. At the moment i didn't know the name of it, so i referred to them as "blackberries".
Now you're making me want to look into different Bantu knot designs. And try my hand again at drawing another character of mine with different hairstyles.
She's a kind of monstrous humanoid with purple skin and light blue teeth, wearing a black business suit/dress and tie with a formal shirt under it, and her hair's normally done up like a high ponytail but with long thin braids instead.
I've been wanting to draw her with different hairstyles such as Bantu knots, a hi-top fade, and... i don't know many more, i need to look into different styles again.
Hair is my weakness because i am terrible with hair
But i do have three examples for hair connecting with personality
1) this character has been stuck in a loop , forced by an entity to relive what essentially is groundhog day till she broke ( she's fine now dont worry :333 ) , her hair is messy , not symmetrical ( one side being longer ) , it could either mean messiness , inside and out , or her uncaringness to the world since she's been through alot
2) she's been a soldier all her life , so the only thing she knows is life in the barracks , and *war* , her hair is short ( although she has been growing it out ) , you could mistake her as a male due to how androgynous she is
3) A farmer's daughter turned soldier ( for a while , she somehow survives from girl 1 saving her from dying ) , she embraces both the femininity and masculinity , her clothing is rather conservative , and so is her hair , long and wavy , but she compensates with her hot temperness and FISSSTTTT
I think you did a pretty good job with hair! If I were to overanalyze this and maybe speculate a bit XD, I think being stuck in a time loop would cause that character to not focus on her appearance. If she's forced to be in a loop, her hair may be forced onto her, and in a way, that messy hair symbolizes the struggle she's been through!
And with the soldier OCs I believe the short hair and androgynous nature of it is exactly how you said it! I mean, soldiers in real life cut their hair for hygiene and safety purposes, but the extra step of being a woman and deciding to cut the hair off for sure says something about her gender identity! You're good with hair, don't cut yourself short. Pun intended XD
@@Rosemadi.artist waaa thankk
I have a character named Suikara who’s hair changes every time I draw her. She’s supposed to have hair that changes often because she studies cosmetics and likes to try things on herself. A small detail I like about her.
Jasper keeps his hair kinda floofed over his eyes because he thinks it looks cool. When he’s older, he grows it out more but lets it hang naturally instead of trying to fluff it again because he’s calmed down more and settled into his life.
Blu had alopecia and didn’t grow any hair anywhere until around 22 years old. She moved into her new home with her new wife and started growing out of her past. She also got medicated for her schizophrenia so she definitely feels like a new person and I guess her hair represents that.
Lunar had short hair they straightened then started keeping it long for a while because Suikara liked it that way. Then some bad stuff happened and they moved past it cutting their hair. They stopped straightening their hair and kinda just kept it free for a while. When they started receiving hrt, he cut his hair super short except for these two sections on the sides of his head, which he kept long lol.
Omg all of your OCs sound pretty cool! Btw this is my first time ever hearing the name Suikara and I just love that name! But anyways, I like that the theme with your OCs is mostly centered around change! Whether it's trying new things, maturity, getting medicated, or hrt, your OCs do what's best for them and I love that fact!
@Rosemadi.artist awww that’s sweet of you to say. I got Suikara’s name very slowly. When I was like- 13, I was kind of a weeb and wanted to give her an asian sounding name which was Suki💀. I changed it to be a little less cringe but people seem to not know how to pronounce her name. Everyone thinks it’s sue-E-car-uh, but it’s sue-car-uh lol.
The 13-year-old weeb faze is completely a mood. I used to have an OC named Akira bahaha which is a super generic Japanese name (love the name though) and then Kathy used to be Japanese, but I made her Chinese now. Regardless, the name Kathy is so not Japanese 😭😭😭The long-lasting effects of making an OC when I was 15. ANYWAYS I just like that you took a Japanese name and gave it some extra flare, the letters together just make it pretty!
@ Aww, you’re so friggin sweet. I get it, I have a feeling that most creatives went through that phase lol
@@GRENNZ-DA-GAY it's a staple! That's why we're all gathered here today 😭 making us all better creatives!
I have an OC who has long hair, and he doesn't know what style to put it in, which is meant to reflect his midlife crisis.
I love that! I can totally see an indecisive person choosing a very indecisive hairstyle like long hair!!
Honestly love this video because it’s making me think of hair symbolism for ocs i didn’t even intend for. Like how my dnd character was almost killed by by a party members father and how the scar he left is actually present and shown in the hairstyle change to signify how prevalent and how recent that was for them. Sort of a “look what your father has done to me.” Thing.
That's some good hair symbolism! Characters with face scars are super interesting because they can decide to hide or show that scar!!
Most of my characters are nonhuman but I love hairstyles! I use to have straight hair as a teen when I was going through some stuff. I always hated having curly hair and how it looks. But now I'm happy with it, I love my natural curls and how it looks when I style it. Hair is important to me growing up and I love it :]
Omg, yeah, there are nonhuman characters without hair that exist. T.T. I guess in that case, shape language and color theory kick in, haha. Anyway, I'm so happy for you that you're embracing your curls! After making this video, it makes me want to go back to the hairstyles I used to hate!
Gonna lock in for this one 🙏
Or do you mean loc in! Cause get it, hair! 😀
I'm sorry 😭
@@Rosemadi.artist yeah I do 😂
That's what's up 😭😭😭
4:07 as a girl, absolutely not! If I cut my hair beyond the occasional split ends, I would probably end up 100 times worse than I was before.
Lmao cutting my hair was never a well thought out choice, just one driven by pure emotions. 100% of the time! 😭
3:00 Aye, as a pixie cut girly it's not the shortness, it's the CHUNK. They couldn't have trimmed her up a little after everything settled down 😂 😂 😂???
😂😂😂😂😂 Imma send a link, and I want you to watch it. Just copy and paste it
www.tiktok.com/@bockyart_/video/7414130604045913345
17:49 The balance in the middle is the emo cut.
Related, I was using hair symbolism and i just didn't have a name for it. I have a witch character who used to have these hideous four pigtails on her head, after the death of her parents she cuts them off leaving her with an asymmetrical bob. In doing so she severes the lovingly flawed and girlish hairstyle her parents gave her because she feels she doesn't deserve it. But the asymmetry of her current hair proves that she's still connected to their love. I haven't finished the story yet but maybe I'll change her hair again once we finish the found family thing.
Okay wait cause why does the emo cut kind of eat? I may use that haha but anyway I definitely love your use of hair symbolism! I feel like with it, you can be as intentional as you want, but sometimes hair symbolism can be spontaneous. And I allow the spontaneity to progress as I progress the story! Your witch character sounds pretty cool, I've always enjoyed when characters have very unique hairstyles and go to another unique hairstyle! It definitely draws attention to itself in the good way!
We’re improving our character designs with this one!🗣🔥🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥🗣🗣🔥🗣🔥🔥🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🔥🗣🔥
LET'S GOOOOO 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
My main oc Peyton is mixed and a big part of his storyline is about trying to learn you’re allowed to be happy and kind no matter how badly you’ve been hurt, and because he’s very visibly black and openly bi and he lives in a primarily white cishet community he constantly feels broken and like he has to uphold stereotypes about being gruff and macho and shit, so he dyes his hair pink, a color representing femininity and love and care and happiness and health, as a way to show himself he doesn’t have to conform to it no matter what sort of features or identities he has that are out of his control, and while I am a white person as a trans and roughly in the area of polysexual to pansexual I find him very relatable and he’s incredibly important to me, he kind of feels like proof that I’m not broken or alone or anything and even though awful shit’s happened in my life I’m still allowed to be kind and good
Sorry this got off topic lol-
There is a common overlap between being a POC and being trans, simply because they're both groups who've been marginalized for just being themselves. That's why I can always empathize with a black character or lgbtq+ character, anyways your use of hair symbolism is amazing, and I love how you use it to break gender norms!
this video has been SOOO eye-opening!! i havent even considered half of what you talked about!! i feel like the characters ive drawn in the past/the ones in my yt videos have hair as an afterthought, and im definitely going to start putting more thought into the hair that my characters have now!! 🥰
yaaaay!!!! That's so good to hear, hair symbolism can be so fun to design within characters!
I was juust thinking about hair symbolism for my characters when I got this in my recs!!
Shoutout to when designs tell you about a character
oh my gosh honestly!! I love that aspect of hair symbolism too when the status quo is completely flipped on its head. The life someone was used to is now gone, and they free themselves, freedom symbolized through hair! It's just the best!
I never understood cutting your own hair when stressed because to me it was always like "I like it long! It takes time to get it normal again, its precious" but then I remembered that ny mom had cancer when I was little and I stopped seeing her for a while, she came back bald, before cancer, she had long hair but after growing her hair back she always kept it short, I got so sad as a kid because I wanted long haired mom back, maybe it was because Im autistic and have difficulty handling change, but I wonder how much this experience affected me.
The way I "gain control" in a way over my situations is with meltdowns, stuff like screams, biting my arms, throwing chairs, and its not healthy for me to bite myself but i dont know what else to do, everyone just makes it worse
Biting yourself in a way is a form of self-harm, even if it's not as intense as a knife to the wrist. But anyways you probably bite yourself as a way to calm down. With my neurodivergence, I tend to just break things around me when stressed. Which is not a good way to cope. The hair cutting just feels like a less destructive way for me 😭😭 anyways change is painful, not having control is painful, these are for sure relatable experiences handled in different ways!
OH MY GOSH YESSSS FINALLY IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO LOVES HAIR SYMBOLISM
It's so prevalent in one of my stories I can't. Won't explain his entire backstory but protag starts off with messy hair to show his general lack of care and cynicism. It then progresses to a complete tangled mess when he gets desperate and has nothing left to lose. Then it becomes well combed and gelled to show his loss of identity and his father's influence over him, but it's not his style, it's his father's. Then in the end when everything is resolved and the father is out of the picture (rest in piss will never be missed) his hair takes on a messier but clearly intentional look. It's distinctly him and shows that he cares. It's slightly messy on purpose because that's his style B)
His wife also styles her hair very elaborately as a form of gratitue towards him. Like "I'll do my best to be beautiful for you because I love you". Prior to that she had her hair in a ponytail because of her insecurities that she overcame only thanks to him
I could rant for ages abt hair i love hair did i mention that i love hair oooh aaah hair 😍
We love a character with some daddy issues 😭💕but anyways, I really do love your character's hair journey in this story! From cynical to conformist to being truly himself! Ugh, that's like the freaking best when it comes to hair symbolism! And the wife really seems like a sweet person! We often talk about hair as a way to distance yourself from someone, but I like the idea of using it as a way to get close and show love!!! I swear if I didn't run out of time I would've brought it up ahhhhhh!!! Anyways I love your OCs, they're super cool!!!
As someone who only had the vaguest idea of hair symbolism 25 minutes ago, this was such a good video! You did such a good job of explaining this. I love how you used cartoon characters as examples and explained their character arcs, it made it more interesting and easy to understand. I honestly had no idea hair could tell you so much about a character. You definitely did a better job of explaining symbolism than my English teachers, lol.😂
Lmao maybe because I am your English teacher disguised as a youtuber 😂😂 but in all serious, I'm glad this video helped! I love cartoons and there's so much symbolism within it, because at the end of the day, cartoons are made by writers and artists!
Thanks for the final encouragement about looking into our own culture :D Here's a viewer from Ecuador who grew up in a big city, where culture and tradition are almost erased. I lived a pretty modern life since people, institutions, businesses there wanted to copy the US so badly.
Now I have moved to the mountains for uni and I have a newfound appreciation for how culture is still alive in these areas. People are living their everyday lives speaking kichwa and cha'palaa and wearing traditional clothes. I want to learn more so maybe I could represent a bit of my country in my art :)
Omg that's great to hear that your culture in Ecuador wasn't completely erased in some regions! But omg I totally understand how people try to copy the U.S., it just makes for a world that seems more boring. That's why I'm glad you'll use hair symbolism in your art!!
*Quietly brings up my oc Heiwa*
Heiwa's hair changes as she grows throughout my series, one resembling her hiding her chaotic personality, she eases out of it where she meets her potential husbands from different regions.
Prodigy's hair hides half of his face so he doesn't accidentally use his powers on others, one eye activates his power, the other exposes part of his beauty, he has discolored eyes, and his hair is long, beautiful white locks that hide his true hair color, it also represents himself distancing from others, isolation is what I'm going far.
Toidi (no name) his hair is well kept, short and fluffy representing his subtle craziness.
I'm still playing with other hairstyles to fit their cultures, unless it's one of those characters who don't want to conform to their culture for the fun of it, or if your Heiwa you'll be changing your hairstyle constantly, lol. Beautiful video!
The hair symbolism with your OCs is definitely spot on and peak! I love the idea of Prodigy hiding half his face while at the same time he is hiding his powers! That's like parallelism or something haha! BTW do you have a Toyhou.se I'm so curious about your OCs, especially Heiwa since you bring her up a lot! but anyways thanks for liking the video!
@Rosemadi.artist Prodigy originally belongs from a different clan but is in hiding in hopes of the tension of the war to die down. Also I don't have toy house this is the first time I heard of it I believe, I'm too scared to branch out on different platforms, the closet ever I gotten to share my artwork is with my friend. 😅 And Heiwa she is going to be brought a lot more times compared to my other ocs. Heiwa really exposes my favoritism.
@KoalaOwlPaws well okay that makes sense then XDD I feel like I've learned a lot about your OCs anyway from the comment section so that's good!
Hearing Sailor Moon music in the background makes me so unreasonably hype.
The music is so calming I can't even describe it! And then sometimes a track plays and it's so randomly funny! Anyways I love Sailor Moon music haha!
I have a lot of characters with Hair Changes.
one Protagonist, Nelly, was forced to bleach his naturally black hair by mainly his father to match him. He always had to keep it styled and short. There is this whole prim and propper appearence thing in the Household.
Whenever they would get out of that Household they would let their hair grow - black roots showing untill it was all black. and in the presence their hair is long due to more traumatic events leaving them a shut in.
But whenever they are supported and reach a better Place, Nelly cuts thair hair a little shorter and begins to do some more creative hairstyling again.
The other Protagonist character also used to have dark Brown Hair with 2 Braids a traditional school girl hairstyle. In middle scool their hairstyle would be more open but still long, then a mayjor shift in their identity happened and THEY started to bleach their hair blond and keep in middle lenght, that still persists to the present day.
Then theres another Character whose Hair is naturally red, as a child it was a brighter orange, but she dyes it green to hide from her old life as a new identity once, and goes back to red when she finds another New Life.
One Villain Character Starts with Brown hair and dyes it, into a salmon pink color whenever he starts leaning into his role of a leader (he also makes a clone of himself that would have a "natural" salmon colored hair. If that has any symbolism.)
Your story is for sure packed with a lot of hair symbolism and it's all great! I especially love Nelly's story and their journey! Also, I think that's super cool that you give your villains hair symbolism! I forgot to mention that in the video, but it's just as important to show the villain developing (whether good or bad) as much as the protagonist developing! Your story sounds hella cool!
@Rosemadi.artist thaanks. Its heavily inspired by Just Dance (the Game) and takes place in that universe so the story ideally would be told in choreography videos without any actual dialogue (though the story could be told in any other way pairing it with the songs and dancing definetly elevates it because its also just... kinda edgy and convoluted) -
And yes. came up with a bunch of stories and characters from songs alone 😅
Recently I started drafting a timeline to get the story events in order and, well... if Nelly and Tipp are "generation 1" the timeline goes back to "generation -2" 😵💫 thats a lot of people and conflicts and developments (but it all really fits together in such a satisfying wayy)
I just need to design all of the characters in their various states of being throughout time, no big deal at all 🥲
(This is the burden i have to bear for having the creativity autism)
This made me look through my ocs and I'm shocked how much sense went into design subconsciously? Like i have this one oc with whose hair i wasn't totally satisfied with and was thinking about changing her hairstyle. But now I've realized that, yeah, she would wear it like that.
Omg that's so me, I tend to do hair subconsciously too with my OCs! It just shows good character design haha
I'm so glad I got recommended this video, because hair is one of my all time favorite things to play around with when it comes to characters, and I personally love pushing that to its extremes (something I find easier to get away with by using a more cartoonish style of drawing). One of my favorite places to look for inspiration is pokemon characters, especially the designs for gym leaders, because of the ways that shape design/language will be utilized as well.
Using shapes in hair design is something I take a lot of joy in, like for my two main characters, one having hair shaped like a star silhouette (representing his ability with celestial magic), and the other with lots of hearts (which I play around with even more throughout their growth as a character, and in certain stages, having it so that the hearts look 'broken'). Or a blacksmith with hair that looks like fire in the most literal sense without being actual flames.
It really is a fun way to get across either personality, occupation, both, and more :D
You're right! The gym leaders in Pokémon are a great source! This also reminded me of spinel from steven universe, who's hair goes from being heart shapes, to just becoming loose and unkept ponytails after waiting for 6,000 years! Anyways I love that you use shapes in hair design, especially in fun ways like stars and hearts!
Great video!! It really made me think about hair symbolism in my own OCs, since even though I don't really consciously think about it when designing them, cultural attitudes and tropes about hair still inform how they're designed.
The best example that comes to mind is my OC, Leela, whose natural hair doesn't grow very long, and she has an assortment of wigs that she wears to express herself. She's also chronically ill/disabled, which is what causes her hair not to grow, and her extremely long colorful wigs kinda let her take back that avenue of self expression! Most of them are in pigtails to represent her childish personality. But sometimes she doesn't wear a wig at all, and shows her natural hair instead. This can be either when she's too depressed to bother putting on a wig, or when she's on a self-confident streak, so it really depends on the context.
Hair is one of the most recognizable aspects of a character design and it's really important to pay attention to!
I agree that it's super important to pay attention to! And I really love your OC Leela, the hair symbolism is definitely strong here, especially how she takes autonomy with her choice of hairstyle whether it's a wig or natural hair! I can definitely see how her disability doesn't entirely define her, but instead, she chooses how to present herself based on how she's feeling. That's the right kind of representation imo!
Awesome breakdown! I don’t usually think about hair that much for my characters outside of overall design, but now you gave me a newfound appreciation for it. I’m glad your video was in my recommendeds!
yay! I'm glad this video helped, hair symbolism is so fun to draw and write tbh!
CANNOT stress how fast i clicked this video.......I LOVE HAIR SYMBOLISM. I have thought about this a ridiculous amount with my own OCs. So, since everyone else is OC infodumping in the comments, and it's so fun to read, I will contribute.
- One has long, messy, and wavy bleach blonde hair with dark natural roots that they keep prominent on purpose. This character has an extremely rare power that is often associated with "holiness," which draws tons of attention to themself because they have a strong aura of magic everyone else can feel almost always. Their hair represents their relationship with this concept.
- One is a Black girl who wears different colorful wigs all the time in the first half of the story, then natural hairstyles in the second half (now with colorful accessories instead.) She starts out as extremely indecisive, anxious, and even jealous at times, always trying to put on a front and be the "cheerful one" in the room. Even as she mellows out, however, she remains very artsy as well.
- One has long auburn curly hair. Her hair is shown to have been shorter up until she met her best friend who encouraged her to grow it out. She is genderfluid/transfem, and her growing out her hair long coincides with her beginning to accept the more feminine part of her identity. She's very reserved usually, so the color and curliness are meant to hint at her true nature.
- One has short, shaggy (naturally dark) hair with long bangs, and one very long bit of fringe in the front. Despite trying to push people away out of paranoia and fear of attachment, it's still super easy to tell he's actually quite friendly if you try to strike up a conversation with him anyways. He is as edgy and rebellious as he is caring and gentle. A true emo...
OMG I LOVE YOUR USE OF HAIR SYMBOLISM WITHIN YOUR OCS! These are all great examples, and I like how you tend to use hair symbolism to denote their current personality and how they're feeling in the story, to later use hair as a way to symbolize growth and healthy change. Especially when it comes to the genderfluid OC and the black girl OC! All of this is great hair symbolism!
@@Rosemadi.artist Tysm!! I love yours too! I'll have to check out your work :O
My favorite hair related OC has to be a character whose family made him keep his hair in a long braid all of his childhood and he kept his hair short and overly gelled for years before in the story he finally puts the gel bottle down and lets his hair grow out a little and be a bit more messy as he eventually learns to trust himself and truly do what he wants with his life.
oooo yeah that's definitely some good hair symbolism right there! Being able to break away from the chemicals and pressures of family norms--- 100% some good hair symbolism!!
Hair is such a fun thing to design! All my ocs have thought and consideration put into their hairstyles
That's great to hear! It's the best to have hair symbolism!
This just made me realise I need to watch avatar again ☺️☺️
It's so good, I need to watch it again too! 😌😌
i love using hair symbolism in things, for example I wanted to show that two characters (A, B) aligned with another character C, character C is known for having a long prominent braid so I gave them each a single small braid in their hair. When character C betrayed the group they changed hairstyles.
Then also with character A, she has an absentee dad but it took her a while to move on, so for a very long time she kept her bangs similarly to him before cutting them off in a hairstyle more like her new father figure and dying it to the same color as the rest of the family she joined.
That's one of my favorite hair symbolism aspects! When the hair correlates to someone's alignment and you basically did it perfectly with the braid! Also with character A, I love this aspect too of using hair to literally and metaphorically cut off what's bugging you!
I have an OC where he has a really Long low ponytail thats binded together in some string. It symbolizes his elegance and strength, especally when he's fighing. He even at one point took out his ponytail to let his long hair flow to help teach his friend to fight/defend properly who couldn't control her hair. And in their last battle at the end of the story, his ponytail was chopped off in the conflict, nearly missing him. He was pretty sad about losing his long hair because it was a part of his identity, but his friends helped him to be ok with it in the end. After all, it was physical proof that he lived from the fight and saved what him and his friends needed to save.
It's super risky to have long hair when you know you have to fight, and I'm sure your OC knew that. That's why it's so much more tragic when it does get chopped off. That's a part of him. Anyways great use of hair symbolism!
@@Rosemadi.artist Tysm!
Ahhhh I remember when I learned about hair racism in a Moon Girl video essay lol, so stupid
Cool stuff 👍
I still need to watch that show tbh omg!
I have a fantasy world and one of the fastest ways I build culture is by creating a standard for hair!
For example I have a group of sheep satyrs whose hair represents what job they do in the community. My main character is a farmer so she gets twin braids.
I have a group of Centaurs whose hair remains covered because other groups of people would cut the hair off of them to use for various purposes. So now they hide their hair as a safety precaution.
There is also a group of Cervitaurs (centaurs but deer instead of horses) who add twine and beads to their hair to denote rank/status.
My main character Rain struggles with Amensia, yes yes I know but she hit her head and lost an eye so the amnesia is warranted. She gets separated from her people who no one has seen in 300 or so years right? So she clings to any remnants of her culture she has that being her hair in twin braids. She doesn't know why but any other style she tries just doesn't feel right to her. So she wanders around this fantasy world trying to find information either about her people or their whereabouts.
Omg I love the idea that hair in your universe is something that needs to be protected (like in the case with the centaurs) or something that signifies their occupations! I also think there's something here about the centaurs that are interesting!
Instead of shaving their heads bald, they'd rather hide it. And that in itself says a lot about how much they respect their hair and despise the deeds of others. Especially since they need their hair to denote status!
I guess I’ve never really noticed or thought of hair symbolism that much in terms of the story, but I DEFINITELY will be focusing on it now! I think without even realizing it I have hair symbolism in SO MANY of my OC’s. I did consciously know I was putting in some symbolism, with representation, and most of my characters being POC, and the classic thing, which most girlies can relate to, where when life gets a bit too stressful you just go and chop all your hair off. But now after watching this, I’m definitely gonna hyper analyze my characters hair styles, why I drew them that way, why their hair has changed, how WILL their hair change, and the SYMBOLISM BEHIND IT!!
I am SO excited rn, I’m gonna add SO much hair symbolism into my story now!
This is the first video I’ve watched on your channel, will definitely be checking more of your videos out!
Yay!!! I'm so glad that the video helped you realize hair symbolism! Omg, I feel like with some of my OCs starting out, they didn't have much hair symbolism, but as I continued to write the story and learn about it, it just became so much more organic and natural to their development. I for sure wish you the best when it comes to the hair symbolism in your story!
I have a OC who keeps his hair long throughout his life, being a heir he needs to be presentable. Another important fact about his hair is the relationship with his mother, she has always taken care of his hair since childhood so no one else is allowed to touch it. 🥰
oooooo I for sure love the hair symbolism here! You can really tell that your OC is close to his mom!!
I have a few characters with different hair choices.
One is a pair of sisters, the younger having long hair she really can't take care of herself because she's a very young free spirit, and the older having short side parted hair that can cover one of her eyes if she wants it to.
There's another Character who I made for DnD who I have a curly hair type similar to some black peeps, to show that she's an outsider to the majority mideval European influenced setting, as her deal is trying to learn all she can about her new surroundings. (Also it's just a very pretty hair type, and I'm so glad her design pushed me to learn how to draw it)
Another character has feathers instead because she birb. She's fun. Feathers are hard to draw as well lol.
4b hair textures can be very hard yet very fun to draw and I'm glad that you've experimented with drawing it in your story! Also I for sure love the concept of your pair of sisters characters and their hair! You can really get an idea of their personalities from that alone! Also also I need to see how you draw feathers that make it hard lmao
@Rosemadi.artist It's just that I didn't know how the layers in hair worked yet, and always drew it as one giant shape. I still kinda do, but I'm trying to move away from it. But people assume a shape on the head is hair (hence why it worked until this point), so that wouldn't work with feathers because it's already assumed to be hair. So I stared drawing them as though she had scales on her head, although more bendy and soft if possible. If her head feathers were longer that might have still given me issues tho
Wait 😭 I draw giant shapes too, well idk, I heard when drawing hair, you draw the shape and then the finer details
@@Rosemadi.artistShape def comes first. How do you draw feathers? Am I missing something?
I have an OC who starts off straightening and dyeing her hair brown (naturally curly and ginger), and keeping it in a bun because she was trying really hard to come across as down to earth and serious, and was sucking up to people. Then she starts letting her hair be more natural as she loosens up, and doesn't tie it up as much. Ends their arc when she dyes their fringe teal and stops putting her hair in a bun , since they've completely freed themselves from the expectations put on her.
Their husband starts with under-the-shoulders length hair that he ties back which is meant to be prince-like, things start going to shit for him and he ties it higher up, things get much worse and he cuts it short (like, chin-length), and then he gets better and his hair is shoulder length and half up because things will never be the way they used to :)
In a completely different universe, having braided hair means your a traveler because braiding is similar to weaving, which is associated with the goddess of life, who is associated with both art and travel.
Most cultures keep their hair half up and half down except for the one under the goddess of earth's protection, who do either fully up or fully down, to symbolize that they're more grounded and committed whilst the others are more free-spirited and indecisive.
They keep a part of their hair really long for the duration of the mourning process and cut it off once it's over to make a rope they tie on the branches of the closest tree to the deceased's body. The longer the hair/rope, the more you care about that person.
Hair symbolism is really fun to play with! No wonder it's my favorite thing to draw, it's great
Omg yesss!!! I love that concept of having your hair tied up and then having it loose as a way of showing freedom from such a former rigid lifestyle! Even the touch of teal is such a good idea! One of the main traits of the color teal is its calmness effect, so I can totally see how the dye can symbolize that calming aspect to her growing personality!
Also your other universe with the braided hair is so in depth omg wth I love it so much! I think that's great that you've already tied hair to characteristics like being free spirited and indecisive, while also giving it that cultural meaning within the story! That's like some top tier-esque hair symbolism haha!
I think the first instance I really noticed hair with intentional symbolism was when Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance showed Riku having cut his long hair he grew from Kingdom Hearts 2. A lot of the fandom at the time (and even now in some spaces) were pretty mad cause they liked his long hair look, but I remember reading an interview from the series' creator Tetsuya Nomura that the hair cut was symbolism for Riku trying to make a real fresh start in his life. His long hair in KH2 was less of a choice he made and more a reflection of Riku not taking care of himself and choosing to hide from others, so cutting his hair was a sign that he was ready to put his past behind him and move forward.
Man this situation sounds almost similar to Tangled where people are upset that a character looks less hot when they cut their hair. But honestly there's inner beauty behind the haircut. I really like Tetsuya Nomura's reasoning behind why he chose to cut Riku's hair!
I have this one OC- possibly my favourite by far- and he is cursed by the very god he worships to be reborn again and again each time he dies. Every different version of him has a different hairstyle, usually symbolizing how much of his past he carries with him and how much he is breaking free from who he was in his past lives. This video was incredible, despite you saying at the end it "doesn't make any sense" I found you explained it very well and the fact that you added your personal experience with this just made it even more impactful! Symbolism through hair is one of my absolute favourite things in character design and I hope more people will see this video and find new ways to express themselves and their characters!
Awww thanks, I'm really glad this video helped! But anyways your OCs dilemma sounds super excruciating omg, but I do love how you use his different hairstyles to symbolize breaking free from a past life!!
THIS IS A REALLY GREAT VIDEO, I ADORE IT SO,, AS SOMEONE WHO LOVES CHARACTER DESIGN THIS IS SUPER DUPER INSIGHTFUL AND AWESOME!!!
I HAVE A LOT OF DIFFICULTY DESIGNING CHARACTERS THAT ARE HUMAN,, MOSTLY BECAUSE I LOVE OBJECT HEADS AND CARTOONISH ROBOTS. SO A LOT OF THE TIME I REALLY ZERO IN ON HOW I PRESENT THEIR HAIR! ALBEIT IN A VERY EXAGGERATED AND CARTOONY WAY,, SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT DANGANRONPA BUT I REALLY LIKE HOW THEY HANDLE CHARACTER DESIGNS,, ESPECIALLY THEIR HAIR! EVEN IF ITS WILDLY RIDICULOUS IT REALLY MAKES IT EASY TO IDENTIFY A CHARACTER FROM THEIR HAIR ALONE.
SO YEAH,, HAIR IS AWESOME,, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T CHANGE IT CAN STILL SAY A LOT ABOUT A CHARACTER OR JUST SIMPLY MAKE THEM MORE ICONIC,,
IF YOU EVER GOOGLE DANGANROMPA SILLOUTTES, YOU CAN TELL THAT EVEN FROM THE CHARACTER'S HAIRSTYLES, THEIR DESIGNS ARE ICONIC! THAT'S SO IMPORTANT WHEN IT COMES TO CHARACTER DESIGN AND STORIES WITH A LOT OF CHARACTERS IN IT! EVEN TOTAL DRAMA WHICH IS LIKE DANGANROMPA DOES IT! ALSO THANKS!!!!
Great video! I've always been obsessed with drawing and designing hairstyles and kinda vaguely knew a lot of this but it's nice to see someone talk more in length about it!
You saying the word length could be a hair pun 😭😭but in all seriousness, I'm glad this video helped!!
@Rosemadi.artist lol it could! The video was great, I really enjoyed it!
Awe thanks thanks that truly means a lot!! 😭💕
I LOVE crazy hairstyles so much, they can show so much and tbh, i sometimes just love to draw a certain character js bc the hairstyle feels good to draw
my honest experience is not that deep, as a mixed person with curly hair feels so nice, cuz you don't see that a lot in my zone (argentina) so is basically part of my identity! ive recently started taking more care of it and i just feel so nice!
some pepole even call me "Rulos" which means curls in spanish, i find it kinda sweet 4 sum reason
Omg same! Sometimes when I'm drawing a page for my webnovel, I get excited cause I can draw my characters and their hairstyles at different angles!
Also anyways that's definetly a nice nickname to have haha, and I'm happy that you're embracing your natural curls!
My little pony was my everything when it came to hairstyles. Including equestria girls but even past that show any character with hair that caught my attention?? Had to draw
where is MLP streaming? I'm late to the party but I need to watch!
@@Rosemadi.artist I honestly have no clue but I know theres full episodes on youtube
Hmmm interesting, I'll go investigate 🔎
So I have two D&D characters whose hair is significant to them:
One is a half-elf warlock who was kidnapped as a teenager by Lolth-sworn drow and forced into servitude in Menzoberranzan. They shaved her long white-blonde hair, symbolizing a control over her situation and her lost autonomy. When she made her pact and escaped, she began growing her hair back out. In the present day, she’s still very sensitive about her hair: she refuses to let anyone touch it and only cuts it if it grows too long. No one can ever take her autonomy again.
My other one is a human druid who used to be a noblewoman and she was well known for the long, beautiful natural curls that fell to her waist. After she abandoned the nobility to find fulfillment in nature, she locked her hair but she still tends to it regularly and even adorns her locs with jewelry. You can take the girl out of the nobility, but you can’t take the nobility out of the girl.
Sorry to ramble, I just get really excited whenever I get the opportunity to infodump about my OCs lol
Omg I love your DND characters and their lore honestly!!! The trauma and extra precaution in your elf OC are super tragic. The way she was kidnapped at an early age (and I'm assuming she had the same haircut as the other servants) it's just super sad all around!
But your human druid character, her story is so heartwarming in my opinion! The way she basically gave up a lavish lifestyle to a lifestyle more in tune with her soul!
This may be a stupid question since I've never played DND, but does the human and elf ever meet? 😭😭I'm sure their conversation would be an insightful one
I have 5 ocs who have really long hair but they have different hair styles this symbolism means even if there personalities are different they still have a very tigh bond and look out for each other
That's super cool to have with OCS! Hair that differs but still unifies!
So, you want hair examples?
I am a gijinka artist, which means I make human versions of nonhuman things. Most of my characters only have one hairstyle through the whole of their appearance to keep them recognizable. But! I still have made some choices that relate to the character. Let’s take Canada as an example. She is a sniper who uses both guns and bows, so she keeps her hair short on one side and shaved on the other. It also shows her military associations, for despite being seen as a passive country, she’s actually very good on combat.
Yes, I did want some hair examples haha! But anyways I love Canada's hairstyle, I believe that the short hair shaved combo really creates the version of Canada that she wants to be and not the version of Canada others perceive her as, and that in itself is pretty cool!
I used to be very ashamed of having curls and waves until I decided to cut my own hair short. The character I draw often is a longer-haired guy with plenty of curls because he’s a pretty boy type character and I want to portray non-straight hair as a beautiful thing. He canonically would not allow anyone to straighten his hair or cut it too short.
redefining and taking back beauty standards is something I love about the modern day! Your pretty boy OC is honestly pretty based for that. I don't know if you're living vicariously through your OCs, but I'm living vicariously through my OCs and giving them the hairstyles I used to hate but now love/appreciate!
@ I tend to explore femininity with him not only through him having longer hair than me but also his clothes, makeup, and behaviors. It’s very fun drawing a guy who is so sparkly and likes partaking in effeminate hobbies.
FR! Characters that typically break gender norms are honestly the best!
I actually love short hair Rapunzel!! She was one of my inspirations for chopping all my hair off, lol. I was kind of sad when I realized she was gonna have the long hair again in the series.
Spoiler, but it goes back to short in the end of the series! What I do wanna mention is how we need more merchandise with short haired Raps!!!
Super interesting video! I haven't really given hair symbolism a lot of thought until now, mainly because I've had robot fandom brainrot for a few years XD (we do new paintjobs and body mods for symbolism instead)
Sooner or later I'll be back in human-focused fandoms again (or heck, maybe even my own writing if I can muster the energy), so I'll try to remember this video for then. I can certainly think of a few characters who *should* get a symbolic haircut at one point or another, and one character who maintains a specific hairstyle for work should get to let her hair down when she has time off, because she values that divide between work and family time.
P.S. Sorry people gave you shit for your hair. For what it's worth, cornrows and small braids are easily among the top 5 coolest hairstyles in my opinion. They just look really *neat* in a way I can't really articulate well.
Awe thank you!!! Because of my own video, I planned to have my hair braided next month, so that's a thing that's happening 😭😭💕💕 I feel encouraged by everyone!
Also i've been able to help people from the warrior cats fandom find hair symbolism 💀💀💀so I could probably help the robot fandom! But yeah you can use different colors, stencil designs, dents and rust, size and material as symbolism!
also also with your human character, that's some good hair symbolism right there! Letting your hair down on your down time!
Symbolism in anyway is something i should really work on adding to my OCs. I have some who go through hair change that ARE symbolic but i didn't think of it that way when i made them lol.
Rachelle is is a transgender woman who was kicked out at 16 by her bigoted parents. She was forced to keep her hair somewhat short and boyish until she was kicked out (a "friend" outed her thinking it would be fine, thinking she would get support. She didn't.) Then she was rescued by grumpy male parental figure ™ who didn't give a sh!t about her hair. She let them grown a bit, then came out to him. After some shenanigans with magic and a demon possession her hair now naturally grown bubblegum pink lol.
Ana has naturally pretty curly, ginger hair. Due to living in some entities cult she was forced to have them strained, and always attached in some way (pony tail, ect.), it can represent the way she was trapped in this cult. After breaking free physical AND mentally from the cult she let her hair be free and wild and natural.
(Btw they're girlfriends lol)
Grumpy Father Figure™ use to have really short hair when he was in some sort of bad guys army but after leaving he started growning out his hair.
I noticed i actually put more Symbolism into my warrior cats/feral OCs. Since they don't wear clothes, my mind go more naturally toward making noticeable change in their appearances. Whatever it is getting scare(s), some accessories, gaining or losing weight, their fur length and all. I really need to think more of that stuff lol
And honestly, i myself is going through a "my life is changing and so is my hairstyle" moment. I always had super long hair. Due to potential autism any physical change to my body i cannot immediately reverse is horribly difficult for me to do. It's only recently that i allowed the tip of my hair to be cut and that i dyed a part of if for exemple. And guess what? Soon I'll be getting a wolf cut. I'll need to cut more than half of my hair. I am terrified but also i can't wait, I've been wanting to cut them for more than 3 years now. I have 2a hair, and there is a possibility that with that much weight taken off of my them, they will grown more into their curls and my hair will be more natural fluffy which i can't wait for. I specially want to cut my hair for them to be less feminine, I'm genderfluid and while I'm very open about it, i look very much afab physically. Which is eeeh cause i trend to both feel and want to present more on the andro and masc side. So it's kind of a big step towards physically being myself, not just verbally. I'm also slowly getting my more alt clothing styles little by little and i can't wait to look in the mirror and see myself just a bit more, instead of this strange I'm simply used to see for the last 18 years
Omg first and foremost, congrats to you and making more steps towards the Andro and masc side! I know it's difficult asf trying to be genderfluid when you're under 18. My mom would scold and make faces at my boys clothing during early high school, so yeah honestly more power to you and congrats!
also I honestly need to know where are all the warrior cats fans are coming from 😭😭😭I think it's like half my audience at this point lmao, and I keep telling myself I'll read the books! Anyways, I was telling someone else that it's 100% possible to show hair symbolism through fur. You can make it like spikey, curly, long, short etc. And also the color is a big thing as well!
And also I love your OC Rachelle, her story honestly is very impactful, and I'd even say hopeful!
OOoo!! This is such lovely insight into a topic that's incredibly important when showing character development :o Now I'm thinking ab how to incorporate hair symbolism in my own stories, especially when connecting it to each character's backgrounds.
This also made me realize my own hair journey, especially during your own hair journey segment. I've realized how my hairstyle progression is connected to discovering my gender and the fading fear of being true to who I am identity-wise and personality-wise. Going from conventionally long and straight to shaving half of it off to now having a shaved and curly/wavy hair balance that I've had for many years. Excellent video! And likely one I'll revisit when seriously building characters ^-^
Yay! I'm glad that this video helped in some way! But yeah, the best source of understanding hair symbolism is just finding it within yourself. There was a time too when I was figuring out my gender identity, and would have hairstyles that were more gender neutral, pair it up with some guy's clothes haha and no one could tell, but then I started having it longer. Idk, I can just see old photos of myself and tell exactly how I was feeling during that time, I'm sure you can too!
One day I thought about making hairstyles unique. I wanted to go afro with a character because I thought it would suit her really well, taking inspiration from a random girl in an ad on tv
There are other styles I experimented with them like Envy's in FMAB which now was a bit modified and is in a side character of my main fun project. But I gotta give the award to a pretty new character, cause I wanted to shape her hair like an upside down mezzaluna knife, because of her cooking skills. And I just did it
Omg I love when the hair shows what a character's occupation is, and I think the upside down mezzaluna knife is a great way to demonstrate that! Also some of the best inspiration comes from the most unlikely sources haha, I love that a random girl on TV inspired you and she probably doesn't even know!
This was really well done and had my full attention the entire time! It's a really interesting topic and i love hearing different perspectives on it! Leaving a comment for the algorithm :)
Aweeee thank you so so much, that truly means a lot!!
Hair symbolism has got to be one of the greatest writing devices. One of my absolute favorite tropes is when a character changes their hair after a traumatic and/or life changing event!
(Silly little video idea for ya: killing off characters)
One of my main OCs will die eventually in the story! Once I finish writing that I'll make that video, cause I'm still going through a roller coaster of emotions lmao!! But I'll for sure make that video one day 😭😭😭
Yeah I agree on the Rapunzel thing especially once her hair is properly styled later on
How farther later on are we talking? The tv show?? 😭😭
@Rosemadi.artist yeah I meant the tv show for the short time she had short hair or in the wedding short
Hmmm i believe you, I just need to go check the wedding version again
Majority of hair changes happens in my OCs that are teens and children, cause you really change a lot and it's fun to think how it's gonna work. But for me hair is just a part of the design. Face, body, gestures, colors, expression of emotions, that all can change. And even though for me personally my hair does not mean much, it can for my characters. I cut my own hair, after first year of doing it, I'm better then most salons I've been to. I did shave it off twice, one time cause I've made a little mistake at cutting and decided to just let it be gone fully, the other to get rid of dandruff (it was a good decision actually). I like my natural color, but if I feel like having fun, I will just go and dye it. In real life hair tells less then in fiction. Like, if you see me with green hair and some shaving on the back of the head, where I can't see it, you can tell that I probably don't work at a bank or have money to get it done professionally. Also I am less concerned about my appearance then people usually do, yet it's not zero, cause then it'll be head shaven, only some hair left so scalp won't be fully exposed (it's uncomfortable while being comfortable, odd stuff). But depending on the story, OCs hair is gonna have way more of red door effect, while affected by problems like mine less (unless story is specifically focused on it)
Yeah for sure, hair in real life can just simply be because you like the style! I usually put my hair in a bun, not because I'm going to exercise or attend a business meeting or something. I just have it because it's convenient for me. I agree that it's good to have OC hair changes from children, to teens, to adults! A lot of the time, the child doesn't pick their hairstyle.
Hmmm... I did have some minor stuff with that with SOME characters, but maybe I should do it more often.
I have a few characters like North who gets a piece of hair that grows over her right eye, which is where her boyfriend and kid typically stand. Not because she's blind to what they do, she just allows herself to be vulnerable around them.
I think in any piece of work, the aspect of vulnerability should be written and discussed more, so yeah that's some good hair symbolism imo!
My mc of my video game project has bedhead but ties it all up to stay out of her face. She’s in a survival horror game, she’s only got time for dry shampoo and shooting demons in the face 😂
The allegory of the entire game (bahaha I can spoiler since this is a lurker account) is embracing your hair going grey. She doesn’t “attain her true powers” until she accepts that she’s aging, along with coming to terms with other things all at once, just like the chaos of real life 🤭 I just think that message should be there for us girlies getting older, and you can still be ENTIRELY YOURSELF otherwise.
Omg that's so important, letting your hair go grey! Bojack is one of those characters who's maturity is shown through his hair as it goes from black to grey. And also Lilith from the owl house lets her hair have a grey streak as well overtime! Anyways your game sounds great like there's a lot of thought put into it!
10:00 THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABT TTS OH MHG GOOODDDDDDD I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH JRKDNFJDMD!!!! Pointing out the idea of nonconformity and unnatural hair color within the series is so interesting to me! When you mentioned Varian’s rebellion, I thought I’d also point out that he’s shown to be a bit of an outcast within old corona, so maybe his goofy ass streak could symbolize that as well as his extensive criminal record? AND WITH CASSANDRA, usually soldiers keep their hair short, so it could also be her desire to be part of that!!
YESSSSSSSS ANOTHER TTS FAN! I can't even express how much I love this cartoon and there's so much I wanted to say about Cassandra's hair that I kind of spared for time omg, but yes, I 100% agree that her hair was cut short because of her desire to be a guard! If you look at every named woman in the palace from Queen Arianna to Faith to even Friedborg (That one freaky chick who gets confused for Cassandra) They all have medium length to long hair. Meanwhile, Cassandra's hairstyle sticks out so much compared to the other girls in Corona! That's why I have a headcannon that when she's in her lady-in-waiting outfit, she hides her short hair under her bonnet to assimilate more, make it seem like an updo. Cassandra is very aware of what's prim and proper, she corrects Raps all the time. But despite this, Cass hates that freaking lady in waiting bonnet. She loves pulling it off any chance she gets. And the moment she took over Corona and visited her old bedroom, she struck that bonnet with a rock 😭😭😭
I do notice that she shows her short bob in her royal guard outfit though! It's very intriguing, so why does she hide it as a lady in waiting? she doesn't have to hide it, cause Friedborg doesn't hide her hair. Omg gears are spinning; I think it's very intentional!
but omg I believe you're right with about Varian and his goofy ass streak! It shows his criminal record and since he's had it from the beginning and it doesn't change, I wanna believe he did some random alchemy experiment to cause it 😭😭😭It's clear that Varian wants to be accepted by society (since he was willing to wipe everyone's mind in season 3 💀💀💀) but at the same time he also wants to be himself. So his hair reflects that conformity and experimental side of him!
I was well familiar of shape and color symbolism but not as much with hair, primarily because a good chunk of what I draw doesn't have hair. So when I'm left with an opportunity to give a character a hairstyle (or something mimicking that), I often drew a blank. I learned ALOT, thank you for making this!
Yay I'm glad this video helped! Shape and color symbolism are super important as well! And even though I didn't touch on it on this video, you can apply shape and color symbolism in the design of a character's hair!
I love love LOVE designing hairstyles for my characters, this video is JUST what i needed, props to you!
Yayyyyyyyyyyy! I'm glad that I'm on time haha!
When I think about hair symbolism I think of one of my ocs who acts extremely prim and proper, he’s basically extremely polite and a bit of a neat freak and obsessed about everything being neat and organised, but the one thing that deviates from that clean look is his hair. It’s short but noticeably uncombed and just kinda washes it and leaves it there. This (hopefully) indicates that he’s not all that he seems and he actually comes from a former home of untidiness, and his lack of hair styling is one of the few things that manages to slip through the cracks of his past.
Another interesting thing about this character’s hair is that complete baldness in men runs in his family, and he spends a lot of time doing preventative haircare and in a strange way this kind of can symbolise his desire to remove himself from the cycle of generational trauma. He has permanently lost quite a bit of hair before he started preventative haircare and in his story when he was starting to lose his hair he was also starting to slowly fall into continuing the cycle. But he managed to stop it in time.
Yeah I can for sure see with your OC that his hair is tied to his family, whether it being unkempt to show how he used to be in untidiness. Or how it's balding to show that he has something from his family in his genes, no matter how much he tries to distance himself by being tidy and do preventative haircare, a part of his generational trauma is still there!
I love hair symbolism!!!
That's why its a big part of my webcomic as well. Right now im diving more into the color symbolism than hairstyle/length. Its such a good visual storytelling device 🙏
Color symbolism is so good as well! You can mix it into character designs and ofc hair designs!! Telling a story without a single word spoken!!
I love this video! I also have a LOT of hair symbolism for my characters. One of my character has the same hair style, locs, for basically their whole life (which is intentional, they love consistency and routine) but small subtle things change throughout.
The kind of locs they have change (from very manicured to semi free form as they become less rigid and conforming), how they style their locs change (completely covers their eyes as a child, out of their face and pulled up and back as a professional adult in a work environment not accepting of their hair, shaved sides and less manicured when their professional life falls apart and they're in a more nonconventional but accepting environment, cut off entirely and regrown into a new swt of bob length locs for the first time in 20 years as they move past some very traumatic changes and start life again), etc.
The entire reason they have locs at all is connected their personality (they like conventional feminine beauty of having long hair even if the rest of their appearance is fairly androgynous, but the pragmatism of a relatively lower maintenance hair style). It is also connected to their childhood experiences. They have hair that is often framed as 'difficult' (high density, type 4) and are trans, specifically tranfeminine, so while their mother was not judgemental of their desire for long hair, she didn't see the same necessity to dedicate time and effort to upkeeping it as she did for their cisgender sisters (of which there are a whopping five, in addition to 5 other kids, so time was also a factor). They're also autistic, so the constant manipulation of hair, and the sensory overload that can come with that made things harder for them and their mother. Wash day was a battleground 😂 i have personal experience of how much of a nightmare it can be to both do the hair of and have your hair done when you're neurodivergent AND tenderheaded. The healthy medium was 'you can have long hair but you either learn to take care of it yourself or get locs, which are easier for me and you to take care of. Otherwise off the to barber you go'. So a hairstyle kinda born out of less than ideal circumstances but becomes a huge part of who they are and an extremely recognizable feature.
All of this is also in direct contrast to their romantic partner and foil, who is constantly changing her hair, occasionally shaves it bald, and dyes it different colours.
Obviously the reader won't know most of this, but I do love knowing it myself and letting it bleed into the narrative. I love hair, especially Black hair! Can you tell? 😂
You know, being autistic and finding change difficult is a thing that is studied often I believe! So ofc I'm sure that hair changing can be a very big leap for anyone who's on the spectrum! That can be a sign of symbolism too when it comes to their story and honestly I feel like we need more stories with neurodivergent characters! I also like how you use their hair to symbolize gender identity as well!
I don't know why, but your comment triggered a flashback of the first night after getting freshly done cornrows or box braids, THAT HURT ALOOOOTTTT, but the hairstyles were always pretty! I love black hair too omg!!!
Fun fact! I actually have a charater who's long hair is an act of rebelling!
Maria, an experiment oc, had her hair often cut very short(and poorly cut), so training and testing was much easier. But when she regained freedom as the site went into chaos, she let her hair grow back long and straight just like she hadn't before becoming an experiment! Letting her hair grow was a way to show she was making her own choice and it's also because shes inscure about her body. Long hair feels much more covering for her and makes her feel more pretty. It's also often wet as she loves to swim around and chill in small pools of water!
I cant belive one of my most fleshed out characters is for the game Pressure 😔
Omg yeah that's some great use of hair symbolism! The way that Maria uses her hair growth as a way to distance herself from her past life! A way to have a hairstyle that she chose and is more akin to what she wants since she didn't have the choice before. All good, super good use!
I have this character who's from a royal family yet has been severely neglected and malnourished. her hair is thin and stringy, while her sister and brother have thick, poofy hair that's clearly well-groomed
Omg that's so sad, I'm curious why they're neglected and not her siblings
I did this age meme of the mc in my comic (I should do that with more ocs, it was fun), where basically it's them at the ages of kindergarten, grade school, middle/junior high/high school, and their present day age.
I had a lot of fun with it, since my MC has straightened hair when you see her in present day, but she's straightening it. I also have her emotion express via her hair, like a cockatoo/or what I took it from, a chocobo. But her natural hair is waaaay more curly and cute.
The symbolism here being that she's suppressing what she's really like, due to trying to live up to imaginary standards that she thinks her family has of her. I do plan on her hair changing as she progresses through the story and becomes more relaxed and open.
Thank you so much for taking us on this journey. I never see enough videos talking about the hair of black characters, so please, talk more about it if you want to! ^^
That's so true! Hair growing for character development should be used more! I'm currently blanking right now if any character has had that happen omg! Maybe Luz in the finale of the Owl House, but I don't think it's anything deep, it's just she got powers and grew hair lmao. Anyways, I like that your MC has hair symbolism in her development, I think that's another thing that should happen more! Themes of letting go, relaxation, and expression comes the best with hair symbolism! I'll talk about black hair more in my 2152 the trifold article hair symbolism video, if I ever make that lmao.
4:17 not the right balanced samsung notification noise treatmeant I cant LMAO
It makes me laugh so hard I'm sorry 💀💀💀
thank you SOOO SO MUCH for making this video!! Omg, I’m so glad to have randomly stumbled upon this channel!
For almost a year, I have been working hard trying to develop a graphic novel series, and coming up with character designs have been one of my biggest struggles. This video is especially helpful since my main character is an Amputee- BIPOC teenager who has to learn how to survive on her own when she’s been “sheltered” for the vast majority of her life, in a post apocalyptic world.
:) I think I have an idea now of what direction I want to take with her, Visually and Symbolically! 😁
Also post note: I want to give an example how I show hair symbolism.😅
Along side my main Gal, she befriends and ends up forming a Musical resistance with this Frankenstein/Vampiric Cyborg creature, :) his name is DOWNER.
My character of DOWNER is a very “no F’s given” rebel at heart kind of soul, with a total flair for the dramatic.
:) in the beginning of the series, his standard design I gave him has him sporting a mullet- as to also show as to how “out of touch” with the current decade he is.😅 He takes heavy inspiration from the likes of “Rocky Horror”, as well as a lot of the styles from within the 70’s 80’s wave of punk and post punk. 😊
His hair style is shown to be shorter and more “conservative” as we glimpse into his past (specifically in the 80’s, the decade where he was created!)
I feel like you and I could high five or something 😭💕 cause I also have an OC who goes from a mullet to a shorter hairstyle! But it's for a different reason, more so that he wouldn't stand out so much in society! BUT ANYWAYYSSS your story sounds great and your use of hair symbolism is amazing! It's also cool that you have an amputee BIPOC character in your story! There's a youtuber named Oakwyrm (I don't know him personally lmao) He talks about disabilities in cartoons, and I think that'll also be a great reference for you when creating your story! Anyways thanks for checking out the video! 💕💕💕
This video is awesome! LUV UR ENERGY BTW!!1!
aweeeeeee thank you thank you so much!!! 😭😭💕💕
9:20 oooooo there's actually some cool history stuff with this (this is spur of the moment I don't know if you mention it in the video.) this is based off of the Chinese Queue hairstyle. This was enforced by the Qing dynasty on Han men as a signifier of shame.
Woah I did not know that! But it makes sense since the avatar team tends to take reference from real life, regardless that's a great fact!
Alright time to force my characters on people againnnn
This time with symbolism.
Harumi first because she's easier.
Hair length I think I tried to come up with some symbolism for but NAHHHH
In her story when her friend Mieko dies, she chops her hair off into a messy bob cut. Her reasons? Mieko was her world (Not in a healthy way) and she didn't know what to do without her. She also is also feels guilty about letting Mieko die because Mieko killed someone for her, but she couldn't bear to let others die.
But the interesting thing is when she cuts her hair the interaction she has after that is with Asuka (friends oc) who was also Mieko's friend. He offers to try and help her make her hair look better and they talk about Mieko. The two characters never became close but they both understood how the other felt about Mieko in a way the others couldn't. They might not have come out of it as friends, but they gained an understanding no one else could.
ALRIGHT IT'S MISS TRAUMA TIMEEEE
Mieko :>
Mieko has long extremely straight white hair. Her hair has a sharp look to it, and it always pulled back into a high ponytail with a giant pink bow. The only time it's not like this is when she is asleep (When she is most vulnerable) when she is upset and on her own, when she was a child and when she gets to be someone else other than who she has been forced to be. I chose her hair to be up like that cause "haha mean brat school bully girl go brrrr" But it also is seen as a representation to her popstar work because when she was a child it was mostly down with two thin ponytails.
Once she gets to have a happy life hopefully (I know shocker) It's first a long braid when she is on the streets to hide her identity, but as she becomes more comfortable with herself, she starts to wear it long and out or in the style she had as a child and once she's an adult she wears it in a low bun. She even occasionally wears it as ponytail without a bow showing she has come to terms with her past (mostly) and can feel okay wearing it. (She usually wears the bun though cause that's her adult design lol)
Now usually you would assume that in such a change she would have a haircut phase. The fun thing is she doesn't. Why? Her mom had a sharp bob cut and also had white hair. And Mieko is terrified of looking like her parents because they neglected her so much and the idea of looking like them makes her upset because she doesn't want to be like them at all. Like I'm convinced if someone chopped her hair off, she would break down.
Anyways enjoy that hopefully there aren't too many typos or grammar mistakes
Oh yeah kinda on topic but I actually plan on going into cosmetology (Makeup, hair, nails) so I just LOVEEE different hair style fr they are so pretty T-T
Well, well, well 😭😭Long time no see! Anyways as soon as I saw the comment I was wondering what AU of Harumi and Meiko this was, but I'm now assuming this has to be the main timeline! Anyways I think your use of hair symbolism is great, and I believe that a lot of hair symbolism comes when a major event happens in someone's life. When I say major event, it's basically canon event XD so play the spiderverse music. BUT ANYWAYS IM GETTING DISTRACTED, so basically, I think grief can be shown on a character's face, but the moment that grief is represented in a hairstyle I think that's pretty powerful! Also, when it comes to Meiko, I like that in your description of her hair, you can see that she's both trying to disguise her identity while keeping her identity separate from her parents, which can be pretty difficult. But that's just a testimony to her difficult life!
@Rosemadi.artist hi lol
yeah this is the og timeline. Mieko in other time lines usually has gotten past her trauma and can now live a functional life or shes just a complete jerk lol
Harumi's hair changes rarely actually. Her hair as a kid was short, in middle school and highschool it was long until she cut it in her reaction to Mieko's death. When she gets older though she puts it up and it's longer again.
Mieko really does try her best to not be like her parents. And once she has her redemption/therapy arc of that gets to happen she starts trying to shift away from the J-pop persona she has on stage and starts trying to open up more and be the actual person she might be.
Throughout her whole hairstyle journey though she keeps her bangs and the strands near her temples. From a character design point of view it's just cause it makes her look like herself because if I give her a side part of something she does NOT look like Mieko lol but if you wanted to try hair symbolism it could be symbolism of her actual self that she can't change like how she looks cause her mom also has bangs idk
This is perfect for my characters because the change in their hair predominately shows their growth. The protagonist of my story wears a downwards bun to represent her practicality which mixes with their logic as they desire answers (she was raised in a tyrannical military regime so she clearly had no opportunities to gain the full picture than the propaganda fed to her) It also represent her anxiety in a way; how she tries to present as collected to hide from her true emotions and desire. Later on, when she finally escapes the military and now is on a journey to find a home with her friends, her hair eventually changes. I planned on changing it to double buns to represent her becoming more 'free' in a way while still keeping her practicality. Then, by the end of the story, her hair is fully down to show her growth in her easing her anxiety and to now be open with herself. I'm not sure if I should add a upwards bun somewhere in the story to represent when the story's stakes become more high per say although it's still in development. This video helped a lot though in considering the hair symbolism of my characters.
As someone who always wears buns for that practicality and logic reason, I for sure approve. (Though you don't need my approval lmao what am I yapping about) anyways I really love the fact that your character's hair is in a bun for what seems like the majority of the story! I think for sure when she lets her hair down, it'll be a pivotal and significant point! Anyways when it comes to the upward bun, I think you should totally go for it! I like the idea of when the stakes go high, so does her hair haha.
@@Rosemadi.artist Thank you! I'll definitely change her hair to an upwards bun when the stakes get high then.
haha yay that's great to hear!!
Hair and what it symbolizes culturally/socially/spiritually became a recent interest of mine. Fun fact I ended up doing a research project on it! There’s a Wikipedia page on hair with some interesting articles. (Specifically the one labeled “Hairstyle”). Some may be blocked because they’re on JSTOR or other gatekept university websites :(
Also in terms of my own OCs: I both think about hair symbolism and don’t (if that makes sense). Like I mostly think about it from a design standpoint. Making each stand out from one another and making it “cool”. But I change it over time mostly signify age. Or have it copy another character’s hair for story reasons
Omg I agree that hair is so interesting when you do research on it! And yeah I can name a couple of my OCs who have certain hairstyles cause I think they're just cool lmao. Hair to signify age is good as well!
this video makes me want to get a dq blizzard and watch spongebob
The main take aways I assure you
Another great video! Lot of great point brought up about hair and character arcs. The red door metaphor was fun too. Bro I have ideas for what my character look like in the future (that I haven't drawn yet aaa) but theres a lot of emphasis on their hair. I've noticed the bigger the character arc the bigger the hairstyle change its fascinating. I think there's also a lot you can say about gendered hairstyles and how that can relate to a characters gender or sexuality expression a lot of fun stuff to play around with.
7:14 Why is this SO funny to me LMAOO, I need an AU of Trifold thats exactly the same but everyone has Emmitts face.
11:01 Omg what happened to them, they go through the TRENCHES huh. Also is Emmitts hair dyed?? Thats the biggest plot twist in the story imo.
I'm sorry you had to go through that in school, teenagers are literal monsters. People need to learn BOUNDRIES.
OMG I NEED TO SEE ALL OF YOUR OCS AND THEIR HAIR DEVELOPMENT! Also, I need more Wipeout content, I'm growing insane and impatient (Take your time I'm joking 😂) But literally I love how you draw hair so I can't wait to see all your characters and whatever development they go through!! Also, I 100% agree that gender identity and certain hairstyles go hand-in-hand! and in turn, it says a lot about a character and how they want to be perceived!
and if you laughed hard at 7:14, I'm sure you and I have the same sense of humor 💀💀💀 I was laughing at it as I imagined it, I was laughing at it while drawing it, and I laughed at it every time I saw it on my editing timeline. That thing is so cursed 😂😂an AU for that would be perfectly disturbing. And omg they do go through hell 😭😭😭when it comes to Emmitt his hair is actually blue, I just dropped a hint about how it turned brown through the "favorite OC" video haha 🧬🧬🧬
also middle schoolers are cruel 😬😬 and just the early 2010s in general 😭😭but anyways thanks for watching the video as always!
Hi! I found this video very helpful and informative. I repurposed an old oc form awhile ago and had do decide on a specific hairstyle. I use Gacha life 2 for creating ocs because it helps me design characters better, and I had to choose between 2 bang styles and I chose the one that suited her personality the best. Im very glad I chose the ladder because yeah hair does show a lot about the individual! I’m really glad that I watched this because it made me realize I made a good choice for my character design! Thanks for the recommendations and Info you provided! I hope you have a good rest of your week!👍
Thanks and thanks, I hope the rest of your week is good too! As people who create OCs, I feel like we subconsciously know what hairstyles best represent our own characters, and the fun part after you find out, you take it and then find the red door meaning behind it haha!
I came for the hair explanation, stayed for your fun personality. I unno what it is, but it's fun to hear you talk, so subby sub
Teach meh more bout character design 🥰
Omg yayyyy!!! That's good to hear, and ofc ofc I'll talk more about art in the near future!! 💕💕
I write, but I like to imagine my main character-Rowen-has her hair dye fade out as the story progresses. The hair color (dark blue) is something her old friends/teammates helped her choose. Friends she feels responsible for after they croaked. So, the dye fading out is like her learning to move on.
That's the kind of hair symbolism that is very fun when shown visibly. Having the dye fade and the hair grow can for sure show her moving on!
@@Rosemadi.artist That's what I thought! I'm trying to decide if in the end she has her natural color, or a new color that she chose herself!
OOOh yeah. Hmmm well for me, the more I write, the more these decisions become clear XD Like a crystal ball or something! So you should continue to write/outline until you know around that point haha
@@Rosemadi.artist I'll decide at some point, lol. Thanks for the advice!!!!
*Me watching this with a cast of OCs made up almost exclusively of furries
Although even then I still get some mileage out of fur and wool. Paying attention to fur shape is useful for differentiating between characters of the same species. I’ve got this one sheep character that I gave wool bangs to make her difficult to read; she’s very quiet and non-obtrusive, to the point where some people forget she’s even there.
Yeah for sure this can apply to fur lmao! Especially when it comes to the shape of the fur (pointy, droopy, etc) and the color of the fur!
I have a character who is a barbarian who deserts his cult after raiding an innocent village. His hair is a beautiful gold that is unkempt and greasy due to poor hygiene, matching his gaunt and scarred face. His hair is long enough to tie a little bit of it back.
After deserting his cult and taking care of a little girl from the village that was raided, he grows his hair out and starts braiding it. He also grows a beard giving the vibe of a bushman as they are in the wilderness, but also giving him a tenderness he gains from looking after a child, a fatherly sort of look. The braided hair giving the appearance of a warrior who has more grace rather than brute force as he learns to hold back his anger.
After being imprisoned and tortured for a few years his hair is long and frayed. Only a few streaks of his original blond remains, the rest is just grey. His beard has grown long and unkempt much like his hair. Appearing as a vagrant, he has been broken and hollowed from the trauma. The control, care, and restraint he learned is gone, all he feels is hate and despair. His hair is no longer controlled, all frantic and dead, much like his spirit.
Omg your Oc sounds very cool and this is also some great hair symbolism! The way it goes from unkempt to tidy to unkempt, really shows his barbaric past, his maturity and growth, back to a forced barbarism which is truly tragic!
I really liked your video, and you did an excellent analysis! Imma take notes on this!
yay I'm glad you liked the video, that definitely means a lot! Thanks thanks! 💕
I have one who is going to change her hair, but I have two that is a bit more interesting. Mokusei and is Sister, Kumo. As children, Mokusei used to help Kumo brush her hair and braid it. That was back when they had parents. But when their parents went missing, they were in one of their grandfather's care. Said Grandfather, only wanted to keep Mokusei as he was related to their father, while Kumo wasn't(They have 3 parents.), so she was kicked to the curb despite being 7. The police weren't going to find their parents and no orphanage in their town. By the time both joined a club with kids their age to find their parents and to solve crime in their town, when they were 10, they weren't close as they were used to, and it got even more harder to bond as Mokusei was forced to take on his father's business despite not wanting it and being a kid. He has a hard time standing up for myself against his grandfather and has a hard time even trying to talk to Kumo outside of the cases and school work. He doesn't seem to recognize her due to how different she acts even if she still likes some of the same things and has some of the old traits.
The crimes weren't easy and Kumo started to act more like her father, more rude and closed off. She cuts her hair to make finding gems and making jewelry easier, but in the process, lost one of the ways she used to bond with her brother. The only thing that was never cut was her Ahoge, something she got from her father. By the time they found their parents (Spoiler: They were murdered) she kept cutting her hair. While Mokusei has been dying it and snipping small chunks off in response to all the things he went through. Messing with his hair was a trauma response. The worst thing is that they aren't close to each other at all. They can work together at school or on a case, but outside of that, they act like strangers. They lost their Intermediate family either by lost or just not being able to bond anymore. Kumo, as much as she wishes she could, can't bring herself to get close to Mokusei and Mokusei is having a hard time getting himself to do the same.
They will get close, but as the story is now, they aren't able to bond with each other, purely because they don't know how to anymore. For Mokusei, he uses his hair to cope with the trauma he had gone through, even if some of it was willing. For Kumo, her hair being cut is her growing up but losing the bonds she held so dearly. (Sorry this was a bit long, but it's easier if you know the timeline and both siblings have completely different reasons for their hair to be said to have changed.)
Yeah, for sure I like that idea of Kumo cutting her hair as a way to cut off that bond from Mokusei, and honestly that's super tragic, but does carry a strong message. I'm not sure if Kumo's hair grows super-fast or not, but if it does grow slowly, there will be that slow time for it to heal. and even if it gets to like bob length, it'd be somewhat difficult to braid and brush! and even even even if Mokusei was able to brush and braid Kumo's short hair, it'd be a short session, therefore short bonding time!
Anyways there's so much you can do with the lore here that makes it great hair symbolism!!
7:03 I do find it amusing when people bring up the faces of the Frozen movie as an example of same face syndrome. At least here you also brought in Tangled, with the Queen and Rapunzel there, but there's also a popular fan-theory that they're related to the sisters in Frozen anyway due to Rapunzel's cameo at the coronation. But either way, people love to point at Elsa, Anna, and their mother as an example of same face syndrome and it's kinda funny because those three women are relatives of course they look really similar.
I'm not saying it's inaccurate, because yeah, they kinda did have that issue in those two movies - but if you're going to use those movies as examples it'd make more sense to use characters that aren't related.
Yeah, but like despite being siblings, they shouldn't have the exact same face unless they're twins 😭😭😭Me and my sister are close in age, like 10 months apart and though we look almost the same, and people confuse us all the time, there's still differences in our noses, eyes, lips, the only similarity is our face structure. Anywaysssss the only pass I give Disney---Tangled was their first 3d princess movie, and frozen was their second. So, I doubt they had that much to play with when it came to their character models but still 😭
TW mentions of physical and parental abuse
One of my ocs Kay has bangs overing her face for the reason similiar to your oc Kathy, not to convey weakness but rather then unpredictability one eye is visible to convey intimidation and to always watch people with one eye open.
And well, Kay has Anisocoria, shes not ashamed of it exactly but its more a painful reminder of her childhood, her pupil permanently damaged due to a incident and her letting her guard down escalated such a delicate situation, she didn't think her father would hurt her in front of her sister and he did and it landed her in hospital. She keeps her hair short so not to be grabbed easily while fleeing from her dad when she needs to.
My oc Frellos hair doesn't change at all whereas everyones does in one way or another, does share that he would like longer hair or to see how long he could get it if he was living, to convey that he is dead and never got a chance to grow, he grows with his sister in appearence despite dying as a child but his hair remains the same.
As you can see, I am not a nice person to my ocs lol
I like this to think about my ocs abit more, thanks for inspiring me further
yay I'm glad this helped you think about your OCs more! But anyways Kay's story is super cool the way that she hides her intimidating eye. Even way the eye is damaged revealing a backstory. Honestly I think hair symbolism is some of the best when it tells a backstory! Frello's story is interesting too!
It's okay I torture my OCs too, that's the only way they can grow lmao
when you were talking about how culture can tie into hair in character design, my first thought was libby from jimmy neutron
Omg yes for sure! And how she went from that flat ironed bun to the braided bob closer to her Egyptian ancestors! Unrelated, but people in highschool set my pfp on their phone to season 2 Libby cause I supposedly looked like her 😭
18:40 yup! when I clicked on the thumbnail and the title was only "the importance of hair symbolism within ..." I thought "black community/culture? that'd be interesting".
Yay, I'm glad the thumbnail was able to show that in a way!
everybody hit the uwaaau button immediately
uwaaau!
Eey i recognize this channel! Was there on your "importance of names" video. Almost brought up the exact same characters in this comment as i did in my message on that one, before i realized it ws you. Those characters being the punk/jester woman and the monstrous warrior/sage figure.
The punk/jester named Estri has a light green flat mohawk, ith a very short black, spiked ponytail on the lower back of her head.
The mohawk is key to her. A symbol associated with punks and delinquency, and the colors are her main color scheme. Black and light green. Combined with white from her permanent facepaint. (and sometimes purple.
Associations with delinquency fit her well, for she loves playing the villain.
Two years ago i've drawn two pages full of various mohawk designs for her. Some normal ones, like liberty spikes, or silly ones, like a shark fin with the short ponytail having the shape of a tail fin.
A mohawk inspired by Xadhoom from Paperinik New Adventures/The Duck Avenger, a sidehawk shaped like a buzzsaw, a mohawk inspired by Greaser/Johnny Bravo-type pompadours, a line of short spiked tails, a line of pipe curls in spikes, even ones resembling wings.
They get silly and weird and out-there and totally impossible, and that's how she likes it.
If it makes people laugh, good. If it makes them recoil from being an affront to fashion, good. If it confuses people, good.
She's here for all of it.
Fulkrost is a creature of grey skin, yellow eyes, eyebrows with teeth on them, nostrils shaped like a downwards-facing number 3, spiked teeth and sunken eyes.
He normally has fairly long red hair and a long beard. I've imagined the top of his head being bald too. His hair can be different depending on the setting he's in, but generally i depict him with
- His hair done in dreadlocks or something other tube-like.
- Two long side-locks, with dark golden-brown straps on the upper and lower part to wrap the hair into such locks/tubes
- and his beard, equally done in some kinds of locks or tube-like design, with similar straps at the ends.
I want him to feel, like i said on your "importance of names" video, like an old, strong figure with authority, like a Mesopotamian king statue or engraving. But he needs to keep his monstrous aspects.
(Helps that Mesopotamia is one of the oldest recorded civilizations. They have quite a few monsters to their mythology, such as Tiamat, the Lamassu, the Girtablilu, Humbaba and more.)
Dreadlocks i've simply always found cool, and to me they're often associated with warriors in more tribal settings. That is part of the setting in Fulkrost's world: an ancient monster world of warriors, artists and sages.
In terms of personality: All he seeks is power and energy. He's straightforward, pragmatic and with little emotion. But he can display curiosity and confusion to the things around him. He's willing to learn.
In some ways, Fulkrost is innocent and naive like a child. Hardly comprehends the concept of lying and operates by a "one favour is worth another" - rule rather than morality as we know it.
Put it like this: He'd prefer a studying chair or a sparring partner to a throne. Immortal as he may be, he can do things in the here and now. Studying, training, being directly among the people that can teach him. Even directly helping them in exchange for favours.
Even to the monsters he has authority over, he is more of a compass than a king.
The other monsters look at him for a direction to take. They allow him to start up a journey or project and take the lead, can respect or dislike him too, but they don't strictly *need* him to function.
I think they're the strongest characters i have in terms of hair symbolism.
Even without symbolism, it's fun to play around with hairstyle designs.
Heyyyyyyyyyy welcome back lmaooo! Anyways I love your use of hair symbolism, omg you make me wish that I had went more into the drawing aspect of hair symbolism, because what you did with Estri's mohawk is a crucial part of character design. Just experimenting with different hairstyles until you find one that you know is perfect! Also learning more about Fulkrost, it makes me want to learn about Mesopotamia more! There's so much culture, heritage, and symbolism just packed into his locs, that it really makes it known that it's essential to his character! I love it!
I have a couple ocs that I actually think about hair symbolism! Though my thought processs may be different, haha
Caleb is an oc I’ve had since I was in sixth grade (I’m eighteen, almost nineteen now) and throughout that entire time, I’ve always drawn him with either shoulder length or long hair that’s tied into a ponytail. For him, I look at him having long hair as a boy to be breaking away from the average masculine norms of having short hair. He’s also been through a rough home life, so that’s his way of taking control- if that makes sense.
Move over to my other oc, Harvest.
Harvest is someone I hold a lot of love and care with. An oc I poured a lot of research into because I wanted to do it right (autism, being intersex, aromantic spectrum). Much like your oc, mine also has chopped hair in the back and longer hair in the front. Though it’s more like fluffy hair with longer side bangs and short in the back.
For the world they live in and being a moth fae, this hairstyle is one that lets others know they’re just that. It’s a very traditional hairstyle to have. Show the beauty in front but allow strength in the back. It’s a part of Harvest- the only part, really- that actually cares about being traditional. Mainly because the rest of them can be seen as taboo (autism, intersex, queerness).
Hopefully that all makes sense! Apologies for this comment being so long, haha
I've always enjoyed characters like Caleb who break away from gender norms and demonstrate that exact fact with their hairstyle! Taking control by using long hair, even in a ponytail, 100% makes sense and that's super great! Also the name Harvest, I don't know if that name was part of your research, but anyways I find that name to be very unique and nice! Anyways it's always great to have Autism representation in your characters, as well as being intersex and aromantic! Using their hairstyle to tell a story within a story is the best part about hair symbolism, and from them being traditional yet strong is an amazing way to show representation with this character!
‼️ As for the Rapunzel conversation I just want to say that all of the dolls and stuff have her with her long beautiful hair. I'm not saying we couldn't have also had a short-haired Disney princess. But to take the ONE Disney princess who is famous for having extremely long hair and chop it all off was a terrible marketing decision. In all of the Disney artwork anything that features rapunzel, she has her long hair back. And in the Rapunzel TV series they immediately gave her, her long hair back in the first episode. It was just a bad decision on the part of the character designer and artist. He could have cut it at waist length and she still would have had the longest hair out of all the Disney princesses! Little girls want to buy the dolls with the long hair because it's fun to style. I just feel like there were better ways they could have symbolized all of that other than giving her a pixie and then immediately retconning it. Because the hair changed color too. So if he had just chopped off the bottom she would have still had all of the symbolism.
from a marketing and business standpoint, I guess the short hair Rapunzel is a nightmare, but in terms of hair symbolism I still think it's pretty good! I feel like if we just had more time with her having short hair, it could've been fine for marketing. I mean the only time her hair is short is
1. The ending of the tangled movie
2. The start of the TV series
3. The end of the TV series
4. any flashback seen in the TV series
5. The wedding short
I think we should've just had more exposure to short haired Rapunzel. I mean it's not a total retcon since the TV show reverts it back to being short, but I get what you're saying.
I don't know if my speech has any connection with the topic of the video (and I'll start by saying that I'm ignorant on the subject and also on the types of cuts), but I noticed a particular trend in the hairstyle of a fairly famous character from science fiction cinema /fantasy of recent years, namely Rey.
Rey begins her journey with a hairstyle that channels her hair into three buns. Although that type of cut doesn't drive me crazy, I found the hairstyle he sported in The Last Jedi much more interesting, where there was always a sort of bun, but the hair fell down and harmonized better with the character's face, recalling the Qui Gonn Jinn cut in The Phantom Menace.
In my more than modest opinion, if they had continued on this path and made the protagonist's hair grow, always keeping the back bun, I would have found it nicer than completely reversing course and going back to the three buns.
Little rant that I've been keeping inside for a few years, sorry.
Omg I need to get more into the Star Wars fandom, I need someone to keep me up to date with all the lore, but I do know who Rey is! But anyways, hair symbolism could really come off so uninspired when there was no thought put into it. When aang reverts back to his old hairstyle, there's a reason. When Rey does it, it's like why?