This tropette, who had mid-back length hair all through out high school, had it all chopped off into a pixie cut during her freshman year of Uni. Since that cut, people have told her that she looks more like Audrey Hepburn and less like like the crazy French lady from Lost. As of right now, she has no plans on ever going back to long hair.

This troper developed a bald spot a young age and almost had a nervous breakdown over it. Said troper cut his hair low enough to mask the bald spot, but one day on impulse, he shaved it all off (since he was losing it anyway). The impressed reactions, especially from females, has overjoyed this troper.

Are you Patrick Stewart?

This troper did the same thing, for the same reason. It was resolved early on that Bald In Front, Ponytail In Back(if that's not a trope, it should be)was not the way to go. So he shaves his head Luthor-style and has received the same reaction.

This (female) troper has a tremendous amount of respect for any man who's willing to let go of what's never cominig back and shaving his head.

This troper did just the opposite; instead of cutting his hair, he let it grow out, and thus discovered his hair's true form: curly locks of awesome.

There's a DBZ joke here, but I'm not gonna make it.

This troper got a major haircut shortly after getting her first job (from near sitting on it, to chin length) and plans something similar when she finishes grad school.

This troper got her first Important Haircut after her sophomore year in high school, the year she went through a series of horrendous trials and a sort-of epiphany. For the first sixteen years of her life, she had moderately long, triangular hair in a ponytail, but now has chin-length curly hair.

This one cut hers to disguise herself when she moved abroad without telling her family. Sadly, she has now realized that it only makes her look more like her mother.

This troper didn't get an ImportantHaircut but instead just took it out of her standard ponytail and straightened it- instant attention! Crazy.

Many people donate their long hair to Locks of Love or similar charity when they cut long hair short.

This troper did.

This troper was at a cancer fundraising event where this was happening (without her previous knowledge), and decided that to get the ImportantHaircut to symbolize that she would start doing things in life without a fully-formed plan.

This tropette's hair was half an inch too short. Gah!

Y'know, they sell the pieces of hair that are too short...read the guidelines: "Although the shorter hair cannot be used in the hairpieces, it still greatly helps to reduce costs."

This troper did and ended up donating over a foot of hair. After that, my hair kept getting shorter and shorter, eventually mutating into its current pixie-ish cut.

This troper vaguely contemplated it when she cut off her WildHair in favor of a pageboyish thingy (I was going for Hannelore's hairstyle but it got sorta mutated) but didn't remember about that until it was too late, i.e. my hair was already wet and not tied up.

This troper got her first Important Haircut upon leaving elementary school and finding out that one of her close friends' cancer had shown up again. She'd have shaved her head entirely, but thankfully her mother stopped her.

And of course there's the quintessential Important Haircut at military basic training. All male trainees line up and receive the same buzzcut at the same time. This is usually seen as a symbolic transition, where young men from all walks of life are now part of the same team. Women usually don't have to go through the same ritual, however.

This troper had an important haircut when he made the conscious decision to stop being a nice guy in business, and shaved his head and grew a goatee as part of the image change. Subverted in that everyone he knew mocked him mercilessly until he grew it out again. The goatee and harder attitude have remained though.

This troper had an argument with a short - haired friend who was always getting more male attention than her. She cut her hair ''herself'' in a drunken rage. The result looked as if it had been done with gardening shears.

IRL inversion: This troper grew his hair out for an extra month for no other reason than because I had been busy the whole time with Senior Project (a choose-it-yourself superfun super-assignment to prepare us for college). So when I got my hair cut back to normal length, it lined up with the point in time where I had officially finished high school and was awaiting graduation, and when I graduated my hair was as it always was, rather than something different.

This troper aims to get a haircut before summer ends to show her friends that she aims to change herself from being bitter, mean, unsocial, and almost severely introverted by the time she goes off to college. It should be noted that she's taking advantage of the fact most of them won't see her until the school year starts up again, and her hair will now be let down as opposed to the typical ponytail (which she recently realized has become a symbol of her lack of self-esteem).

EpicFail; she didn't manage to get her hair cut before the new school year, but within the next few weeks. She assumed that the effect would be the same, but nope. '''''No one noticed.''''' Only that it was ''styled'' differently. Reason as stated by a friend? "It's because you always wear your hair in a ponytail that I didn't notice." ARG!

Inversion: After several years of keeping her unmanageably curly hair cut brutally short for fear of being teased about it, this troper has started to grow it out and experiment with new styles (and has learned the Way of the Product). She's never felt more mature, or more confident about the way she looks.

This troper's college Rugby team gives the new players each semester "rookie cuts" as part of the festivities of an entire night dedicated to inflicting all of the rookie traditions that the current players had to deal with on the new ones. Rookie night is usually on the Thursday before parent's weekend, and the new guys can't buzz down until after the game, at which point someone usually produces a buzzer and all the new guys sport buzz cuts or shaved heads.

This appropriately named troper, {{Delirium}}, gets a new hair cut or colour as the feeling strikes to symbolize that new beginnings can happen at her leisure. Over the past year it has gone from a purple pageboy haircut, to purple less than an inch long spikes, to blonde and shaggy. Within the week it will be black and slick.

This Troper used to be very best friends with Manic Panic, particularly the shade "Pretty Flamingo". During a particularly nasty 6 month-long bout of depression I thought to myself that I didn't deserve to have any kind of fun so I shaved my head. I continue to do it to this day because people find it attractive and it's actually less work, less costly and less damaging to my scalp than the repeated bleaching and coloring was. Thie is not to say that I don't sometimes miss my hot pink do.

This troper had her haircut on her birthday for no other reason than that she was getting tired of long hair, but since being asked for the fifteenth time the reason for it, has given the reason 'inverted Samson- short hair makes me smarter.' Surprisingly, it worked- my grades are higher than ever.

This troper had more of an important lack-of-haircut after spending two months travelling and being ditched by his first love. He got back from travelling, was too depressed to deal with hairdressers, and found that he got more female attention than ever with his hair grown out into ringlets rather than a curly mass. The same happened with the cultured bristly fuzz on his chin, though that's more so he can buy violent videogames without being carded.

This troper just recently bobbed her flowing, Samson-like, dark brown locks. She weighed herself afterwards, and she swears she lost five pounds. Also, she gets a ton of compliments on it now. Though it took her some getting use to, everyone seems to think it's adorable.

This troper rocked a shoulder-length shag for about a year, then (relatively) without warning cut off 8 inches to a caesar. The result? Hot new girlfriend. Who later dumped him. But important haircut at the time, to be sure.

This troper's older sister kept her hair fairly long throughout (as far as this troper remembers) her entire childhood, then cut it short when she was ready to go to college.

This Troper had very long hair. It was only long because everyone kept saying how beautiful my hair was, and how they wished they had hair just like mine. So what do I do? Cut it all off with kitchen shears, of course. Haven't looked back since.

So Beautiful, It's A Curse?

This troper always cut his hair so it was above his ears. Starting in the summer of 2007, he grew his hair out until his hair was slightly curly and down to his shoulders by October of 2008. Unfortunately, he had an....accident with the scissors, and had his hair short again by January 2009. When he had his long hair, a lot of relatives at first didn't believe that it was real, and he was recognized, in full makeup, by someone from his school who he had never talked to, simply because she recognized his hair. When he cut his hair short, all the girls loved it.

Soon to happen with this Troper, who's "L"-styled hair has become a trademark of his overall look. However, his sister hates long hair on guys and has always pressured him to cut it when it gets long. Recently, this Troper has decided to have it cut to a Caesar - not because his sister wants it done - because his hair has become kinda uncomfortable. He's also decided to stop being an introvert - just in time for university!

This troper, as part of his plan to adapt a new, more {{Bishonen}}-like look for the new semester, highlighted his hair red; said hair was split down the center at the time, required extensive combing to get just right, and sometimes he just couldn't get it right, making styling his hair a LuckBasedMission. Then two of his friends recommended to Ray that he get a haircut to match his hair color. So they took him to a beauty salon that specializes in more "Asian" haircuts, where he got a new haircut consisting of a bang going towards his right and the back of his hair being upright and kinda spiky, and the friends he went with liked it. On top of that, it was easier to style and maintain than his old haircut. Sadly, out of the dozens of friends he has, only 4 people have commented on his new hairdo.

This troper needs one.

Subverted in that this troper has had more tragedies and crises in her life than she'd wish on anyone, yet her hair has been more or less the same length since second grade, just different styles.

This troper went from having mid-back-length hair to having an inch of hair at the longest. The reasoning she told her parents? "I'm sick of washing it after swim practice!" The reasoning she told her friends (the real one)? "I'M SICK OF LOOKING LIKE A GIRL!" Yes, this troper did actually have to fake reasoning for cutting her hair - her parents seem completely opposed to allowing her to be a tomboy.

One of this Tropette's friends got an ImportantHaircut...Important in the sense that it was absolutely the worst haircut in the history of hair. It was literally a bowl cut over shoulder length hair, and to ''make it look better'' because there was no way to fix it, she put in rainbow extensions. You could see the clips from the extensions (they were the kind you buy at Hot Topic) through her hair. It looks better now, but that hair shall live on in infamy until the end of time.

This troper's girlfriend loved it when he grew out his beard. Not a lot. Just somewhere between "stubble" and "actual beard." Naturally, he made a point of shaving it when she broke up with him.

This troper's kind of an inversion. He cut his hair BEFORE(I mean, days) he got dumped, and hasn't cut it since, xD. It's been 3 years.

This troper got injured on her job (I'm an athlete), lost said job (and had to live with the fact that I can't ride the way I used to), and thus decided to go back to college to finish my degree. To cement this dramatic change, I just about 12 inches off my hair. Liberating and cathartic.

This Troper first cut off 11 inches of her hair when she was 13 for Locks of Love, then she grew it out again, getting it cut to various lengths over a four-year period before leaving it at just below shoulder length for most of her senior year. In April of her senior year, when she no longer needed long hair for the musical and was just ready to start transitioning to college for next year, she cut it to just below chin length. It looks infinitely better and the day it was cut she managed to make 3 new friends at a party. Haircuts really are magic!

This troper has had glorious flowing locks twice in college, but has cut them each time to have a visual aspect of a change in his life or circumstances. Right now, at 4:45 in the morning, he's considering doing it, even if it's not that long.

I once wanted to grow out my hair when I wanted to be a musician. When I gave up that dream due to realizing I have no talent, I cut my hair short like a stereotypical asian.

This troper once had a huge argument with her parents. Later that day, she got a lousy hair cut, tried to fix it herself, and just succeeded in making it crooked, so she started wearing it in a ponytail so it wouldn't be apparent. ''Then'' she went and got a hair cut on her own for the first time. She still mostly wears it in a ponytail. It's a vast improvement on how she wore it before, every which way and frizzy at the ends.

This Troper shaved the sides of her head and her neck when she finally got away from the teacher who'd bullied her for two years and got her into half a dozen nervous breakdowns AND an ulcer... at the age of 12. She was of rather a nervous disposition afterwards and kept shaving the back of her neck whenever something unpleasant happened - up until she turned 20 and moved far, far away from her former circle of acquaintances.

This troper had shoulder-length hair for roughly her entire life; she wanted it shorter but was always told she didn't have the face for it, etc. In college she once went a little crazy(there were papers, it was always hot, roommate drama) and cut it herself, which looked horrible and ended with a professional giving her something very like a crew cut. Finally having short hair was ''awesome''. Since then this troper has embraced her androgyny, and has found that getting re-cut to that length always leaves her in a good mood.

ThisTroper cut her previously waist-length hair to shoulder-length two days after her grandma died. It also signalled a significant personality change and the courage to stand up to her mother, who'd been stalking her and her grandma for a good part of the past year, and finally prove that she was the stronger person.

This troper had one, though she didn't know it at the time. She was about thirteen and decided to cut her hair short (it had been almost waist-length at the time and is now just above shoulder level). This made it so she stopped hiding behind her bangs, because they weren't anymore and made her lose her shy demeanor. It seems the shorter she cut it, the more brave she became.

Inverted in a strange way by This Troper, whose girlfriend had to undergo chemotherapy. This troper offered to shave his head (having, at the time jaw length hair) as show of solidarity. ''She'' threatened to kill him with a spear if he did so, stating that his hair was the thing that first caught her eye. This troper didn't cut his hair for three years.

This troper buzzed his hair down to about a centimeter longer than the Army induction cut during his sophomore year in high school not so much to indicate a change in personality or outlook, but rather just for reasons of convenience, or in short so that it takes much less time to maintain it. However, some of the troper's friends seem to think that he became much more...interesting

This troper had long, curly hair that she had been growing out for seven years. She buzzed it down to the scalp when she had to change schools.

This Troper gets a new haircut every single time he falls in love so as to impress the girl, to the point that people actually ask him "Okay, so who is she?" every single time his hairstyle changes.

This troper's consciously subverting the trope... her first serious 'haircut' in at least four years, going from waist-length to upper back... but it's not for any major emotional reason, it's just getting to be a serious pain in the mik'ta.

This troper's hair naturally forms into an Afro. My brother and I are rather famous for it at my High School. As is expected, whenever I cut it short, people flip.

Every single day of school, from my very first, up until 7th grade, this troper wore her hip-length hair in a tight braid. Lara Croft, eat your heart out. In 8th grade, decided to mix it up a little by just wearing it down. My hair is naturally...indecisive, at best. It starts out straight, goes wavy, then has tightly-wound, tentacle-like curls at the bottom. I spent all of 8th grade with that frizzy mess eating my head. Over the following summer, I'd become friends with scissors, a flat iron and some decent mousse. (Not to mention makeup! Gasp! Oh, the joys of growing up with no mother.) I left 8th grade a hair metal groupie and entered high school as post princess-lessons Mia Thermopolis. Nobody even recognized me.

This troper cut her hair for the first time in six years just a few months ago, shortening it from just below her shoulder blades to a little above shoulder-length. When she went to school the next day, just about every one of her close friends responded with "Oh my God!" Since then, she's cut it even shorter. It's much easier to take care of now.

This troper got fed up of the jokes about his ears sticking out when younger, so he simply grew his hair. I have it shorter than I did back then, but not massively. I haven't had short hair in years and I don't think it's a good idea. It's also straightened a bit naturally instead of being almost entirely curly, so it looks better anyway. However, I do shave a lot less often now, to look older even though I can legally buy booze anyway.

This Troper with long hair had just gotten a haircut and shaved off his muttonchops, just before Halloween. The last class before Halloween of the week, he went to class as Rorschach, trench coat, mask and all. He walked into class staring at people through the mask, and everybody was wondering who it was. Said troper sits down in his normal spot, and then takes the mask and hat off for class. Cue everybody spending the first bit of class being shocked and remarking how different he looked... even the teacher had to walk up. The comments continued for a good few weeks.

Inversion: This troper always had short hair as a kid (because her parents believed short hair is more practical for a little girl and easier to look after) but now, as an adult, has let it grow down to her waist. She lives in Japan where women are often expected to cut their hair after having a baby because very long hair isn't considered "appropriate" for a mother, and has told her fiance he can get stuffed if he thinks she's cutting hers.

This troper started growing her hair long around age 13, and was a straight-A student with very long, very straight blonde hair for the next seven years. Then some bad stuff happened and she dropped out of university. Cue ImportantHaircut as she needed to find work, and long hair was difficult to keep neat. She is currently short-haired, employed, and going back to university in the fall because a different school gave her a second chance. She fully intends on growing it back.

Yesterday: Got a haircut, wrote a powerfully effective piece of opinion for a newspaper, went skating, woke up the next day without sores. YAY! haircut.

This troper always had very weird looking greasy-ish hair, but last year finally started going with a clean, stylish hair to symbolize my new confidence, the hair is gradually improving each time. Also, sympathies to those who mentioned they had big ears as kids, trust me, it gets better...ish.

This Troper didnt get her hair cut, but started wearing her hair down to school in her last year, to sort of symbolize that she was no longer the good little girl who started the school, cause she had finally made friends and started acting a bit wilder. One of her friends tried cutting his hair himself, it didnt go too well. He still looks so cute though!

This troper grew her bangs out in elementary school, and recently cut her bangs back- only this time, in uneven long bangs that frame her face. As she finally knows what she wants from life (and is really close to getting it as scholarships pile up and she finally located her dream guy) she feels this is by all means an improtant haircut. The fact that she did it herself (and sent her mother into BSOD when she came downstairs) really cemented it.

Zis Tropair had long hair from the age of fourteen to the age of twenty. Granted, it varied from shoulder length to moptop, but it was still fairly constant. When I started university and got a part time job, I cut it short to symbolize my emerging maturity. Didn't go so well, but at least the hair looks cool.

This Troper always prided in her long, curly brown hair. However, she wanted to move on from her past. The summer before 9th grade, she dyed it black (for aesthetic purposes), cut it short and started straightening it.

This troper got a short pageboy haircut because she wanted to stop looking "girlie." Now she thinks her hairstyle looks like it belongs on a member of a teenybopper boy band; and wants an even shorter cut.

My entire life, this troper's hair has either been anywhere between waist/just-past-the-butt length. Looooong. After an extremely stressful series of events (culminating in a near HeroicBSOD), I decided to get myself an important haircut in order to turn over a new leaf. The cut I got is 2 inches past my shoulderblades; very bouncy and fun with lots of layers. Despite getting tons of compliments on it from friends/family and strangers alike, that didn't stop me from crying for the first few days every time I looked in a mirror for "cutting off all my pretty hair."

This troper stopped getting her hair cut because she was becoming depressed and just didn't care anymore. Two years later, she ecstatically cut her hair to her ears and dyed it dark green to symbolize how happy she now was with her life.

This troper once decided to cut her own hair and saw it as a pretty important ritual. But she already had her hair in a bob and couldn't find the good scissors. The result, a pixie-ish cut done with medical scissors. It actually looked okay from the front, but the back was so bad she ended up wearing a hat all summer. Now she is tempted to do the exact same thing and get her hair out of the bob it had returned to.

Tropers/SunnyV had waist length hair from when she was eleven to fifteen, but even before that it was pretty long. Her mom once suggested cutting it when she was younger, which almost made the latter cry. She got a bit better with people saying. "Ever thought about donating it?" but loved having long hair. As she got a little older, she started worrying that it might look bad if it was short. Then one day, she impulsively decided to get a long bob and send it to Locks of Love. And it looks just fine.

Once upon a time, some squirrely reserved kid would just let his mom take him to Great Clips every so often. There there was usually any number of your average stereotypical little old Asian ladies, none of whom would ever cut the hair as asked. The end result was always nothing short of a bowl cut. This went on until the boy was 16, at which point he finally, firmly rejected getting a haircut. By the time it grew to his shoulders, it was readily apparent that his hair naturally waved and winged beautifully. To a down-and-out loner, it was his sole pride. Now he only goes to old-style barber shops with the same laundry list: "Get rid of the dead ends, thin it out, refresh the layering, and try to make it look like I didn't even come here today." He's now twice the loner, but five times as courageous. One day, when he's ready to face the world, he will finally raise the hair line. When he's finally worked himself half to death and starts to bald, he'll just let it grow back out and go ZZ Top-style for the rest of his life.

Subverted in this troper's life: Because he very, very thick hair, even at a short length, getting his hair trimmed so it looks nice is painful. Because of this, he loathes getting a hair cut and will let it grow well beyond a point it should. The end result is every hair cut he gets is dramatic because he spaces them out over the span of months to a year at a time.

This troper just cut her waist-length, curly brown hair. It's only to her shoulders now; not as short as it could be, but it's still making me a little sad. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf; this is (not purposefully) now a symbol of that. I think I'm going to straighten it, too.

After reading ''WanderingSon'', this troper finally decided to get a haircut. It symbolizes the beginning of his transition and the beginning of him breaking away from his previous personality, and showing what he really is.

After spending 2 years recieving an enourmous amount of complaints for this (male) tropers beyond shoulder length hair, I decided that it would be impossible to spend two weeks in Rome carrying that damn hair around. After cutting it, realising hats look good on it, it's way easier to maintain and the ladies pay positive attention to me, I now have hair that only just reaches my ears. And a goatee.

When I was seven, my hair was down past my shoulders and was very thick and heavy. I was very sweet, shy and overall a happy-go-lucky personbut my mom decided I should get a haircut. So she dragged me to her favorite salon and told me to choose a hairstyle, I chose an angled-bob with a fringe. I became openly different and talkative. I became somewhat of a bully to the boys and I liked it. To this day, after almost seven years, my hair has never reached my shoulders. I want it to grow long again though to symbolize that my tomboy and rough days are over.

Inverted and then played straight with this troper. When he was 16, he made a promise to his incarcerated and clinically depressed sister that he wouldn't cut his hair until she was released. Three years later, she had completed her sentence and was released. His hair having grown past shoulder length at that point, he decided to cut it upon making a new promise: He would try to keep in contact with her and do his part to help her get better. He proceeded to donate the hair he had cut to charity.

Inverted for This Troper. I let my hair grow after finishing school. Since then, I seem to have gone from a cross between a male ShrinkingViolet and TheQuietOne to a HotBlooded WideEyedIdealist CloudCuckooLander with WildHair.

Kinda invoked by this troper: I used to have hair that wouldn't have looked out of place on a lion (coincidentally, I did play the cowardly lion in a performance of The Wizard Of Oz not long before this) until I was almost fourteen, whereupon I shaved it all off. It got such a good reaction that it has now become a sort of tradition that I cut my hair when it gets too warm for long hair (summer) and don't cut it when it isn't (the rest of the year).

I guess it's sort of inverted with me. I got a haircut because I wrecked my long, oh-so-metal hair by tearing it out in chunks with a comb. It was the first time I had a cut in two years. I got it cut into a style similar to my grandfather's.... the day before he died. On my mother's birthday. Just a few days before Christmas. The short hair is certainly important now.

Averted with this (male) troper. His hair is hard to keep good-looking, and as such it'd be probably better if it wasn't there at all, and his parents share that opinion. This troper, though, is so greedy, he wants to have lots of everything, including hair as well, and feels bad when he has to throw it away (or anything of his). Therefore, it's more like Important Lack Of Haircut, with every day of delaying it being a small personal victory for this troper. (on an unrelated note, this troper would rather be female as well, and not looking awkward while having long hair is one of the reasons)

If you go into broadcasting at Brigham Young University, your hair ''must'' be an acceptable length and color. If it's longer than what they accept, prepare for your BYU bob.

Invoked by this troper, who cut her mid back length hair into a chin length bob just before leaving her old school for a boarding school as a symbol of her new start. It helped that I had always wanted short hair.

Not so much ''Important Haircut'' as ''Important Costume Change''. When this Troper entered his teens, he started acting and looking like a slob, he didn't wash, wore greasy white sleeveless shirts, old shorts and started to pack on the pounds, One day, I cought my reflection in a mirror and my immediate reaction was "Is that...really what I look like?". I immediately cleaned up my act, shed off the pounds and gained a new attire consisting of dress shoes, black trousers, a Long sleeved shirt along with a set of Black Suspenders (They look cooler than belts). In 11 Years (13 -> 24) I've gone from worthless slob to Elegent, Well dressed Gentleman whose fianceé is currently pregnant with twins.

Kinda inverted with this one. ''Este tropero'' used to have many long-arsed (for a boy) bangs; so many that I looked like a girl until I was maybe 3 years. Now I have moderate-length hair.

This troper just realized that shortly after she had her hair "boy-cut," her issues with her old friends started.

The same day that This troper and his grifriend broke up, he dyed his hair he darkest black nuance he could find in the store.