Take it, you cutie.
"I took something else to remember her by instead. A lock of that red hair."
— Dunk, Tales of Dunk and Egg
A character gifting another a lock of their hair usually signifies love: everybody loves their hair, so cutting even a tiny part of it for someone else is like a small sacrifice, signifying that you would perhaps do greater things for the ones you love.
Our hair is also thought of as a living part of our body, so having a lock of hair from a loved one can help you remember them. This can soon become a Tragic Keepsake if said loved one has passed away, for example.
This trope can occur in several variants. In the first, two characters are saying goodbye. They don't want to forget each other, and there are no cameras around to make a Precious Photo. In this case, a character (usually a woman) will cut a lock of her hair, so the other can remember them even miles away. This is rather spontaneous. This is a farewell gift, and sometimes The Lady's Favour.
In a second variant, a character (again, usually a woman) cuts a lock of her hair to give as a gift. This is more likely to be prepared, as in braided or made into something else, like a bracelet. In this case, this gift celebrates the friendship or love between the two characters. This and the former example are both the complete opposite of Creepy Souvenir, despite hair being a part of the body.
In a third variant, a character will cut a piece of another's hair (with or without their knowledge or consent), to again, help them remember. This variant may overlap with Stalker with a Crush, and by extension Creepy Souvenir. A variant is for one schoolchildren to secretly cut another kid's long hair or braids as a mean prank. This may be done in the classroom by a student seated behind the targeted person.
Since most men in fiction sport short hair, the hair in this trope is almost always a woman's. Of course, if a man has long, flowing locks of hair, he too may have hair cut off.
Truth in Television, as it was popular
, especially in the Victorian Era, to keep items of jewellery containing a piece of a loved one's hair, especially after said person has passed away. Hair was considered to be a living, remnant part of that person, making it more sentimental than, for example, a portrait. Parents may take locks of hair from their baby to put in an album as a keepsake.
Sub-Trope of Prized Possession Giveaway. Compare Creepy Souvenir.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In the sixth episode of El Cazador de la Bruja, L.A. cuts some of Ellis' hair in her sleep and makes a small doll out of it. Several times he's seen brooding over it.
- Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Cochrane and Byakuren are a pair of brother-and-sister Child Soldiers serving under Crown, a demon fighting to create a nation for their kind. When Byakuren is killed in battle another demon, Kewpie, makes a bracelet out of Byakuren's hair and gives it to Cochrane. As the arc progresses, the loss of his sister sends Cochrane headfirst over the Despair Event Horizon, and, after he fights and is subdued by Zeke, he decides all he wants to do at this point is be with Byakuren. He jumps off a damaged building only for the bracelet to snag on a piece of rebar, which is initially depicted as Byakuren grabbing his arm to catch him. The bracelet holds on and prevents Cochrane's fall long enough that, by the time it breaks, Kewpie is able to dive in and save him from certain death. Afterward, the boy can only cry and ask why Byakuren won't let him go to her.
- Snow White with the Red Hair: When Prince Raji orders Shirayuki brought to him as a concubine after he hears of her rare and striking red hair, she takes the night she was given to prepare to cut off her ponytail and leave it with a letter saying that if he wants her hair he's welcome to keep it, before fleeing the country.
- Wasteful Days of High School Girls: Hisui "Majo" Kujou makes bracelets of her own hair for her friends to show appreciation for their kindness and friendship.
Comic Books
- The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: "The Prisoner of White Agony Creek" shows that Scrooge's most prized possession is not any of his money or treasures, but a lock of hair from Goldie O'Gilt. Though unlike most examples she didn't give it to him, he cut it off while saving her from a bear.
- X-Men: In the "Sisterhood" arc (Uncanny X-Men #508-511), Madelyne Pryor and her female-only Sisterhood attack the X-Men in San Francisco so she could find a lock of Jean Grey's hair that Wolverine kept for himself as a memento (during this period, Jean Grey was dead since New X-Men #150 (2004)).
Film — Animated
- Kubo and the Two Strings: When Kubo's village is attacked by his two aunts, his mother uses her magic to send him away. As he flies off, he grabs a strand of her hair. During his battle with his grandfather, Kubo uses the hair and the string from his father's bow as replacement guitar strings. He then strums them to cast a powerful spell that renders the Moon King mortal and amnesiac.
Film — Live-Action
- Vegas Vacation: Wayne Newton gives a lock of hair to Ellen Griswold.
- Willow: The eponymous character's wife gives him a braid of her hair before Willow sets out on his adventure.
- Parodied in Duck Soup when Firefly (Groucho Marx) asks Mrs. Teasdale for a lock of her hair.
I suppose you would think me a sentimental old fluff, but... would you mind giving me a lock of your hair? [...] I'm letting you off easy. I was going to ask for the whole wig!
Literature
- Anne of Green Gables:
- Marilla owns an amethyst brooch with a lock of her mother's hair in it; it's her most prized possession.
- After Anne accidentally gets her best friend, Diana, drunk on currant wine (Anne thought it was harmless raspberry cordial), Diana's mother forbids the girls to play with each other ever again. When Diana tells Anne this, Anne asks her for a lock of her hair to remember her by.
- Brother Cadfael: In The Devil's Novice, Meriet is found to have a lock of a girl's hair among his possessions, and it's burned by the Holier Than Thou Brother Jerome. Meriet goes berserk and attacks Jerome in response. Later Cadfael discovers it's not hair from Meriet's Self-Proclaimed Love Interest Isouda but his future sister-in-law Roswitha, who's something of The Tease. He gets over her in the end.
- The Chrysalids is set in a post-apocalyptic society where any congenital anomaly is seen as the devil's mark and the affected person is cast out. When Sophie, a young girl with an extra toe on each foot, is forced to flee with her parents after her secret is discovered, she gives a lock of her hair to her friend David (the story's narrator) for him to remember her by. However, this becomes a Tragic Keepsake, as David's father forces him to betray her, and she and her parents are subsequently captured, though David is assured that this happened by chance.
- The Goose Girl revolves around a princess betrothed to a distant land who carries with her a charm from her mother the queen as a safety amulet, only to lose it halfway through her journey and have her servant take advantage of her. Depending on the version, the amulet is either a talisman, a napkin with drops of the queen's blood, or a lock of the queen's hair.
- Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart: Lancelot is on a quest to find Guinevere. As he's tracking her, he comes upon a place where she combed her hair and left the comb, with a strand of hair still caught in the tines. He is so overcome with emotion he nearly faints.
- In the Star Wars novel Bloodline, a box of Princess Leia's treasured possessions contains a lock of hair. The prequel novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan reveals this to belong to Kier Domadi, Leia's First Love, who tragically died when they were teenagers. She took a lock of his hair as a keepsake before he was buried.
- The Lord of the Rings: When Galadriel could think of no gift for Gimli, she asks him to name his desire. He asks for one strand of her hair as a token of her legendary beauty and of renewed friendship between elves and dwarves, as she had spoken respectfully of his fallen homeland. She gives him three and warns her fellow elves to never again call dwarves grasping or greedy.
- Discussed in Monstrous Regiment. Polly Perks disguised herself as a boy to join the army, and keeps her long cut hair in her pack. When it's stolen, she's worried that the thief could use it as evidence. Her friend suggests claiming that it's a memento from a girl back home, to which Polly protests that mementos like that are usually a lock, not a whole head.
- The Rape of the Lock, one of the seminal works of English literature, is all about mocking this trope, treating the cutting of a small curl of hair as the most heinous of crimes. (And by the way, the title refers to the old meaning of "rape" as taking something by force, so get your minds out of the gutter.)
- Sense and Sensibility:
- Edward owns a ring that has a lock of his secret fiancee Lucy's inside it. Upon discovering it, Mrs. Dashwood asks about it. Since she doesn't know about Lucy, she suspects that it's from Edward's sister (and Mrs. Dashwood's daughter-in-law) Fanny. Edward goes along with this, albeit guiltily.
- Marianne has given Willoughby a lock of her hair. Upon getting engaged to someone else he returns the hair.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Inverted — every time the wildling skinchanger Varamyr Sixskins rapes a woman, he takes a hank of her hair to remember her as a Creepy Souvenir.
- In the second book of the Sword of Truth series, Kahlan gives Richard a lock of her hair after she forces him away in a Break His Heart to Save Him way. For added value, she cuts off the hair herself, which, for a Confessor, means terrible pain.
- The Sunne in Splendour: While Anne Neville is in sanctuary to escape her brother-in-law's plots, the brother-in-law's brother Richard of Gloucester gifts her with a locket and she requests a lock of his hair to keep inside it. He obliges right before riding off to deal with a Scottish rebellion for his oldest brother, the king. Anne and Richard eventually marry.
- Tales of Dunk and Egg: In Sworn Sword, after Dunk defeats Longinch, he and Rohanne warm up to each other, with their interaction containing plenty of romance, and ending in Dunk cutting a piece of Rohanne's hair to "remember her by".
- This Side of Paradise: As an indicator of his Casanova tendencies, the charming and handsome Amory Blaine ends up collecting the locks from numerous girls during his high school years.
- Several times in the Vorkosigan Saga:
- In Cetaganda an example of the second variant: A beautiful haut woman gives a coil of her own hair to Miles Vorkosigan as a gift, to remember her by. (Haut women pride themselves on having extraordinarily long floor-length hair that is never cut.) She isn't in love with him, and confesses she doesn't even really know what her gift signifies, but Miles certainly made an impression on her (and her on him).
- In an example of the third variant: In Barrayar a man who has been brainwashed into acting as a rapist and torturer (then later for political reasons brainwashed into forgetting everything he did) manages to keep some of the hair of one of his victims (for whom he had developed an intense obsession) which he uses to partially counteract the forced amnesia "therapy".
- In an even more horrific example of the third variant: In Shards of Honor a high-ranking military officer (the "employer" of the man in the above example), a vicious sadist and rapist, cuts a lock of her very distinctive red hair from his would-be victim, with plans to use it to torment the woman's lover (one of his brother officers) by taking it out and playing with it "quite casually, at the Staff meeting".
Live-Action TV
- Blackadder: The series 2 episode "Potato" offers a third-party variant, when Captain Redbeard Rum is eaten by cannibals and Edmund & co. save his beard as a memento for Nursie, who'd agreed to marry him. She declares that she'll "wear it always, to remind me of him."
- Borgia: In one episode, Lucrezia's new friend Pietro, sent to cheer her up after her pregnancy, has to go to Venice to visit a sick family member. As a parting gift, Lucrezia offers him a lock of her hair.
- In the Community episode "The First Chang Dynasty", Troy agrees to join the Air Conditioning Repair Annex in exchange for their help in rescuing his friends from Chang. As he says goodbye to his friends at the end of the episode, Britta (with whom there has been some mutual attraction with Troy hinted at in the prior few episodes) gives Troy a lock of her hair as a keepsake. The rest of the group grumbles and scowls, lampshading how the gesture is more creepy than anything else to modern audiences.
- In the season 3 finale of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, it is revealed that Sully kept a lock of his late wife's hair, which he has woven into a lock of his own that he has grown out.
- In Star Trek: Voyager episode "Year of Hell", Annorax had, using time incursions, accidentally made his wife vanish from existence. All he had left of her was a lock of her hair.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody has an odd example. London falls in love with the heir to a rival hotel (a la Romeo and Juliet). At one point they start exchanging gifts, and Maddie suggests that a lock of London's hair would be romantic. London then proceeds to rip out her hair extensions to give as the gift.
Music
- The Black Crowes: "She Talks to Angels" makes allusion to this with the following verse:
''She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket
She wears a cross around her neck
They say that the hair was from a little boy - In "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen, there are these three lines sung by the lyrical subject:
''Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
The night that you planned to go clear
Video Games
- Baldur's Gate 2: An old enemy of Jaheira carries a lock of her hair, though in this case, it's because it's a part of the Sympathetic Magic he uses to curse her during her personal quest and the spell would fail without it. The lock is lootable as an item after killing him, meaning the trope can be invoked by the Player Character if you choose to hang on to it for the rest of the game (doubly so if you also choose to court Jaheira).
- Pandora's Tower: Elena lets Mavda cut a piece of her hair so the latter can attach it to the Oraclos chain used by Aeron. This not only strengthens the bond between Aeron and Elena even when they're a long distance apart but also lets Aeron know about Elena's well-being while he's in the Towers.
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker: A lock of hair was used to create a ring of bestial friendship. This Cursed Item will cause the animal to run in a rampant rage. Eirikk received it from his potential lover, and used the ring to enchant an owlbear as a means to impress the lover and to further gain control.
- Tales of Legendia: Realizing that his Loyal Animal Companion Giet may one day turn wild, Moses Sandor decides to leave him in the Quiet Lands. Before bidding his partner farewell, he cuts a bit of his own hair and Giet's fur to make each into an accessory to remind them of each other.
- The Persona 3 character Aigis can't give her boyfriend organic hair, as she is a robot. However, she wants to fulfil the emotional meaning of this trope, so she gives him a screw of hers that a previous battle burnt beyond usability. She also assures him that she won't be defeated like she was then, because her resolve is stronger now.
Visual Novels
- In Amane's route in The Fruit of Grisaia, she gives Yuuji a handmade doll with some of her hair sewn inside that he hangs onto well beyond the events of the story. When their grandchild tells Amane that Yuuji handed it down to her, Amane can only chuckle nervously since she used her pubic hair.
Webcomics
- The Order of the Stick: Sigdi Thundershield carried a lock of her husband's beard with her on missions. It was the only part of his body available after his Heroic Sacrifice, so it was consecrated and buried in the family tomb.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: In "A Star is Burns", Homer feels inadequate compared to their houseguest Jay Sherman, so he tells Marge to leave him for Jay and cuts off a piece of her hair to remember her by.
Homer: It's just you and me now, lock of hair.
- in Star Wars: Clone Wars, Anakin gives his Padawan braid to his wife Padmé after he is promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight.
