"I like my hair
Really, it is pleasant to the touch
I toss my hair a bit too much."
Really, it is pleasant to the touch
I toss my hair a bit too much."
Flipping your hair can vary from running your hand through your hair to brushing a few locks out of your eyes to giving your long hair a good toss, but it almost always conveys nearly the same things: confidence, arrogance, vanity. As such, it is a gesture most often employed by Bishōnen, the Ojou or the Alpha Bitch, though kinder characters can also use it to merely accentuate their femininity or show that they're in a good mood. A bishounen's hair flip is usually accompanied with a large helping of Bishie Sparkle—females are also accompanied by Slow Motion. Another variation is when a woman tilts her head at 45 degrees and delivers eye contact in a come hither look.
Pretty much every time a woman with long hair takes off a motorcycle helmet, especially if she's been assumed to be male until that point.
See also Shaking Her Hair Loose. If this trope is used to show disinterest or disrespect, it is an example of Primp of Contempt.
Examples:
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Advertising
- In a Coast Capital Savings (a Canadian credit union) ad, a man remarks that he's losing his hair due to the stress of dealing with banks. His wife tells him that with Coast's low fees, she's sure it'll all grow back. They enter the bank to find customers and tellers flipping their beautiful, long, luscious hair in slow motion to enchanting music.
Anime & Manga
- City Hunter: Many female characters (like Saeko or Kasumi) often flip her hair when they are feeling worried or to express calm and confidence.
- Akio from CLANNAD does it sometimes when he's feeling dramatic.
- Haruhi Suzumiya:
- Haruhi does this herself at the end of the anime's first opening, as well in the episode "Melancholy II", rightfully indicative of her forceful personality.
- Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha tends to do this when he feels he's being forced to explain something obvious.
- Moriarty the Patriot: Long-Haired Pretty Boy Sherlock Holmes has more than a few moments of scraping his hair back out of his face—most memorably when he first speaks to William in the very first panel that shows his face, and again when he introduces himself out of costume after returning from The Great Hiatus before he ties his hair back again. Both moments epitomize his confident, cocky personality.
- Pretty Cure:
- When Cure Aqua made an appearance in HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! Episode 7, she triumphantly flips some strands of her hair after delivering the anniversary message.
- In Episode 17 of Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure, Shindoine flicks her hair back after landing in the rain.
- Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica has this as her Character Tic. She's not used to having her hair loose instead of her braids from the first few time loops.
- In Tiger & Bunny, hair flipping◊ is one of Barnaby's many fangirl-drawing techniques.
Comic Books
- The Powerpuff Girls #48: In "Drama-O-Rama," Blossom does this with her ponytail, showing off for the "reality" TV show cameras that have invaded the Utonium home.
- Supergirl:
- In Supergirl (2016), Kara took this habit to express confusion or annoyance. In Plain Sight she runs her hand through her hair when she finds out about an upcoming school dance because she can't see the point.
- In Supergirl: Being Super Kara Danvers plays with a lock of her hair when she is confused, nervous or overwhelmed.
- In Bizarrogirl, Kara flips her blond locks nervously as she apologizes to Lana for previous rude behavior.
- The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): Despite her hair being short enough that her hand doesn't touch it when she flicks her head and hand in the motions of a hair flip Pamela Smuthers still makes the motion while turning haughtily away from Etta after she thinks she's scored a date with Etta's crush.
Comic Strips
- Peanuts: Frieda flips her long curls proudly whenever she talks about her "naturally curly hair."
Fan Works
- Doing It Right This Time: Asuka discovers that being able to do these properly is an unexpected fringe benefit to ditching her signature nerve-clip barrettes.
Asuka: I should've thought of this ages ago. My old hairstyle just doesn't emphasise a dramatic gesture the same way.
- Kedabory's Muppet Mania: After she karate chops Annie Sue right off the stage, Miss Piggy flips her golden curls smugly.
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng's Spite Playlist: Lila often flips her hair after making a flippant — and usually completely erroneous — remark.
Lila: Lots of people are nice, but not everyone can claim to be the great-granddaughter of the world-famous piano player Victor Laurent. [hair flip]
Martin: Victor Laurent didn't have any children. He died alone at the age of 72 from pneumonia. - Pokémon Master: Many characters—mainly the female ones: Giselle, Erika, Duplica—flipped their hair constantly because they author finds the gesture cool, but the main offenders are the two main characters, Ash and Misty. Ash does it because his hair is longish and gets in his face frequently, and Misty to convey her annoyance.
- Subverted in The Return-Remixed when Maryse went to do her signature hair flip. While she was setting it up, her opponent, Ashley Massaro, grabbed her and slammed her head-first into her knee, breaking her nose.
- The Unfantastic Adventures of Bizarro No. 1: When Bizarro is looking for help to fight the Blue-Kryptonite Men, Bizarro Supergirl yawns, pulls one lock away from her eye and asks how much he is willing to pay for her and Bizarro Wonder Woman's assistance.
- In Futures Freak Me Out, Asuka brushes her hair back behind her ear nervously when her father asks if she is considering marrying her current boyfriend.
Films — Animation
- KPop Demon Hunters. The Saja Boys do an in-sync hair flip as Mira and Zoey ogle them.
- Done by Wyldstyle in The LEGO Movie. Except, of course that her hair is a solid piece of plastic that just rotates on her head.
- The famous shot of Ariel emerging from the water after being transformed into a human in The Little Mermaid (1989).
- Played for Laughs in Moana, as after managing to reach the boat stolen by Maui with the ocean's help, the titular character whips around to be dramatic, only her soaked hair slaps across her face and she has to lift it up to speak.
- In Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness, Daphne and Shannon keep flipping their hair.
- Prince Charming's introduction consist in tossing his majestic, flowing, marvelous, gorgeous, beautiful, wavy, smooth soft and bouncy shoulder length blonde mane around while untying his hairnet in Shrek 2.
- Rainbow Dash in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks has a rather epic one in the song "Awesome as I Wanna Be".
- In Turning Red, Carter Murphy-Mayhew flips his hair while about to open his locker, causing Mei to see him with a Crush Filter.
Films — Live-Action
- Charlie's Angels (2000):
- Natalie does this in order to attract the attention of her love interest. It's even underscored by a gong going off in the background and a dramatic zoom on his reaction.
Alex: Flip your God. Damn. Hair.
- Alex does this in every single close up.
- Natalie does this in order to attract the attention of her love interest. It's even underscored by a gong going off in the background and a dramatic zoom on his reaction.
- Deadpool: Deadpool pretends to do a hair flip while mocking Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s disaffected attitude. (Ironically, NTW’s actual haircut is too short for her to do this.)
- In Dude, Where's My Car?, Christie flips her hair out of her face with a Haughty "Hmph" after watching her boyfriend get picked up and devoured by a Giant Woman right in front of her.
- In Gilda, the titular character is asked "Are you decent?" She flips her hair back and responds "Me?"
- Most people born after the '60s were likely introduced to the famous Gilda scene when it appeared in The Shawshank Redemption. In that film, it had a run of showings in Shawshank Prison and was wildly popular with the lonely men imprisoned. In fact, the original novella that film was based on, from the collection Different Seasons, was titled "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption".
Red: This is the part I really like, where she does that shit with her hair.
- Cameron Diaz also did it in her first movie, The Mask (1994).
- Gen telling the Ice Princess to "Work the hair."
- Airplane II: The Sequel spoofs this with Elaine flipping her hair in slow motion after removing a bobby pin, even though it's so they can short out the ship's computer before crashing into the sun.
- Cabin Fever: A passionate sex scene ends with a quick hair toss from the woman as she finishes.
- in EuroTrip, Jenny pulls off a glorious slow motion hair flip in her she was Beautiful All Along scene on the nude beach. It causes quite a stir...
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The title character of all people does this after being buried in sand and rubble from an RPG explosion. In fairness she's likely just shaking the sand out of her eyes; as Furiosa still has Wild Hair instead of her later Bald Head of Toughness the hair flip is an unintentional bonus.
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Played for Laughs when Bethany tries to teach Martha to flirt with some guards as a distraction. Martha's attempt at a sexy hair flip is absurdly exaggerated and leaves her looking more Limp and Livid than anything.
- Sequel Jumanji: The Next Level has an even bigger Played for Laughs case done by a horse.
- Many Bond girls get some hair flip action. Special mention to Denise Richards', queen of epic hair flips (see below), who pulls off one of those in her HAZMAT suit.
- James St. James has a habit of doing this to seemingly no end in Party Monster.
- Two of them in rapid succession in The Avengers (2012), by Black Widow and then by Loki.
- The former likes to do that whenever she does a Three-Point Landing. A scene in her solo movie has Natasha's 'sister' Yelena mocking "this thing that you do in the fighting, with the hand and the hair".
- The latter is no slouch in this department either; when doing his solo show, Honest Trailers had to dedicate some time to highlight Loki flipping his hair.
- The former likes to do that whenever she does a Three-Point Landing. A scene in her solo movie has Natasha's 'sister' Yelena mocking "this thing that you do in the fighting, with the hand and the hair".
- Lola Bunny does this several times in Space Jam, except she does it with her rabbit ears, and she does it by blowing on them. Still, it's very obviously meant to convey this trope.
- Pai Mei from Kill Bill Vol 2 did this with his beard. All the time.
- So Close: Lynn manages to weaponize it during her fight with the Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist, using her hair to slap her in the face.
- One of the feminine tricks to attract male attention that Blondell teaches Samantha in Sam. Doc is visibly stunned when she demonstrates it for him.
- They Call Me Bruce. FBI agents disguised as Hare Krishnas bust some mobsters, then both male and female agents do this trope after pulling off their latex head coverings.
- Wicked: Beautiful girly-girl Glinda loves to exaggeratedly flip her hair to show her fabulousness. She even does it as a flirting tactic and tries to pass it on to Elphaba. After Fiyero catches Elphaba practicing a hair flip, he teases her for being Glinda-fied.
- Wonder Woman (2017). Diana does this just before she climbs the ladder into No Man's Land to single-handedly assault the German lines. A soldier who turns to look at her at that point can be seen gaping in astonishment, before stumbling back into his colleagues as if cast aside by the sheer momentum of her hair!
Literature
- Ida Celestia Pond's love letters referenced this many times.
My entire life is for you, my perfect - no, celestial - flipper!
What does she flip?
Whenever you flip your hair I flip as well.
- Your flippy hair is my Walden,
Why should I write of the Nashwaak and the woods, when I can write of you!
Live-Action TV
- Max teaches Caroline to do this along with a confident walk after lying to the usher to sneak into a movie in the 2 Broke Girl$ episode "And the Hold-Up".
- British comedian Ben Elton lampoons this trope in The Man From Auntie. He hosts a mock current affairs show that discusses the issue of "Hairspray Headbobbing Syndrome". Women who use hairspray can't seem to keep their heads still and flick their hair constantly, leading to difficulty eating and wearing hats.
- The Big Bang Theory: In that one episode in which Sheldon didn't get a hair cut on time, he kept flipping his bangs back with a flick of the head with "I feel like a teenage heartthrob."
- Blake's 7: In "Headhunter", the Girl of the Week takes off a space helmet and flips her hair accordingly. Then male hero Avon does the same thing.
- Shawn Hunter on Boy Meets World had one of those 90's curtained hairstyles that required him to constantly brush it out of his face. He got a haircut in the later seasons, though. It was even the subject of a running gag in season 2, in which Shawn, much to Cory's jealousy, could repeatedly cause girls to stop and hit on him out of nowhere simply by doing a hair flip in a crowded school hallway.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Before he's forced to admit he's actually fallen for Buffy, Spike goes on a long rant about all the things he hates about her, including that "bouncing shampoo-commercial hair!" A year later when Spike admits that he actually likes this, Buffy responds by cutting her hair short.
- Charlie's Angels:
- In the Charlie's Angels TV series opening credits, Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith) did one after taking off a motorcycle helmet.
- The Angels were going undercover via trying out for a cheerleading squad. One of the guys hiring really hated hair flipping, so the girls told some other girls that he loved it, to increase their chances of getting on the squad.
- In this scene in "Toni's Boys" Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd) does this right before Bob Sorenson (Bob Seagren) takes his shirt off.
- CSI: NY: During "Blood Out," there's a flashback to Det. Jamie Lavato working undercover trying to infiltrate a Latino drug gang that regularly hangs out in a pool hall. She wears a short, form-fitting, low-cut, silky red dress and flips her hair from one side to the other as she leans over to line up her cue for her next shot. The ploy works.
- Doctor Who: When the Fourth Doctor's hair gets wet down in "The Android Invasion", he gets to do a funny one◊.
- In Friends, Ross' cousin Cassie (played by Denise Richards) does this, causing Chandler, Ross, and Phoebe to stand slack-jawed while Barry White plays in the background.
- Gilmore Girls: Lorelai Gilmore has a rather legendary hair flip, lampshaded by Luke, who says she can get him to do pretty much anything by flipping her hair.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "Is My Very Nature That of a Devil", Lestat de Lioncourt flips his shoulder-length hair◊ while playing the piano onstage at the Azalea because he relishes being theatrical.
- On a 1977 episode of The Mike Douglas Show, the host was set to interview the stars of a certain new film. One of them took his seat on stage while simultaneously performing a hair flip so mighty it was very likely felt three counties away.
- Played with on Mock the Week, where Russel Howard recounted a game he'd play with his friends in high school called "Tilt the Wig", where they would get the teacher so irate that his combover would flip over on the wrong side of his head.
- On the 2021 revival of Name That Tune, host Jane Krakowski is known for doing this sometimes when introduced the Bid-a-Note round.
- Summer Landsdown from Power Rangers RPM does this after removing her biker helmet in the first episode.
- Saturday Night Live: In an episode guest-hosted by Tina Fey with musical guest Justin Beiber, Fey plays a teacher with a crush on Beiber's character, who flips his hair every time the camera is on him.
- In the BBC television adaptation of The Silver Chair, the Black Knight's identity is hidden by a mask covering his face and head. When he takes it off, he shakes out his shoulder-length hair, revealing himself to be Prince Rilian.
- According to Ashley in Two of a Kind when a guy nods to say hi, a girl should respond with a smile and Hair Flip as Mary-Kate does. You should avoid sending your hair clip flying into the punch bowl however.
- Just about any time Alex turns his attention to Nicola Grey in The Worst Year of My Life, Again (especially if it's the first time she appears in the episode), she will be doing a hair flip.
Music
- The Willow Smith song and music video "Whip My Hair" is all about this.
- Sing along now! Baby, you light up my world like nobody else/The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed...
- Multiple examples occur in Miserable courtesy of giantess Val:
- Early in the video she gives her hair a small flip after waving at the guys, who are standing on her hip.
- When A.Jay swings a backhand towards her in what appears to be a vain attempt to assert his masculinity, her hair whips around her face.
- Later, when the whole band is performing in front of her.
- Near the end of the video, she flips her hair multiple times as she dances to the guitar solo Jeremy is performing for her.
- TWICE's Mina flips her hair◊ for her part near the end of "Cheer Up".
- Tzuyu does prominent hair flips while dancing in the darkened room near the end of the "Run Away" video. Her viral archery flip◊ from 2016 is also alluded to in her opening trailer.
Pro Wrestling
- WWE wrestler Kane does this often, usually during his entrance. Although many long-haired wrestlers have done a hair flip at some point in their careers, Kane has used it on more than one occasion to respond to someone in lieu of actually saying anything (not because he was incapable of talking as he was early in his career—more likely because he didn't want to).
- This became a signature tic of Arch Kincaid about two years into his career when he shaved off all of his hair except for a thin layer by his forehead which he alternates between flipping over back to make it appear like he has more hair than he really does or over his face to give the appearance of bangs down to his chin.
- A signature taunt of WWE Diva Maryse.
- Irish indie wrestler Katey Harvey does this quite a bit as well. It's actually a Shout-Out to Maryse, of whom she's a fan.
- Finnish-Canadian wrestler Silvie Silver flips her hair quite a bit too.
- When Brooke Tessmacher previously made her entrance with her hair in a bun, she would flip it after shaking it free. Now she comes out with her hair down but the flipping remains.
- WWE ring announcer-turned wrestler Summer Rae seems to have adopted this as part of her entrance. Maryse commented on this on Twitter, saying "Wish I'd thought of that."
Theatre
- In Cross Road, the Long-Haired Pretty Boy pair of Niccolo Paganini and his contracted devil Amduscias do this often, along with the Cape Swish, a favorite move for both of them. Before their contract, Niccolo wore his hair in a ponytail, and during the contract scene, Amduscias unties Niccolo's ponytail, setting him free.
- Wicked: When Glinda tries to give Elphaba a makeover, she tries to teach this move. "And this is how you toss your hair. [Toss] You can toss it like this [Toss] or toss it with your hand [Toss] or use your whole body." [TOSS]
- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee: Leaf says he tends to do this, but he probably shared that in a moment of Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!.
- Love in Hate Nation: "One girl pretends that she don't care as she fidgets with her hair. I'm the other one."
Video Games
- Rufus Shinra from Final Fantasy VII, too. Cloud also does one as one of his stock gestures, which he even gets to do as a Mythology Gag in Kingdom Hearts I.
- Rinoa Heartilly from Final Fantasy VIII has a casual hair flip as part of her victory pose.
- Don't you forget Kuja. Don't you dare.
- Beatrix does this too as part of her victory pose.
- Saïx does one when he first meets Sora in Kingdom Hearts II. Those blue locks of his get stuck in his cloak collar otherwise.
- Also from the same game, Kairi, as a "thanks" for Donald praising her for her bravery against the Heartless. Arguments could be made that she also did it to seem cute in front of Sora, given her intake of breath after seeing him.
- Richter from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World does this as well, to summon Aqua.
- Heike Kagero does this in Super Punch-Out. As he's a kabuki-dancing boxer, he also uses his hair as a weapon in the ring.
- Naesala does this in an introductory cutscene, helping to establish how incredibly smug he is before he gets even one spoken line.
- When Prince Peasley flips his hair, he gives off a Bishie Sparkle so bright, it whites out the entire screen!
- Zaki from Live A Live does this.
- Super Smash Bros.:
- Super Smash Bros. Melee: Link's taunt was him running his fingers through his hair.
- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U has Palutena (of Kid Icarus fame) do this with her very long hair as one of her taunts, complete with a seductive "Ready when you are!".
- Marth and Lucina do this in their idle animations, as well as Zelda (who is now based on her incarnation from the "Link" duology) in Ultimate. Mythra, whose hair is almost as long as Palutena's, also does this for one of her idle animations.
- The narcissistic Zhong Hui in Dynasty Warriors really likes touching his hair.
- Leon Magnus in Tales of Destiny tends to flip his hair, showing his arrogance in general.
- Vergil in Devil May Cry makes it a character trait, to make him look different than his twin, Dante. Dante himself adopts this in 4 when entering the Dark Slayer style as a homage to the character above.
- Pokémon X and Y even did this with Bellossom in Pokemon Amie. Sometimes, your Bellossom will sway four times before finally touching its right flower on its head and moving its hand so fast that its right flower twirls fast. "So cute" indeed.
- Female Red Mage player characters in Final Fantasy XIV can do this as their victory emote.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- In Justice for All, Matt Engarde does this to reveal his scar and his true personality.
- In Trials and Tribulations, Dahlia Hawthorne does this to be dismissive once her true personality is shown.
- Mia Fey does this from time to time, in flashbacks, usually when about to present a particularly effective argument.
- Winston Payne used to do this with a kind of pompadour with a receded hairline in flashbacks in Trials and Tribulations until he lost that hair in his epic freakout at losing in case 3-1. Many years later, he grew out the remaining fringe so that he could do it with the sides in Apollo Justice in what can only be interpreted as a parody of this trope.
- An especially hilarious version in Spirit of Justice with the channeled spirit of Tahrust Inmee who, having been bald in life, is clearly milking the fact he's being channeled through Maya Fey for all it's worth by doing this.
Webcomics
- In El Goonish Shive, Diane flips her hair to demonstrate acting flirty as opposed to flirting.
- In Homestuck Vriska Serket gives her hair a good toss in the "Alterniabound" flash. Which one fan took to its logical conclusion...
- Pocket Princesses: As "Hair Toss 101" demonstrates, proper hair flips require training. If Aurora has perfect mastery, Mohana and Pocahontas have lots of trouble with the technique. As for Rapunzel, naturally, she just ends up entangling herself.
- Finn from Warrior U is grudgingly impressed by Darren's perfect little hair flip, but can't seem to master it himself.
Darren: This tournament's going to be too easy! [flick]
Finn: I wish I could flick my hair like that... [fwick]
Web Videos
- Echo Chamber:
- Dana in the Trope of the Week "Unresolved Sexual Tension''.
Dana: I could let my hair down and be all "Hair Flip! Hair Flip!" and you'd be like "Oh, that is so-super-sexy, how did I not realize."
- She does the Hair Flip just after Letting Her Hair Down for the first time in the series.
- Dana in the Trope of the Week "Unresolved Sexual Tension''.
- Tina A. in The Nostalgia Critic's Pearl Harbor episode. She is always flipping her hair, which gets her friends annoyed.
"Dawg": [getting hit by Tina' hair] Bitch, what you on?!
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Ty Lee does this in the Beach Episode. Sparkles are involved.
- Batman: The Animated Series: Poison Ivy does this in her debut episode. After switching on some lush tunes Pamela Isley retreats into her greenhouse's boudoir section, heading behind a privacy screen to undress, which includes pulling her hair loose from the hairnet and shaking it.
- Bob's Burgers: When the family is making a tv commercial, Tina keeps attempting a hair flip, which keeps throwing her glasses off.
- Drawn Together: Princess Clara's "special" cousin Bleh does this (to shake her hair out) after removing her safety helmet. It lasts a good five seconds.
- Kim Possible (pictured) sometimes. In the episode "Mind Games", Ron (in Kim's body) invokes this trope, much to the annoyance of Kim (in Ron's body):
(Kim talks to Wade on the Kimmunicator as Ron flips his long auburn hair forward and back)
Kim: Until we find Drakken and his machine, we'll just have to deal. (looks at Ron) ...What are you doing?
Ron: Your hair. It's so... flippy! - In The Legend of Korra, Asami seems to flaunt her voluminous raven black hair this way. First time she does it is after removing her helmet and infatuating Mako after accidentally running him over on a scooter in "A Voice in The Dark". She does it again after getting back up after overloading poor Naga and considering an alternative means of transportation in "When Extremes Meet". It happens once more a couple of seasons later as she persuades Korra to let her give her a driving lesson.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Rarity does this often.
- In "The Mane Attraction", part of the spectacle of Coloratura's "Countess" persona is whipping her mane around during her performances and public appearances.
- Even the stallion. In "Hard to Say Anything", Feather Bangs always does it. At the end of the episode, the CMC do it too, imitating him.
- The red-haired goth kid from South Park constantly flips his huge bangs out of his eyes.
- The Spliced episode "Best Before Date" begins with Entrée having a daydream where he has a head of long hair, which he flips around to put out fires on Keep Away Island.
- Justin from Total Drama loves this trope.
- Totally Spies!: Clover demonstrates proper hair-flipping technique to a just-captured villainess on an agent.
- Cornelia of W.I.T.C.H. (2004) does it, usually to smack Caleb in the face. He's usually plucking leaves out of his mouth thanks to her powers.
- Darling Charming of Ever After High has this as her special magical power or Magic Touch as it is called in the show, by flipping her hair she can slow down time.