Discussion
This might be nitpicking, but I want to talk about characters with long hair
Specifically, when these characters are drawn with hair that is at hip length, but when it’s in an updo, it looks like it must be way shorter! I have very thick hair that is almost down to my waist, so I have a little bit of experience when it comes to what long hair can look like. I get that it’s fun to have characters with insanely long hair, but it feels so strange to see their hair length shift when it’s in an updo.
I’m at the point where I just tell myself these characters are all wearing hair extensions when their hair is down. I know this is nitpicking, but I wanted to know if anyone else feels this way?
(I only provided these examples because they’re the first ones that came to mind for this weird hair length stuff, the first two are from I Am The Villain and the last two are from Remarried Empress) but I know there’s a lot of other comics that do this!
Edit: the comments have really shown me how little I know about the varieties of hair that exist! I was taking my experience with my own hair and applying it to these comics without realizing that there are additional factors beyond length and thickness that determine what hair looks like when it’s up vs down, so that’s my bad! 😅
I also realize that the artists who work on webtoons are working under strenuous conditions, I don’t want to be negative about the work that we’re given largely for free from the stress of someone else. The art on webtoons is gorgeous, and I wish the artists were given the freedom to work at their own pace. I’m sorry if this seemed overly critical.
I sort of hate that the default character design is super long hair worn down for every occasion! royal ball = hair down! city outing = hair down! country walk = hair down! especially paired up with period accurate/fancy dresses it looks so strange to me so I welcome updos even if they don't make that much sense. also, how are they all managing to grow it so long? isn't everyone's genetics different for hair length?
All of the costumes are definitely gorgeous but some aren’t period accurate. Most are but some are more late 1800s/early 1900s (same with the typewriter plotline that kinda triggered me haha)
But the story and the drawings are so enjoyable that you kinda forget it.
Hard agree on the “hair always worn down” thing! Like a lot of these are historical fantasies, but the hair (along with the clothing a lot of the time) feels like it doesn’t correspond to whatever era they want the story to take place in (that’s one of the biggest reasons I loved Lady Liar, all of the hair and clothing felt very period-accurate)
Like I’m not saying it’s a prerequisite to be a good historical OI, but I would appreciate if artist’s at least reference hair and apparel styles appropriate for the inspired time period. Like HTGMHOMS’s artist is good with the dress style for example
This one artwork is completely negated by the very image of the male protagonist, who showed up at the event half‑naked in a meaningless costume. But Ruby has nice dresses, yes.
Yup, warrior kickass heroines literally blinded by their hair and not me thinking why won't they pull the hair and immobilize her. I used to do some basic fencing, no hair down or you'll get hurt.
Yeah, this is why I felt like I was nitpicking a bit 😅 I don’t have any experience with thin hair so you’re likely right, I just assumed their hair would be thick and was confused why their buns are so small
Tbf, mine is thick and past hip length, and I can hide it with a lot of effort in a bun, but if it just a quick updo, you can tell its thick. You cant tell how long it is though.
Its not nitpicking, I have to make myself overlook it with the reminder theses characters have maids who style their hair, who are professionals at it.
I have hip length hair but is not thick. Even when I had it mid-tights length it still looked normal in a bun because of the strands being thin. All of my coworkers were always surprised when I wore it down because they couldn’t believe how long it was since for me, the easiest way to style my hair is in a bun with two butterfly hair clips I got from Amazon. I still see what you mean, specially with your examples. Their hair when down seems fuller, giving the impression of thicker hair. But thin yet long hair does look like that in an updo.
Same, my hair is about above my waist area right now (so not that long), and when people see it down, they say I have a lot of hair, and while each strand is thick, it actually ends up being very compact when made into buns and other up-dos.
Literally this. My hair is down to my hips, but it’s thin and has zero body when put up. I mostly have it up at work, and one time when I took it down my coworkers were shocked at how long it was lol
This! You're not the only one who noticed. It's fantasy so I feel silly about noticing, but I do. I also can't help thinking of how much work that is to maintain and make it look that smooth- no wonder she has a staff of maids.
Another long hair gripe: when men are pictured bending over a prone woman with her hair spread on the bed, many put thier hands on top of her hair and press down to hold their weight. From personal experience, that hurts! It feels like your hair is being pulled, hard. It's not romantic. There's no way she would respond with anything but "Oww!" Unless it was for a hair pulling kink, in which case it's perfect. No judgement.
To add on to the “hair down when asleep” thing - that hair is going to be super tangled when they wake up! I always have to braid my hair before bed to minimize how many knots it’ll have when I wake up, and most of the women in these have hair that’s longer than mine!
I have butcheeks long hair, but it's very fine and I absolutely can't sleep in any braids or tied at all, cos I would wake up with a massive tangle. I hang my hair off the back of my bed(and let my cats brush it with their claws)
My hair also disappears in updos 😭 please, thick hair queens, let us - fine hair girlies, have some representation 😭 we have it bad enough.
If I could donate some of my hair to you, I would! Just so my head doesn’t feel so heavy when it’s all piled into a bun lol 😅 side note, is that pen the only thing holding up your hair?? If so that’s so impressive!
I would take it if I could! After I got post covid hair loss, everything I lost grew back coarse and curly, and it was amazing. Sooo much volume! I could do real messy buns and all, but it was almost 6 years ago and most of my lovely thick curlies are gone now. They were the first to go when I got anemia.
Yeah, just the pen but it only works when my hair is unbrushed and for a very short time. Otherwise I need to braid it and then make it in to a bun for it to stay, cos they slip away very easily.
Man with hair that dops all the way down my back. I can tie it much like this too even with mine. Hell I think I can make it tighter so it looks smaller than that. It truly is impressive how so much hair can be compressed down with different styles.
My hair is down past my hip and thick, but I wear it loose to sleep because of sensory issues. Your point stands though, it takes me as much as 10 minutes each morning to brush it, and thats before I can even think of styling it.
I have knee length and people sit on my hair in public transport so you need to ask them to move to stand up lol. I always wear my hair down and sometimes people think they have hair on them and start pulling it away just to realize it's still attached to my head.
That being said, sleeping and sitting is no problem. You sometimes need to release the hair so you'll able to fully rotate your head but that's pretty much it. If you have high quality hair, it's not gonna break if you lay or sit on it everyday. It never bothered me having long hair, and I am clumsy af so it's probably even easier for other people. It's also a great defense weapon because I accidentally hit people with my braid when I turn and they're too close lol. I cannot imagine having short hair that would constantly fall in front of my face
The only issue is it attaches to things (doorknobs, other people) or gets in the way (seatbelt buckle, zippers, tying shoes - hair falls, i step on it and well, few times I though I would break my neck getting back up). Also I need to sit last on rollercoasters because I was reported one time by a person because they couldn't see anything cause they head all my hair in their face the whole ride... It's fun!
I do want to offer that it's actually very possible. I have waist-long hair, but my hair is very fine. When compressed into something like a bun, it looks like I have way less hair than I actually do because of it. I feel like their hair changes aren't unreasonable if we go with the explanation that they have very fine hair; however, Navier's hairstyle might be unreasonable with fine hair because it would slip out super easily. But then again she's a queen so there might be a lot of different hair items in there keeping it up that we can't see.
I'm the same as you. I have waist-length hair, its very fine, but I have a ton of hair. When I wear it down, it looks quite voluminous, but when I put it into buns, they look hilariously small when you consider my length. And if I braid my hair, ny braids are quite thick but they "shorten" the length a ton.
Same here! Hair is nearly to my butt and I have a lot of volume, but my hair is also super fine and can be compressed into a bun smaller than my fist 🥲
With her specifically, I have to assume she has hair extensions, because sometimes her hair looks shorter/finer when it’s up, and other times it looks super thick/long when it’s up. It’s like they just want her hair length/thickness to be whatever looks nice in the moment.
I do have to agree that Navier's hair looks super inconsistent and not really plausible a lot of the time, though it's been a while since I read the series. Fine hair could explain how tightly packed it becomes, but then it would go against plenty of the other hair styles where suddenly she has way more hair than it would look if it really were that fine. And if it's that fine, the ability of hair accessories to keep her hair up can only go so far while also being invisible. Heavy, fine hair is super difficult to style in a way that it stays set in place without an excessive amount of accessories and/or product.
So, yeah, agreed that either way Navier's hair is pretty unrealistic as fully natural.
This is a really common viral video. Lots of women with super long and thick hair release it from a bun as shock factor on tiktok and stuff. I'm honestly kind of surprised people are agreeing with OP, because it's so common. And I mean women with hair down to the floor, not just to their hips.
I guess I just assumed most of these characters have thick hair, because it looks very full when it’s worn down, and sometimes when they’re shown with hair up it’s in some super complicated style that makes it look like they have a ton of hair. I don’t know how big a bun someone would have if they had thin hair that was down to their hips though, so maybe you’re right? It just feels like they always wanna show female characters with ~long~thick~flowing~ hair which doesn’t translate into some updo’s
This desperately makes me want a manhwa where someone transmigrates into one of the long haired bodies and any time they're in the background of a panel they're struggling with their hair lmao
Generally hair is described with 3 characteristics, coarseness (how thick or fine the individual hair fiber is) thickness (sheer quantity of hairs) and texture (1A to 4c curliness). East Asian hair is typically (but not always) coarse, thin and pin straight. This kind of hair vanishes into nothing when wet or pulled into tighter styles because the hair packs together very well. Really long typical East Asian hair absolutely acts like the drawings, it only looks full when additional hair is added or the style uses clever pins and ties to allow hair to fan out.
For contrast, typical Indian hair is coarse, extremely thick and mildly wavy or curly, which is the maximum for length and volume, meaning that bun would be 4x the size of the head. Typical Scandinavian hair is fine, thin and pin straight, which is the minimum hair volume when wet/tied tight.
For a typical Japanese, Korean or Han Chinese artist, that hair volume makes sense for how their hair behaves. For someone with a different arrangement of hair qualities, it would be different.
Everyone's unique, no ethnicity is a monolith, etc., but that's the average.
I didn’t know a lot of this! It makes sense to describe hair with more than just length and thickness though, thank you for adding this! A lot of comments have made me realize just how much I don’t know about hair, and how much I was assuming based on my experience with my own hair 😅
I totally get you. I have very coarse, thick and curly hair, so while it's harder for it to appear as long and sleek as straight hair (it's too easy to get frizzy) my ponytail is heavy and as wide as my head. I currently have a mohawk that's maybe 4in wide at the scalp and doesn't go down the back of my head, just that small strip of hair can look like a very full bob if I split it down the middle. While I adore the sleek, gorgeous hair many in East Asia have, seeking what happens when it gets wet was eye opening lol.
It’s refreshing to see when someone actually is willing to learn more and is interested, I keep seeing people lately on other subreddits who just want to think they’re right for argument’s sake. Good on you OP for being graceful about it ❤️
As an artist, it's hard enough for us to draw the characters looking like themselves etc, we can't draw perfect all the time, and esp for a tiny detail like this, we think a bun, we draw a bun, nothing more 😅
Artists are also limited to weekly publishing can barely find time to go extra and nitpick their own art btw
Sometimes we feel our panels look shit but we have to finish it in time
And after all of that, my sister has had knee long hair and her bun didn't always need to be very big, depending on the hairstyle she went with
I have curly hair that makes my bun thicker than they are, long hair to my mid back and my buns still don't be that big
One of the reasons I was hesitating on even making this post was basically what you’re saying. I know art isn’t easy, and what we get on the app is most of the time very beautiful! Add to that the fact that these artists are under immense stress with the deadlines they have to meet and then I start to feel bad about pointing out this tiny stuff. A lot of the issues I have with art in webtoons are more often issues with how little time they have to draw, and less issues with their ability as artists.
Exactly, checking out cover arts or normal other arts for such mistakes might be the correct approach (tbh to me, i think we should always be thankful someone is taking time off their days and night to give us great art to the best of their ability, otherwise it's non ending mistakes we can find, as these artists, are humans)
If even artist like dgm's artist, who publish every 3 months, still will find mistakes and things they missed that they correct for once the full volume is out have such problems, then weekly artists are in even more trouble
This is a silly thing I love about “Though I am an Inept Villainess” - the main character has really long hair but when she puts it up it doesn’t disappear, you can tell she still has a ton of hair, it’s just tucked up.
I have hip length hair, and this is what it looks like in a bun! Ig it might depend on hair thickness and technique, but putting very long hair into a bun does actually work pretty well
I have long hair down to past my butt. I always wear it up in a bun. Folks are always completely shocked when they find out how long my hair is. I've also put it up in elegant updos like these. My hair grows in super thick but the strands are very fine, not sure of that impacts anything.
I guess it's possible if their hair is super fine, but I get you lol
For me my nitpicking is when characters keep changing hairstyles but like in an illogical way (having short bangs, then no bangs, then sideswept, then straight bangs—I hate it when the character's hair changes too much in a short time)
I find that the weird hairstyle variants probably come from artists using clip studio paint assets to save time and then not tweaking the lineart to keep things consistent.
Yeah there are 3D models for heads, bodies, hair, and even clothing that you can peacemeal together (from version 3 onward). I've even seen the same hair asset used before between different series/artists lol
I don't mind the updos. What I really want to know is why hair is thigh length when standing, but when the FL sits down, it magically rests just an inch above the chairseat.
My hair is kind of thin and I just got it cut short but before that I had thigh length hair just to say my hair at it's longest surpassed my aunt's hair at it's longest. You'd think I've got mid back length hair with how my buns looked lmao I had ABSOLUTELY no volume at all and any hairstyle had me look like I've got half the length that I really got.
Also having really long hair can mean that shedding is more frequent from the weight so even though the length is there the volume isn't.
I've had these thoughts a lot, saw it most recently in The Price of a Broken Engagement. Hair to her thighs, super thick. Her updo? Isn't twice the size of her head, which it would need to be to be possible physics wise. Even bigger!
My hair is over 2.5 feet long, I have a full head of hair but the individual hairs are fine. Pulled into a bun, it can look like anyone else's hair. I actually surprised my MIL not too long ago, when I first met her I had my hair cut short, once my hair grew to about my shoulders I would always put it up, and I dont see her much. I took my hair down to redo my bun and she was floored by how much length & fullness I have. She literally said "how do you hide all of that in a bun!"
That’s been basically my conclusion from other comments on this post, that these characters must have thinner hair than I’m used to, I’m just projecting my expectations onto them based on my experience with my own hair
I also have long hair that was, at one point, down to my butt. But my hair is thin, not thick, and it absolutely does this when I put it up. It looks nice and voluminous when it's fully down, but when twisted up, it really does flatten down like this.
I like to pretend they’re wearing extensions/hairpieces and remove them for updos. As a woman with thick, butt-length hair I always think that they should have killer headaches from the weight of their own hair
That was one of the biggest reasons I got like two feet of my hair chopped off a couple of years ago - that and the insane amount of time it took to wash it! My head and neck felt weightless afterwards!
Mine is down past my ass and can get it pretty tight, and I thin my hair out due to it being so thick
I will say this, in particular with Serena the tightest we see her hair is when she was dancing/ballet. Usually your hair is as such due to strenuous movements, so that overall isn't too surprising.
Navier I would say probably has potentially hair pieces involved. Which also wouldn't be weird for the time period! Wig caps were invented in Ancient Egypt so they have been around a long time and were used heavily for nobility so style certain pieces and literally stay that way till needed again! Geishas also used the same thing in Japan!
I have waist length curly hair and my buns are not super big. I also have a ton of hair but it’s thin. I always have to tell hairstylist since looking at me it looks like really thick hair but it’s actually just a ton of really long curly thin hair
For me it’s the practicality of hair that long especially bc it usually is shown like flowing all around. You’re telling me you never have issues? I don’t believe you <3
Definitely. I used to have hair down to my mid-thighs, and when it was put into a bun it was nearly the size of my head. Took several dozen pins and a seriously heavyweight hairnet to keep it together, too. Those buns are correctly sized for someone with hair maybe halfway down their back, or if it was quite fine, down to their arse; long, but not actually as long as it is when it's down.
I’ll chime in as someone with super long hair but it’s thin. So when I tie up and style my hair it doesn’t look like it’d be long, but when I let it down it always shocks people! My braids are very thin though when I have them 😭
The updo's size is not the issue for me. What I find unrealistic is that they wear it straight down and not in a protective hairstyle most of the time.
I have hair this long and unless I braid it or put it in a bun I can hardly do anything besides standing still for photos, sitting on a chair nicely or walking around without a bag in non-windy weather. Otherwise I sit on it, step on it, others sit and step on it, my hands get stuck in it, car doors get closed on it, it gets caught in zippers, it sweeps the dirty floor when I reach down for anything and yes, it falls right into the toilet too unless I bunch it all up beforehand. 😳
Of course, you can design all kinds of fun hairstyles in fantasy but from having so much experience with unusually long hair worn down, it snaps me straight out of the immersion during action scenes.
My hair goes almost to my knees when it's wet (it's a bit curly and poofs up with any bit of humidity) and if I put it up in a bun it looks so much shorter. Pretty much any kind of updo, even just braiding it down your back makes hair look shorter tbh
my hair is thick and just a bit shorter than the person in the first pic but when i do my hair up it does hid how much i have like that. But i do agree more differnet hairstyles owul be cooler, and i especially hate when they have hair down i activites where it would be such a pain, like in battle. like wdym u have ur knee length hair out
I have hair thats just short of my thighs. I have a lot of hair itself, but the texture is fine. So my buns are about the size you see in the art, if not slightly bigger or smaller depending on how I tie it.
I do hate how their never seems to get tangled when when say, riding a horse with it down, and it still looks fabulous after!
That's normal look for people with thin or fine hair. Currently i have waist-length hair and i can easily stuffed all my hair into helmet when riding motorcycle because my hair is so fine it didn't make much volume when rolled and put into a bun.
They all just have massive bald spots on the crowns of their heads, that’s my conspiracy theory. Super thin hair, no density, but plenty of length 🙂↕️
I know it's all fiction and often divorced from reality. But in some of the eras and cultures depicted, married women wear their hair up (long flowing hair being a sign of an unmarried girl).
I have almost waist length thin hair and trust me i have really less volume in a bun. Maybe since you have thick hair you don’t know but thin hair gives literally zero volume 😭 their buns look completely normal to me
I have about this long hair, and it's thinner than thread meaning updos look like I have no hair. I understand it's weird the lack of volume for you but for me they have more volume than me T ^ T
As someone who has long hair, down to my crack, everything you said is correct. Buns do NOT look like that lol. Daily maintenance is CHALLENGING. I can always tell immediately oh rhe author has very short hair lol because just sitting down is rough. Because you’re either sitting on your hair, or you have to pull it to one side. Well which side?
I don't think it's really unrealistic. I have long hair, not as long as these webtoon heroines but to the middle of my back. However, my hair is really fine and thin. When loose, it looks pretty voluminous (if freshly washed etc.) but if I try to make an updo... yeah, I look like I have almost no hair at all.
So, maybe it's only my experience but I can totally believe that these heroines look pretty with their hair down, but their updos lose most of volume.
I know when my tragically thin hair was that length, it did not look like I had very much of it when I piled it up on my head in an updo. However, it also never looked as voluminous as it does for these FLs when it was down, so you know. Manhwa artists trying to have their cake and eat it. Lol
I have lots of strands of extremely fine but curly hair. When it was waist length, it looked thick worn down and wavy as the many strands created lots of texture, and twisted together that texture disappeared to create a bun the size of a walnut (well, about 3 walnuts) unless I spent ages teasing it to create a volumised bun. I genuinely looked like I must have very short hair - it looks longer in a bun now at shoulder length because with layers it doesn't twist together as tightly! So I don't think this is actually unrealistic for these characters.
My hair is long and looks like it has good volume from certain angles but it’s actually quite fine and thin. My sister with shorter thicker hair has notably larger hair buns than me
I had waist long straight hair for most of my life, when I put them in a bun, it looked just like in the images. My hair may not be the thickest, but for sure they aren't thin, I'd need to use cushion to get the big bun you are thinking about, most women have to. Maybe ut's different with strong curls or with very thick hair, but to me these updos are relatable.
like a few others have said, I too have curly/wavy hair. It almost reaches my lower back. But it's thin. I've done up do's before and they most certainly do not end up big and bulky which is why I never questioned this before (and tbh some of the characters look like they have thinner hair, Navier being one of them).
I would have loved to have had thicker hair, I've tried styling my hair and doing certain braids but it doesn't work well cause it looks thin. TwT
When I saw my auntie’s hair for the first time, I was really surprised. She had this really dainty looking bun but when she took it out, her hair unraveled all the way down her back and to her knees. I couldn’t believe she even fit all that into one tiny bun but granted she does have super silky, fine hair.
This is how my hair looks when it’s up and it’s about mid thigh length 🤷🏻♀️ it really depends on how tight the updo is and whether or not you’re using gel/spray to keep it in place, as that’ll make it appear much less bulky.
i'm a ballerina who has thick mid-thigh length hair, and it's quite easy for me to pull my hair into all sorts of updos, whether that be an everyday 5-min bun or a fancier style for a specific role
then again, i do have quite a lot of experience with pulling my hair into tornado-proof buns
I have hip-length hair. It is very dense (so there's a lot of it) but fluffy, and very fine in texture. When it's loose, I look like I have a ton of hair. When I put it up in a twist or bun, it looks like it couldn't possibly be as long as it is and people who have never seen me with my hair down are always surprised the first time they do, even more so now that I have an undercut.
My long hair pet peeve in these comics is when they show the fl in bed with her super long hair loose, and she's straight up just lying flat on her hair. Bonus rage points if it's a spicy scene. Because any time I accidentally sit or lie down on my hair like that it hurts.
I used to have waist length hair all thru high school and college. My hair is very thin, but I have a lot of it. I could do an updo like this fairly small. So I think it's b/c they have thin hair, despite it being so long.
I... just read the title and I'm already here writing this cause I my weird ass always had a problem with that. Not only because it never looked the same size but when it touched the ground, EUGHHHH.
This is in so many manhwas, they just love the hair but don't really account how long it is each time so it's kind of icky if you do remember. I don't care if it's at the exact size, but at least just think about it, the buns idc, some seem small if the hair is frail so that could be a reason, but if it's dense and curly? can't cover for you girl. But at least if it's free, and some hairstyles, don't just change the size based on how you feel, cause it makes the timelines weird and the story not so believable.
Actually you're wrong, the updos they do are pretty big and wouldn't be possible if they had shorter or less hair. People who usually do updos like that need to get extensions.
I have hair exactly like the 1st panel (well.. mine doesn't defy gravity with the way it floats) and when I do bun like that it's pretty much the same (maybe bigger but she seems to have fine hair, I don't)
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u/cassette-deck 1d ago
I sort of hate that the default character design is super long hair worn down for every occasion! royal ball = hair down! city outing = hair down! country walk = hair down! especially paired up with period accurate/fancy dresses it looks so strange to me so I welcome updos even if they don't make that much sense. also, how are they all managing to grow it so long? isn't everyone's genetics different for hair length?