#like its actually crazy the way ranmas hair stops growing as a woman and its no longer something he fears

[ukyou-kuonji]

Something that's been on my mind recently has been the ways in which hair is such a major part of Ranma 1/2. It's a major plot catalyst in at least 4 arcs (Ryoga's introduction, Super Soba, Dragon's Whisker, and Porcupine-Genma). And obviously I feel like this is thie case because hair is a gendered signifier that effects how the characters move through the world (whether or not it remains a punchline).

For Ranma and Genma, the loss of hair is tied to a loss of masculinity. For Akane, the way in which she does her hair defines her performance as a woman. This is why even as the manga progresses, and the arcs become more ridiculous, over-done, and lack the early introspection of "A Bad Cut," these themes never really go away.

In that early chapter Akane grapples with accepting herself for who she is, rather than pushing herself to adhere to a standard of femininity that both promises social acceptance and the "reward" of heterosexual affection from men. Her unwanted haircut (lining up neatly with her unwanted engagement to a woman) forces her to confront the ways in which she does not conform. It's also a visual tool to explain the thematic concerns to the audience. Despite the devastation she feels in the moment, it's truer to herself, and she chooses to start accepting that side of herself and stop trying as hard.

However, obviously because it's Ranma 1/2, the effort never totally goes away, in her nor in the other characters. The threat of her growing facial hair is just too much deviation from the norm for Akane to deal with, just as the threat of Genma and/or Ranma losing all their hair is too much. The audience is asked to accept these concepts as simple truths, and not to question them as plot catalysts in the way we do Akane's haircut "A Bad Cut." Though the later occurrences lack the nuance of chapter 13, they are very revealing about the gendered pressures all the characters experience moving through the world. The emphasis on hair in a comedy about gender really shows the ways in which, even though deviation is not consciously explored past the second book, hair defines these characters as means of expressing and conforming to their gender/gendered stereotypes.