Short hair is of course a broad category that encompasses a virtually unlimited amount of hairstyles, but in the world of Anime girls rarely have short hair, so every time we meet a short haired girl it is indeed a big deal. Some short haired beauties are Nana from Nana, Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan and Riko Aida from Kuroko no Basuke.

In general, the short hairstyle gives these girls a certain tomboyish look. It may also be used to reflect their strong personality, as both Mikasa and Riko are fierce and independent girls. Some girls give the short hair a little twist to make it a bit more feminine by wearing long sideburns. Such is the case of Hinata Hyuuga from Naruto and Hinata Hino from Mirai Nikki.

Another popular short hairstyle is the short bob or chin-length bob with bangs, like the one Hana Midorikawa from Prison School wears. This hairstyle gives her a rather serious and conservative look.

There are several types of hair buns, from the ballerina buns and the topknot buns, to the messy buns and the sock buns. A girl may choose a type of hair bun depending on the situation and whether she needs it to be practical or to make her look sexy and sophisticated.

This hairstyle can be both classy and convenient, and by looking at some Anime girls who wear their hair in buns, we can see it reflects certain aspects of their nature. Usagi Tsukino (Serena) from Sailor Moon, Kagura from Gintama and May-chan from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are some of those pretty and laidback girls.

The ponytail is surely the most common and simple hairstyle ever. This doesn’t mean it deserves any less credit than the rest of the hairstyles on this list. The ponytail is a convenient and practical hairstyle that can be used for doing physical activities or to appear formal and classy.

A long ponytail gives a feeling of youthfulness, like the one that wears Mion Sonozaki from When They Cry. Also, Winry Rockbell from FMA wears a ponytail to keep her long hair from bothering her while she works long hours on automail parts. Another beauty who wears a ponytail, a short one in this case, is Mizuho Kazami from Please Teacher. Her short ponytail gives her a chic and elegant look to enhance her sexy teacher image.

Dreads are quite uncommon on Anime characters and mostly on female characters. That’s why every time we meet a girl with dreadlocks in a show we wonder “why is there a Rastafarian girl on this show”? Well, that’s probably never the case, but despite that there aren’t many girls with dreadlocks in Anime, this hairstyle reflects some personality traits.

Dreadlocks are often related to the Reggae music and culture, which may be translated as a character’s laidback nature and her ideals of peace. Izumi Curtis from Fullmetal Alchemist and Rei Hououmaru from Kill La Kill are two of the few girls with dreadlocks in Anime. In Izumi’s case, she doesn’t really have quite the laid back personality, but she has a strong sense of right and wrong (especially after her accident) and she is indeed a peacekeeper.

Afros are also extremely uncommon in Anime. However, they are just so cool that we had to include them on our list. Most of the times, characters with afros, and mostly female characters with afros, play secondary or minor parts on their shows.

Apparently, twin tails and pony tails are in general considered much sexier than afros. I would personally love, however, to see some more female lead characters with afros in the near future. Some of these beautiful ladies with cloud-shaped hair are Atsuko Jackson from Michiko to Hatchin, Banba from Kuragehime and the sexy Coffee from Cowboy Bebop.

Mohawks are THE rarest of hairstyles in Anime. I really doubt there are more female characters with mohawks than you can count with one hand. That’s what makes finding one of these so cool. The ones I know are the pilot B.A. Bandora from Agent Aika and Bellemare from One Piece, who wears a more contemporary kind of mohawk, with both sides shaved and long hair at the back.

Clearly, this is not one of the sexiest or most girly looks for a female Anime character, but I (and hopefully many others too) find it quite attractive and really cool. This is a hairstyle that reflects a lot of attitude and strength of character, so I deeply wish to find more girls with mohawks in future shows.

Super long hair on female characters is often related to great powers and in many cases to an evil personality. Some examples are: Mistress 9 from Sailor Moon, C.C. from Code Geass, Jessie (Team Rocket) from Pokémon and Kanzaki Kaori from To Aru Majutsu no Index.

You can surely think of many other long haired girls, the list is pretty much endless, but most likely half of them will be either super powerful or super evil babes. Many of them style their long beautiful hairs with short bangs, like Saeko Busujima from HOTD, or with blinding bangs like Olivier Mira Armstrong from FMAB (I love FMA, you might have noticed by now).

As I just mentioned, Major Olivier Armstrong is one mesmerizing beauty who wears blinding bangs. Some others are Touka Kirishima from Tokyo Ghoul and Tsubaki Amamiya from God Eater. Clearly, the blinding bangs covering one or both eyes reflect a cold and detached nature on the character.

It is as if these girls are hiding behind those bangs, keeping other people from looking at them right in the eyes. This denotes a certain vulnerability or low self-esteem, which is indeed the case for Touka-chan. It’s not so much the case, however, for Major Olivier Armstrong, who’s just a cold blooded witch, incapable of expressing any emotion whatsoever.

Braided pigtails and pig curls are just as popular among Anime high school girls as the regular twin tails. These are one of the most common and girly hairstyles out there. Of course, pigtails and pig curls reflect a girly and youthful attitude, yet some deeper meanings can be perceived from the length and complexity of the hairstyle. Some Anime girls with these hairstyles are Kyoko Tokiwa from Fullmetal Panic, Akane Yamana from Inazuma Eleven Go, Lizzie from Kuroshitsuji and the extravagant Celestia Ludenberg from Danganronpa.

Clearly, the curlier and the longer a pig curl gets the more stylish and high-class you look. As for pigtails, they usually suggest a nerdy character. However, the more inwards the pigtails are, the more introverted the female character tends to be; and the higher on the head and more outwards the pigtails are, the more extroverted she usually is.

But still, if there is anything more girly and more kawaii than pigtails and pig curls, that’s certainly…

…The twin tails! The zenith of female hairstyles. Literally thousands of female characters in Anime wear twintails. It is such a common (yet effective) hairstyle that it would be almost impossible to attach a specific meaning to it. “How are in general girls with twin tails?” There’s no way to answer that without falling into an extremely inexact overgeneralization.

I mean, you have characters like the annoying Saya from HOTD, the cute silly Sailor Moon, the beautiful and obsessive Amane Misa from Death Note and the psychotic Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki. We can only say that twin tails are probably one of the most effective means to represent girly and feminine characters. And they’re all breathtaking beautiful.