Why Azula Letting Her Hair Down, and *Not Cutting it, has so much meaning
I just saw a post saying that Azula’s short hair is release and Zuko’s short hair is rebirth and I didn’t want to reblog it because it was a lovely take and I know how I feel when people hop onto my posts with their own *unasked for* takes.
See, the thing is, Azula and Zuko both have tons of symbolism within their hair. But they symbolize different things. Azula’s hair symbolizes not just perfection, and acceptance, but emotion. Zuko’s hair actually symbolizes freedom. Think about it.
In season one, Zuko’s hair is one half long and the other shaved. Because Zuko is half away from his captor. See, the ponytail is like a rope. It’s the only piece of his hair, a symbolism of his honor. But in season one, Zuko ties restoration of his honor with being accepted back home in the fire nation.
At the start of season two, Zuko cuts his ponytail. He doesn’t know yet that he will one day rule the nation he yearns to be welcomed back into. This version of Zuko sees himself as a fugitive and not a prince trying to make his way back home, and we know that because he cuts his hair after Azula makes the little speech asking why their father would let him come home.
So, Zuko’s hair regrowing while he’s in the Earth Kingdom. It symbolizes him having freedom that he doesn’t quite understand to flourishing and making a place for himself within his newfound freedom. He makes such a place for himself that he needs to be convinced to return home. I’m not even talking about the crystal catacombs. In an official comic in between the seasons, Zuko doesn’t want to return home even after betraying Iroh. Azula sets him up on a date with Mai so he will follow love right past the Great Gates of Azulon and into the fire nation.
In the start of season two, Lo and Li critique Azula and a hair is out of place. She then says her famous line, “almost isn’t good enough.”
Despite Azula’s performance being almost perfect, it’s not enough for Azula to ignore the flaws she must have because she is human. For basically entirety of the show, Azula wears her hair in a loose, but neat bun. In that hairstyle contains Azula’s flaws. It also contains her empathy and emotions, but the importance of that is the fact that Azula sees emotion as a flaw.
We see Azula’s hair down about five times.
The first time Azula is shown with her hair down, she is in her bedroom trying to sleep. It’s actually in a ponytail. Azula doesn’t need to display perfection in her sleep. But anything can happen when she isn’t awake. She’s not quite relaxed even then.
The second time she is shown with her hair down, she’s just getting her hair washed and I can’t really think of anything behind that.
The third time we see Azula with her hair down, it’s very important from the styling to when it is shown. This is the Beach episode. Azula hasn’t been to Ember Island in years, she knows no one. The first day she arrives and plays Kuai Ball and meets Chan and Ruon Jian, her hair is in its usual style. Azula lets her hair down after deciding to drop her status as princess on this beach. She doesn’t act like a princess either by forcing Chan to talk to her or demanding people at the party pay attention to her. Azula’s hair is down, she is awkward and trying too hard and her flaws on on full display the first time her hair is down for a long duration of time. It’s still neat though, Azula is still showing what she wants to show. As the episode comes to a close, Azula shows us her Achilles heel, and there is loads of emotion in one sentence. As soon as she does, she quickly tries to pull the sock back up and change the subject.
The fourth time Azula’s hair is down, there is no styling to it. It is completely loose, and billowing in the wind. Now, Azula was just fine previous to falling into the air. She was falling to her death. The amount of emotion that would go through her is wild, and she definitely wasn’t looking to compose herself. She only smirked after securing her life. But she was most likely still running like a chicken with its head cut off in her mind.
The fifth, and most important time that Azula’s hair is down, is Sozin’s comet. In the novelization, Azula goes on about there is no one to do her hair and it’s a mess. Ozai is gone, and Azula would have had to contain herself in front of him for her safety. She has no friends or family to remain collected for. The exact reason why I don’t think Azula cutting her hair is release is because of the scene where she cuts her bangs. See, Azula cannot tame her hair(her emotions) and so she cuts it (tries to get rid of them). At the start of the Agni Kai, Azula’s hair is messy, but it’s tied. Halfway through, it is completely down. It is still down when she is chained to a grate and crying. See, she had flaws and emotions that she refused to express gently at different periods of time. Instead she bottled them up inside herself. (In her neat little bun). But they simply could not be contained and they exploded, causing her body and talent to fail her when she needed it most. (Causing her hair to look terrible on the day of her coronation).
Post finale Azula doesn’t acknowledge her emotions. Post redemption Azula shouldn’t run away from her emotions(cut her hair) but accept them and let them be (let her hair down).
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