What do these two ladies have in common?
Yes, they are both 18, but both of them are also daily accused of failed hair physics. I cannot even count how many times people bring these two up to me when I’m ranting about animation errors. So I’m now here today to make it clear why Rapunzel and Anastasia (and their character designers) do not deserve the criticism.
Complaint: “When Rapunzel gets her hair braided it turns super short.”
Backstory: Yes, she has long ass hair. 70 feet of it to be precise. And her hair does indeed get shorter when it’s braided. But the hair itself is still 70 feet long.
The secret: It’s just folded on-top of itself several times.
The proof: We don’t see much of the branding process itself. The image below is actually from the only shot we get.
But take a look at normal braids from “Tangled” as well as “Frozen”.
Pretty small, right? Also check out how thin Rapunzel’s hair is when you grab it all in your hand: it’s not unaturally thick in any way.
Now look at Rapunzel’s huge ass braid. The thickness of it proves that there are several layers of hair hiding in there; folded over and over and arranged in a way so that the tips of the hair will still be at the end. Another design choice would have been to give Blondie a 70 feet long thin braid, but it would still have gotten stuck everywhere due to it’s length. So making a shorter and THICC braid was the best solution.
Conclusion: The braiding girls in Corona really know what they are doing and have bright futures up ahead.
Complaint: “Anastasia’s hair goes from short to long out of the blue.”
Backstory: When we first meet young Anastasia she has long hair, but when we meet her again as an adult she seems to have cut away her long locks.
But in later scenes her hair reaches her lower back??? But no worries! The animators haven’t been smoking gummybears while making this decision, since her hair was just hiding right under our noses all this time.
The secret: Anastasia hair is layered and she used her own hair to tie up the longest part.
The proof: When Anastasia removes her hat we can see a high ponytail; completely plausible for someone with short hair. But look at what’s keeping Anastasia’s hair in it’s place; it’s her own hair, twisted tightly in a loop. We even see this same technique used by all the burlesque dancers during “Paris Holds The Key”.
If this had indeed been a hairband of sorts then it wouldn’t have the exact same shade as her hair, nor would it have been drawn like this. But what about the hair at the nape of her neck? It’s just the shortest parts that did not reach the messy ponytail, a very common occurance for people with layered hair. But these short parts become practically invisible if you let down all your hair over it. Same thing if you let a professional do your hair, which happens to Anastasia after meeting Sophie (The secret here = Bobby pins).
For further proof you can below see real life examples of twisted hair, as well as short hair that does not reach a high ponytail.
Conclusion: Anastasia’s hair is misunderstood and deserves love.
I will now go eat vanilla ice-cream with hot raspberries. Ciao.
Movies used: Tangled (2010), Frozen (2013), Anastasia (1997)
Photo sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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