Theory on hair color in the Joketsuzoku
tagging @padresmadres for posterity
So, I’ve been thinking lately. Some of the Ranma characters from the Joketsuzoku tribe, or afflicted by some Jusenkyou curses, have sharply colored hair, unnaturally colored, in fact.
Shampoo has brightly colored blue/purple hair.
Cologne, her great-grandmother, in her youth (seen during the episode Back to the Happousai! at age 18) has a more natural looking, but still definitely blue, hair.
Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung, the two Chinese Amazons, have a burgundy and green-coloured hair.
And of course,
Ranma’s girl form has bright red hair.
Now of course, we know that these design qualities were attributed to the colouring decisions in the anime and manga to discern between male-Ranma and female-Ranma, and that there is technically no concrete in-universe explanation as to why these characters have such bright and eccentric looking hair styles; particularly Shampoo and the Amazons.
But, what if hair colouring is an indication of something in the Joketsuzoku culture?
No doubt that the young girl who drowned in the Spring of Drowned Girl more than likely was a member of the Joketsuzoku, as they are the pre-eminent ‘female’ society in this region (Bayanharshan mountains, Qinghai Province).
As a result, she more than likely had the same shade of red hair that Ranma’s cursed form carries (if Ranma took after his mother’s hair, then more than likely--she’d have the same darker brunette/auburn shade that Nodoka carries, as seen below.)
So--what does the colour of your hair signify in Joketsuzoku culture?
It could be a ‘coming of age’ thing, or a significant part of ‘becoming a warrior’. Notice that Cologne at her young age of 18 does not have a very ‘strong’ hair color, while Shampoo (a master warrior), Ranma (another master martial artist) as well as Ling-Ling and Lung-Lung (both master warriors) do.
So, what if the Joketsuzoku use hair colouring using magic or other natural elements as a symbol of one’s completion of the cycle of childhood and ascendance to the path of the warrior? It isn’t entirely far-fetched given the nature of some tribal civilizations in history with their particular quirks as to how they treat ‘coming of age’ celebrations, or how warrior cultures celebrated their warrior children completing their training to the path of martial excellence.
The Joketsuzoku celebrate it probably around the typical age of Asian adulthood (~20) and celebrate the completion of the first stage of mastering the arts of magic and martial by permanently dying their hair a certain colour depending on what they want (seafoam green, purple, red, blue, etc.)
Also, Cologne’s lack of colourful hair could be attributed to the fact that she seems to be more of a mage-class than a warrior-class. Likely, the Joketsuzoku has a system of rank where a child can be trained as a battlemage or as a combat warrior; likely, based on Cologne’s knowledge of the arcane, and her experience with stick-based combat; she is likely a battlemage, which may have different traditions upon completing training.