Generally speaking, hairstyle in anime represent the character personality, like short hair girl should become tomboyish or ponytail make a girl seems sporty, etc. But what about the others? Like long straight hair, or idiot hair, twintail, etc.
What is common hair style for girls and guys in anime and what are the character represent?
ADD There's a really fine blog about anime hair colors here thanks to @user1306322 comment below, I want an answer like that, but it's about hair style
Yes, there can be some common traits that similarly haired characters share. Of course this is not a definitive guide to a character's personality and there will be many counterexamples.
Here are a couple of hairstyles and their common personalities:
Short hair is often seen on tomboys or alternativly 'average' characters. This is presumably so that they seem boyish or have a hairstyle that is not very exciting.
Kanbaru Sugura , Monogatari Series - a sporty fujioshi who is perhaps more boyish than the main , male, lead
Ranmaru Rindou, Binbougami ga! - a female delinquent who was brought up in a dojo like a male
Yuki Nagato , The Melancholy off Haruhi Suzimiya - emotionless
Kumin Tsuyuri - Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! - a member of the club who naps a lot.. And not much else
Twintails are often childlike or are childhood friends, this is because twintails are uncommon among older women, but more popular with young girls and society has associated the two:
Lingyin Huang - Infinite Stratos, a childish childhood friend
Azusa Nakano - K-on! , a new (childish) member of the light music club
Yuno Gasai, Future diary, a childhood friend of the main character with simple motivations.
Drill hair is usually a sign that a character is either wealthy or refined. This is probably because rich characters tend to be braggarts.
Selnia Iori Flameheart - ladies vs butlers - from a rich family
Mami Tomoe - Puella Madoka Magi Magicka - an experienced magical girl with refined taste
Akira Kogami - Lucky Star - drills?
Celestia Ludenberg - Dangan Ronpa - from a prestigious family
And let's not forget the dudes. If you see this delinquent hairstyle, you can almost certainly categorise that character:
Mondo Owada - Dangan Ronpa, Member of a biker gang
Kazu, Redline - a rebel race driver
Eikichi Onizuka, Shonan Junai Gumi
I could go on and on, There are quite a number of examples including the somewhat well-known hair antennae linked earlier
But I think this should answer your question - Yes there can be a relationship between a character and their hairstyle, but its not a solid rule.
Also you should bear in mind that hairstyle trends will have changed throughout time - what was once in is now out and visa versa.
You don't see many girls like this in anime today:
Amano Ai - Video Girl Ai -
Absolutely there is, when speaking generally, though this is not utilized in every single anime. The easiest way to familiarize yourself with the standard hair/personality types is to look at unapologetically harem (bishoujo) and reverse-harem (bishounen) anime and video games, because they heighten the main stereotypes with the aim of every viewer/player finding at least one type that is their ideal girl/guy. However, older anime from the 80s and earlier have a fairly different (though not completely different) set of standard types than more modern anime do.
For bishoujo, check out: ToHeart, Ai Yori Aoshi, Love Hina, Tokimeki Memorial, Kakyuusei, Debut, etc. For bishounen, check out: Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yuugi, Haruka naru Toki no Naka de, Hakuouki ~Shinsengumi Kitan ~, Ouran Koukou Hosuto-bu, La Corda D'oro, Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%, Starry Sky, Brothers Conflict, Free!!, Kamigami no Asobi, etc. You will recognize the same basic character/hair types repeated amongst these series. For 80s and older anime, check out: anything by Tezuka Osamu, Versailles no Bara, Glass no Kamen, Ace wo Nerae, Attack No. 1!, Ashita no Joe, Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman, Ginga Tetsudou 999, Candy Candy, early Gundam and Macross, etc. Recent moe series have recurring types as well.
