— Do You Think That There's Significance Between The... - Sans-san

Yes! I think change in hair colour plays a big significance and is a unique change for each character, despite them sharing hair colour sometimes. Of course, Ishida doesn’t base his characters solely on hair, but he seems to play around with the idea and colours can serve as a nice hint for certain things.

I’ll talk about hair colour tropes and colour symbolism in general, concerning Kaneki, Juuzo and Hide’s colour change under the cut, so heads up, it will be a long post.

Before that, a quick recommendation of tokyoghoultheories’ much more elaborate post on hair colour in the TG universe for those who haven’t seen it. {x}

I think people have commented so, so many times on Kaneki’s hair, so I’m doing a very quick recap on my own and will stop to talk more thoroughly on the latest change from chapter 75.

KANEKI

Black:

Kaneki’s initial black hair is to represent him as someone mundane. It can be associated with tranquillity as well. Black is the domineering hair colour in Japan and we see a lot of the characters (especially the side ones) in TG have a black, simple-styled hair. The beginning of the manga started with Kaneki as an ordinary boy with ordinary wishes, but then it turned out his past and future are not normal at all, which leads us to-

White:

The obvious reason of the change being the stress from Kaneki’s torture. White hair is associated with one shutting themselves from the world, as well as showing coldness or certain lack of compassion. After this change Kaneki is often shown bottling his emotions, as well as cutting ties with the people he’s become close with.

White and Black:

During his time as Haise, Kaneki’s hair became fluffy growing black hair changed length mostly connected with the levels of stress he was enduring. It seemed the whiter his hair became, the more stressed he was and vice versa. This shift in colours can also represent his inner struggle between his previous and current life, as black also represents new beginnings.

Black and red(?):

Although not confirmed, for a few chapters in :re, starting from ch.53, the white ends of Kaneki’s hair seemed to be soaked with blood from his head wound, creating a mixture of black and red (growing to full black during the time skip). It’s no surprise that red hair colour is associated with impulsive, highly active and sometimes aggressive characters. They seek to survive at all cost. Red is often a colour connected with both life and death (Kaneki “waking up” and Haise “falling asleep”). As for black-

Black:

This time the black holds a different connotation from Kaneki’s black hair from the beginning. Here, black is a colour of elegance, power, formality and protection of oneself by isolation.

Black haired characters are said to be able to feature any of the other colours’ characteristics (without white in some cases) because of black being a mix from different colours as well as black hair often having highlights in other colours in anime and manga. This flexibility makes Kaneki good at hiding his true intentions and personality, as we rarely got a glimpse of his thoughts during this period. Black hair is a connotation for a mysterious and dangerous character.

Hiding your true personality includes looking amazing as the opposite gender:

And now for the fun part, Kaneki’s white hair change from chapter 75:

In his latest hair change, whether it stays just in his subconsciousness or actually manifests in reality, Kaneki’s hair turning white is not a return to his old self, but a transition to something new. Just like the two blacks are not the same, so are the two whites.

This white hair represents a new positive change in Kaneki’s attitude from his previous behaviour in the current arc.

White hair is a symbol of purity of the spirit. It’s also a colour connected to resilience. White is the easiest colour to get contaminated by other colours, so pure white shows the character’s strength to remain true to themselves. Kaneki’s feelings of wanting to keep on living and find a reason for doing so can be represented by these traits.

ch.75, pg.16

White hair is also associated with the lack of connection to the physical world. This rejection of the real world is only temporary for Kaneki, as we see him coming back from his subconsciousness in the end of the chapter, but his mindset is the one from the inner world, where he has decided to keep on living.

ch.75, pg.18-19

White hair can also be connected to simplicity of the character, which in no way is meant as offence, but rather to bring out their humbleness. We can see this in Kaneki’s pose and clothes:

ch.75, pg.17

compared to Hide, who is standing up and is basked in light:

ch.75, pg.17

Simplicity can also be seen in his dialogue with Hide, which seems quite light for the situation Kaneki is in.

—

On a side note, Kaneki changing hair colour in his subconsciousness when he talks to Hide can be connected to the feelings of happiness and hope:

• Once black for the happiness from times of normality, when Kaneki read books and spent time with Hide. Hide gives Kaneki hope by accepting his ghoul nature:

ch.136, pg.16

• And once white for purity, the feelings of Kaneki’s own desire to keep on living, despite everything bad that has happened. He gives himself hope by using Hide’s manifestation:

ch.75, pg.17

—

SUZUYA

For Suzuya’s hair change, things are different. While a lot of the times Kaneki goes though a forceful change, Suzuya’s was natural and came from his own desire to change.

As a white-hair, we again have the characteristics of purity, lack of humanity and isolation.

Suzuya lacked humanity in certain occasions in the beginning, but there was also a lot of purity in his behaviour:

ch.122, pg.5

Suzuya’s white hair may also be a symbol of his old belonging to the ghoul wolrd, instead of of the human one, as white-hairs are often connected with the unearthly.

The isolation he went through gradually melted, especially with the help of Shinohara and sadly, probably reached its breaking point when Juuzou lost his mentor.

The change in Suzuya’s hair is connected to his improved ability to cooperate and be a good mentor and leader figure.

Currently with black hair, Juuzou is shown to have remained as an Investigator that does not fit the norm, but has also became very skilled into communicating with others and putting his trust into his squad as well as other Investigators, like Tooru.

ch.132 VS :re, ch.29

As a black-hair, Suzuya posses the traits of power, talent, danger and has shown elegance.

This is probably my sentimentality speaking, but I like to believe Juuzou dyed his hair in tribute to Shinohara (who seems to be sporting a black hair, rather than a brown one, in Ishida’s coloured art). The addition of wearing all-black clothes in :re seems to add to this idea, as black is viewed as a colour of mourning, including in Japan.

HIDE

I am currently not absolutely sure what his real hair colour is, but it seems to be dark brown. Though this can be because of the colours mixing, so until we get more canon material I will go over both possibilities, brown and back.

First, for Hide’s bleached colour: blonde.

Blonde-haired characters are often rich or noble:

that watch is probably worth Arima’s salary for 5 years and Hide just casually goes biking with it

Can be naïve or air-headed:

ch.47, pg.14

And carry happiness:

ch.83, pg.19

Concerning yellow, traits include: happiness, joy, energy, intellect, creativity, freshness.

And right away you can see just how much bullshit there is in the blonde traits suiting Hide.

Because Hide just plays to be naïve when he is in fact, incredibly sharp:

ch.7, pg.7

And is often shown unhappy and concerned, especially when Kaneki is not around:

ch.47, pg.17

Though he is probably still rich, blond or not, not gonna lie

Just like his hair, his personality, constructed around the blonde hair characteristics is a farce to cover up his true nature. Ironically, in Japan one would dye their hair blonde to stand out. In Hide’s case, he dyes it to fit in the crowd. As a person who carries the general appearance of someone sloppy, easy-going, loud and energetic, it would be very befitting to have a obviously-not-natural-blonde look to add to his persona.

Even more ironic is that brown is considered the hair colour of the “normal” characters. Brunets are often associated with stability and consistency, like Hide’s rational mind even in the tightest situations and his desire to help Kaneki from beginning to end. Brown haired characters are also okay with the way they are and have accepted their role in society.

If we see Hide sporting a brown hair in :re it might be a sign that he has left his mask behind and is ready to show his true self more openly or is ready to face whatever he’s been hiding from by bleaching his hair all these years.

Brown as a colour is associated with friendship, homeliness, concentration, courage, energy and longevity. However, it is also a dogmatic colour, meaning Hide might not be a solo player anymore and fit at least to some extend specific norms.

Both brown and blonde have resilience as a characteristic, which Hide possesses:

Doctors hate him! Tokyo boy ends up taking a nap when he should have been severely injured. Learn his ¥100 trick here.

ch.7, pg.14

The darker a brown hair becomes, the more traits the character shares with black-hairs. This can explain Hide exhibiting both brunette and black-hair traits.

As a dark brunette or black-hair, Hide posses power and formality.

He’s shown elegance in the way he is able to escape death-threats.

And is definitely a person who is good at hiding his true nature which makes him threatening and very mysterious.

Whichever of the two dark colours Hide appears with, as mentioned above, it will be a sign that Hide has left his mask at least to some extend and will perhaps show his true persona and motives more clearly.