Braids of Action

8 Following

• Charlotte Roselei from Black Clover has a single braid hanging down the left side of her face, and she's the Captain of an all-female squad of Magic Knights.
• Bleach:
  • Sui-Fon wears two braids wrapped in white cloth or ribbons, with metal rings at the ends (which she does not use as weapons). As a member of a military organization, this is justified.
  • After Arrancar Ggio Vega releases, he gains a blade on his braids.
• Gender Inverted with Hanzo of Brave10. His braid is so long he can wear it like a scarf and he's the most deadly fighter in the series.
• Makima of Chainsaw Man wears her hair in a single loose braid, and is the most powerful woman among the cast, making short work of opponents whenever she has to resort to getting her hands dirty. Its chain-like appearance hints at her true nature as the Control Devil.
• Nikki Hanada in Dr. STONE wears her hair in two braids. Averted with the other Action Girls, Kohaku and Homura, who wear Tomboyish Ponytails.
• In Fairy Tail, Erza's Lightning armor and her strongest armor, Armadura Fairy. She also had these when she was younger.
  • Her mother Irene sports a set of colossal scarlet braids, and she's undoubtedly the World's Strongest Woman in Earthland.
• The Fledgling Demon Lord's Starter Shop has a male example in Ash, who wears the back of his hair as a braid that hangs across his shoulder and is The Chosen One who can turn the tide of battle on his own.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Gender Inverted with Edward Elric. He usually ties his hair in a braid and is quite the badass.
  • Izumi wears her hair in what appears to be multiple braids. She also taught Ed and Al both to fight and to use alchemy.
• When Nuriko gets into some real action outside the palace in Fushigi Yuugi, he puts his hair into a single long braid. It's telling how he cuts his braid off just before the action... stops.
• Golden Kamuy: Sofia has worn a long braid in the back since she became a revolutionary leader in her youth. Of course, she's more than capable of taking care of herself in a fight.
• Elsa de Sica in Gunslinger Girl has twin braids. Averted with the rest of the cyborgs, whose handlers are more interested in making them look like adorable little girls than Action Girls so their targets won't suspect them.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders: Devo wears his long hair in a braid (appropriately for a Native American) and is a renowned assassin.
  • Stone Ocean: Jolyne Cujoh has braids around her Odango Hair and a long braid in the back, fitting for an Action Girl and the main protagonist of the part.
  • Steel Ball Run: Sandman has Braids, Beads and Buckskins who competes in the race entirely on foot and is a formidable opponent once he acquires his In a Silent Way.
• Miu from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple may seem like an example of this trope, but the main reason why she wears her hair in a single braid (and wears glasses) is to tone down her appearance in school. A straighter example happens during the Tournament Arc, where she wears her hair in multiple braids, some of them even looped.
• Vita from the Lyrical Nanoha franchise keeps her hair braided to remind the viewers how Badass Adorable she is.
• Hikaru in Magic Knight Rayearth has a waist-length braid and is the resident Tomboy of the main trio, being the first to leap into action and stand up for what she believes in. It helps that she's Hot-Blooded to boot and has fire magic to match.
• Pretty Cure is a magical girl franchise that involves ordinary girls transforming into magical girl warriors that fight with hands, known as Pretty Cures. Some of the cures in their magical girl forms tend to gain braids:
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: When Kanade transforms into Cure Rhythm, she gains a braid crown.
  • Maho Girls PreCure!:
    • Zig Zagged with Cure Miracle. In her Dia and Ruby Style forms, she loses her braids. In her Sapphire and Topaz forms, her braids become longer and thicker.
    • When Cure Magical activates her Topaz Style power, she gains two donut braids.
    • Cure Felice's hair grows longer and ties into two braids when she transforms into her magical girl form.
  • Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: Cure Spicy, an energy warrior, wears her hair in a donut-shaped braid.
  • Downplayed in Soaring Sky! PreCure. Ageha / Cure Butterfly only wears one small braid when transformed, while the majority of her hair is loose.
  • Wonderful Pretty Cure!: When Iroha transforms into Cure Friendy, she gains two long blonde braids.
  • Inversions: Hikari of Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart, Rikka of Doki Doki! PreCure, Himari of KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode, Elena of Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure, and Meroron (in her human form) of You and Idol Pretty Cure♪ lose their braids when they transform into their Cure forms.
• Inverted in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Homura let her braided Girlish Pigtails down when she Took a Level in Badass.
• The titular character of Ranma ½, naturally, especially near the beginning of the manga when the braid was much longer and actually looked like a knotted braid, rather than the "three little circles and a wispy end" stylized shape it was reduced to later on. Of course, it didn't take long for the Action Girl to be revealed as actually a man, and s/he wore his/her hair in a ponytail in flashbacks, but by then the first impression had long been made.
• Genie from Rune Soldier Louie ties her ponytail together with the band placed every few inches down the length. It may not be an actual braid, but it looks closer to this than a Tomboyish Ponytail, moves like a braid and the function is exactly the same. With her biceps, she's not only an Action Girl but also an outright Amazonian Beauty.
• Misao of Rurouni Kenshin. Watsuki's character notes mention that one reason he put it was to emphasize her movements.
• Gender Inverted with Emba from Wild Rock. He is the most powerful hunter from the lake clan and wears a single braid.

• Marvel Universe:
  • The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect: Rick Jones' granddaughter Janis grew her hair long, tied it into a braid and wrapped it around the top of her head so that she can untie it and use it as a whip when she needs to.
    "It takes a long time to dry after washing it, but it's worth it."
  • The Mighty Thor: Valkyrie wears her hair in two braids in most of her incarnations.
  • Played with by Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23. In X-23: Innocence Lost and flashbacks to Target: X, she typically wears her hair braided on missions. This ceases after she escapes from the Facility, as during a Funny Background Event in one of her early appearances in the X-Men books, Laura can be seen struggling to emulate Psylocke while the latter casually and expertly braids her hair preparing for a coming fight. Once the fighting actually starts it's revealed she failed miserably and settled for a messy ponytail instead. Apparently, she never got the hang of braiding her own hair and doesn't bother asking someone else to help do it for her, as she's pretty universally drawn with her hair loose in all of her appearances.
  • X-Men: Psylocke often wears her hair in a braided ponytail when going into a fight. One issue in the Savage Land shows her plaiting her hair in preparation for battle while calmly discussing the plan with an ally.
• In contrast to her movie counterpart, the comics version of Andy/Andromache in The Old Guard wears her waist-length hair in a braid during raids and battles.
• Rapunzel in Rapunzel's Revenge uses her two (extremely long) braids as a whip or lasso, or for any number of other Action Girl applications.

• A Bat's New Bird: As Lady Noire, Marinette's waist-length hair turns into a single long prehensile braid. Since she's an Animal-Themed Superbeing, the braid acts as her "tail" and moves around much like a cat tail would.
• Cathy Rockford in The Gift (BMeph) is a judo instructor and "motorcycle enthusiast". She wears her two braids around her head like a crown.
• Spider-Ninja: Petra Parker-Hamato wears her waist-length hair in a braided ponytail. She briefly loses said braid to a Close-Call Haircut later in the fic, though it's grown back by the sequel.
• In To the New World, hair-braiding is part of the culture of the Lands Between, with different braids used for different events. Naturally, this includes braids for battle.
• In the Turning Red/Futari wa Pretty Cure crossover fic Maple Sugar Pretty Cure, Cure Clover has long green braids in her powered-up form.

Discworld

• Most of the Lady Assassins in the Discworld fiction of A.A. Pessimal style their hair this way. Partly for neatness and professional reasons—they are also teachers at the Assassins' Guild School—but also because it gets in the way while fighting. Johanna Smith-Rhodes, from the faraway colony of Rimwards Howondaland, favors complex braids in the Kerrigian style whilst her colleague Miss Alice Band normally prefers a strict bun.

Dragon Age: Origins

• Gwenith Cousland in Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns. She used to wear her long hair loose (it reached the waistline) but soon settled on a braid on the left side of her head, hanging in front. And she looks like Claudia Black.

The Hunger Games

• In Some Semblance of Meaning, Phlox is described as wearing her hair in multiple braids, and she definitely deserves Action Girl status. Her stealth and wits keep her alive well into the 44th Hunger Games, and she certainly has guts: lurking around on the outskirts of the Careers' camp and sneaking supplies from them. Eventually, she even manages to trap Obsidian, the Career with the highest score in the Games, in one of her snares and steal his backpack full of supplies, leaving him with nothing but the clothes on his back and his sword. She would have killed him, too, if he hadn't managed to cut himself free; even then, she managed to outsmart him and escape to safety.

Naruto

• Shikako Nara of Dreaming of Sunshine wears her hair in a single long braid. In one fight, she's prevented from using her shadow jutsu or her explosive notes, so she uses her hair to strangle her opponent until he passes out.

Pretty Cure

• In Don't Cry For Me, I've Already Wilted, Rin mentions that Setsuna is going to teach the girls how to Dutch braid, claiming it will make them look badass.

Skylanders

• In Skylanders: Return to the Ruins, Crestfeather, a hardass Action Girl who has fire powers, wears thick Dutch braids.

Sailor Moon

• In Cosmic Warriors, after Usagi transforms into Warrior Moon, her loose high Girlish Pigtails are braided into a single bun.

Touken Ranbu

• The defining physical characteristic of Ōtengu Masaie in Tales of the Undiscovered Swords is his blond hair braided into a fancy crown around his head. He wears it in battle and refuses to let his hair down even in bed.

• Disney Animated Canon:
  • Helga Sinclair from Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
  • Frozen:
    • Anna wears her hair in braided Girlish Pigtails for the majority of her screentime, including informal occasions like helping Kristoff fight off wolves, or being chased by Marshmallow.
    • Elsa wears a French braid over her left shoulder for the majority of her screentime after "Let It Go," including challenging two of the Duke of Weselton's guys.
• Rumi, the protagonist of KPop Demon Hunters has one long purple braid, she has the longest hair of the main trio making her stand out, befitting of a protagonist.
• Jessie from the Toy Story film series has one long braid of red wool underneath her cowgirl hat, though her hair remains the same whether or not she is fighting someone.
• Played for Laughs in the first Shrek 1 movie, where Fiona takes on a band of ruffians in the forest all on her own, Matrix-style, and actually knocks one of them out with her braid.

• Antebellum: Veronica's hair is in a collection of braids during her enslavement on the plantation. They're shown flying around her head while she makes her escape, killing several of her enslavers during it.
• Cosmic Sin (2021). Sol Cantos (played by Lana), the Elloran soldier who wields a BFG, has braided hair colored a bright yellow. This makes her stick out somewhat in the woods, but from appearances the unit she is with are Mildly Military.
• DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story: Kate puts her hair into two braids while she's playing dodgeball.
• Downfall. The female Child Soldier manning the 88mm gun has twin braids hanging down from under her steel helmet. In this case, the braids work more to emphasize her youth.
• Gender Inverted in The Duellists. The protagonists are Hussars who wear elaborate plaits in front of the ears to reduce the damage of sword wounds to the head.
• Milla Jovovich's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc showed up with her long hair in a braid when she joined the soldiers. She cut it off later on when she felt they weren't taking her seriously.
• Million Dollar Baby: Maggie wears her hair in a single braid, as do most of the female boxers.
• Perfect Addiction: Sienna is a skilled MMA fighter and trainer who often wears her hair in one long braid, which includes while she's training or during bouts.
• The Quick and the Dead. Having spent most of the movie with Messy Hair, Lady wears a neat single braid when she makes the decision to take on Herod in a duel.
• Sheroes: Diamond, who's very good with guns, puts her long hair into two braids while going for the ransom drop to get Daisy back. It's downplayed however as in her other action scenes she just has it loose.
• Special Female Force: Fa and Cat use braided ponytails in the final action scene of the film, in typical Lara Croft style.
• Star Wars: As one of the earlier examples of the modern Action Girl, Princess Leia did her most impressive action feat while sporting a very long braid.
• Tell No One: Zak, the sole woman of the goons whom Neuville hired, always wears her hair in one very long braid. She's a Torture Technician who looks very fit.
• Wild Eyed and Wicked: Lily puts her hair into a long braid when she gets into armor to fight.
• Blink from X-Men: Days of Future Past wears her hair in a long fishtail braid.

• The Afterward:
  • The female knights usually wear their hair in one or more braids. Kalanthe also has a hair spike to stop anyone grabbing hers while in battle. It's enchanted to kill anyone but her who touches it too.
  • Olsa gets hers put into cornrows when Uleweya notices she's grown her hair out, who's got a similar style (both are black women, judging by their descriptions, and the book cover in Olsa's case).
• In the Artemis Fowl series, Juliet Butler wears her hair in a single long braid with a stone ornament on the end that she can swing around and use as a weapon.
• McGee of the Bad News Ballet series plays hockey and almost always wears her brown hair in a set of twin pigtails.
• In The Bridge Kingdom Archives Lara and her sisters, who are all trained warriors, wear their long hair braided when they get into action. And let it down when they need to be seductive.
• The cover art of Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies depicts Colonel Regina Kasteen, CO of the 597th Valhallan Regiment, with her red hair in a pair of waist-length braids down her back.
• In John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton, Chimerae put their hair up in braids when going into battle and comb it out again afterward.
• Dark Shores: Young women who form princess Malahi's guard usually wear their hair long and braided, although some cut it short and the giantess Bercola shaves her head.
• Daughter of the Sun: Orsina is a female knight and a paladin. She has her hair in a single braid.
• Earth's Children: Ayla often wears her hair in lots of small braids to keep it off her face when she hunts. Jondalar carves a likeness of her with the hairstyle, based upon the Venus of Brassempouy◊.
• Emberverse: Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling. An Action Girl keeps her braided Girlish Pigtails as they help to lower the tension a notch when meeting new clans and negotiating safe passage through their territory.
• In the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede, Cimorene wears her hair in a braid and is a formidable princess.
• In Evernight, Vampire Hunter Dana is described as having "braided" hair, though the exact style is unclear. Either way, she has braided hair and kicks ass.
• Kid Detective Flavia de Luce wears her hair in two neat braids to keep it out of the way during her adventures, but also because she thinks it looks nice on her.
• Forest Kingdom: In the Hawk & Fisher spinoff series, Isobel Fisher is described as wearing her hair in a French braid with a heavyweight at the end, for use as a weapon.
• When Honor Harrington finally grows her hair long, she starts to wear it in a braid, in part to make it easier to wear a spacesuit helmet when doing her job. Note that in addition to her tactical acumen, she's a veritable giant of a woman, and with an eighth-degree black belt in a coup de vitesse is one of the deadliest characters in a melee.
• Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games has her signature braid down the back to keep it out of the way when hunting or fighting.
• Inkmistress: Asra grows into an Action Girl and always wears her hair in a single braid.
• Kate Daniels wears her hair long as the sole nod to feminine vanity—but acknowledges that her braids are cumbersome, annoying when she runs, and could easily provide a handhold for an enemy in a fight.
• Kitty Norville has one, if the book covers are to be believed.
• Tamara Rajavi from The Magisterium is an Action Girl whose hair is almost always worn in two braids.
• Mangoverse: Shulamit has her hair in two braids customarily. Though not a warrior, she often takes charge and is a hands on person, going along on adventures.
• Brenda the warrior princess from Muddle Earth (Stewart) has not one braid of action, but two of them. After all, why settle for one when you can have two? Admittedly, they do bear a passing resemblance to Girlish Pigtails, befitting the sort of parodic high fantasy-style world that Muddle Earth is.
• Of Fire and Stars: Tomboy Action Girl Mare often puts her hair in a single braid.
• Gender Inverted with Prince Roger. He has gorgeous blond, hip-length hair and has to ask a female marine to teach him how to braid it.
• The Derzhi from Rai Kirah are a Proud Warrior Race and their men wear their hair braided.
• In Rainbow Magic, the leader of the Rainbow Fairies, Ruby, wears a braid with roses stuck in it.
• In Patricia C. Wrede's The Raven Ring, the Cilhar—who are warriors, one and all—wear their hair braided as a matter of course, with a special braid pattern for when they expect to be heading into battle.
• Star Wars Legends: Tash Arranda of Galaxy of Fear keeps her hair in one neat braid.
• The Mord-Sith of the Sword of Truth novels are an Amazon Brigade who all wear their hair in a single long braid.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Warrior queen Visenya Targaryen famously wore her hair in a single long braid. She is contrasted with her sister Rhaenys, in their Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic.
  • Queen Rhaenyra wore her hair in a braid like Visenya. Rhaenyra wasn't actually a warrior herself, but she was a fan of Visenya and wanted to style herself after her.
  • Tales of Dunk and Egg. In "The Sworn Sword", Lady Rohanne Webber is a Fiery Redhead who dresses in armor when leading her troops to attack Standfast. She wears her hair in a single long plait which she plays with coquettishly while flirting with Dunk. At the end of the story after much Belligerent Sexual Tension, Dunk refuses her offer of a fine steed but cuts off her braid so he'll have something to remember her.
• Spellster: Tracker's hair is described as being in one long, thick braid. He is a very skilled fighter.
• Throne of Glass: Celaena usually wears her hair down, but always wears it in a braid when she fights.
• Tortall Universe: Beka Cooper, a Provost's Guard aka cop, wears her hair in a braid. She even has a spiked strap worked in so that those that make the mistake of grabbing her braid in a fight quickly learn to regret it.
• Birgitte, the legendary archer from The Wheel of Time, sports a waist-length intricate braid that's known in-universe as one of her most easily identifiable features.
• In The Wishing Maiden, Bron, the most physically powerful woman of the Quintet, wears her hair in a braid.
• Gender-Inverted by Fingon in The Silmarillion. All elves are LongHairedPrettyBoys, Fingon wears his nearly black hair plaited with golden ribbons. It's a signature style of his, enough that he can be recognized by it even when armored. This either means that most male elves don't braid their hair (despite how impractical that would be) or more likely that they don't usually include ribbons. As to why Fingon does this, it's never explained: but a good guess is that he's best friends with the only character specifically described as sexy Maedhros.

• On The 100, braids are common among both male and female Grounder warriors, and Octavia starts braiding her hair when she tries to join them.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • The titular character occasionally wears her hair in two braids when on patrol.
  • In "The Wish", her battle-rugged, even more badass alternate universe counterpart wears her hair in a single long braid.
  • Kendra, the Vampire Slayer who was supposed to replace Buffy, took to wearing her hair in a single long braid.
• Citadel (2023): Nadia is a covert operative who's very skilled with guns and also unarmed combat. She puts her long hair into a single thick long braid usually when on operations, or once in two braids.
• The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: Mayrin deals with the going ons of all the clans, has the last say, and wears a braid on the back of her head.
• Dark Matter:
  • Tash is a ruthless criminal who's good at combat and quite aggressive, having her hair in a single braid tucked to the side.
  • Solara is a very skilled female mercenary and bodyguard who frequently has her hair in one long braid down her back.
• Dystopia (2021): Tess and Domenica both have their hair in one long braid most of the time for the LARP practice.
• Earth Abides:
  • Emma is skilled at using a rifle, while having her hair in long braids a lot of times.
  • Heather puts her hair in two braids on the trip, and is wearing it this way when she kills Silas by hurling an ax.
• In-Universe in Echo (2024). Tuklo, a Choctaw woman who lived around the beginning of the twentieth century, wanted to join their native police, the Lighthorsemen, but her father refuses. She defies him by braiding her hair like a Choctaw warrior and saving him and the other Lighthorsemen from an ambush. In the present day, the protagonist Maya Lopez, a distant descendant of Tuklo, wears her hair in a single braided ponytail and has already served as Kingpin's enforcer before the series starts.
• On Game of Thrones, Daenerys' hairstyle slowly became more and more braided as her character grew stronger and more authoritative throughout the first season. By the season finale, her hair is in a single thick braid. This is likely linked to the Dothraki custom of warriors braiding their hair and decorating them with bells. A warrior adds bells to his braid for each victory, and, should he be defeated in battle, the braid would be cut off so the world can know his shame. Daenerys takes to adding bells in her hair when she triumphs in later books. Most of her hairstyles incorporate four or more braids in elaborate styles.
• Gotham Knights (2023): Harper is an Action Girl like the rest of the main female characters who starts to wear her hair in two braids after joining up with Turner and co.
• Legend of the Seeker: The Mord Sith all have their hair in a single braid, and they're a fierce Amazon Brigade. Cara's is cut off when she goes against them and is left for dead. Her lack of it afterward signals that she's apart from the rest, but is still an Action Girl.
• Like Water for Chocolate (2024): Gertrudis puts her hair in two braids after becoming a rebel, fighting alongside her boyfriend and male comrades.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel styles her hair in a long thick braid during battles.
• In Merlin (2008), Morgana braids her hair when she goes on a mission to protect Merlin's village.
• Jules wears her hair like this in Psych when there is ass-kicking to be done. She normally wears it in a bun or in a ponytail.
• The Princess Wei Young: Jun Tao almost always wears her hair in braids, and she's an Action Girl who can fight off a group of guards.
• Reservation Dogs has Willie Jack, the Lad-ette of the Rez Dogs gang. She's more than willing to scrap with the rival NDN Mafia, enjoys hunting, and wears her hair in two long braids.
• Sky Med: Marianne has her hair in two braids while she and Chopper take down two criminals during "Marianncing The Stone".
• In Spartacus: Blood and Sand Naevia's hair evolves with her story. When she was still a body-slave she had long, loose hair. When she got cast away her hair was cut as punishment. By Spartacus: War of the Damned her braided hair shows her development into an Action Girl.
• Special Ops: Lioness: In "Along Came A Spider", when arriving with the unit, Josephina Carrillo's got her hair up in two braids. She's an attack helicopter pilot who's been recruited to a covert ops unit. Later she puts it up again this way when going on her first covert ops mission, because it's kept back and fits under her helmet easily then.
• Star Trek: Enterprise: During the third season Xindi arc, one of the female Space Marines (played by a stuntwoman in a non-speaking role) had a long single plait down her back.
• Titans (2018): Donna starts wearing her hair in one long braid during Season 3, while still being a skilled Amazon warrior.
• Vikings: Astrid grows her hair long after it's very short at first, putting it into a long braid with the sides shaved, as she continues to fight as a warrior.
• The Wheel of Time (2021):
  • Nynaeve wears her hair in an elaborate braid to indicate her membership in the Women's Circle. Her introductory scene in the first episode has her as the one who gives Egwene her own braid and explains its significance as the group's signature hairstyle. She soon becomes an Action Girl and Mama Bear for her younger friends. Before long Egwene is thrust into adventure and proves herself an Action Girl too. When captured by the Seanchans and made into a damane, her braid is undone, symbolizing how her sense of identity is in danger of being lost; she does re-braid it, showing her resolve increasing, but Renna, her Seanchan controller, slices it off after one too many acts of defiance, shaking Egwene to the core. Nevertheless, the loss of her braid does not hinder her Adaptational Badass status, going toe-to-toe with Ishamael himself to defend Rand in the Season 2 finale.
  • Some of the Shienaran women too wear their hair in long braids and fight skillfully alongside their men against Trollocs.

• 21st Century Fox, Monique Mercy and Amazing Kong are known for wrestling in cornrows. There are also male examples such as Elijah Burke, JTG and Slam Master J.
• Jacqueline Moore (AKA Sweet Georgia Brown, AKA Miss Texas, AKA Miss Tennessee) frequently braided her hair whenever she wrestled though there were some times when she wrestled with it in a ponytail or something instead.
• Jumping Jeff Jeffrey of La Rabia and La Zona Illegal has wrestled in various styles of braids.
• Kyra had one long braid specifically to invoke Lara Croft.
• Madusa sometimes wrestled with her hair in a braid, but would just as often have it down. Her arch-rival Luna Vachon eventually took to wearing multiple braids when it grew back after their hair vs hair match.
• WWE Diva Sable in her first run in the company always had her long blonde hair tied back in a braid whenever she wrestled. It was safe to say that if her hair was down then she wouldn't be wrestling.
• Shawn Michaels had a braided mullet at the 1994 Survivor Series.

• Westeros: An American Musical: When Mance's army is shown, one of the women standing in for the troupes is holding a bow and wearing a braid in her hair. To someone familiar with the original story, the woman is recognizable as a Demoted to Extra Val, one of the Action Girl characters.

• Advance Wars: All three known Lazurian COs in Days of Ruin / Dark Conflict have a very thin braided ponytail, and judging by the fact that the generic Lazurian soldier portrait doesn't have one, this seems to be a cultural mark of status exclusively for commanding officers in the Lazurian army.
• Bayonetta^note that is, the main playable one wears a pair of braided pigtails in Bayonetta 3, and because her combat outfit is made of Prehensile Hair they become a full-body motif when the action starts: smaller braids form a skirt and some bits of embroidery, and a larger pair tie themselves into a giant bow at her waist. She is also, of course, a massively powerful witch armed with Super-Strength, Black Magic, and a wide vairety of demonic weapons.
• Curse Crackers: For Whom The Belle Toils: Belle is a Badass Normal former acrobat who puts her skills to good use against her rival Bonnie's skeletal army, and wears her hair in a single braid with a bell at the end of it.
• DanMachi: Battle Chronicle: Ais dons her hair in a braid when dressing in a bikini, but is still a decent fighter who strikes with the innertube she carries.
• Detroit: Become Human: North, one of the android rebel leaders, initially wears her hair in a manner to downplay her appearance, but adopts a long braided style as their movement grows and becomes involved in a civil war.
• Dragon Age: Gender Inverted with Oghren in Dragon Age: Origins. He wears his beard in thick red braids, which is not unusual for dwarf men.
• Eco Fighters: Neneh wears her hair in braids and is as determined as her brother Ice to stop Kernal Goyolk's destruction of their planet.
• Braids are a hairstyle option for both male and female (humanoid) Dovahkiin in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
• Yuna sports an ankle-length braid in Final Fantasy X-2, to show her development from Yamato Nadeshiko to Gun Slinger. However, given that only two years have passed in between the games, one has to wonder if it's not an extension (we never do see it unbraided).
• Sarah Barn from Golden Axe III has one long braid that reaches to her waist. She's also an Amazonian Beauty who can throw giants with ease.
• Horizon Zero Dawn: Aloy, the game's protagonist, shows off her Action Girl status by keeping her hair in shoulder-length dreadlocks as she climbs mountains and acrobatically fights machines.
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:
  • Ashei, the lady knight, wears her glossy black hair tied in two braids.
  • Princess Zelda wears one long braid in the back and has a slim braid on either side of her face. She does get in on the action as part of the endgame.
• Purple Heart from the Neptunia games grows long hair tied into braids upon transforming from her goofier, short-haired human form.
• Nobody Saves the World: Ranger, the first female transformation you unlock, has a pair of braids in her purple hair, and she is just as capable of kicking ass as the male forms.
• Rai Mei from Octopath Traveler II is known as a powerful soldier, and she wears her hair in a long braid. She gets to show off her skills in Hikari's first, fourth, and fifth chapters, and the braid keeps her hair out of the way.
• Persona 5 Strikers: Whenever she's in a Jail, Sophia's "pigtails" combine into a singular "braided ponytail". By that point, it's shown she is a very strong combatant.
• Sophitia and Seong-Mi-Na in the Soul Series iconically use the one long braid style and are two prominent fighters throughout the series.
• Street Fighter:
  • Cammy from has two long braids that reach below her buttocks.
• Velvet Crowe of Tales of Berseria starts with a single braid—she regularly hunts in the woods and studies the sword—but it's much looser for the rest of the game to reflect her more violent and out-of-control nature after her brother's death. The player immediately has the option to change her hairstyle back, though.
• Julia Chang from Tekken, specifically from the fourth game onwards. Before Julia, it was her adoptive mother, Michelle, who sported braids.
• Lara Croft of Tomb Raider fame sports a ponytail that reaches down to her torso, though later games would shorten it. The reason Lara doesn't have one in the first game outside of FMVs was due to limitations of the game engine.
• Toy Pop: Acha's artwork shows her with her long blue hair tied into twin braids and is determined to help Pino save their friends. That said, if she takes one hit, her hair will get loose from her braids.
• Groma from Triangle Strategy wears her hair in a long braid. Fitting, since she's a martial artist who needs to keep her hair out of the way, and she's quite well-known in Aesfrost for her battle prowess.
• Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile has a long silver braid that reaches past her back.
• Both Virginia Maxwell and Rebecca Streisand of Wild ARMs 3 and Wild ARMs 5 respectively, sport these.
• Petula from You Are Not The Hero has her hair braided on both sides of her head.

• Saber from Fate/stay night wears a braided bun, which doesn't look like it should be possible with the amount of hair she's shown to have when it's down since it only goes down to her shoulders. It also looks like it would be able to fit under a helm, which would fit with Saber's background as King Arthur.
• Danganronpa:
  • Kyoko Kirigiri from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has a small braided section in her hair, and she's a cool-headed Action Survivor who aids in taking down the Mastermind, Junko Enoshima.
  • Peko Pekoyama from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair wears her hair in two braids, and she's a kendo champion.
• Tyrna in Sword Daughter has waist-length hair which she describes braiding to put up under her helmet when she dresses for battle. Her character art in the VN shows her wearing it in two braids coiled up at the back of her neck.
• In Tavern Talk, Caerlin, a tough Vukakin beastslayer, has a single long braid running down the back of her mane, which is seen when she picks up a quest.

• Gunnora of Alfdis & Gunnora is a soldier and wears her hair in two braids. This is a contrast to Alfdis, who wears a ponytail.
• Invincea from Invincea and the Warriors from Hell has a long braid as one of the defining traits of her character design.
• Nixvir: Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons, who makes an appearance during the chapter The Amazons, is shown with a long braid which she wears over her shoulder, as befitting her role as a powerful warrior queen.
• Royal Blue: Acantha can take down an entire ship by herself and has a long braid.
• Unsounded: Having her hair in a braid ensures Mikaila can keep it out of the way and tucked up into her cap as she serves secretly in an army that does not allow women to join, without cutting her hair into a boyish style.

• Arcane: When Powder grows up into the Cute and Psycho teenager Jinx, she wears her hair in a couple of blue braids that go down to her boots.
• American Dragon: Jake Long: As Huntsgirl, Rose has her hair tied into one long braid.
• Avatar:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Ty Lee wears her hair in a high braided ponytail when traveling and fighting in a war.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: Numbuh 5/Abigail Lincoln wears her hair in a braid and is one of the most skilled fighters in Sector V.
• Fireman Sam: Helicopter pilot Krystyna Kaminski wears her hair in a thick braid. She is notably the only member of the rescue team with hair long enough to braid, as Penny, Ellie, and all of the men wear short hair.
• Dash Wheeler from Hot Wheels: Let's Race has long, braided red hair, and she's seen as the best Hot Wheels driver.
• Invincible (2021): Thula has her hair tied in a long braid, and the braid ends in a knife that's sharp enough to hurt a Viltrumite.
• Jade Armor: Lan Jun sports a long braided ponytail. As Jade Armor, it grows even longer.
• Miraculous Ladybug: When Ladybug and Cat Noir swap Miraculouses in the episode "Reflekdoll", the former as Lady Noire has a floor-length braid that acts as her "tail" in lieu of Cat Noir's belt.
• Molly of Denali: In Season 1 (she got a Costume Evolution in Season 2), Layla the Action Mom and Ace Pilot wore her hair in a braid.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Granny Smith used to have these when she was a plucky filly who became one of the founders of Ponyville by venturing into the Everfree Forest at night on her own so she could replenish the dwindling food supply of her family.
• The Owl House: During "Follies at the Coven Day Parade", Willow asks Amity to braid her hair, a style that she has retained throughout the rest of the series. This coincides with her increased confidence, her thriving in her preferred magic field, and in her formation and leadership of a Flyer Derby team.
• Steven Universe: While Connie wears her hair braided (her hairstyle is a braid typically worn by female Kalaripayattu practitioners) and engages in action from time to time, she only styles her hair in a braid during her sword training with Pearl.
• Twilight of the Gods: Sigrid is a fierce warrior woman with her hair partly in a braid.

• Truth in Television in the sailing community. Suffice to say it's difficult to keep shining, silky soft locks while crossing an ocean. The constant spray of saltwater can dry out your hair so much you can easily tear it with your hands. You'd think having perpetual windswept hair would be cool, but in reality, it just tangles your hair into a painful, jumbled, knotted rat's nest. On long ocean voyages, supplies are bound to get low, so washing one's hair is bumped down to Priority Number 3,942. Crew members (male and female) frequently will go 1-2 weeks without washing their hair, and when they do it's sometimes done with dishwashing liquid. When they simply can't stand losing their hair, braids of action is the second most common hairstyle for women sailors, after the bob or pixie cut.
• Female skydivers braid their hair. It won't tangle with the rig on opening and it is practical while wearing a helmet.
• Female kendo practitioners braid their hair in their helmets.
• The Bolivian ladies, known as "cholitas", who braid their hair in long braids before they get into wrestling rings and beat the crap out of each other. Played for Laughs.
• Hair regulations for many women in the military (when the hair doesn't have to be cut) say that it must be worn off the shoulders and out of the eyes. Although it's usually worn in a Prim and Proper Bun, some women are allowed to have their hair in French braids.
• The "braids at the temples"-style (also known as "cadenettes") was commonly worn by French Hussars during The Napoleonic Wars. Nearly all European sword styles of the time taught some form of a horizontal cut to the temple, so the braids were a way to get some protection from that style of cut.
• Female boxers and martial artists—as well as the few men in the sport with long hair—often braid their hair to keep it out of the way during fights, cornrows being the most popular style for this.