This tutorial illustrates how to draw anime and manga pilus with twelve step by step drawings of common anime and manga hairstyles for a female person graphic symbol.

Drawing Anime & Manga Hair

Anime hair different hairstyles drawing examples
Anime pilus with unlike hairstyles drawing examples

Anime hair is often based on real hairstyles merely tends to be fatigued in clumps rather than individual strands. One good reason for this is that if you are drawing multiple frames of blitheness or multiple panels of a manga it will simply exist too time consuming to draw annihilation overly detailed.

A expert approach to drawing anime hair is to split up information technology into several different parts such as the front, sides and back/superlative (as will be shown for each hairstyle below).

For cartoon characters that tin can get along with these hairstyles run into:

How to Draw Anime Characters Tutorial

For more on drawing anime hair y'all can too see:

  • How to Draw Anime Male Pilus Step by Step
  • How to Draw Anime & Manga Male person & Female Hair

Cartoon Long Anime Hair

Anime long hair drawing breakdown
Anime long hair drawing breakdown

Long straight hair is probably i of the nearly common hairstyles in anime and is adequately easy to draw.

In a higher place you tin encounter the breakdown of the long hair cartoon instance into:

  • Cherry-red – Front Hair
  • Light-green – Side Pilus
  • Blue – Back/Top Hair

You can apply a similar breakdown to cartoon other hairstyles besides. Thinking of the hair this fashion tin can brand the drawing process a lot easier to manage.

Keeping this in heed nosotros can move on to the actual drawing procedure.

Anime long hair step by step drawing
Anime long hair pace past step cartoon

Step one

Start by get-go making a drawing of the head and an indication of the hairline. While in this item hairstyle the hairline is less important every bit it's full covered by the pilus it can still help you better approximate the overall length and position of the front and side hair sections. Make the head/hairline drawing fairly light so you lot tin can easily erase parts of it later.

Step two

Describe the pilus right over the top of the head and hairline as in the example above.

For this item hairstyle where the front section of the hair has been cutting fairly brusque you tin can draw it in relatively small pointy clumps.

Make the "side pilus" fairly long with information technology's overall shape slightly curved. You tin can also split it into several smaller clumps towards the ends.

Draw the top part o the "back hair" pretty much following the shape of the head (a flake of a altitude away from it) so widening until it's finally hidden backside the shoulders.

Step iii

Erase the parts of the head subconscious by the hair and add a few lines to bear witness the inner folds of the front and dorsum hair. You will mostly want to position these folds in between the hair clumps as that is where these volition ordinarily tend to form in existent pilus.

Stride four

Next add together some folds in the "back hair" to give a bit more definition of it's shape every bit well so that it does not but wait like a flat cutting out.

You can besides add together some basic shading to make the hair stand out a trivial bit more than one time you terminate the line cartoon.

Drawing Short Anime Hair

Anime short hair drawing breakdown
Anime short hair drawing breakdown

The short pilus drawing example above is fairly similar to the long hair with the pilus once once again broken downwardly into three bones parts of front end, sides and dorsum.

The actual breakdown of the drawing process tin can be as follows:

Anime short hair step by step drawing
Anime short hair footstep by step drawing

Step 1

Again start the brusque hair drawing with the caput and hairline. Same equally the previous example the hairline volition not be as important hither as it is in other hair styles but can notwithstanding be helpful.

Step 2

Yet again very similar to the long hair draw the "front pilus" section with a prepare of small clumps. For this particular example the hair will be a scrap more than messy so the clumps will curve more in different directions. If you want neater looking hair you can draw them the same as the commencement example.

Step 3

Same every bit before erase any parts of the caput hidden by the hair and depict the bottom portion of the back hair. Generally it's a good idea to leave this section of the hair for the terminal part of the line drawing as in the front view of the head it volition be in the dorsum backside most of the other parts of the hair. If you lot try and depict information technology first yous without the other pilus to sort of "frame" its position you will probably end up with some overlapping lines and have to do extra erasing.

Step 4

Add the inner fords (just one in this example) and if y'all like, some basic shading.

Drawing Trimmed Anime Hair (Hime Cutting)

Anime hime cut hair drawing breakdown
Anime "Hime Cut" hair drawing breakup

For trimmed hair draw the hair clump with flat ends that look like they've been cut off by sissors.

For a keen look the different hair clumps should by and large be drawn pointing in the same direction as the clumps next to them and any shifts in management should exist gradual.

Anime hime cut hair step by step drawing
Anime "Hime Cutting" hair step by stride cartoon

Step ane

Start by cartoon the pilus and indicating the hairline. For the "Hime Cutting" the hairline will over again be covered past the hair.

Step 2

For the initial cartoon of the actual hair you can start with the sides followed by the back. You tin can indicate the front department of the hair with only one line.

Step iii

Now describe in some small splits into the front and side parts of of the hair to make them look more natural. Erase the line in between the splits when you are washed. Yous tin also erase any parts of the head that are covered by the hair.

Footstep iv

Finally once again similar to the offset example add together some lines to the hair in the back to evidence information technology's various inner folds. Try and draw these with fairly random spacing and slightly varying curves. If y'all space everything evenly and make all the curves trace one another as well closely the hair will not look very natural.

Drawing Long Messy Anime Hair

Anime long messy hair drawing breakdown
Anime long messy hair cartoon breakup

The long messy hair is somewhat similar to the first example just with some extra hair clumps. Once more it can exist divided up into three parts similar all the other examples so far.

Draw the long messy hair every bit follows:

Anime messy hair step by step drawing
Anime messy hair step by step drawing

Footstep 1

As the other examples starting time by first cartoon the head and hairline. Drawing the hairline will help you make sure that none of the splits betwixt the hair clumps for the "front hair" become too far up.

Step 2

To make the hair look more messy depict the front end hair clumps pointing into dissimilar directions and of varying shapes and curves. You can depict some that are wavy and some that juts bend in one direction.

Draw the very middle portion of these clumps reaching further down. Yous can do the same with the outer clumps on the sides of the front section. This will once more give more of an impression of hair that has not been well groomed.

Pace iii

Now depict in some additional pilus clumps randomly sticking out of the dorsum sections of the pilus. This volition brand the otherwise neat looking back hair wait messy likewise. You can also add a pair (or more than) clumps to the inner parts of the "side hair". You can either erase the outlines of the hair where you want to depict these or add together them and erase the overlapping outline afterwards. Next you can add in some split lines in between the hair clumps same as some of the other examples. To finish the line drawing once more erase the parts of the confront and caput that are covered past the hair later on.

Step four

As this example also has long dorsum hair you can once again depict in some of it's inner folds to make that section look more like actual hair. You can too make them a fleck more wavy than the other examples to over again make the pilus wait more messy.

Drawing Anime Pony Tail /Tied Dorsum Hair

Anime pony tail hair drawing breakdown
Anime pony tail pilus cartoon breakup

Some other adequately common anime hairstyle is the ponytail. You will notice that there is basically no side hair in this particular example (other than the tiny $.25 of the hairline on the sides). So the hair can pretty much merely be splits into the forepart and back sections. The dorsum consisting of the pilus over the peak of the head and the pony tail.

Draw this type of hair equally follows:

Anime ponytail hair step by step drawing
Anime ponytail hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Depict the head and indicate the hairline which for this hairstyle is slightly more than of import than the previous examples as some of it will be visible in the final drawing every bit already shown.

Step 2

You can pretty much frame the front pilus for this hairstyle with merely three curves. Two for the sides and one for the lesser. As mentioned in that location is very fiddling side hair in this case as the hair is pulled back revealing parts of the hairline.

Draw the back hair just slightly over top of the head eventually merging into the sides.

Though ordinarily pony tails will face directly backwards for anime hair you can draw it slightly more to one side then that it'due south shape is more visible. Otherwise the pony tail can just expect like a bump on the head. You lot can depict the pony tail with a sort of question mark similar shape. You can as well add a small-scale split up at the end.

Step iii

Same as for the "Hime Cut" draw in some minor splits into the forepart section of the hair and erase parts of the bottom line of the "front hair" to make spaces in between them. Also erase the parts of the caput hidden by the hair.

Step 4

You lot can again give the hair some light shading if you lot similar. You can too optionally draw in a few more lines into the hair to make it look a lilliputian more divide up than the "Hime Cut" which tends to accept more dense "forepart pilus".

Drawing Anime Hair Over One Eye

Anime hair over one eye drawing
Anime hair over one eye drawing

For the hairstyle with hair over one eye you can nonetheless again split the pilus into the front, sides and back. In this style the forepart section of the hair will be adequately big and sort of merge into the "side pilus" next to the covered eye.

Anime hair over one eye step by step drawing
Anime hair over one center step past step drawing

Step i

Describe the head and the hairline same as the other examples.

Footstep two

For this item hairstyle draw the front hair clumps going far enough down the face to fully cover one centre. For the "side pilus" you tin describe the section on the side of the covered eye somewhat blending into the forepart hair.

Draw the back hair carve up into tow curves that pretty much hug the shape of the head as they become downwardly eventually sticking out in clumps to each side.

Step 3

For the very bottom department of the front end pilus draw a few small-scale clumps sticking out around the meridian of the neck area. Erase whatever overlapping lines from the caput that should be subconscious by the hair when y'all are done.

Step four

To wrap up the drawing you can once again add a few lines to show some splits and curves of the pilus going from between the hair clumps.

Drawing Anime Pigtails

Anime pigtails hair drawing breakdown
Anime pigtails hair drawing breakdown

The pigtails are another very mutual style of anime hair. Same every bit the ponytail example you tin can see that this particular drawing tin pretty much exist broken downward into the front and back section of the hair. With the "back pilus" split up into the pilus covering the head and the pigtails. There are really merely tiny bits of actual "side hair".

Anime pigtails hair step by step drawing
Anime pigtails pilus step by step drawing

Step i

Draw the head and the hairline. In this instance a big section of the hairline volition be visible in the final drawing. It will likewise aid united states place the front section of the hair.

Step two

Though about of the hair in this item example will be pulled back you can describe some clumps for the front end section of the pilus to just i side to make the hairstyle look a footling bit more interesting.

Equally already mentioned there will pretty much be no side hair other than the tiny $.25 around the top of the ears. Draw the summit/back section of the hair blending into that side hair.

For the actual pigtails draw them like to the "Ponytail" example vaguely resembling two questions marks in their overall shape with one being flipped over.

Step 3

Now add some random hair clumps sticking out from the pigtails to make them await a little more interesting and erase whatsoever overlapping lines that this creates. Also erase the outline of the head where information technology's hidden past the pilus.

Step four

Add a few more lines to indicate some folds in the pilus to the pigtails and optionally some shading.

Drawing Neatly Combed Anime Pilus

Anime neatly combed hair drawing
Anime neatly combed pilus drawing

This hairstyle can once more be split into iii parts with the front end, side and back hair. The front section of the hair however is a little dissimilar from the previous examples.

Anime combed hair step by step drawing
Anime combed hair pace by stride drawing

Footstep 1

Depict the caput and hairline. The hairline in this example volition be particularly useful for placing the front part of the hair.

Step 2

Draw the side sections of the hair with steady cures somewhat hugging the shape of the face. Roughly from the middle of the hairline describe two curves going downwards towards the "side hair".

This will exist the "front end pilus" tucked underneath the sides which will exist combed down over meridian of information technology. Draw the dorsum hair with a fairly obvious split in the middle with 2 curves going in each direction. This volition assistance prove that the hair has sort of been neatly combed to each side.

Step 3

Add some small hair clumps for the bottom background hair.

Step iv

Finally yous can add a little clump of pilus hanging down from the centre of the forepart section of the pilus. As sometimes the hair in that area will be to short to be tucked nether the sides and role's of it may hang down. This volition make the hairstyle look a piffling more than natural and interesting. Finally add together some fold lines to the front sections of the pilus going to the sides to help bear witness that the hair is tucked underneath there.

Drawing Curly Anime Hair

Anime curly hair drawing breakdown
Anime curly hair drawing breakdown

Curly pilus is probably the most challenging anime hairstyles to draw. This item hairstyle can once more be split into the front sides and back with the front end hair beingness similar to the previous example.

Anime curly hair step by step drawing
Anime curly hair pace past pace drawing

Step one

Start the drawing the the caput and hairline sketch.

Step ii

From the hairline describe two lines going towards the sides of the caput to indicate the front end pilus. To show that the hair is curly you tin can depict these lines in light waves.

The "side hair in this example will be completely curled. You tin can first depict some lines at the base of the curves to indicate the volume of the hair that volition then transition into the sort of "spires" of hair below.

To depict the actual curls showtime draw the parts of them that are in the foreground. You lot tin can sort of think of them as a cone that'southward been sliced on an angle and pulled apart.

Pace 3

Now erase whatever parts of the head hidden by the hair to avoid confusion and add the groundwork lines of the hair curls. You can think of these as the front parts filled over.

Finally you tin draw some splits at the end of each whorl.

Step four

For the final step you can draw a little squiggle of hair hanging downward from the middle of the front section and add some lines to the lesser of the groundwork hair to indicate some inner folds. Make these lines more wavy than in the previous examples to show that the pilus is curly.

Cartoon Anime Hair Buns

Anime hair buns drawing breakdown
Anime hair buns drawing breakdown

The hair bun'southward are somewhat more than rare only still pop manner of anime hair. This way can also be split into the front, side and back hair.

You tin draw the pilus buns hairstyle as described below:

Anime hair buns step by step drawing
Anime hair buns step past step drawing

Stride one

Once once again start the drawing with the head and hairline.

Step 2

Draw the "front hair" in pocket-size clumps pointing towards the eye of the face and the sides same as most of the other examples.

Describe the "side hair" with light curves somewhat "hugging" the face.

Make the "back hair" pretty much curve effectually the shape of the head.

Finally draw the bodily pilus buns with somewhat of an oval shape for each with part of it hidden behind the "dorsum hair".

Step 3

For this stride simply erase the parts of the caput that are hidden by the hair

Step iv

Draw some o the inner curves of the hair bun. Y'all can pretty much draw these at random only try and somewhat follow the outer curve of the bun with at least a few lines. This will assistance create that sort of "brawl of yarn" look that hair buns tend to have.

Drawing Short Messy Anime Pilus

Anime short messy hair drawing breakdown
Anime short messy hair drawing breakup

The short messy pilus is again easy to split into the front, side, and dorsum sections.

You can describe information technology in the following steps:

Anime short messy hair step by step drawing
Anime curt messy pilus step by step drawing

Footstep one

Same as other examples draw the head and hairline to start.

Stride ii

Draw the forepart department of the hair with the outer clumps sticking out to the sides instead of resting on the forehead like nigh other examples.

Add the side sections with the splits at the ends sticking out in reverse directions.

Draw the background pilus with a slightly separate to ane side and the two curves that come up out of it eventually transitioning into hair clumps on each side of the head.

Footstep 3

Now add together a pair of wavy clumps to the upper carve up are of the background pilus and another pair of clumps to the inner areas of the "side hair". Erase the parts of the hair where you add the clumps and erase any parts of the head/face lines covered by the pilus.

Step 4

Add together the bottom portion of the background hair drawing in small clumps pretty much the same as the other shorter pilus examples in this tutorial.

Drawing Curt/Low Anime Pigtails

Anime short low pigtails drawing breakdown
Anime short depression pigtails drawing breakdown

For the final example of anime pilus in this tutorial we take the short/low pigtails. As about other examples in this tutorial these tin over again be dissever into the sides, front and back/meridian pilus.

Depict this particular hairstyle every bit follows:

Anime short low pigtails hair step by step drawing
Anime short low pigtails hair step by step drawing

Footstep 1

Beginning by drawing the head and hairline as all the other examples.

Step 2

Add together the front end department of the pilus starting time every bit in this instance it will be sticking out a trivial more to the sides overlapping the side sections. Draw the "forepart hair splitting into fairly small clumps and do the same for the ends of the "side hair".

Make the "back pilus" pretty much following the shape of the head.

Finally add the pigtails at the lesser of the head with pocket-size splits at their ends.

Stride 3

Clean upwardly the drawing past erasing the parts of the caput hidden by the hair.

Step four

Add some lines to show the heads inner curves and fold. In this instance merely one for the forepart pilus clump.

Hair Highlights

Hair highlights can really brand hair stand out even without whatever boosted circuitous shading and are fairly easy to add.

For cartoon them check out:

Different Means to Draw Anime Pilus Highlights

Decision

When drawing hair it can be very helpful to organize information technology into carve up sections. Not only will this help you get a better grip on how to depict it only it will also let you lot to more easily modify the hairstyle by changing its various parts. For more hairstyles you tin can experiment by mixing dissimilar parts of the front, side, and back sections of the hair in this tutorial or by adding entirely new designs.

For shading these hairstyles see:

How to Shade Anime Hair Step by Stride

For more than on drawing anime and manga fashion hair see:

  • How to Draw Anime Hair Blowing in Dissimilar Directions
  • How to Draw Anime Hair in 3/4 View Step by Footstep
  • How to Depict Moisture Anime Hair Stride by Step

If you would similar to acquire how to describe the head with all of the facial features bank check out the:

How to Draw an Anime Daughter's Head and Face

For drawing hats and head ware see:

How to Draw Anime Hats & Head Ware

This tutorial has been almost completely redone and updated with new fine art but you can encounter the erstwhile examples below.

examples of how to draw anime and manga hair
Examples of how to draw Anime and Manga hair