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File:Whitehairedprettyboyr 7526.jpg

He looks content because he just killed a kitten.

Cquote1
"Adonis is one of the main characters this thing circles around, but he does have one distressing feature. SILVER HAIR. This means nothing good can come of him. YOU KNOW THE RULE ABOUT SILVER HAIR."
Zarla, Let's Play: Silver Chaos (Somewhat NSFW)
Cquote2


If he's lucky, he's an Anti-Hero. He's much more likely to be the Lovable Traitor, a Trickster, or The Rival. But usually, he'll just turn out to be a villain, sooner or later. He will be aloof, often speaking cryptically and ending every sentence with a flip of his hair and a smirk. If he wears glasses, they'll glow often. Or he'll be quiet and shy, barely cracking a smile, yet he'll still be able to thoroughly kick your ass. Sometimes, in more recent cases, he'll show bisexual tendencies, more likely if he's the bad guy. He'll have special powers, since white hair on a young person who isn't albino is rare, which makes you wonder about the red eyes... If he's a good guy, he'll still seem aloof most of the time.

Despite the wide range and use of Hair Colors for characters, there's an eerie specificity to the use of white (silver works too, but not blonde) hair when coupled with a handsome, vaguely effeminate face. The (usually long and rarely tied back) white hair is very frequently coupled with redeyes. This character will never be as morally set in his ways.

Within anime, this may have a cultural explanation. White skin is considered attractive in nobility and women, but glaring white is otherwise commonly associated with death.

For some reason, this trope applies much more strongly in shows with predominantly male audiences than in something like Shojo, where the character will still tend to be aloof, shy, or outright eerie.

White haired guys with dark skin (such as Turn a Gundam's Loran) are typically exempt, because it's often used as a simple contrasting color like blonde or red hair. Occasionally, perhaps to preserve the white=death rule, foreigners are exempt from this too.

Commonly prone to Minor Injury Overreaction. Compare with Blond Guys Are Evil and Evil Albino, which are more western alternatives of this trope. Compare and contrast with the Distaff Counterpart, the White-Haired Pretty Girl, who is less likely to be evil and more likely to be magical.

Expect a White-Haired Pretty Boy to have a good share of fangirls, or even be subjected to Misaimed Fandom. A white-haired pretty boy is also often a Man in White.

Examples of White-Haired Pretty Boy include:

Played straight[]

Anime & Manga[]

  • Siegfried from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has long white hair.
  • Ayanami in 07-Ghost.
  • Kilik in Air Gear.
  • Metal Fight Beyblade gives us Tsubasa. Even though he has dark skin, he fits the bill. He also has Badass Long Hair.
  • Touma from Aquarion. Bonus evil points for being an angel.
  • It could be argued that the titular character of Akagi fits this trope. He's quite the unconventional hero, goes by his own morals, and (depending on who you ask, of course, since this is a Fukumoto series) is relatively attractive. And then there's his body double/rival for a moment, Hirayama Yukio. (Ichikawa and Washizu, while they have the hair and the antagonist angle down, do not count because they're old and (again, depending on who you ask) ugly.)
  • Zatoh in Armed Librarians: the Book of Bantorra dabbles in this trope, mostly depending on whether the real Zatoh or Enlike is in control of Zatoh's body at the time.
  • Ypsilon from Armored Trooper VOTOMS.
  • Fukuda Shinta of Bakuman。.
  • Griffith, the mercenary Captain from Berserk, fits the physical description to a T, a nice contrast to the Conan-like main character, Guts. While officially a "hero", he starts out as a manipulative Magnificent Bastard out for his own purposes, very much like the historical 30 Years War mercenary Wallenstein, who was rumored to have made a Faustian bargain. In this case, though, instead of selling his soul, he sells those of his men.
  • Creed Diskenth from Black Cat. Creed is not only white-haired, but insane, bloodthirsty, and wants to conquer the world; dude even compares himself to Lucifer. He also has a really creepy crush on Train.
  • In Chrono Crusade, Aion is not only a white haired pretty boy, but also the Big Bad. His hair is also dramatically long—always good for villains.
  • Mao from Code Geass is white-haired and drop-dead gorgeous pretty decent-looking. He's also a frighteningly sadistic, dangerously insane, creepy stalker type.
    • According to some early character designs, Lelouch was going to have white hair as well, but in the end, they went with black.
  • Vicious from Cowboy Bebop (kind of a Nietzsche Wannabe and lives up to his name).
  • Descendents of Darkness: Dr Katzutaka Muraki is a perfect example of this trope.
  • How have we gone so long on this page without Prussia?
  • Black Butler's Ash Landers. White hair? Check. Bishounen? Like the rest of the cast, check. Insane? Check.
  • D.Gray-man has the Noah Wisely.
  • Prince Ashim from Dragonaut: The Resonance.
  • Heine from DOGS Bullets and Carnage. Also has red eyes.
  • Hakuoh of Duel Masters, The Rival before Defeat Means Friendship took effect. Also one of the bishiest bishies out there.
  • Il Palazzo from Excel Saga is the leader of ACROSS, an organization dedicated to conquering the world. He's also a Visual Kei-wannabe.
    • His hair is light purple in the anime, and vaguely greenish in the manga.
      • Shiny purple is often confused with white or silver.
  • Kaitani Riku from Eyeshield 21 is pretty much a nice boy, who taught Sena how to run in the first places. He aims to defeat him, though.
    • Taka Honjou, Monta's catching rival, on the Teikoku Alexanders is one too.
  • Lyon is an antagonist in Fairy Tail when he first appears in episode 12-18 on Galuna island, where he attempts to resurrect the demon Deloria. He decides to change his ways as he watches Gray set sail.
  • Leonard Testarossa from Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid. His younger sister, Tessa, also has white hair, but she's one of the heroes.
    • Ironic, as well, that two "Testarossa"s would be white-haired, as "testa rossa" literally means "red head".
  • Makubex from GetBackers. Silver hair, creepy reality-bending powers, actually a created being. His presumable creator, Makube-hakase, is a White-Haired Pretty Girl with actual white hair.
  • Kuze in the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has a cyborg body with white hair and extremly pale skin. He had the face sculpted by a highly reknown artist, and it's only capable of very limited facial expressions, because they would distort this piece of art. He even rarely moves his mouth when speaking with his synthetic voice. And to complete the look, he always wears white and a white long coat and often uses a silver katana with an ivory hilt.
  • Godchild has Jizabel Disraeli, Cain's illegitimate brother and one of his longest surviving enemies. As a child, he was so pretty that his mother hid him from his father by dressing him as a girl. In order to keep him alive, Jizabel's father killed his sisters and transplanted their organs into him. After suffering from his father's abuse for years, Jizabel decided that he suffered from an in-the-blood predestination to being evil and became a doctor who specialized in all manners of unsavory medicine, including deadly crash diets and brain transplants.
  • Gundam SEED had Yzak Joule, part of Athrun Zala's squad of mobile suit pilots, who quite literally was a white haired pretty boy. He also suffered from Minor Injury Overreaction (though, given, it was the result of shrapnel from his cockpit punching through his helmet, and he repeatedly cried out that it burned when it happened, so perhaps it was not so minor at the time), which branched into The Only One Allowed to Defeat You, though it's subverted in that he's humiliated every time he tried and, eventually, his target was defeated by Athrun instead.
    • Enrico Maxwell from Hellsing starts out as this in the anime. Given the art style and the fact that he's one of the more batshit members of the cast, though, he quickly starts gaining some facial expressions that aren't so pretty.
  • Rome Ro, the Big Bad in Heroic Age. He's the very last of the Silver Tribe to make a Heel Face Turn, and he tortured Yuti into attempting to destroy the planet Elysium and, with it, the power of the Golden Tribe.
  • Killua Zoldyck in Hunter X Hunter. He's kind of the reverse of a Kuudere, though.
  • Jin from Innocent Venus, with a corresponding white mecha. He turns out to be the Big Bad Friend.
  • Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha. He's a calm, cold, aloof, and enormously powerful Youkai, who starts out as a villain and gradually develops into an Anti-Villain, and then an Anti-Hero, remaining inscrutable the entire time.
    • Also, Hakudoshi. Basically, he's a child version of Naraku, except he won't hesitate to get his hands dirty.
    • Inuyasha himself is introduced as a villain who develops through anti-villain and into anti-hero status. He does this much faster than his brother and also ends up more on the hero side of anti-hero than his brother does.
  • Leon Oswald, brilliant yet embittered acrobat from Kaleido Star. He humiliates Sora verbally and on-stage, wants revenge against Yuri, seriously injures May Wong to punish her bad attitude, and has a heartbreaking backstory thanks to his Dead Little Sister, White-Haired Pretty Girl Sophie. So yeah, he gets better.
  • Karoku from Karneval is one, and although the reader is currently unsure of his intentions, he certainly isn't being kind to the boy who basically sees him as a surrogate older brother figure and is currently seeking him out. He's also either uncaring or hateful toward those who surround the boy.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn has the Future Arc's Final Boss, Byakuran, who is pretty much the evil, scheming, perpetually smiling White Haired Pretty Boy.
  • Subverted by Gunter from Kyo Kara Maoh!; his hair and behavior suggests this trope, but he sides with Good.
  • Dio from Last Exile seems like this at first—especially since he works for the Guild (the main antagonists) — but is soon revealed to be hyper, enthusiastic, and prone to glomping. Oh, and he's terrified of his sister Delphine, who has him brainwashed into a soulless killing machine, thus fulfilling this trope.
  • The silver-haired Hegemon Klaus Ingvalt, who was introduced in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. He served as The Rival, and likely something more, to Sankt Kaiser Olivie during the warring era of Ancient Belka.
  • Eagle Vision from Magic Knight Rayearth; he isn't technically evil, but still a villain—he is the head of one of the three groups invading Cephiro.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima! has Fate Averuncus currently acting as the Big Bad.
    • Then, even he gets in on the whole "magic-age-up" game, and becomes this. I can hear the fangirls already...
    • If the new anime is correct, he's got aquamarine hair. Aquamarine.
    • Also, Negi, when using Magia Erebea.
  • Nagi from My-HiME and Mai-Otome. His creepy speech and mannerisms (and even creepier appearance in the Mai-HiME manga) should be a dead giveaway that he's not here to shower you with compliments.
  • Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro has Sai, who arguably fits the trope, despite the fact that he can change shape. His real form seems to be that of a white haired Bishounen and there is no doubts that he can be very cruel.
  • Vaith from Magical X Miracle was one, until he dyed it black for some reason. In addition, Ardi is an archetypal example; he has red eyes to go along with his white hair (unlike Vaith, who has gray eyes), and, also unlike Vaith, is a villain.
    • It's not "for some reason", it's because he dyes his hair black as a tribute to his dead men after a battle. As he tells Mel, "The blood never seemed to wash off..."
  • Eugene Chaud/Ijuin Enzan from Mega Man NT Warrior/Rockman.EXE. He becomes less of an antagonist as the series goes on.
    • I don't know if this counts, but while we are on the subject: Grey from Mega Man ZX and Protoman.EXE (Chaud's netnavi), also from Mega Man Battle Network, have white hair.
  • Aizawa Kouichi in Nabari no Ou. While he's not an antagonist (so far) and is usually a laid-back, helpful guy, he's also a ruthless killer, can be very assertive, and knows suspiciously much about what's going on. Oh, and he's an immortal hybrid of snowy owl and human, which would explain the hair.
  • Kabuto from Naruto, Enigmatic Minion to Orochimaru. Kimimaro, with long white hair, also an enigmatic minion to Orochimaru.
    • And now also Hidan, and Suigetsu deserves a mention because, despite the shark teeth, he is pretty.
  • Kaworu Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion embodies most of shounen's "creepy guy" traits: an existentialist, angelic albino who whistles classical music and is probably gay. Typically, he is a "victim" of Draco in Leather Pants fandom reaction. The fact that he's an exceptionally nice guy and even dies to save or at least buy some time for Shinji makes it not surprising that he gets Leather Pants. Though this only applies to a few versions of said character. Some are more monstrous and twisted, and others are just Ambiguously Gay.
  • Tsukishiro in Nightmare Inspector, a Baku who makes people's nightmares worse in order to make them tastier.
  • In Origin: Spirits of the Past, Shunack, the main villain, fits this trope. Strangely, the main hero also has stark white hair, both from the same source.
  • Suzu from Peacemaker Kurogane. Especially after he goes Ax Crazy and turns into a Depraved Homosexual, wearing makeup and revealing clothes—that's when people in the series really start commenting on how pretty he is.
  • Darkrai. At the very least, it has bishie-hair. In Pokémon the Rise of Darkrai, it was something of an Anti-Hero, or was just simply misunderstood when it was trying to protect the town from the battle between Dialga and Palkia.
    • Steven Stone, anyone? Well...maybe it's more of a steel blue-whitish color, but it looks white enough.
  • Sasame in Prétear. In the manga, he's blond and a supportive (if flirty) older-brother type. In the anime, he's silver-haired and betrays his friends for the Princess of Disaster, gets an Evil Costume Switch, and tries to kill Hayate.
  • Masaharu Niou, the Rikkaidai trickster and illusionist from The Prince of Tennis.
    • Shiraishi Kuranosuke has white hair, too (more prominent in the anime).
  • Mytho in Princess Tutu, especially during the second season, as he becomes increasingly creepy since his heart has been bathed in Raven's blood.
    • In the first season, he's pretty much a subversion, since he's fairly sweet and harmless. In a way, the second season is almost a subversion of the subversion.
  • Yukishiro Enishi from Rurouni Kenshin, the title character's last and arguably most dangerous enemy. (In the manga. His role in the anime amounts to little more than a cameo.) His hair was originally black, though — it turned white when he was a boy, from the shock of seeing his sister killed.
  • Kunzite from Sailor Moon. In fact, the dub actually has the scouts calling him "pretty boy".
    • Prince Diamond and Professor Tomoe as well.
  • Because white hair is apparently a genetic trait in the Shi clan, the royal family in Saiunkoku Monogatari, it is very likely that a few, if not most, or even all, of Ryuuki and Seien/Seiran's older family members were this, though those two certainly are not. Considering that they all killed each other off in a civil war for the throne and were fond of abusing Ryuuki when he was a child...
    • Hyou Riou also fits the trope, although the younger Riou does not.
  • Ralph of Soukou no Strain actually seemed to have gotten a bleach job, specifically for the purpose of being evil. In flashbacks to when he was sane, his hair was blond, shorter, and more professional-looking.
  • Soul from Soul Eater subverts this trope somewhat (not being quite Bishonen at all), but his female fanbase is quite formidable. However, All Girls Want Bad Boys is really the main contributor, it seems, and he's a musical genius at the piano.
    • Dr. Stein, anyone?
  • Buguese from Spider Riders. Initially a villain, but becomes more of an anti-hero once his motives are revealed.
  • Eyes Rutherford in Spiral was "upgraded" to a White-Haired Pretty Boy for the anime version.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has the silver-haired and evil Cytomander.
    • As shown in Parallel Works 8, Lord Genome was one of these as a child, much akin to his daughter, Nia.
  • Adam Blade in NEEDLESS is another aversion, a Hot-Blooded Idiot Hero. Big Bad Adam Arclight, though another native in a World of Ham, is a straighter example.
  • Sohaku Kago from Tenjho Tenge. Though only in the manga, Sohaku, with his immortal bishounen looks and grand evil scheme, is the qunitessential White-Haired Pretty Boy Big Bad.
  • Accelerator in A Certain Magical Index. He suspects that it's because his power reflects light away from his skin and hair.
  • Trinity Blood averts it with Abel Nightroad, the main protagonist. His brother, Cain, on the other hand, is also a WHPB and thoroughly twisted and evil.
  • Epsilon from Towa no Quon is obviously an example. He is in a cyborg army, made to destroy the attractors, emotionless, but eventually decides to go to Quon's side in Chapter 4.
  • Dii from Utawarerumono.
  • Canute from Vinland Saga starts out as a subversion: he's meek, timid, and his favourite hobbies are cooking and reading the bible. After going through some pretty screwed up shit, his meek persona starts to crumble, until he transforms into a bit of a Badass.
  • Dilandau in Vision of Escaflowne (totally nuts, though for good reason). Subverted in that "he" is a girl.
  • Prince Bokar of Sennec from Voltron appeared to be nice at first, saving Princess Allura, but only later does his true self show as a Robeast that attacks the Voltron Force and kidnaps Princess Allura for Zarkon. Also, Prince Lotor, with a white mane that goes past his waist and a Villainous Crush on the Princess.
  • Numerous characters from Yu-Gi-Oh!; Bakura Ryou, Pegasus, and Marik, just to start. Even cards get this treatment; the Dark Magician owned by minor antagonist Pandora (Arcana in the dub) in Season 2 has white hair.
  • Youko Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho is a legendary demon bandit, and was pretty nasty until recently, and even hired a hit man to kill his own thieving partner.
  • Zeno, Zatch's Evil Twin in Zatch Bell.
  • In Akumetsu, Shou has spiky white hair.
  • Argent from Apothecarius Argentum is a heroic yet tragic case, as his white hair is a result of his Acquired Poison Immunity. Though he is an apothecary and healer, he was fed poisons from birth to make him into an assassin. As a result, he himself is highly toxic.
  • Angel Sanctuary has a few:
  • Ichiru Kiryu from Vampire Knight, as well as his brother Zero.
  • Dio from Casshern Sins.
  • Henri Claytor from Future GPX Cyber Formula, with a red streak on a strand of his bangs. Although he does mellow out at the end of ZERO, somewhat.
  • Shougo Midorikawa from Holyland, according to the coloured cover.
  • Even though Mikael from Tenshi ni Narumon does not really have white hair (more like aqua/bluish, though it is pretty light) or red eyes, he fits the overall description to a T.
  • In the anime Highlander the Search For Vengeance, Marcus Octavius, the Big Bad, is a pretty, white-haired, arrogant elitist whose aim is to recreate Rome's lost glories.
  • Gilbert of Kaze to Ki no Uta. Although he's more of a platinum-blonde boy and does not have red eyes, he fits the trope very well.
  • Makenshi from Final Fantasy Unlimited is a strong example of this trope.
  • Definitely Alzeid from Hatenkou Yuugi. He's not an Evil Albino, but of the main three, he's the most criminal-minded.
  • Sternbild's Hanging Judge and part-time Vigilante Man Yuri Petrov of Tiger and Bunny.
  • Luca of Saint Beast combines the long, white anime hair with red eyes and possesses Elemental Powers of darkness, but is a pretty good guy (outside of Seijuu Kourin Hen), following the Stoic Lancer version of this trope. He does mention being afraid of his own capacity for darkness at least once, though, and if you count Seijuu Kourin Hen, he does eventually become an evil sidekick to Judas.
  • Noir/Gauche Suede of Tegami Bachi. His other half averts the evil part, though.
  • Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss. He is something of a Jerkass.

Comic Books[]

  • X-Men's got Magneto and Quicksilver, though some artists draw Magneto to look his age. (He's not supposed to, having been reduced to infancy at one point and later returned to his prime). This is likely because of Marvel's sliding timescale—he was first introduced in 1963, less than twenty years after the Holocaust ended. To maintain his backstory as a survivor of Auschwitz, some aging is inevitable.
  • A Very Special issue of Spider-Man featured Skip, a white-haired pretty boy who baby-sat a young Peter Parker. And molested him.
  • The Sandman: the Corinthian is white-haired, gay, and good-looking when he keeps his sunglasses on. He's also a Serial Killer who likes to eat eyeballs with his own eyeballs. (Also, like Lyta Hall, he might just be a very pale blond.)
    • Also, Lyta's husband, Hector. Though he's arguably got it even worse than she does, since the artists can't even keep his age straight.
  • Hua Yingxiong, the titular character of the Epic Martial Arts Manhua (Hong Kong equivalent of Manga) Chinese Hero.
  • Mekt Ranzz, the villain known as Lightning Lord, from The Legion of Super Heroes, when he's not an Evil Redhead.
  • Tommy Shepherd, aka Speed of the Young Avengers, mostly as a callback to the fact that he's the reincarnation of one of Scarlet Witch's kids-who-were-part-of-Mephisto/never-existed-except-for-her-wishing-them-to. In an existential screwup that could only happen in comics, he and "twin" Billy Kaplan are mirrors of their former mother and uncle, with him having Quicksilver's powers and looks.
  • Snowflame from New Guardians; although the "pretty" part is arguable, he appears to be too young to have his hair white due to old age.
  • All of The Metabarons have long white hair if they have any. For some reason, even the women they bring into the family from other clans also have long white hair.

Fan Works[]

  • Josh from Trigger Happy Fanboy's Pokemon trilogy is one. He didn't start out as a villain, though, and actually aided the protagonists for a while before going his own separate way. While on the light side, he was definitely aloof but my no means antisocial. He even sported a bit of a Ship Tease with May until the end of the second part, in which a two year timeskip takes place. When he returns, he's revealed to have gone down a Sanity Slippage and gone drunk with power. He's also nigh unbeatable and now sports red eyes. And a Badass Longcoat.

Films — Animation[]

  • Cade in Sky Blue strenuously resists Shua's attempt to bring down Ecoban to help the Diggers, and tries to keep Jay away from him. It's later revealed that he was originally responsible for Shua's exile. He does get redeemed eventually.
  • Lord Shen, the Big Bad of Kung Fu Panda 2, is an extremely pretty albino peacock with a extremely pretty white plumage.

Films — Live Action[]

  • Silas in The Da Vinci Code, played by Paul Bettany (who seems to be making this trope a big part of his repertoire, and doing it well).
  • In Harry Potter movies, Lucius and Draco Malfoy both fit this trope to a T.
  • Angel Face in Fight Club, whose hair is bleached platinum blonde.
  • Hellboy II's Prince Nuada. Sure, white hair and skin runs in his family, but he's still the villain.
  • Captain Love in The Mask of Zorro. He's actually very light blond, but it's as close as you can get to white hair, given the scenario.
  • Caius of the Volturi, from Twilight. Definitely fits this trope.

Literature[]

  • Though Silas in The Da Vinci Code is in no way pretty, he otherwise fills this trope (and Evil Albino) to a T.
  • While not pretty, Raistlin Majere of the Dragonlance books fits the other characteristics, including becoming a villain.
    • Considering that his twin brother Caramon is considered very good-looking, Raistlin probably would be, too, if he didn't always look like he was dying.
      • When Raistlin is restored to his pre-Testing appearance during his jaunt to the past in Dragonlance Legends, he does, in fact, turn out to be fairly handsome. The fact that he almost never got laid as a young man probably had less to do with his appearance and more to do with his charming personality.
      • In the prequel novels, it's actually mentioned that though ugly as a child, he actually became more handsome than his brother as a young man; it was Caramon's open, honest personality that won him friends and female attention, whereas Raistlin was a brooding Deadpan Snarker with little interest in relationships. Except that one time when Caramon got there first, which probably did nothing good to Raistlin's antipathy towards romance...
  • Dark Sun/Daren of the Taiwanese novel Eclipse Hunter can be described as this, as shown in these illustrations.
  • White Mike, the drug-dealing antihero in the book Twelve.
  • Ariel from the Obernewtyn Chronicles book series by Isobelle Carmody is a classic example, being described as angelic in looks and satanic in temperament.
  • Valentine from The Mortal Instruments series fits this profile.
  • Joren in Protector of the Small has white-blond hair, rather effeminate looks, and is Keladry's main enemy in the first book. She hates him but acknowledges that he's the most beautiful man she's ever seen, which unfortunately leads to Draco in Leather Pants in parts of the fandom.
  • Modern Faerie Tales has Roiben, a gorgeous faerie who is damaged and bitter after being forced to serve as errand boy for the Unseelie Queen and perform horrific acts for her amusement. He falls into antihero territory, however, since those acts were magically compelled and he remains good at heart.
  • Harry Potter's Draco Malfoy—really made noticeable in the movie adaptations, which is how he got most of his fans. In the book, one gets the impression that he's unpleasant-looking. Actually, he is described as having a pale, pointed face.
    • Also, Lucius Malfoy is quite handsome to look at in the movies. Not any worse than his son. And Lucius has even more fitting, long, white hair.
  • The Name of the Wind: Cinder of the Chandrian.
  • House Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire are a whole family of these. How? Brother-Sister Incest.
  • Mordred in T.H. White's The Once and Future King, "so fair haired that he was almost an albino." He is, at first, merely self-pitying and creepy in the give-the-poor-kid-a-break way, but ultimately turns evil.
  • Sort of subverted in The Grey King in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series of books, where Bran Davies's odd white hair is used to give him a quality of otherness, even though he doesn't turn out to be bad.
  • Pollution from Good Omens is white-haired, looks to be in his early twenties, and has a creepily chirpy, somewhat seductive personality. The fact that he's one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse should be another warning.
  • The whole trend (at least in Western literature) can be traced more or less directly to Elric of Melnibone as written by Michael Moorcock. Elric is a weakling albino, often described in terms of effeminate beauty, who comes from an ancient line of powerful, cruel, Chaos-allied people. He is granted superhuman prowess in combat by a cursed sentient sword which eats the souls of opponents, and he tends (often through the interference of said sword) to kill his allies and/or lovers with alarming regularity.
  • C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy has Gerald Tarrant, a dark-sword wielding WHPB vampire, who, despite being evil, is still the novel's anti-hero.
  • R.L. Stine evokes this with the character Bill Jeffers, a.k.a. Snowman, in the book of the same name. Bill is described as being tall and white haired with black eyes, and is extremely attractive to most women he meets. He's also a murderer who doesn't have much regret for what he did. His father, however, DID bring it onto himself by beating his son and physically abusing him until the kid snapped. Whether he's evil or not depends greatly on who you ask in the fandom and how much sympathy you have for abuse victims.
  • Julian from LJ Smith's Forbidden Game trilogy meets the personality and prettiness standards of this trope, although his eyes are (piercing, beautiful) blue.
  • Although definitely NOT EVIL, Tonda in Otfried Preussler's novel Krabat has had white hair since half a year before the book starts, as his girlfriend Worschula was killed by the Master then. The grief turned his hair white, so it's rather White=Death than White=Evil.
    • In the movie, his hair is not white from the beginning, as Worschula dies when Krabat already is in the mill, not 6 months ago, as the book states...
    • He's not that pretty in the movie, but as it takes place in Thirty Years' War...
  • Isaac Newton is described as this in Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle. The trope description fits his personality pretty well: he's an aloof, arrogant, Ambiguously Gay Anti-Hero who has a vested interest in alchemy and fancies himself a sorceror.
  • Bones in the Night Huntress books has brown hair naturally, but likes to go around with it dyed platinum blonde. And he is one of the heroes.
  • The Gentleman with the Thistle-down Hair in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Gorgeous, Really Seven Hundred Years Old, nearly-all powerful, and utterly bonkers by human standards.
  • Toot-toot the fairy of The Dresden Files is white-haired and described as just as inhumanly attractive as all other fae folk. He is, however, a fairy, and his height is between six and twelve inches. While not evil, per se, he is Chaotic Neutral with a very mercenary conscience, who serves the heroes for regular payments of pizza.
  • The Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol, although it is of Ambiguous Gender in the book. In certain film and theatre adaptations, it is portrayed as a girl/woman.
  • Martel in The Elenium posesses natural white hair, and is described as having a surprisingly youthful face. He's also a fallen knight.

Live-Action TV[]

  • Amir Aboulela as Gar on The Pretender. He's (perhaps unintentionally) kind of effeminate, and in his short time on the show, he even has a sort of Minor Injury Overreaction.
  • The live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series gave Zoisite white hair. Though, while he is still one of the four generals of the Dark Kingdom, he is also the one to remember his past life and his loyality to Endymion, and the past tragedy; he even goes so far as to briefly team up with Minako to try and keep Usagi and Mamoru separated.
  • Kamen Rider OOO has the Greeed Kazari take on a human form, which is that of a White-Haired Pretty Boy. He's the most cunning of the four villainous Greeed, and arguably the most dangerous, [[spoiler: since his plots result in the destruction of two of the others.

Professional Wrestling[]

  • Former AWA commentator and WCW on- and off-screen authority figure Eric Bishoff. Averted in Kayfabe where his hair is dyed black, but in reality, Eric's natural hair color has been white for almost his entire adult life.
  • 16-time world champion Ric Flair.

Religion[]

  • Jesus is often portrayed with white hair in his transfigured/divine state. Of course, he is not evil or a jerk, but his divine form represents his just (i.e. merciless) side. It's worth noting that His skin gets the same treatment, and it's not fair skin and silver or gray hair, but rather radiant white skin and hair, shining bright enough to light a city by.
  • The Bible says that Satan can 'transform himself into an angel of light'; usually, when he in this mode, he's depicted with silvery hair.

Tabletop Games[]

Card Games[]

Theater[]

Video Games[]

  • Yuuri from Silver Chaos 2 Artificial Mermaid, subverted in that he is the hero.
  • Arthas from the Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. In Warcraft III, he was initially blond, at which point he was morally clueless, and also pretty clueless in general, but largely seemed to mean well. His hair immediately and abruptly went white shortly after he took up Frostmourne and became a Death Knight, which is also the exact moment at which he progressed from "well-meaning extremist" status to being clearly and unambiguously capital-E Evil.
Cquote1

Arthas: Yes, I've damned everyone and everything I've ever loved in his name, and I still feel no remorse. No shame. No pity.
Tichondrius: The runeblade that you carry was forged by the Lich King and empowered to steal souls. Yours was the first one it claimed.
Arthas: Then I'll make do without one. What is the Lich King's will?

Cquote2
  • Reivier from Quintessence — The Blighted Venom.
  • Setzer, of Final Fantasy VI is a rebellious, elitist, whitehaired gambler who kidnaps Celes, but inevitably joins the party.
  • Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII is the best video game example of White-Haired Pretty Boy.
    • And his lookalike from Final Fantasy Tactics, Marquis Elmdore
    • Yazoo, Loz, and most notably Kadaj from the sequel film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, who are brothers from the same "mother" as Sephiroth. Official materials even name them collectively as "The Silver-Haired Men".
  • Weiss from Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus.
    • ...whose name, appropriately enough, is German for "white".
  • Final Fantasy IX brings us Kuja, who is ten times prettier than Sephiroth.
    • He's even referred to several times in-game as a "narcissist", which is a rather mild description for someone who dresses like this.
  • Magus from Chrono Trigger. Well, the pretty part is debatable.
  • From the Kingdom Hearts series, we have Xehanort, his Heartless, Ansem, and his Nobody, Xemnas, both of which are the final bosses in their respective games. Notably, they avert the corrolary of "being Ambiguously Brown negates the evil of white hair", though fans do not always agree on whether this is a good thing.
    • In Chain of Memories, the Riku Replica fits this trope to a tee. In fact, Riku himself fits this trope pretty darn well in the first (and even second) games.
    • Interestingly enough, Birth by Sleep shows that the body that Xehanort is inhabiting used to have brown hair.
  • Wilhelm in Xenosaga is an example of this trope, and chaos (no capitalization) is an example of how dark skinned white haired pretty boys are exempt. Albedo is another example from the same game.
  • Alvis in Xenoblade Chronicles.
  • Orochi from The King of Fighters '97, although he takes this form just for the purpose of manifesting in the real world (his true form is considerably fuglier).
    • Magaki, endboss of XI, also fits the trope when he first appears to the player, but he subverts it, as his true form is a lanky, bug-eyed, pink...thing who shambles about, and his body is racked with muscle spasms. Not actually pretty at all. He still keeps the white hair, though.
    • And then there's K'.
  • Prince Yumil in Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, and he has silver hair.
  • Ayatane in Ar tonelico, whose evil status is complicated, but does definitely spend at least a portion of the plot being on the opposing side.
  • The original Tohno SHIKI in Tsukihime has white, shoulder-length hair. He is also possessed by the Big Bad, inverted (meaning, given up completely to a Super-Powered Evil Side), and completely insane.
  • Hyo Imawano from Rival Schools, who goes from main villain, to willing ally, to possessed villain, to dead, all in the span of two games.
  • Wild ARMs 2 manages to include a White-Haired Pretty Boy who, amazingly enough, isn't evil. He acts as Mission Control for the Heroes-R-Us organization that the Player Character is a part of. Oh wait, he's the boss of the villains too, and it turns out this was all a Xanatos Gambit to mobilize the world against a Cosmic Horror threat. A good goal, but he was ruthless in pursuing it.
    • Wild ARMs 3 has Jet Enduro. He's a white-haired pretty boy who, while he may be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, is also one of the four playable characters and a hero.
  • Lunar: The Silver Star has Ghaleon, who is a walking example of a lot of villain tropes.
  • In the girl version of Harvest Moon DS, there is a white-haired phantom thief named Skye that you can marry.
    • You heard right, my friend. In fact, Skye/Steiner is pretty much the straightest example of this trope I've ever seen, with particular emphasis on the "effeminate pretty-boy" bit.
    • Let's not forget Vaughn from Island of Happiness.
  • Dist the Runny the Reaper "the Rose" from Tales of the Abyss — evil, effeminate Mad Scientist. Alright, maybe not that pretty, what with that loony perma-grin, but he otherwise fits the trope to a tee.
  • Ramirez from Skies of Arcadia, who is also The Dragon for Galcian.
    • Galcian is also white-haired, but is not quite as pretty as his subordinate.
    • Also, funny enough, Ramirez is the True Final Boss and not Galcian.
  • Solus, The Dragon from Breakdown.
  • Tales of Vesperia has Duke. Oddly enough, he also gains dark skin during his True Final Boss form, but here, it's just an indication that he's become a demigod.
    • Alexei is one too. In fact, if he grew his hair longer, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
  • Psaro the Manslayer from Dragon Quest IV.
  • Fou-Lu from Breath of Fire IV.
    • Cranked up to 11 in the manga, and overtly embraced when Ryu confronts Fou-lu in the throneroom for the first time. Not since Hotohori in Fushigi Yuugi has any man looked that pretty in formal imperial court dress. And yes, the more Fou-lu gets overtly shoved to being a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, the prettier he gets.
  • Vergil of Devil May Cry is a classic example, while his twin brother Dante doesn't fit the mold so well. See the subversion section.
  • Joshua from The World Ends With You is not only pretty and has white hair, but he's also the one who almost UNDOES Neku's Character-development from week one with his prissy and mysterious behaviour, and finally turns out to be Neku's killer (twice), the Composer, and the one who wanted to destory Shibuya in the first place. However, he endes up showing "mercy". All this while spouting cryptic "deep" sayings, and being mysterious and ostensibly metrosexual (he can wear girls' clothes).
    • I guess he tries to make Neku stand his ground or admit non-worthiness of all his development. If it's so easy to undo as one not particularly getting in your way boy walking you around streets, when you're trying to prove that all people must have some worth, then why bother about it?
  • Suikoden V invokes this trope for a woman. After her Face Heel Turn, Lady Sialeeds stops dyeing her hair, revealing the fact that it was white all along just in time for you to fight her for the first time. Given that she doesn't pick up any of the connotations of the White-Haired Pretty Girl, while picking up the White-Haired Pretty Boy's penchant for antagonism, she probably fits here more than there.
    • Also, the protagonist himself has silver hair, and is very, very pretty.
  • Nascour, The Dragon, from Pokémon Colosseum.
    • Steven Stone as well.
    • Also, see the entry about Darkrai above.
      • In Pokemon Ranger Shadows Of Almia, Darkrai goes completely batshit insane[1] when Altru Tower is powered up to Level Dark, fitting the application of this trope to villains much better.
  • Karsh from Chrono Cross looks like one of these at first glance, being the first humanoid boss you fight (not counting Solt and Peppor, who fight alongside him), along with having the standard silver hair. However, he's not evil, just efficient at his job (and ashamed of having to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy best friend), and later, he joins the party.
  • Specter from Ape Escape. All right, he has white fur, but still.
  • Lloyd from Legend of Dragoon. He spends most of the game being a huge thorn in the party's side, from beating the pants off of the protagonist in an arena fight to plotting to destroy the world, only to do a Heel Face Turn at the last second, making way for the REAL Big Bad.
    • Then again, like the Drow example above, Lloyd belongs to an entire race of White-Haired Pretty People, who, given their history, are not exactly known for being the nicest folks around.
  • Sengoku Basara has three of these. First, there's Ax Crazy Akechi Mitsuhide, then, The Strategist Takenaka Hanbei, and now, Ishida Mitsunari.
  • Derby Harrington, leader of the Preps in Bully. While short-haired, he is decidedly handsome, evil, and a rich bastard.
  • Jusqua, if not for the SD style of Hikari no 4 Senshi, can be one. Silver hair? Check. Rival to the hero? Check.
  • Godot from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has white hair, though it was originally black, but it changed when he was poisoned.
  • The fiend Alexei from Ninja Gaiden 2.
  • White Spirits (or Angels) from Tears to Tiara are a bunch of Ax Crazy perfectionists. Only 2 of 13 of them were exceptions.
  • Naoya from Devil Survivor is an example of this trope, combined with Red Eyes, Take Warning. He's also one of the few characters in the game who does not invoke Curtains Match the Window.
    • His Expy from the second game has this look, but his Jerkass personality prevents many in universe from appreciating it. The Anguished One looks like this as well, to the point fans consider him an Expy of Kaworu.
  • Wylfred from Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. Whether he becomes a villain depends, though.
  • Reve from Phantasy Star 0. He doesn't have red eyes, but has a red visor over them until his Heel Face Turn. He's pretty much a jerk and a real pain.
  • Schezo Wedgey form the Puyo Puyo series.
  • Taichi in CROSS†CHANNEL is a somewhat androgynous white haired teen and the hero of the story. Unless he has one of his psychotic episodes and kills everyone. And snapping and killing everyone isn't just confined to bad ends, either. Nope, the journal logs reference them and one of the very last endings involves Taichi killing Youko to defend everyone in what is probably a very brutal manner, causing everyone to freak, and then he kills them. His hair is often commented upon. Oddly enough, he actually has something of a complex, where he is convinced that he is incredibly ugly.
  • Gregorio III from Gitaroo Man, complete with Mismatched Eyes and creepy intro. Also considered to be That One Boss sometimes.
  • Orochi X from Warriors Orochi, who's certainly more feminine than his previous form.
  • Anton from Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box has very pale blond hair and is a Bishonen to boot.
  • Cleru from Summon Night: Swordcraft Story.
  • Fenris from Dragon Age 2.
  • Warwick in the Age of Empires III campaign. Also note that the secret society of which he was a member, The Circle of Ossus, prized animals with white fur.
  • From Tekken, Lee Chaolan, poster guy of this trope.
  • Raiden from the Mortal Kombat series doesn't initially come off as this, but take away his hat and cloak, and you're left with a rather pretty man with a glorious mane of white hair [dead link].
    • Partially lampshaded in Mortal Kombat 9 where, upon learning they are fighting for the safety of Earth, Johnny Cage asks Raiden, "What should we do, besides standing around looking pretty?"
  • Aizel from Opoona. In his case, he has a bad case of the possessed by the spirit of evil. His brother, Shalga, has it as well, but he's only a Hero with Bad Publicity.

Visual Novels[]

  • Archer, from Fate/stay night, who may not be considered a pretty boy, though he is nevertheless handsome in a more rugged manner, but his white hair and cynical anti-hero nature qualify him for this trope...as does his penchant for a red Badass Longcoat. Further, his actions and intent, in the Unlimited Blade Works arc, of killing the hero — his past self — to end the eternity of fighting and slaughter he lives out arguably grant him Anti-Villain status.
    • He counts as this trope, as the term "Gar" was literally made for him (at 4chan, of course). And accounting for his cumulative actions/motives, he probably fits under the greater majority of the hero and villain tropes here.
  • Yo-Jin-Bo has Mon-Mon, though he insists it's silver and isn't nearly as "pretty" in the usual way. The enemy ninja Kasumimaru's pale blue could also count, and he is more of the traditional variety of pretty.

Web Comics[]

  • Loratio from Emergency Exit. He's not really evil (he did save the world from a demon), just extremely disagreeable with violent tendencies.
  • Chess Piece, Chess Piece, oh my God, Chess Piece. We've got Danny the Anti-Hero/Villain Protagonist, who, despite being evil, does have quite a large fanbase (All Girls Want Bad Boys); Vlad, who was a wild man back in the day and has killed at least once (Phantom); and Phantom, the Ax Crazy psychopath who has gone on many a murderous rampages and is one of the main villains of the story.
    • Vlad could arguably be a subverted example(see subversions below).
  • Drake (and Silvester) from Gold Coin Comics, where Drake is a protagonist. Their last name is Lighthair.
  • Razin from Overlord of Ravenfell has white hair and is a wannabe Evil Overlord.

Web Original[]

Western Animation[]

  • Word Paynn and his son, Moordryd, in Dragon Booster.
  • It's probably a matter of opinion, but Ben 10's Albedo isn't particularly bishonen, though he is morally dubious enough to build a second Omnitrix against his master's wishes and beat up hordes of Forever Knights looking for Ben, complain directly to a cook how much he loathes the Earth food he finds himself compelled to eat, make a laughably dumb attempt to convince Gwen that he is Ben (complete with several instances of "I, Ben Tennyson..."), and try to take Ben's Omnitrix by force. Then again, he doesn't get the white hair until the end of the episode (probably just to look like Ben's opposite), which may indicate an intended reappearance.
  • Prince Phobos from W.I.T.C.H.
  • Nekron in Fire and Ice.
  • Valmont in Jackie Chan Adventures (although he gets rather scruffy after the second season).
  • Gregor/Elliot in Danny Phantom.
  • An example of a Trickster: Puck, from Gargoyles.
  • Teen Titans have one of these boys in the episode "Spellbound". Of course, it turns out that the dragon Melchior had borrowed the looks from Rorek in the end.
  • German sorcerer Sigmund from Fanboy and Chum Chum, The Rival for Kyle.
  • Baron from Sym-Bionic Titan.


Subversions/Exceptions[]

Anime and Manga[]

  • Rakuto from Wild Ones is white-haired, but also handsome, charming, and one of the most popular students in school, if not a bit of a Stepford Smiler.
  • Toki from Fist of the North Star. White-haired, yes, but due to a spot of aging and radiation sickness that is slowly killing him, he dosen't exactly look pretty. Furthermore, he is the most morally pure of the entire cast, vowing to use Hokuto Shinken only to heal people of their diseases. In battle, he is more of a Technical Pacifist. When he fights and has to eliminate his foe, he uses special versions of established Hokuto Shinken techniques to ensure that his enemies die feeling immense pleasure. But this IS Fist of the North Star, where Anyone Can Die (at least, anyone not named Kenshiro). Take a wild guess what fate awaits poor Toki.
    • It was radiation sickness that gave him his white hair anyway. Originally, it was brown (or black, since FOTNS has... issues with its cast's hair colour).
    • Rei from Fist of the North Star. He was actually mistaken for a woman in his introduction, but he doesn't get the requisite white hair until he's dying from Raoh's attack.
  • Doctor Clive, more commonly known as the School Doctor from Haré+Guu. He's not evil, though, just a lech and kind of a jerk. Also, his hair is actually dyed and his natural hair color is brown.
  • Prussia and Iceland from Axis Powers Hetalia, though Prussia's Hot-Blooded personality keeps him from fully fitting into this trope. Iceland is described as being something of a Defrosting Ice King.
  • Tsukasa in .hack//Sign. Not only is he a good guy (arguably), he's a main character.
    • Also, he's not really a boy, so there's that too.
  • Bleach has several:
    • Jushiro Ukitake is a mellow, lovable nice guy with strong morals. He feels a kinship towards Hitsugaya because he's a fellow White-Haired Pretty Boy, and frequently gives him comically large amounts of candy and other presents. His hair was originally black, but turned white due to illness.
    • Toshiro Hitsugaya, who is clever and capable. Little doubt that the trope is probably one of the main reasons behind his popularity (essentially swapping places with Ichigo, who consistently held the #1 spot in Shonen Jump polls).
    • Ryuuken Ishida, Uryu Ishida's aloof father.
  • Yue in Cardcaptor Sakura; though not technically a villain or even evil, his bitterness, pride, and stoicism highlight his cold and resentful demeanor. In his first appearance, he is an antagonist, and, following his defeat, becomes a reluctant ally of the main character and, eventually, a friend.
  • Shirogane from Monochrome Factor.
  • Kakashi Hatake. Even men were smitten when they saw him without his mask.
    • His father, Sakumo, also counts.
  • Seirei no Moribito, Shuga is one of the few decent members of the Yogo Empire.
  • Near in Death Note. It's not as much subversion as one would think; since Light, the protagonist, is a Villain Protagonist, Near, despite being one of the good guys, is still the antagonist of the show.
    • Just to make things even more confusing, although Near is technically a "good guy", he's only really heroic next to the likes of Light or Mello; he's not meant to be likable or good, according to Death Note's creators.
  • Black Jack manages to subvert this with Dr. Kiriko: he has white hair, his skin's fairly pale, but his gaunt face and sickly, hunched-over frame keep him from being too "pretty".
  • Ren from Karin, in something of an inversion.
  • Allen Walker from D Gray-Man is white-haired and prettier than much of the female cast, but is not only the protagonist, but probably the nicest character in the series. Though there is that little Noah issue which makes the Fourteenth a Double Subversion.
    • He was also originally a brunette, but his hair turned white during a particularly traumatic event in his childhood.
  • Keiki from The Twelve Kingdoms; as a Kirin, he is literally the physical embodiment of benevolence and kindness. (This may not be a true example, as he may merely be light blonde. All of the other kirin—with one notable exception—are darker shades of blonde.)
    • It's a really light platinum blonde, but it can be easily confused with white. This tone is a bit rare to occur on Kirins, but not as rare as black, red, or pink (yes, pink unicorns).
  • Kantarou from Tactics is as much a pretty white-haired boy as it gets, but he is the hero. Although his lazy and materialistic nature occasionally make him the object of censure, Kantarou never comes close to being a villain and is more of a Genius Ditz (as far as his exorcizing/bonding with spirits power is concerned) than anything else.
  • Ayame Sohma from Fruits Basket has long silver hair and turns into a snake. However, he's certainly not a villain, just a very silly Lovable Sex Maniac. His younger brother, Yuki, also has silver hair. Hatsuharu, who has a mix of black and white hair, is a bit closer to being villain, considering that he has a Jekyll and Hyde personality.
  • Gintoki from Gintama occasionally does questionable things, but he has a heart of gold and is the hero of the series.
  • The mafioso Leo Grant from FAKE.
  • Sasagawa Ryohei of Katekyo Hitman Reborn has white hair (once colored light brown in an early color spread, interestingly enough), but is firmly entrenched in the realm of heroes. He's the Hot-Blooded one. EXTREMELY hot-blooded.
    • On that note, Gokudera Hayato, when he originally came in, seemed to be a villain but quickly turned into the most fiercely loyal subordinate Tsuna could ever want. ("JUUDAIME!!!")
  • Shinrei of Samurai Deeper Kyo starts out as the White-Haired Pretty Boy, but is revealed to have a bad temper (especially when dealing with his brother), and eventually goes over to the main character's side.
    • Also, the morally ambiguous Migeira in the anime, who has short white hair, heterochromic eyes, and a Kakashi-like facemask. Subverted by preteen ninja Sasuke, who also has white hair.
  • Chouji Suitengu from Speed Grapher. Ginza Hibari is a morally ambigous White Haired Pretty Girl.
  • Ginko from Mushishi, although white-haired, is both a nice guy and rather pretty, plus his white hair and green eye do indicate the touch of the supernatural.
  • Silver-haired Shi Seiran in Saiunkoku Monogatari is a principled and heroic young man.
  • Superintendent Kengo Akechi from The Kindaichi Case Files. While not technically "evil", he is a bit of a douchebag sometimes.
  • Xerxes Break in Pandora Hearts—although he went way overkill with his primary commitment to this role, it was probably due to his Your Days Are Numbered situation. Additionally, in the present day, it's only a little ambiguous if he's totally on the protagonists' side or not.
  • Rotton the Wizard of Black Lagoon places more emphasis on the "pretty boy" part of the equation, being a chivalrous guy who really wants to be badass but isn't very good at it. Where he not The Fool, you'd expect that his code of honor and mannerisms would have gotten him killed a long time ago in the kind of series he's in.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bakura and his Super-Powered Evil Side both fit the physical description, but normal Bakura is harmless and an Adorkable woobie.
  • From Fairy Tail, there's the character Elfman, who's quite a big Boisterous Bruiser with short hair. The only reason his hair is this color is probably so he matches with his White-Haired Pretty Girl sisters, Mirajane and Lisanna.
  • While he's quite short tempered, Regis from Noblesse is a noble Friendly Neighborhood Vampire.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn has Superbia Squalo, a member of the elite assassination squad known as the Varia. He has long, well-conditioned (sort of explained by the fact that the Varia are supposed to be good at everything they do) silver-white hair, even though he's ethnically Italian. It could be another reference to his "shark" aspect (squalo meaning "shark" in Italian), and/or a contrast to his opponent (a black-haired, all-Japanese boy). And he could be good-looking if he'd stop making deranged killer faces.
  • Inuyasha from, well, Inuyasha exhibits the exact opposite traits to the typical mysterious and aloof type. Foul-mouthed jerk? Yes, but not evil. It's interesting to note that when he is in his human form, his default hair color is black.
    • Also, his father.
  • Shion from No. 6 is another exception, as he is an Adorkable Nice Guy.
  • Gauche Suede from Tegami Bachi is a noble, kindhearted Nice Guy. However, his Jekyll and Hyde alter ego Noir plays the evil part of this trope straight after a Break the Cutie moment.
    • White-haired twelve-year-old main protagonist Lag Seeing has the subversion of this trope down pat, but hasn't quite reached the pretty part yet. Give him a few more years, though...
  • Youya from Sakura Gari. The subversion? For 4/5 parts of the manga... we thought Youya was Sakurako, a White-Haired Pretty Girl. And the kid is a huge Jerkass Woobie with terrible actions under the belt and a heartbreaking past as the cause.
  • Albert Heinrich (Cyborg 004) has silver hair in some adaptations of Cyborg 009. In all adaptations, he's one of the heroes of the series. In the "Legend of the Supergalaxy" movie, he had a bit of a death wish and was unflinching in battle, but still one of the heroes.
  • Bell Cranel in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? has the white hair, the effeminate good looks, and the red eyes, but he's very definitely a hero.

Comic Books[]

  • Apollo of The Authority is a gorgeous Superman expy with long, white-blonde hair and the sweetest disposition of anyone on the team. It's nigh-on impossible to even make him angry.
  • Daniel Hall of The Sandman, after his transformation into the second Dream. Definitely a good guy; he's noticeably more forgiving than his predecessor, although that, admittedly, isn't hard to achieve. Also a Man in White.
  • Elijah Snow of Planetary is very pale, with solid white hair, but is not so much a pretty boy (he looks at least in his 40s, though he's actually about 100 years old) and is quite thoroughly heroic—though often very cranky and grumpy about it. Also another Man in White.

Films — Live Action[]

Live-Action TV[]

  • Simon Pegg on Spaced reminds us that bleaching your hair will, in fact, destroy it.
  • While far from pretty, the Wraith of Stargate Atlantis is, with the exception of some Queens, an entire species that has long, white hair. Though they are very intelligent on the whole, most Wraith are brutal and openly violent, rather than calm and sophisticated.

Literature[]

  • Ian Stott from Cherie Priest's Bloodshot is a dapper, handsome vampire with long white/silver hair. He's got the moral ambiguity of being a vampire, but he seems like a decent, pleasant person.
  • Alcuin from Kushiel's Legacy is a sort of rival to Phedre, but also definitely a good guy.
  • Michael Moorcock's Elric, who, ironically, might be the root of the trope due to his Anti-Hero status. (The novels were published in Japan, illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano of Vampire Hunter D fame).
  • Rhaegar Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire. He's a Posthumous Character, and it's made pretty clear he was a larger-than-life Knight in Shining Armor. Fanart pictures him as a Bishonen.
  • Wraith from the Hex book series by Rhiannon Lassiter is the main sidekick of the protagonist and is revered as a hero. He is also described in the first book as "strikingly attractive", and later on, his ex-gang-member status makes people see him as a "romantic figure" (direct quote from the 3rd book).
  • Roshaun from Young Wizards. He's described as looking like a living anime character. He's also very definitely one of the good guys.
  • Roiben from Holly Black's Tithe trilogy is a faerie knight with long "salt-white" hair and silver eyes. Though he has his sinister side, he's a good guy and the main love interest.
  • Averted in Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine, in which the white-haired boy, a beautiful dancer named Aster, is a romantic ideal.
  • Thoroughly subverted in the form of Drizzt Do'Urden, a dual wielding drow elf WHPB (albeit dark-skinned), that is the epitome of good and emo of most Forgotten Realms heroes.
  • Most of the moon elves in the Forgotten Realms novel series are subversions of this trope, wherein they are royals, and often described as the most human among their brethren. They are often described as pale in skin, often having silver or black hair and a pretty face.
    • Elaith Craulnobur, from the songs and swords series, is a semi-subversion, as he began as a thoroughly evil WHPB, but, in the course of the novels, rediscovered his honor and partially redeemed himself.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien wrote subversions of this, particularly the Teleri (grey elves) and their leader, Thingol Greycloak, one of the first elves, described to be of great power and unearthly beauty.
    • Celeborn, specifically, has silver hair, and he's a wise and kind leader who sticks around until the bitter end of the elves' days on Middle Earth.
  • Eric Northman from Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire mysteries. (Much more obvious on the TV adaptation Trueblood.) Semi subversion, as he's not exactly the most pure intentioned vampire on the planet, but is loyal and generous to his people.
    • Eric Northman may not embody this trope. He's blond, not white- or silver-haired. He's a big old viking dude, not a prettyboy (yes, many women find him attractive, but he's not a bishonen).
  • Subverted somewhat in The Malazan Book of the Fallen—Rake and the rest of the Tiste Andii are good guys (sort of).
  • In Codex Alera, all Marat have white hair, male or female. However, there is only one major Marat villain (and he's just a Starter Villain and Unwitting Pawn), while most of the Marat are solid good guys. On top of that, the other main male Marat, Doroga, is not only a good guy, but described as being physically ugly despite his white hair.
  • We don't know exactly what his facial features are, but Otto from The H.I.V.E. Series has white hair, and two of the three girls who help make up the main cast are attracted to him, so he could fit this.
  • Bracken from the Fablehaven series. Justified because he's a unicorn. Also, Warren, when he was stuck as an albino.
  • Some elves from the Inheritance Cycle are like this—Oromis is the best example. His hair isn't due to his great age—elves stay eternally young, and Eragon can only tell he's so old by the sad expression on his face.
  • Agent Pendergast.

Video Games[]

  • Final Fantasy:
    • The Dark Knight Cecil in Final Fantasy IV is a White-Haired Pretty Boy, but we only learn this after he turns into a good guy and takes his helmet off.
      • The odd thing is, his battle sprite and world sprite both have purple hair in the SNES original game, so it wasn't obvious Cecil was white haired! Even his save menu portrait had some purple in his hair.
      • He looks almost pale blond in the DS version (in-game sprite only, it's white in the FMV and menu portrait).
      • Edge is also a subversion in more than one way. Despite having white hair and being very, very pretty (though not quite as pretty as Cecil), he's a Hot-Blooded hero who likes to hit on Rydia.
    • Dissidia includes the Warrior of Light, a Knight in Shining Armor whose prettiness rivals Cecil, and the lovely (but slightly Hot-Blooded) Firion.
    • Luneth from Final Fantasy III DS version is just a really sweet (and androgynous) kid.
    • Baralai from Final Fantasy X-2, who is technically a Dark-Skinned Blond. He is even referred to by Logos as a "girly man". Despite being the leader of New Yevon, a conservative organization spawned from the remnants of the Corrupt Church from the first game, and fighting against the protagonists on at least one occasion, he turns out to be a subversion because his motives are fundamentally good, and when he turns evil, it's because he's possessed by Shuyin, the true Big Bad. At the end, he pledges to work together with the other factions to rebuild and restore Spira.
  • The Anti-Hero Dante from Devil May Cry is a slightly more realistic take on the Bishonen; he has white hair and is a hunky and hot-blooded Badass Longcoat. So are his twin brother Vergil (though, being a villain with an icy personality, he definitely fits the trope), the human form of their father Sparda, and Nero (who is also a descendant of Sparda).
  • Alucard from Castlevania is a noble soul, always playing for the good guy's side if not being the hero and, somewhat humorously to fans, seems to have spawned the notion that every CV hero since must be a White-Haired Pretty Boy. Interestingly enough, for his first appearance in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, he sported dark hair.
    • Soma Cruz from the recent Castlevanias definitely qualifies. He may not be evil, but the potential was certainly there, considering he inherited Dracula's "office". He is definitely white-haired and pretty, though you'd never know he was a boy if they didn't tell you.
    • Juste Belmont in Harmony of Dissonance, the only known white-haired member of his clan. Let me rephrase: he's a white-haired Belmont.
    • Kid Dracula, Dracula's non-canonical offspring, is a White-Haired Little Boy.
  • Raiden from the Metal Gear Solid series. He does turn out to be working for the Big Bad, but he doesn't have a clue about it. He's not an anti-hero, not a trickster, and certainly not evil, although he does do some pretty morally dubious things. Most of the time, he's basically the universe's butt monkey. The creator claims that his pallor was a reference to him being a 'virginal' character—he'd never been in a game in the series before, and has yet to be 'coloured' by audience expectation. (Alternatively, he was meant as a blank slate for the player to project himself into.) It's also probably a tip-of-the-hat to the eerily pale Peter Stillman in Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, who was an inspiration for Raiden's character.
    • As an interesting note, Peter Stillman also shows up in Metal Gear Solid 2. He's a black guy, though.
    • Gray Fox/Frank Jaeger from the same series (at least when he isn't covered in metal), although he's more of a biseinen than a bishonen. He does wind up fighting the protagonist on more than one occasion, but calling him an enemy would be inaccurate.
  • Riku, from the Kingdom Hearts series, is a complicated example. While in the first game, he's a Rival Turned Evil, who is subject to More Than Mind Control and is possessed by the Big Bad, he spends the sequels dealing with the consequences, trying to make up for it. By the end of Kingdom Hearts 2, he's undoubtedly a good guy.
  • Trevor Spacey from the Metal Slug 4.
  • Gig from Soul Nomad and The World Eaters. He is evil and silver-haired, but he's neither particularly effeminate nor particularly eerie, and gets his jollies from causing senseless carnage and suffering on a massive scale, while maintaining all the flair and panache of a pro-wrestling Heel. He's also on the good side, if highly reluctantly.
  • Geralt from The Witcher game and series of novels: while not exactly a bishonen, he is lacking in hair pigmentation, due to the mutation which renders his hair white. He is, at worst, an Anti-hero, and most probably as real a hero as possible in his grim, harsh world.
    • The witcher mutations also robbed him of skin pigmentation, making him a Heroic Albino (or as much as someone can be heroic in that hellhole of a world).
  • Cyrus from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. White-haired (albino, in fact), extremely bishy, and willing to risk his life to help the heroes.
    • It may be notable that he gets his white hair by being a clone of Big Bad, Caulder. Caulder himself is too old to be a white haired pretty boy.
  • Oswald the Shadow Knight from Odin Sphere, a tragic but ultimately sympathetic Anti-Hero whose soul has been claimed by the queen of the dead.
  • Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3, who is a Determinator hero with streaks of The Atoner.
  • The Protagonist from Persona 4, who has grey eyes to match.
  • Parodied in Super Punch-Out!! with Heike Kagero. His features are exaggerated to the point where he's actually rather grotesque.
    • There's also Super Macho Man, though the "pretty" part is debatable, due to the fact that he looks like a muscular, tanned George Washington.
  • We're not sure what the hell's going on with Joshua from The World Ends With You, but he's certainly got the "effeminate white-haired kid" style down pat. He's the "Composer" of Shibuya, who has gotten sick of his "divine" role and wants to destroy everything. With Jesus Beams.
    • Until Neku unintentionally changes Joshua's mind with the power of his magnificent ass.
    • Not to mention, he's a completely insufferable smarmy jerkass most of the time.
  • Senel, the main character of Tales of Legendia, has white hair and the looks, but fails at being effeminate or evil—at worst, he's a little grumpy. However, he also has dark skin, which tends to avert White-Haired Pretty Boy Syndrome.
  • Silver from the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game.
  • Sanger Zonvolt of Super Robot Wars is white haired, but he exudes manly qualities and is not a Bishonen. And is pretty heroic at that.
    • Also, Harken Browning, protagonist of the spinoff Mugen no Frontier.
    • As for Villains, Perfectio, Joshua's father de-aged.
  • Max in Albatross18/PangYa. Despite bearing a striking resemblence to Sephiroth and having some outfits that allow him to run around topless with a cross necklace or a tattoo, he's not evil, or even magical to begin with; he's an ordinary tennis player who got into a plane accident—one that incidentally landed him on Pangya Island.
  • Altos Stratos of Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is a parody of the trope.
  • Also parodied by Helter Skelter from No More Heroes, although he's not really in the game.
  • Career Killer Jean Kujo from Virtua Fighter.
  • Genis Sage of Tales of Symphonia is a twelve year old boy who, like his sister, has white hair.
  • Xenogears has a few subversions/inversions. Billy, Sigurd, and Jessie all have silver hair and are undeniably loyal to the heroes. Krelian has many of the other traits of a WHPB, but his hair is closer to golden-brown than silver.
    • Ramsus is the biggest subversion of all. When he appears, he seems to be all but guaranteed to be the Big Bad. Later on, it is revealed that his girlfriend, Miang, is the real Big Bad, and Ramsus is shown to be not important at all.
  • Behind his scary, skull-faced helmet and his intimidating reputation, Urick from Drakengard 2 is not only a good guy, but also cheerful, friendly, and keeps the party's morale high with a steady supply of jokes. He's also considerably less effeminate than most other WHPBs ( if you don't count his implied relationship with Yaha, but even if you do, Yaha's way more effeminate than he is) — but he's still damn good-looking, all the same. Of course, his white hair is a pretty solid example of the "death" symbolism associated with the color, considering a) he's made a pact with a Reaper and b) his pact-price was his mortality.
  • Lee Chaolan in the Tekken series.
  • Purge from Space Channel 5 Part 2. He also has purple eyes.
  • Subverted for the most part in Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, since Vayne is a white-haired pretty boy who is notably shy and clueless. Well, until his powers go crazy and turn the academy into a living hell on earth. It's a complicated example because his Jekyll and Hyde syndrome turns half of him into a Jerkass.
    • However, in the sequel, it's completely played straight by Reicher.
  • Zero of Mega Man X, when he's wearing his Black Armor, had silver hair. He acts like a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but he's a Badass hero.
  • King Dynal from Fossil Fighters is a millenia-old reptillian alien king with flowing white locks and a really long coat, who wants nothing less than to Destroy All Humans! so he can take back "his" planet. Of course, in the end, he decides that he likes humans after all and becomes one of your friends.
  • Touhou Project: Rinnosuke Morichika has escaped this list for a long time. But then, he's not a villain. He's The One Guy.
  • Loue the vampire in A Witch's Tale serves as Liddell's aide for most of the game.
  • Joss from Dawn's Light starts out as the trope played straight, but eventually joins the hero's party and performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • The eponymous Nier from NieR Replicant, who is the quintessential hero and nice guy just out to save his sister (and committing genocide along the way, but that's not the point). Nier in Nier Gestalt is also white-haired, but is, instead, a burly and middle-aged Papa Wolf.
  • A few of the young male characters in Infinite Space has white or silver hair, including the main character, Yuri. However, no matter which side they're on, all of them are actually decent, if not genuinely good, people. Yes, even the seemingly Ax Crazy Teodoro.
  • Angelo from Dragon Quest VIII.
  • Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue, although it is stated he was blond before Rachel turned him half-vampire. He's not necessarily the nicest guy around, but he's not evil either.
  • Chipp Zanuff from Guilty Gear.
  • The protagonist of Suikoden V.
  • The protagonist, Serph, from Digital Devil Saga.
    • The man who he's effectively a reincarnation of, however, is a very straight example.
  • Taigong Wang from Warriors Orochi, who, while arrogant, is ultimately good. He's also very, very pretty.
  • Another Square Enix character: Escher, from the iPod/Phone App Chaos Rings, is a white haired black guy, and is just about the most cruel hearted person in the entire tournament, and, in a different storyline, is an antagonist (mostly). He's selfish, an assassin, borderline evil for the majority of the game, even going so far as to threaten the two youngest competitors that even if they were kids, he'd still kill them — which he does, to his regret.
    • The funny thing is, Escher is almost like a cross between Axel and Cloud, because he's a hired blade (Cloud), has a sarcastic, sinister attitude (Axel), has a very wierd stance (Axel), wields a very long sword with one hand (Cloud, though not original), and has only one person he cares for (both, although Cloud ends up getting more friends, and Axel does likewise).
      • And here's his picture (on the right)
      • And here's more of him in his Jerkass Anti-Hero glory
        • Another interesting version of this is Zhamo, arguable the nicest guy in the game. And he's black. There are no white people with white hair in a Sqaure Enix game. This world is coming to an end.
  • Zareh in Frozen Essence, who, in spite of being one of the leaders of the White Order and hiding his face underneath a black hood for most of the game, is one of the kindest characters in the game who helps Mina as best as he can and values her happiness above everything else (except in his Dark End, where he becomes creepily possessive of Mina).
  • * Yuuichi Komura from Hiiro no Kakera. Not only is he one of the Five-Man Band he is one of the nicer characters in the series.

Web Comics[]

  • Kayndar/Silvah from the webcomic Inverloch. Also, all the male severed elves are this, although none of the others appear long in the comic.
  • Lawrence Spectrum and Nick Claus from Monsterful.
  • Lampshaded in this ADVENTURERS! strip.
  • Both Zero and Skorn from Pink Black have white hair and, from what we've seen, are very pretty. They haven't had much screen time yet, but Zero shows signs of being the The Rival.
  • Eikre from RPG World is initially implied to be the Big Bad in disguise, but he turns out to be a good guy. It's later revealed that he went to a school for evil Bishonen before doing a Heel Face Turn.
  • Lord Sykos from The Wotch. Let's just say that the name fits perfectly.
  • Red Mage from Eight Bit Theater is something of an aversion. Yes, he has white hair (and also happens to like wearing women's clothing), but he's more of a Munchkin than anything.
  • Luka from My Life in Blue. He fits the stereotype perfectly, being white-haired (he says it's due to "psychic trauma"), effeminate, bisexual, and attractive, but he's a nice guy.
  • Artie from Concession is an albino rat with long hair (up until recently, and even now, it's long again). Whether or not he's pretty, however, is up to you.
  • Girl Genius: Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!, laughs at the white-hair-equals-villain dynamics of this thread...even though he is trying to kill off all sparks in Europa.
  • Subverted in the nameless protagonist of HERO. White haired, check. Pretty, arguably. Boy, definitely. But he's about as far from villainous or badass as you can ever possibly get.
  • Jurinjo from Emergency Exit. OK, OK, it's actually grey, and he's a "villain" who's not really evil.
  • Vlad from Chess Piece used to have white hair before he became all demonic-looking and was a bit of a Jerkass. In the comic timeline, however, he's a good king, a(n) (over)protective father, and an overall nice guy. And the Hero of the story. And the author's main tool for Fan Service.
  • Strays, here.

Web Original[]

  • Despite typical regard for standard hair colors shown by Broken Saints, there's still one: Oran's childhood friend Hassan.

Western Animation[]

  • Ren, from The Pirates of Dark Water: he's actually a dark-skinned platinum blond, and is a bit too short and stocky to be a bishie, but he's got the pale hair and pretty face, so he counts. And he's definitely a heroic example.
  • Danny Phantom. Not really bishonen, but that hasn't stopped the fangirls from drawing him as such.
  • Chris Moralès of Code Lyoko is certainly white-haired and pretty, but an entirely sympathetic character.
  • Although a little ambiguous at first, the Magus from Gargoyles is an ultimately heroic example.

Real Life[]

  1. Five Shadow Crystal icons!
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