Estinien's Hair...please.

[Iscah]

I'm getting tired of many of the new hairstyles being clearly designed to be quite androgynous/feminine and then branded 'unisex'.

I know the same arguments get played out over and over here, but I really do disagree with that statement.

I think it comes down to your perception and/or taste in hairstyles versus Square Enix's character designers.

I also actually got the list of 'unisex' hairstyles from the game - I haven't been around long enough to be aware of how long they've been adding these for, but I judged it off where the male and female Midlander lists start having the same options.



So I'm seeing....

First row:

• short male hairstyle

Second row

• two short hairstyles - Urianger's hair and a variation of it
• the kind-of-triangular middle style that is maybe feminine but not really anything (also it looks terrible from the back.)
• spiky anime guy style - used for M'zet Tia from the Ananta questline
• short swept-back style

Third row

• Aerith's hair - obviously feminine
• another short ragged style that's definitely not masculine but not really feminine either
• long plait and side fringe - a winning design from the hairstyle contest for male characters, though used for characters of both genders
• pompadour - another winner from the male hairstyle contest
• scruffy shoulder-length hair - used for male characters (Aulus; also that blue-haired guy from early in SB and then the Saltery quest)

Fourth row

• neat bun - feminine
• chin-length unisex style
• longish with shaved sides - masculine
• half-tied-back long hair - feminine
• another chin-length unisex style - used for both genders: J'ohlmyn from the Ananta quests, Ugetsu from SAM job quest

Fifth row

• male monk from Stormblood trailer
• male samurai from Stormblood trailer
• spiky ponytail - seems to be another entry from the male hairstyle contest, or something very close to it
• twin buns style - feminine
• Asahi's hair - but yes it's rather "sci fi female"
  
• and finally the hime style, which is feminine (but got used on a male character anyway)

Additionally, other unisex styles to my awareness....

• Ponytail - unisex, used for male characters (Stephanivien from the MCH guild, Sanson from the BRD quests), can't think of any female characters
• Samsonian Locks - looks feminine but again I've only seen it used for two male NPCs, although one was an actor playing female roles, the other being Sari from the 60-70 SMN quests
• Rainmaker style - M'naago's hair, a more feminine version of the spiky ponytail but still might not look out of place on a male character?
• new PvP hairstyle - unisex, used for Araragi from the Doman Enclave plotline
• Gyr Abanian plait - from the female hairstyle contest

SO IN CONCLUSION, maybe there have been more feminine styles lately, but if anything it's balancing out (what I see as) an earlier tendency towards male hairstyles. Also it seems to me that the list of "contest hairstyles that actually got added to the game" skews very much to the male styles, while it's taken years for them to add the highly requested plait.

Edit to add: Additionally, now that we have the plait, it's not even something that's been simply given to everyone (to be used by those that want it), but something that people need to spend a whole lot of time or gil to acquire.