#tldr: it's her vain streak showing

[noxianwilled]

Please tell me more about Kat's hair, I love her little Rapunzel vanity project

send me a topic to write a meta about my muse on

— @necroarchy

THANKS FOR GIVING ME AN EXCUSE

so. i think katarina always had long hair, though not really to the extreme she keeps it nowadays. as a child, it was probably around shoulder length, and likely kept that way as her parents' decision, as is usually the case with children (and would be all more likely for one who's nobility).

i see her as an unruly child around mostly everyone who wasn't her dad, and i think with what we know from canon (trained from early childhood, climbing and stealing poison and running around with knives even when her dad wasn't around), it'd easily get messy. i think when she was younger, she'd have kept it bound - not only because it's more practical, but i always liked to think as a way to emulate her father, too, as I used to imagine him also wearing his hair long. (canon now sort of contradicts it with marcus' appearance, but i can still go with saying it was different when he was younger. anyway.)

her hair was one of those things about herself she'd have loved because it was like her father's. and we all know how her relationship with her dad turned out, but I think this is also one of the first things about herself that had been deeply associated with marcus that she manages to make her own. because, alongside her scar, it's pretty much her trademark.

the sinister blade is easily recognizable by her vivid red hair. and while marcus always followed the principle of more traditional rogues, to remain unseen and stick to the shadows, that's not how katarina operates. she can do stealth missions, she can do assassinations without letting anyone identify her (she did that when killing the king of one of runeterra's most well defended cities), but the truth is she likes challenge and recognition. she never indulges in it at the expense of the empire, but she certainly does if it suits the mission.

so. her vanity shows in that, too - in taking pride in recognition, in wanting to be recognized. and this may seem like a long detour but it's connected to why i think she keeps her hair that long. it's a recognizable feature, but it's also something that demands skill for her to fight with hair that long and keep it loose and it never getting in her way or being successfully used against her. in many ways, it's showing off - she is an exhibitionist like that.

and when it comes to the simpler reasons, I think initially, as a teenager, it'd have been a bit of rebellion for the sake of it, a desire to go against what would have been enforced. I think that's a big part of why she doesn't wear it bound (and would particularly not do anything remotely similar to what her parents may have wanted or preferred), but also why she let it grow to such a dramatic length, despite her line of work.

ultimately there's also the beauty part of it. it's not the only thing about her appearance she takes care of, but it's the one she's more careful with. she likes the long hair. it makes her feel beautiful. she likes taking care of it. it's not important, not really, but for once she gets to indulge in something that's for her purely because she wants it. let it not be said she learned nothing from her mother - she knows presentation has its importance, and that good looks can go a long way on many situations.

so. I think there are several things behind why she wears her hair like that, but honestly it's not that complicated. it's vanity. she's a show off. she knows people recognize her by her hair, she knows the proof of skill that it is not letting it get in the way, and also it's beautiful and she likes being beautiful.

#» character study — ⌜fear is as powerful a weapon as any dagger.⌟ #» out of character — ⌜main sup irl.⌟ #tldr: it's her vain streak showing #thanks for this it gave me an excuse to ramble a lot #akjsdnkajsndkfn