Akira Toriyama on Saiyan Hairstyles - Lost Article Translated

[DerekPadula]

‘Nappa isn’t bald,’ says Akira Toriyama! Read my exclusive translation of an article that talks about the origin of Saiyan hairstyles:

https://thedaoofdragonball.com/blog/dra ... isnt-bald/

Toriyama also talks about how Saiyan hair grows, and on gender equality in Saiyan society.

How do you feel about these revelations?

[ZeroNeonix]

I always took Vegeta's comment about Saiyan hair never growing to mean that it grows to maximum length and then stops. So essentially, they don't need hair cuts. But I dunno. Interesting to get confirmation that Nappa was hairless by choice and not because he was bald. I also find it funny that Toriyama claims that there are no gender roles in Saiyan culture, yet he never designed any female Saiyan warriors until Toei approached him with the female Broly idea. Before then, we just had Goku's mom, who was the cook and the one watching over the children.

[Grimlock]

Right, so the fact that Nappa isn't bald isn't technically new. Toriyama said in one of the Daizenshuu that "he went bald", though the reason for that is a new tidbit. My computer is still broken so I won't be able to provide the links (submitting posts from mobile is a pain but oh well...).

I'm a bit confused, you mention Bardock TV Special and Nappa's design from it and for some reason you say "it is (likely) not canonical", even though a few paragraphs below there's stuff from Dragon Ball Super Broly, where Nappa appears with the exact same design.
Well, first things first, the "canon" word shouldn't even be there, as this concept does not exist in Dragon Ball so far (we know full well that neither Toriyama nor Shueisha stated what's canonical and what's not). And you know it, because you yourself made a great post on Twitter about it where you specifically said the same thing.

Did you take some time to write that blog and you forgot to edit that part or you finished it not long after starting it?

Just curiosity, do we know if bearded Goku and Vegeta that appeared in Dragon Ball Super actually comes from Toriyama? From the looks of it, if I have to guess, that brief scene is Toei's little addition, given the context and how the scene played out.

[DerekPadula]

Thanks for the constructive criticism. I edited those sections and updated the article. First, about the fan theory that 'hair stops growing after a certain point.' Second, to remove the word canonical and mention Nappa's hair in the flashback in Broly.

I don't know if anybody aside from Toriyama and the anime staff writers know who is responsible for the Goku and Vegeta beard scene. Sure wish I had been in the writer's room for that discussion, haha.

[Yasai9001]

Could it also be reasonable to believe that a Saiyans' facial hair and all grow relatively slower on a biological standpoint because it could potentially get in the way of survival? Survival based off the fact that being a war-like race, fighting has been their culture since they were made; just a thought.

[DerekPadula]

That's something to think about.

I suppose hair could get in the way during battle, or be pulled on, or matted down with blood after a fight. But then Raditz and Super Saiyan 3 come to mind. Perhaps Raditz was an outlier, and of course, Super Saiyan in general is an anomaly thought ot be legend, as we know.

[linkdude20002001]

I feel like maybe Toriyama's use of the word "bald" might be a case of it being a translation from Japanese to Spanish to English, and how the word can have different connotations in each language. Like, I think in Japanese, there's a "bald (from balding)" and "bald (from shaving)", so Toriyama's saying "No, he's not bald (from balding).".

[Grimlock]

I think he lost his hair naturally. Or at least that's what I understood from the context.

Toriyama is specifically talking about natural change, and proceeds to say he "went bald", so it'd be as in "from balding".

[Kaboom]

Maybe it's both. Maybe Nappa was already going bald and decided to just cut his losses and shave the rest of it?