Aang’s Strange Transformation: How Did He Suddenly Grow Hair?

Last Updated on January 8, 2024 by Chase Reiner

Aang, the protagonist of Avatar: The Last Airbender, is an unusual boy from the Water Tribe with extraordinary powers and a unique destiny. He’s been alive for over 100 years, but he has a young person’s body, thanks to being frozen in ice by Fire Nation soldiers. Some fans speculate that he might be older than Katara and Sokka’s mother, Kya, who disappeared when they were children. But how did Aang go from being bald to having hair? There is no conclusive answer, but we can speculate that when he was frozen in ice for 100 years, there could have been either a chemical or mechanical development that led to the sudden growth of hair.

Aang: The Last Airbender

Aang’s body experiences an extraordinary transformation after he enters the Avatar State to confront his archenemy, Fire Lord Ozai, in Sozin’s Comet episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In this particular episode, Aang’s skills are tested as he battles with Ozai, who nearly succeeds in killing him and taking over the world with his superior firebending powers. In one climactic scene, however, Aang taps into his true power as the Avatar and fires up an enormous amount of cosmic energy. “I ain’t going to fight you,” he says defiantly. “You’re right; I’m just a twelve-year-old kid! But I have something you don’t have.”

As soon as he speaks these words, his entire being begins to glow brightly, and his hair suddenly sprouts all over his head.

Exploring What happened in the first episode of The Legend of Korra

In the first episode of The Legend of Korra, we learn that Korra is the new Avatar and has been kidnapped by a dangerous criminal. We also see some flashbacks to Aang and his friends as they learned earthbending, met General Iroh, and battled together with Jeong Jeong in Ba Sing Se.

Eventually, he fought against Azula, his sister’s replacement as heir to the throne of the Fire Nation, following their father Ozai’s fall. After many intense battles, he could defeat her but not before she managed to fire a lightning bolt at him.

As he was about to die, Katara saved him by pulling water from a nearby oasis into her mouth and then spitting it out on Aang. With that, Aang fell into an eighty-year-long deep sleep while sitting on Appa.

One day the ice holding him prisoner thawed, and he woke up because the noise of Appa licking his face caused him to open his eyes. At this point, the spirit called Wan Shi Tong approached him and told him that he had slept for a long time.

When Aang asked how much time had passed, Wan Shi Tong told him that more than one hundred years had passed since he slept (most of which Avatar Roku ruled over the other nations).

It seemed like everyone he knew was dead, and only a few people remained alive. He soon found that there were four Air Nomads who lived in the air temple and soon joined them there so that he could train himself again.

They tried to teach him something else, but every time they did so, his memories would return to what happened when Azula attacked him and what occurred during those 80 years in which he slept.

Finally, after three months without progress, Aang ran away frustratedly with just enough money for travel expenses.

Theories as to Why Aang Suddenly Grew Hair After Being Bald for 10 Years

Fans of Avatar know that Aang was bald for the entirety of his 10-year journey from when he was a young boy to when he became the last Airbender. The first thing anyone probably noticed about Aang in Legend of Korra is that he has hair.

This is a complete mystery because no one in Korra had hair. It would be totally out of character for someone to suddenly grow it over ten years without noticing or without any explanation whatsoever.

The only two explanations are: they wanted him to look older and more distinguished, or Aang took more time during his 100-year hiatus before meeting up with Tenzin. However, both seem pretty unlikely. Older, wiser, and experienced adults don’t usually get more youthful as they age; instead, they typically become grayer and wrinklier.

Second, even if we accept that Aang spent 100 years away from Republic City meditating on his old home on top of the mountain at Ember Island, it also seems unlikely.

There still isn’t an explanation for why he would need to spend so much time there or why he wouldn’t have just showered off any dirt or sweat before seeing Tenzin again. There’s a lot left unexplained here!

What Really Went on with That Hair?

Aang’s strange transformation wasn’t just a sudden thing. It had been planned by the show’s creators, who intended to make Aangs hair short and black. They didn’t want him to look too much like his predecessor-Korra- a female protagonist with long pink hair.

The show creators wanted to give Aangs story a different feel than that of Kuras; that’s why his hair is grown into the iconic arrow shape we see on Avatar. Apparently, as if that’s not strange enough, the final straw was when, due to pressure from Nickelodeon executives, he needed to keep his hair long for better merchandising opportunities.

This decision backfired tremendously as fans were outraged by this change. And there were even rumors circulating about producers being fired over the matter.

What  It Means for Aang to Grow Hair Suddenly

We all remember Aang from Avatar; he was the reluctant hero with a crew of fighting-happy friends. His hair just inexplicably started growing. What could have caused this phenomenon, and why would it happen to only him when other young men go through the exact change at puberty or due to a medical condition like male pattern baldness? Let us explore some possible explanations.

The most likely explanation for Aang’s sudden transformation is that he used hair growth treatments.

These treatments come in two forms: chemical treatment, which can be either topical (pills) or oral (pills), and mechanical therapy (a process called traction alopecia). The latter involves putting stress on your follicles by pulling them back tightly on your head.

Note: The above theories are unproven but are just speculative.

Summary and Conclusion

Avatar is a popular animated series on Nickelodeon that premiered in 2005. The show follows the story of Aang, who is just twelve years old but chosen as the Avatar and tasked with freeing the four nations from the influence of an omnipresent material called Sozin’s Comet.

When Sozin’s Comet returned, Aang and his friends were imprisoned, except for Katara. The group broke out of prison and decided to face Zuko one last time before running away to safety. After defeating Zuko and sentencing him to walk around in public dressed as a woman (another victory for Sokka), they realized they had to find out what had happened to Aang.

With only moments left until Sozin’s Comet destroyed everything, they found him in the Fire Nation capital city engulfed by flames after he unleashed all his power at once. Toph, paralyzed and unable to move because of her fear of being hurt again, helped save everyone by making it rain right when Aang was about to die. They thought he was dead until Katara saw a faint sign of life coming from inside the Earth Kingdom prince.

References:

http://www.differencebetween.info/difference-between-aspca-and-hsus

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-the-ASPCA-and-the-Humane-Society