For the various Ghostbusters Cartoon series. Real Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters and more!
#4950579
Seriously, what exactly is going on with Egon's hair? I've heard people call it a rattail, but it's far too voluminous for that. Judging from these particular screenshots (below), it looks more like a proper mullet he's rocking. Like a blonde version of Tom Bailey from the Thompson Twins. But most of the time it's queued back like a ponytail. In Extreme Ghostbusters, Egon is clearly rocking a ponytail, but in The Real Ghostbusters, he has no such hair tie to keep it in place. It's like his hair is being held back by psychokinetic energy, or copious amounts of ectoplasmic hair gel. How else can we explain his gravity defying hairdo? :sigh:

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#4950585
Depictions will vary, and that's clearly not the best animated episode we've seen of the show (though not the worst).

On top, I'd speculate he's got a pompadour. The lower-half, in its most consistent depiction as thinner than the images above, I believe would be accurately described as a rattail.
#4950589
Kingpin wrote: June 12th, 2021, 5:27 pm Depictions will vary, and that's clearly not the best animated episode we've seen of the show (though not the worst).

On top, I'd speculate he's got a pompadour. The lower-half, in its most consistent depiction as thinner than the images above, I believe would be accurately described as a rattail.
Respectfully, I would still maintain that his tail is far too thick and voluminous to suggest a rattail, which is generally rooted in a very small section of hair at the bottom-center of the nape, where the occipital bone is located. In most depictions of Egon, the short section of his hair appears to end much higher, at the crown of the skull, as you can see from the fringe, and everything below that appears to be of uniform length (more or less).

I submit that his hair most resembles some species of mullet, namely the "slicked back mullet" (#7) seen here.

It's entirely possible that he simply uses a massive quantity of hair product to keep it tamed back. Indeed, I would not be surprised if Egon has his own special laboratory tested hair product with Goodness knows what's in it. (We know from Beneath These Streets that he has a deep knowledge of gel/grease.) Or maybe he borrows hair product from Janine and/or Peter, since they also have such juicy pompadours. Another possibility is that he does have a ponytail (even though he lacks the indentation that normally results from one), and he uses one of those blonde-colored hair ties to camouflage it.

Whatever the case, I love his hair. It's very new wave. I just wish I knew the science behind it!

Fritz wrote: June 12th, 2021, 6:08 pm And if you really want to, you can always explain some of the variance in-universe as being caused by how long it's been since it's been cut and styled. Just because Janine's the only one who changes her hairstyle completely every season doesn't mean everybody else's hair is completely static. :lol:
Excellent point. It's remarkable that his hair is even as consistent as it is, given how preoccupied he is with other matters. Of course, at some point he must've said, "Screw it," and let his freak flag grow to the length it is in Extreme Ghostbusters.
#4950592
Whilst I agree that traditional rattails are usually thinner, I wouldn't use its thickness in a cartoon as the ultimate yard-stick to qualify or disqualify because they're not going to draw it so it's realistically depicted, they're going to draw it in a way that's easier for them to render, and easier to see on-screen (that's largely the same reason you don't see lots of wires hanging off of Ecto-1 and the Proton Packs like are visible on the actual props, and even why the XGBs didn't have a ghost in their no-ghost logo patches half the time). It may look like a slicked-back mullet in the example of that episode (is that The Hole in the Wall Gang?), but as I noted earlier, Egon's haircut is not depicted typically in that episode as it is throughout the majority of the show:

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Here's Egon's hair style as depicted in some of the earliest series model sheets, his "tail" starts roughly around the nape.

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Even googling rattails shows where they're located can vary quite considerably on the back of the head, from anywhere between the nape and the crown.
#4950602
Kingpin wrote: June 13th, 2021, 5:10 am Whilst I agree that traditional rattails are usually thinner, I wouldn't use its thickness in a cartoon as the ultimate yard-stick to qualify or disqualify because they're not going to draw it so it's realistically depicted, they're going to draw it in a way that's easier for them to render, and easier to see on-screen (that's largely the same reason you don't see lots of wires hanging off of Ecto-1 and the Proton Packs like are visible on the actual props, and even why the XGBs didn't have a ghost in their no-ghost logo patches half the time). It may look like a slicked-back mullet in the example of that episode (is that The Hole in the Wall Gang?), but as I noted earlier, Egon's haircut is not depicted typically in that episode as it is throughout the majority of the show:
Very good, it is The Hole in the Wall Gang. And it's true, that is not how his hair is normally depicted. You could argue that it's simply an animation mistake in a show riddled with animation mistakes, but for what it's worth, that's not the only scene in the episode where his hair looks like that. It seems to fluctuate between these two states:

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It's as if he has to slick his hair back whenever it gets too out of place. My hair type (although brown) is very similar to Egon's, so I know the constant battle of trying to make it sit right. Perhaps Egon was just having a really bad hair day during that episode.

Kingpin wrote: June 13th, 2021, 5:10 am Here's Egon's hair style as depicted in some of the earliest series model sheets, his "tail" starts roughly around the nape.

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I confess, it does look more rattail-like in those particular sketches. The confusing thing is that even in those sketches, there remains the demarcation line of fringe around the crown of the head, suggesting that everything below it constitutes a separate section of uniform length hair. In the third sketch, there is linework around the nape, but it looks less like a separate section of hair, and more like a crease within the same section of hair. Possibly suggesting a hair tie. It looks like the tail's roots extend up to the crown on top, and to the ears on the side. It seems to follow the hair pattern here. It looks like a slicked back mullet. Like David Bowie here, but without the hair tie:

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Or, if the linework in the third sketch does constitute a separate section of hair, then the resulting section still reaches up to the crown, which would technically make it the "extreme mullet" catalogued here. Still, if the roots of the tail were confined to the center of the nape like that, then I would expect to see flanking it fringe of the sort depicted at the crown and temples of Egon's hair. Instead, there is always a smooth line from his ears to his tail.

Granted, this is something of a continuum issue -- a difference of degree, not of kind -- because mullets and rattails are broadly the same thing: longer sections of hair in the back. You could say that a mullet is just a bushy rattail, and a rattail is just a skinny mullet. Perhaps Egon's hairdo falls somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, between a classic mullet and a classic rattail, and we could call it either one. At least with how it is usually depicted. In The Hole in the Wall Gang, it looks like a definite full-on mullet, but as Fritz suggested, Egon could've been overdue for a haircut, and having a bad hair day.

One thing is for sure, Egon's hair is weird and unique. Not just his mullet and/or rattail, but his spiral pompadour, too. His whole hairdo seems to defy the laws of nature.
#4950604
Definitely. A man who is willing to perform trepanation on himself is surely willing to push his hair to the limits. He may even use straight up glue, like punks use on mohawks and hair spikes.
#4950664
Winston1986 wrote: June 14th, 2021, 12:14 pm I always thought his hair looked weird in the cartoon. It's funny since his hair looks normal in the movies.
Ironically, I think Egon's hair in The Real Ghostbusters is more faithful to the original 1984 script, where Egon is described as, "a real egghead, a New Wave Mr. Spock, who single-handedly got Venkman through graduate school." I think there's much more of that New Wave aesthetic in the cartoon Egon's hairdo.

pmcbryde wrote: June 15th, 2021, 6:02 pm Paris Hilton
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Spengler wore it better. :sigh:
Kingpin liked this
#4951238
ghoulishfright wrote: June 16th, 2021, 9:49 am
Winston1986 wrote: June 14th, 2021, 12:14 pm I always thought his hair looked weird in the cartoon. It's funny since his hair looks normal in the movies.
Ironically, I think Egon's hair in The Real Ghostbusters is more faithful to the original 1984 script, where Egon is described as, "a real egghead, a New Wave Mr. Spock, who single-handedly got Venkman through graduate school." I think there's much more of that New Wave aesthetic in the cartoon Egon's hairdo.

pmcbryde wrote: June 15th, 2021, 6:02 pm Paris Hilton
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Spengler wore it better. :sigh:
I have heard of that plotpoint of Egon getting Peter through grad school but am glad they left it out of the movie. It makes Venkman a less compelling character.
#4951649
There was an 80s band member that had very similar hair style, I think it came from over in Europe somewhere. I'll have to find a picture but I KNOW I've seen it in real life from the 80s. Maybe it was a German punk style?
ghoulishfright liked this
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