If you haven’t seen Thor: The Dark World by now, let me tell you: the hair is fantastic. The costuming department really stepped it up in general, but the hair people must have been given some extra free rein. Most iconic Norse heroes have long hair, male and female. Vikings are known for their flowing hair, including their beards. While there aren’t any serious beards to appraise (sorry, aficionados), the costumers are inching towards the style of the characters’ legendary counterparts.

Recall Thor’s first appearance in, well, Thor: his hair was below his chin, but above his shoulders. Loki’s hair, too, could barely brush his shoulders. In Marvel Avengers Assemble, Thor’s blond locks earned him a Point Break quip from Tony Stark as they made it down to his collarbone. Loki followed suit, though he had been stuck in space where one must assume barbers are scarce.

Now we get to the most recent appearance of the brothers, where we can say with certainty that a pattern has been established. Both Thor and Loki have gone full Whitesnake. Thor’s hair now reaches his pecs and Loki’s bedraggled curls are below his shoulders as well. There haven’t been such glorious manes on male action heroes since the reign of the Van Damme mullet and Seagal ponytail! With the two of them looking to spiffy, it’s hard to argue that this path is a bad one, even with the addition of some manly braids to Thor’s locks.

This trend isn’t just for the two main characters as other denizens of Asgard also got some coiffure upgrades. Rene Russo as Queen Frigga got a hair makeover with some voluminous poofs above her ears as well as a more ginger hue. Even Anthony Hopkins as Odin got in on the action with some little hair twisties along his temples. Of course, even with the dynamic duo setting fangirl hearts a-flutter, the hair that takes the cake in this newest movie is that of the villains.

Dark Elf leader Malekith, his compatriot Algrim, and their army of creepy-masked minions sport snow white braids that crest over the top of their skulls in a combination of classic and fishtail braids. This is surely the most impressive venture in movie hairstyling since Queen Amidala’s procession of ‘dos (and outfits to match) in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Fishtail braids are notoriously difficult to construct so the hair team really went for the gold when they concocted a truly impressive plaitapalooza.

This evolution of Asgardian style might not just be the result of the Thor slice of the Marvel cinematic universe changing hands (from director Kenneth Branagh to Alan Taylor). My theory is that, as the Marvel heroes are in ever-increasing contact with each other, they want to make sure the Thor characters have their own aesthetic so that they can stand out when they traipse across the Bifröst to Earth.

While this romp was a great action movie (We’ll have to agree to disagree there – Ed.) and I thoroughly enjoyed the costuming choices, it will be even more exciting to see where this hair evolution will go. I’m looking forward to The Avengers: Age of Ultron, wherein our favourite Norse gods will have waist length locks, and the following Thor 3, at which point I must assume they’ll Rapunzel themselves out of a tower.

Marie Sumner is a costume consultant, cosplayer, and movie freak from Idaho, USA. She writes with Wholesale Halloween Costumes.