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Disney Princesses: Ranking Their Hairdos — and Don'ts!

Disney Princesses: Ranking Their Hairdos — and Don'ts!

Annie Barrett sizes up beloved animated royals, from unbeweaveable to wet-and-wild

By Annie Barrett

Updated June 17, 2016 at 09:39 PM EDT

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13. Rapunzel, Tangled

Credit: © Disney

Oh my God. MANAGE THIS MESS. Unbeweaveable.

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12. Princess Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Credit: © Disney

Snooze. Wake me up when you lose the dog-cone collar and your hair has a fighting chance of making a statement. Also, turn 6, please. Nice bow.

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11. Princess Tiana, The Princess and the Frog

Credit: © Disney

It took Disney eight billion years to finally give us an African-American princess, and this is her hair? Boooo-riiiiiing. The Cinderella-esque transformation from day to night is remarkable, but not as good as...

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10. Cinderella, Cinderella

Credit: © Disney

...Cinderelly's! The lowly maid's typically rage-inducing bangs somehow develop an almost stately character once the rest of her follicular baggage has been swept into an updo closely resembling a perky butt.

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9. Princess Anna, Frozen

Credit: © Disney

''She wishes,'' redheaded dream queen Princess Ariel might scoff. You just wanted to paint over Anna's chic/annoying platinum blonde streak — a childhood ''gift'' from her sister Elsa — the whole movie (though the streak was symbolic enough that you could let it slide). Excellent hair-as-plot quotient for Frozen all-around, though. Keep reading....

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8. Mulan, Mulan

Credit: © Disney

She just samurai'd it off (in a perfect line!) to achieve ultimate fun-girl-non-fake-man hair. A crucial element of good hair has always been ballsy styles. Get it, girl!

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7. Belle, Beauty and the Beast

Credit: © Disney

Sure, it's plain, but I always admired how the unnecessarily dramatic contours of Belle's non-bangs combine with the shape of her face to create one complete heart. And it never gets singed by Lumière! (We may need to talk about the change of eye color, but that's like a whole different gallery.)

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6. Princess Elsa, Frozen

Credit: © Disney

Elsa metaphorically ''lets her hair down'' as she belts out ''Let It Go'' in the chilly breeze of her private ice palace — yet it's still all braided up — this is as loose as she gets. Who else could make ''platinum grey'' this glamorous? Elsa is totally the Marilla Cuthbert of Disney Princesses, but with a much more geometry-defying coil of free spirit.

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5. Merida, Brave

Credit: Disney/Pixar

The Scottish princess can't be pinned down and neither can her hair! Merida's 1,500 (!) Easter grass curls represent her wild spirit along with the movie's wild digital art budget.

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4. Princess Pocahontas, Pocahontas

This ain't no Tyra-inflicted wind machine. This is REAL WIND. With all the colors! The wind is her brush and her deep conditioner. It's also amazing that she can achieve the perfect blunt cut on her own, with such significant gaps between regular trips to her stylist.

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3. Princess Jasmine, Aladdin

You know you're doing something right when your tiny waist is no match for the tremendous girth of your ponytail. Good eating habits, Jasmine! Her hair's almost sexier when it's all shackled into those two napkin rings. Once let loose, the sheer volume and mass threaten to eat her alive.

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2. Princess Aurora, Sleeping Beauty

This is aspirational hair. Exquisite paintings of the ferocious surf have not come close to approximating the perfect waves of Princess Aurora's hair. Its softness contrasts with the angles of her sleeves, her facial features, her dainty nails ... and is that an erect nipple? Nice. Ugh, it's all just so luscious. Look at that tree! This entire movie is just beautiful.

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1. Princess Ariel, The Little Mermaid

Underwater Ariel wins. No contest. I refuse to factor in the soul-crushing wall of bangs that oppressed her, and viewers, while Ariel tried her luck at landlubbing. No. That never happened. Here she is underwater! And even if this weren't a no-brainer ... the girl combs her hair with a fork. Excuse me. A dinglehopper!

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By Annie Barrett @EWAnnieBarrett

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Disney Princesses: Ranking Their Hairdos — and Don'ts!

1 of 13

13. Rapunzel, Tangled

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12. Princess Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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11. Princess Tiana, The Princess and the Frog

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10. Cinderella, Cinderella

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9. Princess Anna, Frozen

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8. Mulan, Mulan

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7. Belle, Beauty and the Beast

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6. Princess Elsa, Frozen

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5. Merida, Brave

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4. Princess Pocahontas, Pocahontas

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3. Princess Jasmine, Aladdin

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2. Princess Aurora, Sleeping Beauty

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1. Princess Ariel, The Little Mermaid

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