Like pretty much everyone else this summer, I went to see “Avengers: Endgame” in theaters. I can say, without a doubt, that going to a packed theater on opening night was probably the best movie experience I will ever have. It was the only time I have ever felt the urge—no, the need—to clap, cheer or whoop during a film. And it remains the first and only movie to make me shed a tear. However, despite how much I love and adore “Endgame,” there is one scene in particular that really annoys me. No, it’s not the inconsistent time travel rules, lack of Thanos screen time or the deaths and exits of beloved characters [redacted], [redacted] and most importantly [redacted] (sorry no spoilers). No, no, no. The thing that bothers me is much smaller, but really, really stupid.

Around the 25-minute mark, we get a scene of Black Widow holding a virtual conference call with some of the remaining Avengers: Nebula, Rocket Raccoon, War Machine and Captain Marvel. During this call we see that, within the five-year time skip after Thanos, Captain Marvel has gotten a new, much shorter haircut. Rocket cracks a quick joke about the new do, and then it is never mentioned again.

Josh Zucker | Student Life

Now why I am bringing this up? Well, this scene actually serves a purpose—and it’s a really dumb one. Since this is the first thing we see after the time skip, Captain Marvel’s hair is supposed to serve as a visual cue to the audience that “Hey, it’s been five years,” despite having it written out on screen 30 seconds before. They also show that Black Widow’s red roots had begun to show again after having dyed her hair blonde sometime between “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” Her roots are supposed to serve the same visual role as Captain Marvel’s cut, but they make even less sense given that more of the red would have probably come back during this five-year period, unless she continued to dye it, which seems unlikely post-Thanos. I think the Russo brothers were just questioning our collective literary skills.

Nebula, the other female character in the room, doesn’t receive the same follicle treatment as the others because as an android, she doesn’t have hair. However, I would not have been shocked if they had just slapped a wig on her head just because they could. Or why not give Rocket a cool raccoon mohawk. That would have been pretty fun, right?

Anyway, my point is: directors, we get it. Time passes; movies and TV have time jumps sometimes. We don’t need a character’s hair to serve as a visual cue to convey this. Are you aware that haircuts don’t take years to do? The “Endgame” time skip could have been 12 hours and Captain Marvel’s haircut could have made just as much sense. ALSO, the first time we see her in “Endgame”, it has been 25 years since the last time she was on earth in her self-titled movie, but we don’t need a haircut to convey that.

“Endgame” isn’t the only piece of media guilty of doing this. “13 Reasons Why”—bless its problematic, ill-advised heart—has been doing this every season. Each new batch of episodes has had at least one character with a different hairstyle from the current day in the flashbacks, from the character Alex’s multiple different hairstyles in Seasons One and Two to Olivia’s similar long-to-short treatment as Captain Marvel in the second season. Plus, there are even more examples from other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, like Captain America’s beard and Thor’s beard (among other, um, changes).

The ONLY example I can think of where this trope has actually been executed well was at the end of “Breaking Bad,” where Walter White grows out his hair and beard because he’s in self-imposed witness protection exile. And even that was only six months.

My point is, stop. We get it. Everyone knows how time works; if you tell us time has passed, we’ll understand what’s going on. We don’t need hair to do the talking. Please, directors, for my sanity, find a better way to do this. Make a plant grow or something. Do anything else besides give us another power cut or hipster beard.