Talk:Yang Xiao Long/@comment-26838620-20150901052756/@comment-4010415-20150901065518

It's because Lindsay once said in an interview that Yang's power comes from her hair. It's in the trivia, and there's even a link to the source.

My understanding of it is that she stores excess energy in her hair. If her hair is short, she doesn't have much room to store excess energy she gains through her Semblance, and thus, she has less energy to put into an attack powered by her Semblance. Longer hair means more storage, which means more energy to put into more powerful attacks.

Storing the energy she gains through her Semblance from being hit explains two things

1. Why she's able to use her Semblance-augmented attacks when she hasn't even been hit yet. Example: When she fought those two Ursai in the Emerald Forest. Neither of them landed a hit on her, yet she was still able to use her Semblance on them.

2. Why her hair glows and sets on fire when she activates her Semblance. The end of her hair even becomes semi-transparent, as of volume 2. It's usually a solid color that you can't see through, but when she was standing up after Roman punched her through a pillar in Painting the Town, you could see through the end of her hair.

For the hair transparency, compare these two screenshots. The first is from V2E3. You can't see her arm through her hair. The second is from V2E4 after Roman punched her through the pillar. You can see her belt through her hair.