Man Buns Are Good and Decent

Public repulsion toward the "man bun" is not new. News outlets first began reporting on the sensational topknot in early 2012. On January 25 of that historic year, the New York Times published an article entitled Spare a Hair Band? A Man Bun to Go, in which they announced that the bun hairstyle had become a new trend for men. "In certain arty neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Bushwick, some men are twisting their long hair into a form more famously worn by librarians, schoolmarms, and Katharine Hepburn," the paper of record reported.

Though the man bun discourse is only five years old, the hairstyle itself is far from new. It dates back "thousands of years," according to E-J Scott, a fashion historian and curator at the London College of Fashion. One example is the "bronze sculptures of the Harappan site of Daimabad in the third millennium BC," Scott says, clearly knowing far more about this subject than I, or you foolish people. Scott affirmed that the so-called man-bun, or long hair on men, "has been an important symbol of status, masculinity, and religious piety throughout Asia for nearly 1000 years." As early as 1300, he noted, Māori warriors in New Zealand would wear them; the style was called a tikitiki, and they "groomed it with natural plant products." During the Joseon dynasty (1392 – 1897), he continued, "Korean men wore a sangtu… and the Japanese Samurai warrior shaved their heads leaving just a topknot they called the chonmage during the Edo period (1603 – 1868)."

"We should think about styles like the 'man-bun' as complex symbols of international harmony and understanding amongst men," he said, thought-provokingly.

Today, the man bun is weighted with hyper-specific connotations about a certain breed of masculinity: Guys were first indicted for the bun because the style was associated with the traditional dress of "hipsters," a community of people who were once known to wear tight pants, flannels, and live in gentrified neighborhoods within large cities. The man bun is typically maligned because it is seen as yet another fad for men with beards and fixed gear bicycles who spend lots of money at bespoke coffee bars.

For Myles, a young man living in Brooklyn, the criticism is both tired and irrelevant. "I'm not "trying to be a 'hipster'," he said, explaining that he has had long hair since he was a teenager. "Plus, I'm from Vermont, so I always have worn flannel shirts; the hipster connotation is borderline abusive and annoying because I enjoy my long hair and flannel shirt." Myles feels strongly that long hair is "actually easier to maintain than short hair," because the latter requires styling and "long hair can just be thrown up."

When asked what drew them to the highly controversial hairstyle, other men who choose to wear buns have similarly simple answers. "I'm a man. I have hair," said Timothy, an older fellow. "Sometimes I wear it in a bun. Pretty frequently, in fact. It's actually the quickest way to put it up if I want my hair to be out of the way." Another young man, David, feels an attachment to his hair as expression of his identity—which is pretty much how everyone with hair feels. "I especially love the labor of caring for long hair," David told me.

Neither of them seemed to be intellectually burdened by the symbolism inherent in the hairstyle, but both were aware that others are: Since David's hair has now grown well past shoulder length, he says, he's experienced "an elevated level of verbal harassment from men."

"This past Sunday a group of drunk men in my neighborhood in Brooklyn were yelling at me for the span of almost half a block as I was walking," he said. David can only recall one positive instance when a man interacted with his hair. It occurred within a drug store: A young man approached David to tell him that he thought his hair was beautiful, and that he wanted to learn how to grow the same. David kindly "directed him toward some supplements."

According to many of the man bun–wearers I spoke with, this bizarre scrutiny of their hair isn't just about hating hipsters. It's also about discomfort with a seemingly atypical display of masculinity. "Society has a problem with feminine attributes on men," Timothy argued. "We are uncomfortable if men seem like women."

"I would personally never choose to gender my bun," said David. "I am really not interested in policing anything anyone does with their body."

It's not surprising that something as simple as a hairstyle evokes such dramatic and fraught reactions, according to Scott. "We rarely think of the man bun having a complex cultural history when we admire men wearing it as a symbol of fashionability today," Scott said. "When Western men use styles from the past and other cultures knowing where they came from, what they mean, and why, we gain a deeper understanding of the way fashion reflects not only our own identities, but also the rich and diverse world we live in."