Let’s Talk about Man Buns: Are They Here to Stay?

man bun

All I’m saying is that I know a portion of you clicked on this thinking that we were going to be talking about men’s bottoms. Their derrieres, their rear-ends; sorry, ladies (and gentlemen). We’re here to talk about the man bun located just a bit further north; the one on the head. Long hair seems to be all the rage right now as far as men are concerned, and it’s a pretty personal choice. For one, men who like themselves with long hair probably don’t care whether or not you and I enjoy them with long hair. I, for one, am not a fan of long hair on a man. I prefer my men to look a bit more elegant and sophisticated, a bit more clean-cut. But that doesn’t mean that the long hair trend on men doesn’t work. There are some men who rock long hair like no one’s business, and I could never imagine those men with short hair – it might seem wrong.

But with the long hair comes something else – the bun. And while we ladies love a bun on a day we are either too lazy to actually style our hair (or worse, too lazy to wash it), there are some of us who don’t love a man bun and some of us who think it’s completely chic. What’s your stance on the man bun? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you care about it at all or are you completely ambivalent to the fact that some men are now putting their hair in buns and calling it a day? At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what you or I think, because the man bun is here to stay. Trust me when I say that this is not a trend that is going anywhere anytime in the near future. Men love their long hair, and they love the styles that it allows them to create. Just don’t expect to see men rocking pink hair bows and clips anytime soon. Well, not that many of them.

So what is it about the man bun that has turned into such a rage? Is it the hot, sticky weather and the desire to do what women do, which is get their hair off their neck in a vain attempt to cool off a bit? Is it a man’s desire to make sure he has some sort of back-up plan when he is working so hard he doesn’t have time to style his hair or even bother with the simple act of washing it? You might be surprised to find out that the proliferation of the man bun has a lot less to do with men and more to do with women.

It’s Sexy

There you go, ladies; the man bun is sexy according to more women than you might think. I’ll readily admit that when I first began researching the man bun and its stylishness and the longevity of the style, I expected to find that women were hoping this trend would make a quick exit out of the building ASAP. But, no. Women love this style and they’re all over it. In fact, when a group of women were asked how they feel about the man bun, the overwhelming response was that they find it quite sexy in a very disheveled manner. And that leads me to point number two as to why the man bun is going nowhere.

It’s Undone

Apparently women like a man who looks like he just rolled out of bed and decided to toss a ponytail in his hair and wrap it up. That is apparently the new sexy. The undone look makes women feel as if they are looking at a man that doesn’t care. They feel as if these men look confident and slightly undone and a little messy, and they like what they see. And now we move onto point number three as it applies to point numbers one and two.

It’s Manly

Here’s where things confuse me even more. A man with long hair in a bun the same as my own is somehow manly. Does this make me look manly? Does this make Gisele and Heidi Klum look manly? Personally, I feel as if the bun is very feminine, but women all over the world have decided it is quite manly. A man with a bun looks like a man’s man. A lumberjack. There is something about hairy men that women really like; it makes them feel as if he is going to be strong and confident, capable and sexy. I get that; after all, we all think that facial hair is pretty manly, so why not long hair, right? Except that there’s all the women with long hair and it really does just make me feel as if the long hair deal is not quite manly – but most everyone else disagrees with that train of thought, it seems.

It’s Hip

There’s something about a man on trend that women cannot get enough of. It works with the skinny jeans, the Justin Bieber-esque bangs, and just about everything in between. For some reason, the past decade has turned men into very feminine creatures that look a bit more like women, and women find it hip and appealing. And when a man is hip, women love it.

Imaginations Run Wild

Finally, we get to the real point as to why man buns are going nowhere. According to women, the man bun elicits a number of very exciting fantasies of the imagination. It makes women imagine scenarios she might not have in another situation. She thinks of cavemen and wild passion and letting loose. I can see how a man with long hair in a bun might seem like a great excuse to rip it out while passions are running wild, and it seems to me that this is the precise reason that women are loving the look. And let’s get something straight; if women think man buns are sexy, they are here to stay. Men aren’t stupid; they know where their bread is buttered.

Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images for NBCUniversal

Comments

Leave a Reply

Loading…

0