Can YOU Resist The Man Bun?

From Jared Leto, Harry Styles and Leonardo DiCaprio, to the Vikings and Game of Thrones, and now to my local barista and even that architecture student who keeps catching me awkwardly stare across the library at what appears to be yet another, infamous man bun. What is with this trend? And why do I feel jealous? Like seriously, how come I can’t get my hair to look that good?

The trend has travelled the world over, with multiple Buzzfeed articles having now been written in praise of the hairstyle, as well as Google Trends declaring 2015 the year of the man bun, having surpassed women’s hair beauty searches by 6%.

Despite efforts of a young South African comedy duo to start a #stoptheknot campaign, a recent article in the Huffington Post has reported on the popular Man Buns of Disneyland Instagram account pointing to how ‘man buns are taking over the planet.’ From this, it seems there’s just no telling how far this trend will go — Easter #manbuninspo anyone?

In varying contexts and cultures around the world, hair serves as a signifier for many different reasons. However in Western culture, as Will Hayum points out, hair serves as a powerful component of the socially constructed gendered identity.

Or in other words, when I look in the mirror and see my long dangling locks I know I am a female, just as how short hair in much of our culture is symbolic of masculinity.

But what is male and female? Why does it matter? I’m a girl and you’re a boy, right?

Well yes and no.

In today’s society, we are classified by our ‘sex’, which refers to the biological differences between male and female genitalia. However, as many people take on different sexualities, identities and lifestyles, the term gender is a more representative term; being that it is a culturally constructed concept referring a person’s certain behaviours, roles, expectations and activities in society.

As today’s fashions are widening and becoming more androgynous, clothing, specifically, hair, is coming to serve as the only signifier of difference representing femininity and masculinity.

An article by The Guardian provides a well-articulated definition of the man bun, emphasising that a “man-bun occupies that erotic space between androgynous and hyper masculine, simultaneously feminine in its length and masculine in its devil-may-care updo.”

It is a reappropriation of the hard semi-androgyny of the graceful ballerina or even sternful librarian, in that the bun is still implicitly feminine; however it is the man bun that is masculine. A man bun is more than the bun itself — it’s part of a broader lifestyle statement.

However, this hairstyle is not new and can be traced back through centuries of years.

Since the middle ages, the distinction between short and long hair has become a marker for status, ethnicity, gender, age and sex.

Japanese Mythology writes that Japanese samurai’s wore their hair in a top-knot, called a ‘chonmage’, as it helped to keep a samurai’s helmet on his head. This became emblematic of their status in society, and has also been adopted by sumo wrestlers in more recent times.

In his article, Will Hayum points to the up rise of hippies in the 1960’s, which was a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of the mainstream. Among them, men took it upon themselves to grow their hair long as a way of resisting to the mainstream expectations of male hair.

From this perspective, the man bun comes to symbolise a form of resistance as it challenges the mainstream ideals of gender. And while it appears to be primarily heterosexual men who participate in this trend, many self-identify themselves as hipsters — rejecting culturally ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers in favour of independent thinking, progressive politics, and vintage or thrift shop inspired fashions (otherwise known as American Apparel and Urban Outfitters — key word: inspired).

Hippie? Hipster? Why’s everyone got to be so hip?

Well it seems to be that men who participate in this hairstyle trend use their masculine influence to resist the expectations of conforming to traditional gender norms. And by appropriating and transforming the traditionally effeminate hair bun, men are uncovering the nature of gender binaries, in that ideas of masculinity and femininity are not inevitable.

Who would have thought hair and gender would be the hippest trend on the block?

Can YOU resist the man bun?