man bun

or man·bun

[ man-buhn ]

noun

1. a man’s hair gathered into a bun at the back or top of the head.

Word History and Origins

Origin of man bun¹

First recorded in 2010–15

Example Sentences

His hair was pulled back into a man bun or ponytail and answered briefly when the judge asked if he understood.

From Los Angeles Times

Well, he was making a mad dash through the tunnel to the locker room, his hair in a man bun, wearing a grin and carrying his shoulder pads and helmet.

From Los Angeles Times

Armed with his trusty, Thor-like hammer named Skullcrusher and sporting a man bun, Harbour straddles the line between jolly ho ho hos and fireman calendar hot.

From Salon

Long before making the man bun his signature look, the fresh-faced Bale is sporting an Inbetweeners quiff as he sits in the back of the car, discussing his future in the game with a croaky adolescent voice which is still some way from breaking.

From BBC

He has a beard and a man bun, and wears a collared shirt unbuttoned to reveal a generous portion of his digital chest.

From New York Times

About This Word

What else does man bun mean?

The man bun is a male hairstyle featuring a top knot of varying lengths. It’s associated with hipsters in the 2010s.

Where does man bun come from?

The man bun comes in many different forms, styled with a full mane of hair or shaved sides, on the crown of the head or further back—it all depends on the needs of the man.

But, as a hairstyle, the man bun goes way back, documented from the Germanic Goths to Japanese samurai, who wore theirs in various fashions that have become stereotyped in everything from Saturday Night Live to Samurai Jack.

Other modern man buns appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Interview with the Vampire (1994). In the late 2000s, soccer superstar David Beckham fixed up a man bun while on the field (and off).

As a term and trend, however, man bun takes off around 2013 when the likes of Jared Leto, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Joakim Noah started sporting them.

Perhaps, as a counter to the slicked-back ‘do that became popular in the 2000s, the man bun spread with trendy hipsters in cities like Brooklyn, Oakland, Portland, and Austin, who often paired their man bun with that 2010s trend, the big beard.

While popular among many dudes, some mocked the look as girly, predictably, but others ribbed the man bun, and its wearer, as bougie and greasy. Some enterprising folks created man bun clip-ons or photoshopped man buns onto important figures.

And then there are those detractors who actually “cut-and-run” men’s hair to “Stop the Knot.”

How is man bun used in real life?

For all its haters, the man bun gets its love on social media, with selfies shared and fan pages maintained, often under the hasthtag “#ManBunMonday.”

Happy #ManBunMonday 💓 pic.twitter.com/DBDyD4wjSp

— bundaddies ✨ (@manbunsftbeards) February 14, 2017

Still, the man bun proves itself an easy target, often used as a trope for the just-so hipster.

This dog has a better man bun than you. pic.twitter.com/1wvMHpq1Ka

— Torre DeRoche (@TorreDeRoche) December 19, 2015

More examples of man bun:

“New ‘Aquaman’ Images Are Chock Full of Patrick Wilson’s Man Bun, More Shirtless Jason Momoa”
—Hoai-Tran Bui, Slash Film (headline), June, 2018       

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.