2017 Best Long Hairstyles for Men Guide

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The Real Deal: Trendiest Men’s Long Hairstyles for 2017

Seeing how LongHairGuys.net has now become the biggest long-hair website for men, I take it as my responsibility to keep y’all updated on the new trendiest hairstyles that are on the pipeline for 2017.

After all, being both a long-haired guy myself and a barber at the same time does allow me to take good peeks at the hairstyle trends that welcome every new year. I was there when the middle-parted hairstyle was the must-have hairstyle for dudes in the early 1990s and I was also just as there to document on my website the evolution of the man bun hairstyle in the mid-2010s. You only need to quickly browse my many long-hairstyle guides to truly see the many “interesting” hairstyles that I’ve come to know and master over the years and which I’ve used on myself and on my customers for decades. I’m a proud-to-be long-hair geek and it really shows on my website as you skim through the numerous guides, including my epically-gargantuan long hair products guide, that I’ve published here since the site’s inception.

A barbershop photograph of a male hipster with his long hair trimmed as a man bun undercut and braided into one of the trendiest styles of 2017 which is known as the manbraid hairstyle

You see, I’m not here to regurgitate some article on some hairstyles that you’ve already seen for many years anyway and then stamp a 2017-label on it. No sir, that is not how we do things here: I’m going to bring you the truly-trendy hairstyles that have yet to pick up and which I’ve been tracking all over 2016 along with the dozens and dozens of other long men’s hairstyles currently possible.

Following from the above, I’m basically going to give you the long hairstyles that are still, as of this moment, in their obscure stage of popularity but which will soon become some of the trendiest styles around in 2017 and, in no time, will too be worn by every Joe and Jack in the United States and abroad. So, if you’re into being an “early adopter” or even a “trend innovator” (as per the marketing lingo), then you’re in the best place possible for your yearly long-hair goals and for getting ready to jump on the best long hairstyles of 2017.

A diagram depicting the life cycle of mens hairstyle trends as they become increasingly popular

Below, you’ll find the trendiest long men’s hairstyles for 2017 that I’ll be covering in this guide; you may click on any given hairstyle to go directly to it:

Now that I’ve listed all hairstyles that I’ll be going through, let’s get down to business!

Manbraid hairstyle

The manbraid hairstyle, also known as “manbraids” or “man braids”, was a 2016 trend that died a fast inexplicable death by summer of the same year. However, the trend picked up again in November 2016 and, now, in January 2017, we’re seeing the manbraid hairstyle with a lot more frequency than even when the trend started in early 2016.

A barbershop photograph of a black male with his long blonde hair braided into a manbraid hairstyle and trimmed with a fade haircut while his hairline has been shaped up

Manbraids are easy to do so long as you have long hair and at least 8 inches of hair length. Visit my manbraid hairstyle guide to get yourself acquainted with the hairstyle itself.

Low manbun hairstyle

The man bun hairstyle has been in decline since mid-2016 and such decline is to be blamed directly on the hairstyle’s own popularity: to put it bluntly, everyone and their dog wore manbuns for much of 2014 and 2015, so, by 2016, the man bun hairstyle was no longer news and the hipster community (who popularized the manbun hairstyle) switched to other manbun spin-off hairstyles like the manbraid hairstyle, the manbun undercut hairstyle and the low manbun hairstyle. Heck, if even hipsters have gotten to a present point in which they’re relentlessly undoing their man buns, then you can rest assured that this hairstyle is totally dead as far as mainstream attention goes.

The low manbun hairstyle is nothing but a slight variation (i.e. a spin-off hairstyle) of a textbook manbun hairstyle. The low manbun hairstyle has the bun placed way down on the back of the head, instead of the vertex position (i.e. crown area of the head) of a textbook manbun hairstyle. The lower placement of the bun is the only innovation that the low manbun brings about, but the aesthetics of the hairstyle do change subtly enough to entice ex-manbun lovers to try it.

A photograph of a long-haired guy sporting a new trendy version of the man bun hairstyle for 2017 known as the low manbun

Shoulder-length side part hairstyle

I will tell you, right now in this very moment, that the shoulder-length side part hairstyle will be big news in 2017. Also known as a long side-parted hairstyle, this particular style for long-haired guys offers the convenience of loosely-styled hair paired with the aesthetics of casual side-parted hair. It’s a win-win scenario for dudes with long hair and, with the huge pool of long-haired guys created over the previous two years, this hairstyle is bound to become uber-trendy in 2017 as those with long hair either chop their manes short or look for alternative hairstyles yielding convenience and good looks. And the latter is where the long side-parted hairstyle shines.

A photograph of a good-looking blonde male with his long wavy hair styled as a side part with a shoulder-length haircut

Slicked back undershave hairstyle

The slick-back undercut hairstyle was at its popularity peak in 2013 and then sunk into oblivion by 2014 as fashion-conscious males grew their tresses long to sport the trendy (at the time) man bun hairstyle. In 2015, however, the slicked back undercut hairstyle gained back some of its former popularity as a transition-type hairstyle: guys were slicking their hair back while waiting for their manes to grow long enough for a man bun.

By 2016 and once their hair was long enough to wear manbuns and topknots, some dudes happened to continue to use the slicked-back undercut as an alternative hairstyle to use when they didn’t feel like tying their hair into a bun. As boring as a slicked-back undercut is, the somewhat-crazy idea of shaving the sides and back of their slick-back undercuts started to gain some momentum in the summer of 2016, especially among those folks who thrive on head-turning hairstyles. Ergo, the undershave haircut was born and it instantly morphed into the slicked-back undershave hairstyle.

An epic barbershop photograph of a young American male sporting a slicked back undercut hairstyle for his hair that has been shaved into what is known as an undershave hairstyle

The slicked back undershave hairstyle for long hair is easy to do on your own, although it takes some more time compared to a regular undercut haircut. The main difference between an undercut and an undershave is that the latter has the sides and back of the head shaved instead of buzzed as a regular undercut haircut requires.

To shave your slicked back undershave hairstyle, all that you’ll be needing is shaving cream and at least three safety razors. Hair longer than half an inch in length is very difficult (if not impossible) to shave, so you should ideally be already sporting a number-one clipped undercut on the sides and back of the head. A number-two clipper length is the limit length for shaving your hair, so if the hair on the sides and back of your head is longer than half an inch in length, then you should first get yourself an undercut haircut with a number-one or a number-two clipper length before proceeding to give yourself an undershave.

On the topic of hair-clipper lengths to prepare for an undershave, try to avoid a zero clipper length (i.e. a #0) as such a clipper length may cause some irritation on your scalp which will, in turn, make the shaving of your undershave a very-uncomfortable ordeal!

Long EMO hairstyle

Up until two months ago, the EMO hairstyle with long hair was relegated to goths, EMO dudes and possibly-satanic guys. This is no longer the case and the long-haired EMO style for men will pick up in 2017 as a significant amount of current shoulder-length-hair guys decide to grow their hair to chest length or to waist length.

A photograph of a handsome goth male with long hair and an EMO hairstyle with straightened locks

Curtained middle-part hairstyle

At some point in your life, you ought to have heard about how fashion trends are cyclical in nature, and, indeed, they are. Almost 25 years later, the curtained middle-parted hairstyle is back to being trendy, but the trend is very slowly picking up and, if you style your long hair in a curtained middle part as of January 2017, you will be far ahead of the pack for when this hairstyle trend explodes in late 2017. You’ve been warned, so do consider the curtained middle-parted hairstyle as part of your arsenal of 2017 long hairstyles if you’re aiming to wear a novel long-haired style for this year and beyond.

A photograph of a white guy with a trendy curtained hairstyle combed as a middle part for his long mane

Temple fade haircut with long hair

Oh, the temple fade haircut with long hair. Here at LongHairGuys.net I’ve been the first to report this new 2017 trend of mixing a manbun with a temple fade haircut. This haircut trend for long hair is taking off big time as of early 2017 and it’s going to be a huge thing in 2017, especially among black men with long hair. We’re even seeing plenty of long-haired boys coming to our barbershop to get a temple fade haircut for their long manes; that should tell you how much of a big thing this is starting to be.

This is how a long-hair temple fade haircut looks like with a dreadlocks hairstyle:

A photograph of an African American male with long hair sported as dreadlocks combined with a temple fade haircut across his hairline

A temple fade haircut, also known as a “temp fade”, can be done on all types of long hairstyles; you’ve only got to bear in mind that a temple fade selectively buzzes the scalp’s hairline across the front, sides and back of the head, so most of one’s long hair is untouched (i.e. not buzzed in a temple fade haircut). However, if you’re interested in this type of long-haired temp fade, then think twice about going forward with this haircut as you will be leaving a patch of buzzed hair strands across your hairline, which may end up not being of your liking; the obvious problem is that you cannot undo a temple fade haircut, so you’re stuck with it until the faded hair grows back to your long-hair length, which could take you 2 to 6 years of your time. Caveat emptor, my long-haired visitor.

One last thing, by having a temple fade haircut with your long hair, you will be reducing your risk of being afflicted with traction alopecia as the hair across the forehead’s hairline (and especially the hair on the temples) is the most prone to being ripped out (i.e. traction alopecia); precisely, the hair that’s inherently prone to traction alopecia is the one faded in a temp-fade haircut.

Long cornrows hairstyle

While cornrows have continuously remained mildly popular for the last 30 years, it’s now, in 2017, that its long-haired version is popping up in the radar and climbing steady across the popularity ladder. As with the newfound popularity of temple fade haircuts for manbuns, we’re seeing a noticeable increase in popularity of the long cornrows hairstyle in pre-teen boys and teenager boys alike. Likewise, the long cornrows hairstyle is beginning to be adopted by white American folks, Asian-American folks and American kids of all races, which is usually a good gauge to spot a hairstyle’s increased popularity as the cornrows hairstyle has only really been a hair-styling staple for African-American folks since the 1980s.

A photograph of a cute mixed-race boy with long hair that has been braided into a cornrows hairstyle and which dangles over his shoulders

If you’re going to jump on the long-cornrows trend, then be extra careful with how to braid your hair as you can induce some very-nasty traction alopecia on your mane from braiding your long tresses too tightly. Two telltale symptoms of self-induced traction alopecia are a very-itchy scalp and a chronic burning sensation on your forehead’s hairline and temples. If you continue to get any of these two symptoms for more than two months from the time you got your hair braided, then I strongly recommend that you un-braid your long cornrows and opt for another long men’s hairstyle that is to become trendy in 2017.

Blue long hair

Coloring long hair with blue undertones was a mildly-popular trend in late 2015 but, by mid-2106, the trend had died away leaving no clues as to why it lost its popularity. Fast forward to 6 months from mid-2016 and the blue long-hair trend is, at present, showing signs of being revived in cosmopolitan cities like New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Berlin. I’ve got fellow barber colleagues in all these cities and they have confirmed to me that they too are seeing this trend developing at its early stage again.

A photograph of a New York hipster dude with his long hair in a side part hairstyle and colored blue as per the new 2017 hairstyle trend

Coloring your hair with a blue dye is easy as it is, but I do recommend that you get your long mane colored by a professional hairstylist in a hair salon. The best place to color your hair is a hair salon that has a strong female client base. As opposed to most American males, a high proportion of American females do color their hair frequently at local hair salons in all kinds of colorful styles; thus, any local hairstylist with solid experience in coloring women’s hair will do an outstanding job in coloring your long hair blue.

A note to yourself: any extra hair length that occurs once you’ve colored your hair blue will be in your natural hair color, so you will have to frequently re-color your hair if you want to keep all of your long tresses colored blue. I personally think that blue highlights look much better than having all of one’s hair colored blue, though. But, alas, male-hairstyle trends need not make sense.

Big curly hair style

Those of you with long curls or wanting to grow a long curly mane will probably be asking yourself something along the lines of why I’ve yet to talk about a trend for long curly men’s hair. Fear not, my curly-haired friend, for there is indeed a long curly-hair trend for all of you: the big curly-hair style!

At my barbershop, I’ve been noticing an increase in curly guys with constantly-growing manes since the year 2013. I’m not the only one to have noticed this trend, and fellow barbers in different American cities have too noticed the same. The main reason for this has been the availability of an excellent book called “The Men’s Hair Book” that was written and published in 2013 by Rogelio Samson, the internet’s authority on curly hair. This book massively opened up the hair-styling possibilities for curly guys so much that all kinds of long curly hairstyles for men have appeared on the scene as more and more curly-haired dudes have been growing their curls long. As of early 2017, the newest hairstyle trend for curly men that is beginning to pick up is the big curly-hair style.

A photograph of a black French male with long kinky curly hair tousled into a fashionable big hairstyle by using a blow dryer and a hairstyling cream

This big curly-hair trend is about having big hair, full stop. You simply grow your curls all across the scalp to a single length between 8 and 15 inches of hair length. Then, you use a suitable curly hair product such as a hair-styling mousse product or a hair-styling cream to tousle your curls with your fingers while also using a hair dryer to blow your hair up and out as you keep tousling your locks. The overall result is akin to a lion’s mane and it is one hairstyle that will hit hair-styling news in 2017 and 2018.

A big curly-hair style is similar to an afro hairstyle or a jewfro hairstyle, only that a big curly-hair style places an emphasis on having tousled shaggy curls whereas an afro or a jewfro are evened-out curly hairstyles. By all means, you can absolutely go from an afro or jewfro to a big curly-hair style as they’re all compatible hairstyles.

Trendiest 2017 long men’s hairstyles summarized

It’s a fact when I say that a high percentage of long-haired guys want to sport the latest hairstyle trends and even those trends that have yet to become big. You may be one of said trend-seeking long-haired guys, and you have my support in your quest to sport hip and trendsetting long men’s hairstyles. The above 10 long hairstyles in this guide are at their embryonic stage as of today, but, as the year 2017 advances, we will be seeing all these long hairstyles becoming big in one way or another as they’re adopted en masse. It is thus that I now leave it up to you to pursue (or not) these avant-garde styles for your long tresses.

So, do you have any favorite long hairstyles for 2017? Are you perhaps planning to wear any of these trendy hairstyles in this guide? Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite 2017 men’s hairstyle for long hair and do also feel free to ask any questions that I may be able to help you with!

P.S. See my Long Hair FAQ guide for my answers as a professional barber to the most-common questions pertaining long men’s hair. You’ll be surprised with the things that you will get to know about your own long hair by reading my Frequently-Asked-Questions guide!

Guide last updated: 4th January 2017

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