Braiding the manbun for a trendier long men’s hairstyle

The one cool thing about having long hair is that you can braid it, and you can get quite creative with your braiding. Likewise, you can tie your long mane into all kinds of shapes and styles, which makes having long hair quite a fun experience in itself. Long haired men have been putting their long tresses into buns for centuries, but, recently, a hairstyle trend has radically transformed the heads of urban dudes: the man bun.

What is a man bun?

A man bun is a type of men’s hairstyle that requires the tying of all the hair on the head into a single bun that is placed on the vertex area of the head. That would be the textbook definition of the man bun hairstyle and it looks like this (you can find many more pictures in our long hairstyles guide for men):

The top knot, which is a variant of the man bun, has a smaller bun and also has the sides and back of the head buzzed or very short, with the most popular haircut for the topknot being the undercut (i.e. a top knot undercut hairstyle). Below is a picture of a top knot undercut so as to illustrate how the style “brother” of the man bun looks like and to put this braided man bun hairstyle guide into context:

Now, since all that a man bun requires is grabbing all the hair on your head to put it into a bun, that means that you’re free to have your locks styled in any manner that you want such as in dreadlocks, cornrows or even free-flowing braids. And thus today I’ll be showing you the latest trendy type of man bun hairstyle: the braided man bun!

Before moving on to show you what the braided man bun is, I should say that, when it comes to the definition of what a man bun is, the hair that is to be used on the bun (i.e. the hair on the head to be tied as a bun) is the hair that is long enough on the head to be put into the bun. Ergo, you may only have the hair on the top long enough to be able to tie it into the bun, while the hair on the sides and back of the head is left short in any kind of short tapered haircut, buzz cut or undercut haircut; this is known as a top knot or a man bun undercut and it’s the hairstyle of the second picture above as mentioned earlier.

Spice up your bun with a braided man bun

The man bun as a textbook men’s hairstyle (see my definition above) has been all the rage since 2013 and in 2015 going on to 2016, the man bun still continues to peak as one of the trendiest long hairstyles for men out of the dozens of styles available to us long haired guys. However, the man bun has gotten “too” popular, and, as with all male hairstyles that become too popular, it comes to a point that spin-off hairstyles derive from the main hairstyle trend. In this case and since 2015, the braided man bun has started to launch itself into the mainstream. Here’s how it looks from the top:

Since most guys who grow their hair to get a man bun don’t know much about the rest of long hairstyles for men, it’s only normal that the braided man bun hasn’t become “too” popular as of yet. However, those of us who have worn long hair for many, many years do know how to braid long hair and we have thus worn our man buns with braided hair, which looks impressive when done right. Well, that’s unless you braided your man bun like Harry Styles from One Direction once did:

Thankfully, the braided man bun of Harry Styles was left behind and he has continued to wear regular textbook manbuns, but many of us average Joes have gone on to braid our man buns in all kinds of braided shapes. Some of you may not know this, but, as barbers, one of our duties is to inspire you to think about hairstyles that you hadn’t thought of before so that you can consider a wider range of hairstyles, which ultimately gives you the customer a more-varied repertoire of looks and styles.

Since a picture is worth more than a million words in the hairstyling world, I am posting below some pictures of barbershop customers and the likes who got their man buns and top knots braided. This will give you plenty of inspiration to spin-off your regular bun into something a bit more refreshing and trendier. The braided manbun hairstyle usually has the hair on the top braided into the center of the head and then finishing with the bun on the vertex. However, there are other styles for a man bun with braids, including the use of cornrows to tie the bun, having only one or several braided locks while the rest of the hair remains un-braided or having all of the hair braided and then being tied into a bun (see Harry Styles’ man bun picture above). The type of braided man bun and top knot that is fast-becoming trendy as a manbun spin-off is this:

In the following braided man bun pictures, you will find different styles as noted in the previous paragraph and I’ve also made the effort to post pictures with different angles so that you can better see how the braided man bun looks as well as follow the pattern that it shapes. With this said, enjoy these pictures and feel free to ask any questions that you may have!

P.S. If you’re going to use any of our images from this guide, please link to the guide as credit.