Want to know how much hair length you need for the topknot?

The top knot hairstyle has taken the world by surprise, I should say. It was first the man bun and now, the topknot. So I’d like to give you folks an idea of the hair length needed for the topknot and for the topknot undercut so that you can get yours now if you happen to have long hair already, or in the future if you’re planning on growing your hair.

Difference between the top knot and the man bun

First things first: the difference between the top knot and the man bun is that the top knot only uses the hair on the top of the head to tie the bun while keeping the sides and back very short, while the man bun uses either all the hair on the top of the head or only the hair on the top.

This is a man bun hairstyle:

Another difference between the man bun and the top know is that the man bun requires a longer hair length, which means that the bun is bigger in the manbun than it is in the topknot. For those of you who may not be aware of what the knot is in a topknot, well, it’s a very small bun which is usually tied very tight.

This is a top knot hairstyle. Notice how much smaller the bun is in the top knot compared to the man bun above:

Minimum hair length for the top knot

The minimum hair length for the top knot is six inches. For the man bun, the minimum hair length is eight to ten inches.

So, what’s six inches of hair length? Well, your hair should reach just below your nose to have six inches of hair length, although the level at which your hair hangs at your face will vary depending on how long your face is. But as a rule of thumb, the minimum hair length to tie a topknot is a length that reaches your nose and below.

To illustrate how your hair would look before tying the topknot and how it looks once you’ve tied your topknot, I will use the two “before and after” pictures below.

Before and After pictures of top knot hairstyle

As you can see in the first picture below, the hair reaches just below the level of the nose, with a little more length to spare, which is great to tie the top knot tight without having to pull too hard. This is the “before” picture of the top knot.

Now, here’s the “after” picture of the top knot. See how the sides and back of the head have been buzzed very short in an undercut, thus making this type of knot a topknot undercut hairstyle. The hair on the front of the head, which you saw in the “before” picture, is long enough to reach the vertex where the knot is tied in the regular topknot style.

If the hair on the front of the head would not be long enough to be able to tie it into the knot, then the aesthetics of the topknot would be limited, which is why so important to achieve at least the minimum hair length of six inches for the topknot. Otherwise, you will be running around with half of your hair on the top of the head dangling and puffing out while the other half of your hair is tightly tied into the knot. Not a cool look to have!

Feel free to ask any questions that you may have about the top knot or about the hair length needed for the top knot.