The Bro And The Bun
My brother Josh has always been up for a challenge and his hair is no exception. It is currently the longest it has ever been. I blame California. He moved to Los Angeles three years ago. Hollywood is too permissive. And while he claims it curries almost universal favor on the West Coast, he and I both understood that it would be met with much less enthusiasm at the very fancy wedding to which we were both invited this fall.
As far as I know, Miss Manners has never addressed it. And yet I feel certain she would agree: shaggy manes and tuxedos do not match. Given that, I devised a solution. Josh did not need a haircut or a wig or an oversize chapeau. He needed Jared Leto. Following in the graceful footsteps of that celebrated enigma, Josh would attend the elegant affair in a suit, a tie, and a man bun.
But great man buns are not born of enthusiasm alone. They need reinforcement. Seeking just that, Josh and I head downtown to the flagship Bumble and Bumble salon and meet stylist Mischa Gobie.
Appealing to teenage boys everywhere, Gobie insists that we start with second-day hair: “Nothing too clean!” She dampens it with water and combs it through with her fingers. Wielding a blow dryer and a paddle brush, Gobie coaxes his usual curls into straight submission. When he looks up to find his reflection in the mirror, he is unrecognizable.
“I always thought I’d look like a rocker with straight hair,” he muses. “It turns out I look like a mom from the suburbs.”
But as the appearance of a middle-aged housewife is not the aesthetic ambition of this project, Gobie reaches for texturizing spray from her arsenal of products and gets to work. She spritzes it all over, squeezes an oil-based cream into the palm of her hand, and rakes the combination through with his hair with her fingers. The effect is immediate.
After gathering his (now very glossy!) mane into a ponytail, Gobie grabs one bungee cord to secure it in place and a second to twist it into a bun. She uses hairspray to subdue a few errant strands and fixes the coiffure in place with bobby pins. She then musses up the top and sides: “You don’t want him to look like a ballerina.”
He doesn’t. Instead, he looks older and more European somehow—an accented version of his normal self. The style is perfect and imperfect at once. It is the “undone” do.
As far as Josh is concerned, the ease of maintenance is the best part.
“You can touch it up in the morning with hairspray on your hands to control any rogue flyaways,” Gobie counsels. But really upkeep is even more straightforward: “Beer and party. That’s it.”
To see how to get the look, click through!
Slideshow Photos by Camila Falquez.
