Minimum Hair Length for Top Knot Hairstyle with Pictures

posted in: Long Hairstyles | 8

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:

A blond guy with a man bun hairstyle and long hair playing music with his guitar

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:

A young student boy with a topknot undercut haircut during one of his school classes

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.

A young handsome man with a middle part hairstyle before getting his hair in a topknot

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.

The cool topknot undercut hairstyle of the same guy with the previous middle-part hair 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.

8 Responses

  1. Nikhil Patel

    My back is currently faded so it is not that long but my front is 6 inches, what should i do? (i want to get the top knot hairstyle)

    • Put it up in a top knot as much as you can. See if a trim in the proper areas would look good or not. If not then you will have to wait through the growing process.

  2. Michael Probst

    My hair is 6 inches long in the front, but I don’t understand why I still can’t get a top knot. Need some help.

    • Long Hair Guys

      You may need an extra inch or two if you happen to have a large skull. I know from my experience at the barbershop that men with larger-than average heads will require a bit more hair length than just six inches for a topknot hairstyle. Likewise, are you aiming the top knot on the crown (i.e. vertex of the head)? If you’re aiming the top knot lower (i.e. on the back of the head), then you will need a lot more hair length.

  3. The front part of my hair is about 6 or 7 inches long but the hair on the back is about 3-4 inches longer when I pull it all the way back, should I trim the hair on the back so that, when I pull all of my hair back, it’s all the same length? I’m trying to do a top knot but when I do it, there’s so much hair past the part where I tie the bun. Please help!

  4. My hair on the front currently reaches below my eyebrows, how many months will it take me to grow a top knot?

    • Long Hair Guys

      It’ll take you approximately six months to get a top knot from an eyebrow-length of hair.

  5. My hair is much longer than all of the guys in these pictures, past my shoulders and at the back it goes down between my shoulder blades.. and yet when I go to tie it back I still get lots of short thin hair from my fringe puffing all over the place. Is it still just a matter of waiting, or will I need some kind of hair product? Thank you

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