The man bun and comb-over are big already, and Google predicts they'll only get bigger. Those are among conclusions from Google's analysis of millions of searches on hair amid a growing universe of YouTube video tutorials on hair styles and products.
While the man bun and the comb over are the two top hair style trends identified by Google, the latter has been more of a slow build since 2011, while the former has burst upon the collective consciousness far more rapidly in 2015. While Jared Leto may have been the first celebrity associated with the man bun, Harry Styles is now "owning the look," according to Google.
In many minds Donald Trump, a 2015 search phenomenon in his own right, owns the comb-over. But that's really not what this men's hair trend is about, according to Marc Speichert, the Google managing director-global partner who as former L'Oreal chief marketing officer was on the receiving end of such analytics for years until he made the move to Google in 2013.
The comb-over interest comes from far younger men with fully intact follicles, with top celebrities associated in "comb over" searches include Christiano Rinaldo, David Beckham and Justin Timberlake.
While the man bun is growing faster, the comb-over beats it 10.3 million to 4.1 million in terms of YouTube views of the top five tutorial videos on each. Google also finds search activity on man buns remarkably spread out nationwide, while "comb over" searches are concentrated on the coasts -- especially California -- suggesting it has more room to move inland.