Basic Trope: Hair in a bun to indicate a Proper Lady.
- Straight: Alice, an uptight, organized teacher, wears her hair in a bun.
- Exaggerated: Alice's manners are overblown and impeccable, and her bun is the size of her head.
- Downplayed: Alice is a bit more uptight than everyone else.
- Justified:
- It's required in the workspace to have your hair out of your face.
- It goes along with Alice's practical, no-nonsense attitude and conservative moral outlook.note
- Inverted: Alice is The Lad-ette, but wears her hair in a bun. Beatrice, who is a prim and proper character, wears her hair down.
- Gender-Inverted: Bob is a classy and dignified man who ties his own hair close to his head.
- Subverted: Alice's hair is in a bun, but she reveals herself to have a wild side.
- Double Subverted: Alice attended only one party and she did not like it one iota.
- Parodied:
- A section of the welcome-to-the-office manual Alice gets upon arriving at her new job is "How to Tie a Bun Correctly."
- Alice is required to wear her hair in a bun ... and go naked. Having her hair in a bun is an act of "propriety" because people wouldn't be able to see her bare skin otherwise.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice's hair is sometimes in a bun and sometimes not.
- Averted: Alice doesn't wear her hair in a bun.
- Enforced: Alice wears her hair in a bun because Diane, who refused to change her hairstyle, was cast in the role.
- Lampshaded: "Nice bun, Alice. Very neat and prim."
- Invoked: After Alice gets a new job as a teacher, she changes her hairstyle to this to look more proper.
- Exploited: Carol, a less competent rival, copies Alice's bun to get more respect.
- Defied: Alice doesn't want to look particularly prim and proper even at her new job, so she keeps her old hairstyle.
- Discussed: "Alice, nice hairstyle! You look like a Proper Lady from one of those movies."
- Conversed: "Hey, new season of that show you like. Did Alice get a new job or something, why's her hair in a bun now? Is it so she can look more proper?"
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