As someone who writes about celebrity beauty looks every day, I tend to identify (and quite frankly, get bored of) trends quicker than the average person. And lately, I’ve been unable to escape images of celebrities wearing slicked-back buns and ponytails that are so tight, they’re skin-hoisting.

Of course, the concept of the slickback itself is nothing new. They’ve been a staple of Black and brown hair communities, where the look originates, for decades—but now that the style has been adopted by white celebrities, influencers, and mainstream culture at large, it’s started to take on a new purpose and connotation, sometimes drastically changing the appearance of those who wear them. Brows and eye corners are redirected to an entirely different angle. Crow’s feet are smoothed with the winch of a hair elastic.

It’s a phenomenon I’ve decided to call the “bleph bun” because these hairstyles have a snatching effect not unlike that of a blepharoplasty, also known as an eyelid lift. You could also argue that they have a similar effect to a facelift or brow lift.

These extreme iterations of slicked-back buns and ponytails have become the norm for red carpet updos in recent months, thanks to celebrities like Ariana Grande, Anne Hathaway, Lindsay Lohan, Selena Gomez, and Hailey Bieber—not nearly an exhaustive list. Grande is almost never seen without a borderline-severe updo, Hathaway experimented with an extra-tight look at both New York Fashion Week and the Met Gala this spring, and the other three have regularly been opting for intensely sleek pulled-back styles in the past few weeks.

Ariana Grande at the 2025 BAFTAs.Photo: Getty Images

These stars have more in common than just setting and/or following this trend; they’ve also been the subject of wide speculation about plastic surgery on social media. Lohan’s noticeable glow-up has stirred lots of conjecture that she’s been surgically “renovated.” Plastic surgeons have publicly shared their analyses of Grande’s face. Same goes for Hathaway, who was given the infamous “new face” label online after one of those appearances I just mentioned. (Though Grande and Lohan have discussed their injectables and other non-invasive treatments in the past, none of these people have publicly admitted to getting any invasive facial plastic surgery.)

And while each of the celebrities I mentioned is well under the average age range for facelifts—the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that the majority of facelift patients in 2022 were between 55 and 69—surgeons told Allure in 2024 that they’ve observed a slow but steady rise in facial rejuvenation procedures among 30- and 40-somethings. It’s easy to see, then, why we as onlookers might cast aside critical thinking and make the swift jump from, “Wow, that’s a really tight bun,” to, “Wow, she got really good work done.”

Social media speculations about celebrity plastic surgery don’t quite sit right with me, but I’d be lying if I said these face-lifting hairstyles didn’t inspire internal questions of my own—at the very least, about why they choose to wear their hair in such a visibly uncomfortable way. It seems to me that some celebrities are doing everything in their power to look as young as possible before they’ve even started looking old, to the point that they wind up looking less babyfaced and more…pulled. It dares me to ponder if the pain they’re willing to go through for beauty is the surgical kind or simply from forcing their hair follicles to hang on for dear life.

Anne Hathaway at the 2025 Met Gala.Photo: Getty Images

I admit, my ribbing of those wearing bleph buns comes from a place of genial envy. I’m pushing 50, and that’s quite apparent to me in the mirror, not to mention I have never been able to do any hairstyle on myself that would be considered remotely sleek or polished. Facial plastic surgery and flawless buns are quite simply out of my budget and skill set, and I wish that weren’t the case.

So while I’m a little bored of seeing this look on almost every red carpet, I’m definitely not opposed to it, whether the wearer is sporting it to get a little lift or just because they really, really, really want to keep their hair off their face.

More celebrity hair moments we’re talking about:

• Kourtney Kardashian’s New Bangs Are Ready for “Witchy Season”
• Tracee Ellis Ross Is Serving Business Rapunzel With This Ponytail
• Emma Stone’s Bixie Makes Me Want to Cut Off All My Hair

Now watch Allure Best of Beauty cover star Selena Gomez answers calls from her fans:

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