髻

Everyday compound: 发髻 (hair bun) — the term you will read in novels, fashion writing, and bridal-hair tutorials. Specialised forms include 椎髻 (mallet-shaped bun, the standard Han-Chinese style), 双髻 (twin buns — the classic young-girl hairstyle in period dramas), 高髻 (tall bun, characteristic of Tang court ladies). In premodern China both women and men wore 髻 — men adopted a topknot at the coming-of-age ceremony, and an unbound head was a sign of mourning or chaos.

Hairstyles in Chinese fiction signal status and life-stage. Two girlish 双髻 buns = unmarried young woman or servant girl. A single coiled 髻 on top = adult / married. Loose unbound hair on an adult = grief, illness, or extreme intimacy. The bun is not just decoration — it is a social uniform.