Meet the man behind the bun: Malcolm lets down his hair

If you have ever spent a good amount of time in Tulane’s art studio, stepped foot in Monroe Hall this year, or have just been aware of your classmates at all, you have probably encountered Malcolm. Known affectionately as “Man-bun Malcolm” by his residents, this art student, sailing enthusiast and master of the trendy “man-bun” has gained notoriety as a Monroe Resident Advisor. 

The Tab sat down with Malcolm to get a look into the life of Tulane’s own Renaissance Man.

How do you feel about being called Man-bun Malcolm?

I think it’s funny. It didn’t really have that much of an impact on me.

How do you feel about your current status among the freshman class?

That’s a very broad question. Let’s unpack that a little bit, what?

The girls love you obviously, the guys aren’t your biggest fans.

Um, I don’t know I’ve definitely felt that sometimes, like, it’s a little more apparent from the guys. I’ll be on duty or like walking around and I’ll see them doing stuff they aren’t supposed to be doing, and we all like look at each other and they’re like ‘Don’t ruin my life’ and I’m like ‘I know what you’re doing wrong’ and we’ll see what my mood is like when I get down the hallway. Um, I don’t know, I’ve definitely found that there are some guys who do like me and do look up to me. I’ve found two of them that have told me that I’m their idol, so thats nice!

What about the girls though?

I mean it’s nice to be appreciated.

What inspired the man bun?

This is a fun story. It started the beginning of November last year. I was talking about it with a girl in my German class and I was like ‘I wonder what I’d look like with a man bun’ and she was like ‘do it’ and so I was like well now I have to. So then I did. We went through the awkward head-banding phase for a while, but then I was like screw this and shaved off the sides of it and put it into a weird little thing and that was that.

A lil nub

It wasn’t like super nubby because I hate that. But… yeah.

What are your other favorite hairstyles beside the man bun?

Um this is the only consistent hairstyle that I’ve ever actually done, before that it was kind of brush it to one side in the morning and see what we get to at the end of the day.

You’ve rocked braids before though?

I have rocked braids.

And the ‘all down’?

“Ohh the all down. That’s a bunch, yeah. It’s a lot for people to handle.”

How would you describe your aesthetic?

It depends on the day. It’s either dishevelled college student or standard art student.

What is your favorite thing about Tulane?

I really love the art program here. I think it’s one of the underrated programs we have. I think there’s a lot of really good grad students here that do a lot of teaching and a lot of very good faculty. We do struggle with funding like everyone else does but I do think we do a lot with what we get. I also love most of the people at Tulane. I think we’re definitely one of the happier student bodies. Uh, last year was a little rough for us but this year we’ve done a lot better.

What is your major and why did you decide on this?

I am currently a BA studio art major and I’m applying for a BFA at the end of this semester. I came here as a business student from a performing arts high school where I did a lot of technical theater; I was building sets and I switched from that to business. That was alright, I was kind of feeling out what I was liking to do freshman year. I started off with the core business classes and I threw in a glass blowing class and did an independent study during the second half of freshman year. I ended up realizing that art was what I wanted to do and business wasn’t really. So I made the switch a little more than halfway through second semester freshman year and I’ve been loving it ever since.

It’s known that you don’t drink alcohol. Why don’t you drink?

There’s a lot of answers to that question. The one that I usually use is that I just don’t generally enjoy it and I prefer to know what I’m doing and remember it afterwards.

Why did you decide to become an RA?

I knew that I wanted to do something this year that would generally help out people. The TEMS route didn’t workout so I was like ‘let’s try the RA route.’ I got the job and I was like ‘this’ll be fun’ and it definitely makes it a lot cheaper to go here. Room and board is very expensive as you’ll find pretty much everywhere that isn’t a state school. But, I think the experience has definitely made me a better person.

What is your favorite part of being an RA?

Probably day to day interactions with people. I like people, I’m very friendly… most of the time. I think that I get a lot out of just helping people on a day to day basis.

What is the story behind your tattoo?

It’s the mast and rigging of the boat that I kind of grew up on. It was always somewhere that I would get hoisted up into when something broke, which happened pretty frequently. And I was the smallest one so they’d send me up to fix stuff. And then in high school I did a lot of stage rigging and they use all the same technology because once the sailors ran out of business when they invented steam ships and what not they went to the theaters and all the technology transferred over. So I spent a lot of time doing that in high school and then I found the plans for the boat that we had and wanted it on my arm.

Are you planning on getting any more tattoos?

Yeah I’m thinking about two right now. One is a cardinal that would go somewhere on my chest. That one is for my grandfather; he had a little stained glass cardinal that would live in his window. The other one is an ouroboros, which is a dragon eating its tail or a serpent that surrounds the world eating its tail and it’s an ode to infinity.

Would you rather have more hours in a day or more days in a year?

More hours in a day, there aren’t enough of them.

What is your ideal first date?

Ideal first date.. thats a good question. Um, I’m a big fan of the traditional dinner date.

What kind of music are you into?

Most of it, I think. I’ll literally listen to anything unless it sucks and then I won’t. But that’s song specific not genre specific.

So no crazy EDM preferences?

I had a metal phase back in high school, that was fun. I had my crazy house music phase, I also like country music.

What is your guilty pleasure?

Oooh guilty pleasure. I love comic books.

Favorites?

I’m a big fan of the Marvel universe over the DC universe, it’s a little more nitty and gritty and there’s a little more character development which I like there. Big iron man fan, not really that relatable but he’s still fun.

Craziest thing you’ve seen at Tulane?

Well, I think it was over the weekend somebody pooped in the Mayer elevator and then outside the Mayer elevator so… that was a good one. What else.. last year during Halloween, I think, I was walking to a party and I saw two of my friends on the side of the road trying to help this one girl who was very much out. So I was like ‘alright let’s deal with this for a little while.’ We tried to get her to respond at all and it was very minimal, so we ended up calling TEMS… RIP… and while we were waiting for them I was kind of holding her up and she just peed everywhere.