Hi novus femina,
While having no intentions of cutting back my hair, i too admit to being restricted as to how i should wear my hair. While not conforming to the stereotypical male short style i admit to only really styling hair in a few ways.Pony tail,loose or my most common style english style braid which you mentioned. I am not really as qualified as all you beautifully long haired women are,especially those who perhaps make use of more hair accessories incuding the hair sticks which feature on this site. Basically i am restricted by being limited to the styles wearing down and not familiar with the updo styles including buns.
Any way i am sure that plenty of long hairs here can give you a greater variation of styles for wearing both up and down that you would like and maybe give us males a couple of ideas as well.

take care
jon  

ps you have such wonderful red hair. very stunning and the pic showing your "redbun" is beautiful and extremely sophisticated.

Even though I'm probably at 32 or 33 inches(today I had a trim) I find that a top bun works well for me.  My hair is thick and loose corkscrew like curls(when it wants to  )  Hope it helps!

yes,I do.  You part the hair behind each ear and make a pony tail alittle off the crown of your head and either braid it or put it in a bun.  For me it's not so overwhelming to do a bun that way.