Girl you've gotta just get creative with accessories. I hate buns, because to me they are soo boring. I'm a professional dancer and my early years of buns for ballet class day in and day out have me so through with buns that I almost would rather slit my wrist than to wear a bun off-stage, lol. But I've learned to spice em up over time. Get some pretty flower clips, some skinny elastic headbands, some regular head bands, those head band scarves and regular silk/satin scarves, pins, bejewled head bands, and get to work with creating your own style. I even do double buns (put my hair in two ponytails and bun each one and add a little flower to one side or a jeweled clip), or sometimes I'll wear my hair in pigtails (high enough that my hair doesnt graze my clothing). I like ponytails as opposed to buns all the time but I MAKE SURE I fully moisturize day and night when I do ponytails. buns though can come in many forms, you can even do cute side buns and dress them up with your accessories - or add a little bang, you can even put a small hair pin to the edges of your bang so they swoop on your forehead but the edges arent hanging down and exposed...
I also do messy up do's with clips and sometimes put an elastic headband around it to keep the sides up. I love letting down a little side swoop bang in front from time to time to change it up for my messy up-do's as well.
My fotki has some protective and semi-protective styles in it that I like to rock. It's small at the moment, but it's growing, each time I come up with a new look, I try to photograph it and put it up to share. Take a look and you'll get an idea of what I mean.