Get the chop
How the bob became the haircut of the moment
WE MAY only be three months into 2015 but I’m going to say it: this is the year of the bob. The evidence is impossible to miss — take a look at the heads of Kim, Sienna, Rosie, Cheryl, Alexa and a host of other mononymous celebrities and then cast your gaze further on to London’s streets where sliced-off hairstyles are now commonplace — bobs are everywhere.
The infatuation began innocently enough, specifically with one (Beyoncé) or two ( Jennifer Lawrence) red-carpet regulars debuting newly chopped hairstyles. Since then, the bob has picked up serious momentum.
Is this boom for bobs a signifier that
‘We have seen a huge resurgence in shorter cuts but a bob means many things to many women’
our economy is finally on the up? Undoubtedly. After all, if hemlines can react to share prices so too can hair length. But the real issue here is should we all be opting for the chop?
As someone who recently went from waist-length to shoulder-skimming, I say hell, yeah — of course, I’m definitely biased. But do snip carefully because — as is evident by the range of styles on offer from Jessica Alba’s blunt choppy choice to Cheryl FernandezVersini’s voluminous retro crop — one bob does not suit all. George Northwood, long-term stylist of Alexa Chung and best friend of “bobettes” everywhere, confirms this: “We have seen a huge resurgence in women embracing shorter cuts. The most popular is the bob but a bob means many things to many women.”
Keen to capitalise on the hair style revival that he has spearheaded, Northwood is to open a specialist bob bar within his Wells Street salon. Opening next week, The Bob Bar in association with Redken is designed to make your first chop a painless one with a simple menu of four easy-tomaintain styles.
Among them is a short, choppy Evie-from-The-House-of-Eliott-meetsJennifer-Lawrence style, the signature Alexa Chung-esque chop (aka, the most requested in the salon), a blunt modern-day Margot Tenenbaum look or the longer, textured bob Northwood trialled on Rosie Huntington-Whiteley last month.
Of course, choosing your chop isn’t as straight-forward as selecting a style in a blow-dry bar. “We didn’t just want to create a menu of looks,” says Northwood, “but a menu of bob inspirations to aid the cutting consultation and act as a guide for women to discuss the type of looks, lengths and textures they want for their own bespoke bob.”
To help with your decision a Pinspiration board littered with a host of bob icons — from Natalie Portman in Leon to Marc Jacobs’s latest campaign — will be available for your perusal. The salon will also house a wig to match each bob style so you can try before you buy.
As for striking the perfect bobmatch? It all comes down to personality, says Northwood. The messy, tousled style of bobs are good for relaxed, low-maintenance types while Margot Tenenbaum’s chop, with its straight clipped ends, would suit the woman who books her hair appointment six weeks in advance. Huntington-Whiteley’s bob — the chameleon of the four — is ideal for commitment-phobes who don’t want to go the whole hog.