I first had a bob when I was 14, can’t remember why except had my shoulder length hair hacked off into a Louise Brooks style bob. I liked it as I had seen many silent movies where the women had that specific hair cut (from Joan Crawford to Clara Bow). I also had the urge to smoke Gauloises, for some unknown reason, especially as I didn’t smoke! I felt cool and sophisticated sitting in my ‘O’ level art class painting still life, talking politics and thinking about my burgeoning feminism.
Unfortunately, my hairstyle stuck out as it wasn’t trendy at the time to have a bob and the other girls in my class (and in the whole school) used to back comb their hair to accomplish a Siouxsie Banshees look or spiky bleached. My bobbed hairstyle stood out, like a sore thumb. Well, I was always kind of odd in an anti-social way but even I capitulated. My bob grew out and I went back to an unremarkable shoulder length hairstyle pulled back into a ponytail. I wish I had stuck with the bob a bit more cos, hey, I may have started a trend in my school…
So it fascinated me to find out the ‘bob’ is 100 years old. First invented by one Parisian hairdresser Antoine de Paris who based it on that well known migraine suffering martyr, Joan of Arc. And it caused a stir in the States during 1920s.
‘A bobbed woman is a disgraced woman.’
Apparently, husbands divorced their wives when they came home with the bobbed look. A symbol of liberation, transgression and defiance. And there is something chic and sexy about the bob personified by the glorious Louise Brooks. Later developed by Twiggy and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. It has a timeless appeal and never goes out of fashion.
I went through many hair styles (well, mainly short and spiky) until my early 30s when my hair got long and had it shaped into a bob. And this time I have stuck with it and not capitulated. It’s also easy to maintain, chic, stylish, sexy and so simple. And dammit, I still adore Louise Brooks…
Viva la bob…..
