beauty
Resurrected and pumped up by a collective sense of disillusionment, the box bob is your new superpower. We sent two of the Stylist team to hairdresser George Northwood to embrace their inner rebel
words: cassie steer
PHOTOGRAPHY: LAURENT DARMON
There are haircuts, and then there are haircuts that exhort hardened hitmen to dance the twist in their socks (aka John Travolta in ). Few chops have invoked such attitude or moral outrage as the bob. According to @thehairhistorian Rachael Gibson, when bobs first permeated the mainstream in the 1920s, fathers sued hairdressers, men divorced their wives and women were sacked from their jobs. And, as Uma Thurman proved, cinema wouldn’t be the same without its bob-haired protagonists (see also Natalie Portman in and Faye Dunaway in ). “The bob is the antithesis to the long, flowing hair that has symbolised femininity since time began,” says Gibson. “It’s a structural haircut with hard angles that doesn’t pander to the male gaze.” The fact that we’re hardwired to find long hair a marker of beauty and fertility (as much as podcast. “Post-pandemic, we are beginning to see small steps of progress in the fight for childcare reform, recognition of poor treatment by the systems that claim to serve and protect us, and the demand for equal pay. We’ve got a long way to go, but these cuts show we mean business and our voices are building in strength together.” It’s a movement the OG of the modern bob, George Northwood – famous for Alexa Chung’s tousled chop – is girding stylists in his newly opened east London salon for. “There’s been a shift in women’s emotional attachment to hair since the pandemic,” he reflects. “To me, modern femininity is wearing an oversized coat, boyfriend jeans and a bob rather than a pencil skirt, heels and red lipstick. There’s something a bit ‘zero f**ks’ about a bob and this modern iteration is a sleek style that still feels soft and touchable.” The box bob, aka the anti-hero haircut, represents an external way of taking control. “The world feels like such a mess at the moment, so transforming your image on your own terms feels powerful,” says Gibson. We found two Stylist staffers ready to embrace their inner anti-hero. Here’s how they got on.
