While certain hair trends come and go, there’s one look that will never go out of style: bob haircuts. While the cropped look might be intimidating, it’s a classic for a reason. A chin-length cut is immediately attention-grabbing and puts all the focus on your face, plus it’s just way less hair to deal with.
According to celebrity hairstylist Alex Brown, blunt, chin-length bobs are especially having a moment right now (think “The Shiv”), but there are plenty of variations to choose from depending on your hair type and comfort level. Whether you go with a choppy textured style or a blunt chop, short hair always manages to look both modern and classic—and forever cool. We rounded up some of our favorite celebrity bob haircuts (and a few lobs, if you’re still not quite ready to go chin-length) to screenshot for your hairstylist. Scroll on for all the inspiration you need.
Even if you haven’t been back to school shopping in quite some time, there’s something about the fall that always feels like a fresh start. What better way to channel that feeling than a fresh haircut? After a summer of chlorine, salt water, and sweaty ponytails, your hair deserves a little TLC. Whether you’re looking to make a drastic change (buzz cut anyone?) or add some subtle layers, fall 2019 has brought with it a selection of amazing haircuts. Go retro with the perfect ’70s shag. Or follow the likes of Kim Kardashian and go for sleek blunt bob. Whatever you’re in the market for, we talked to the experts and rounded up the coolest haircuts for all lengths and hair types. Read on for the best haircuts of the fall, and maybe take a risk or two.
Whether you’re scoping out fresh haircut ideas or curious to see the new styles on the rise, you’ve come to the right place. Because while we love the classic lob as much as the next person, we need a little variety—and what better way to get inspired than with the coolest hairstyles from around the US? Starring cool shags in Los Angeles, layered lobs in Seattle, and curly bobs in Atlanta, we bring you the most popular haircuts of 2018 from every corner of the country. Scroll on for all the inspiration you
Here’s a question: have you ever left the salon after a haircut and thought to yourself “why would they do this to me?” If you’ve had at least one haircut in your life the answer is surely an unequivocal ‘yes.’ What I’ve come to realize is that death and taxes are not the only two things you can count on in life. There’s a third, which is you will come upon a hairstylist who will downright ignore your instructions and do whatever the hell they want.
Why is this? Do they think it’s their hair they’re cutting? They have one simple job and it’s to follow the wishes of the person who has to live with the results. The long and short of it is I cannot think of anyone I know who hasn’t been victimized by a hairstylist.
I say all this because a few weeks ago, my hair had grown to a point where it made me slightly uncomfortable. It had been six months since I’d last had it cut and I was starting to look straggly and witch-like. I asked my very chic cousin if she thought I needed a trim and she said “you could?” which to me translated to, “you look like a witch, get it cut.” Upon reflection, I now realize that my hair at the time was not witch-like, but more mermaid-like. It was beautiful and everything I had ever wanted.
PHOTO: Cazzie David
A mermaid.
I went into my haircut appointment confident I wouldn’t be screwed over. My hair was long enough that even if my stylist were to cut a little more than the amount I requested, (I’m not naïve; I assumed they would), it’d remain long. Still, I made sure to make my directions clear: After she washed my hair, led me to the styling chair, and threw the nylon cape around me, I said in my most serious tone and with the gravest of looks, “Give me the smallest trim you have ever given in your entire life.”
Easy, right? No way to misinterpret that? She laughed it off and told me she understood. But just to make absolutely sure, I reemphasized, “No, I’m serious.” Once again, she assured me not to worry. And even though there was no reason for me to really trust her, she said it with such certitude that it made me reluctant to ever mention it again lest I get on her creative nerves.
I couldn’t see what she was doing back there, but after I heard the scissor cut across my hair a mere two times, I knew I was in trouble. Once again I was overcome with that helpless, sinking, out of control feeling that my directions went unheeded and disastrous consequences awaited. It was too late to say anything, but even if it wasn’t, I was too uncomfortable and timid to interject.
So I sat there silently, staring at the ground, watching sentimental pieces of my hair that took months to grow out from the last traumatizing haircut, fall to the ground. Meanwhile, she chatted away like all was right with the world, while mine was falling apart. It’s almost like she was trying to distract me with her talking so I didn’t realize what she was doing.
PHOTO: Cazzie David
This haircut has since been rectified.
When she finished, she spun me around to have a look at her handiwork, I wasn’t the least bit surprised by what I saw. It’s what I deserved for being stupid enough to get my hair cut in the first place. My mermaid locks were gone, dead, a thing of the past. In its place was a near lob with one long strand on each side of the front that she either forgot to cut or sincerely believed could pass as layers. Maybe she wanted me to have two pieces of long hair to remember how good it used to look? Or so I’d have a lasting reminder to never get another haircut for as long as I shall live. I don’t know. I literally could not tell you, but it seems like the mantra of most hairstylists is “What’s this, hair? You don’t need it! I’m going to chop it all off and have you leave here crying.”
A bad haircut has the potential to affect everything: the way you feel about yourself, what you look like in clothes, how others see you, how you look in pictures, how big your nose looks. I felt like I just had surgery and it would take six months for me to be myself again. And of course, like with every other bad haircut, when she asked me what I thought I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. All I could muster was a weak and squeaky, “I love it.” Better to walk around with a hideous haircut than hurt the poor woman’s feelings. Also why even bother? Nothing can be done about it. Other things can be repaired—toilets, cars, teeth, but not hair. You can only wait at a snail’s pace for growth.
In no other profession does someone ignore the wishes of the client like this one. Take lawyers. Lawyers will often disagree with a client but in the end they’re still all, “Okay if that’s what you want.” Even in the case of a doctor, when you’re opting not to get a surgery that could save your life, they’ll still say, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, but it’s your choice!”
Perhaps hairstylists want to make the haircut drastic enough on the off chance that someone notices, likes it, and wants to know who did it. Maybe they think of it as their own personal walking advertisement. And if they gave you the little trim you wanted, no one would notice their “artistry.” Just a theory.
I don’t know what the solution is. Maybe all haircuts could be done in stages to avoid anxiety and trauma. After each inch they could spin you around and ask for a green light to proceed, as opposed to waiting until the very end when you have no choice, and they’ve ruined your life. Or maybe you just have to manipulate them. With lies. Lie your ass off. If you want a bob, say you want your hair to reach your nipple. If you want it to your collarbone, say you just want to cut your split ends. Next time I’m going to treat my hairstylist like that one friend I have who’s late all the time: by telling them the reservation is fifteen minutes earlier than it is. But in this case, I’ll make it an hour.
The messy waves on social media have gotten out of control. At the risk of alienating Pinterest, I’ll explain, because I have my reasons. I needed a haircut recently, and that meant plunging once more into the depths of the internet to do my research, on both a salon to go to and a cut to get (it is tradition; a series of gnarly tween haircuts mean I’m now very, very cautious). And there, I found myself in an abyss. Photo after photo of messy waves surrounded me. As the owner of thick, curly, Jewish hair, I must write this to say to salons, in the immortal words of Ira Madison III: Keep it. Except, don’t just keep it. Change it.
It’s honestly comical. If you search for “curly” salons on Yelp, the salon images that come back could be pulled from Stepford Wives 2: Williamsburg Edition. I’ve lived outside of D.C. and Chicago, and it’s the same thing there. Even if you just browse popular, highly-reviewed Manhattan salons, the photos—sourced from both salons and customers—are almost uniformly waves that are pretty, but very much the same. It’s style blogger hair, a close relative to sitcom hair, and hair salons need to broaden their range.
To preface, I’m a white woman, so as far as the world goes, I don’t experience exclusion nearly as much as others. That’s a fact, and yet the salon industry is still so intensely stratified, browsing page after page of Yelp photos in search of a hair texture like mine takes hours. There’s a certain kind of stylish salon that excels at social media, and they’re usually among the worst offenders. They’ve got natural light, an airy space, and few, if any, shots of natural curls or kinks to speak of.
It’s difficult to say whether they cut textured curls and just don’t post them on social media, but that’s besides the point. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: If I don’t see proof that the person I’m paying knows how to handle my hair, I’m not going to go to them in the first place. In New York—New York!—I can count on one hand the number of salons who specialize in curls, and if you don’t click at one of those usually very expensive places, you’re off the grid and on your own. And even if you do find your dream stylist somewhere else, I’ve learned firsthand that there’s no guarantee they’ll keep you. After getting a great cut from one master stylist and trying to make a return appointment, I was told that person was “no longer cutting curly hair,” and all curly clients were being transferred to other stylists. No reason was given.
Except for how easy straight haircuts must be, I’m not jealous of the waves out there. I’m just annoyed with how pervasive and homogenous these hyper-stylized cuts are on social media. I mean, I get it: They’re pretty to photograph, and they show off highlights and ombre jobs well. And while I’m solidly camp peace luv you do what makes you happy, it feels like our version of the ’50s roller set—the stock image we’ll look back on and say, oof, 2018. Why did everyone look like that?
True, accounts and the aforementioned salons dedicated to curly and kinky hair do exist. Friends and colleagues I’ve talked to have mixed feelings on them, and so do I. On the one hand, it’s nice to have a specific place to go—what I term the Cheers theory, someplace where everyone knows what to do with your hair. But on the other, this “I go here, you go there” mentality just sucks, especially when it leaves women with curly hair and kinks traveling huge distances and paying untold amounts just to get a haircut they like. I know the curly lifestyle well, and for me, cuts can be a huge source of stress (and occasionally trauma, shoutout to the 9th grade). So, a plea for salons on social media: Learn how to cut more than one type of hair, and show it regularly. You’ll get the business.
Where the majority of hairstyle trends we saw this year looked to the future (hair dryers you stick your hair into, colors named after drinks, pastel shades you can create at home), in terms of cuts, the most surprising of-the-moment look is a throwback. We’re talking about shag haircuts. Inspired by iconic styles from the likes of Farah Fawcett and Brigette Bardot, the shag features some iteration of wispy bangs, a center part, and close-cropped layers. It’s a sexy cousin of the bob and the badass neighbor to the lob—which makes sense, since so many of us spent this year growing out lobs and searching for a style to try next.
“Depending on your hair texture, the shag is a versatile cut that can be worn extremely messy or seamlessly straight. It also gives a nice amount of body,” stylist Anh Co Tran explains. Its versatility means we’ve seen the shag on celebrities from January Jones to Kaia Gerber to Mandy Moore this year. Pinterest has even seen a 600 percent increase in searches for ’70s-style curtain bangs—so you can bet the shag is here to stay, at least through 2018. Below, our favorite takes.
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