Lori Harvey, Selena Gomez, and Hailey Bieber do not have magical powers (that we know of), but they do have the power to change the length of their hair with just a few flicks of a styling wand. All three women have what I like to call “The Better Bob.” It’s basically a lob (as in, long bob) that gives the illusion of a bob, depending on how you manipulate the ends. When you’re no longer feeling the bob, you can easily transition back to longer strands with just one swoop of a brush, making it the perfect noncommittal haircut.
Though it’s had a major resurgence, this cut isn’t totally new: In the ‘90s, Naomi Campbell, Julia Roberts, and Jennifer Anniston opted for collarbone-grazing, medium length hair over the short bobs and pixies of the time—often styling their length with bumped ends, tousled curls, or voluminous layers that straddled the line between bob and lob so, well, you couldn’t quite tell which it was.
A modern case in point: Selena Gomez’s Instagram feed. In one post, the singer’s hair is in a flowy lob that grazes her shoulder blades, but in a post just a day later, she has a voluminous bob that sits right at the nape of her neck. Part of me wanted to attribute this beautiful sorcery to extensions, but my beauty editor Spidey sense told me otherwise. There it was: The Better Bob.
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