Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Monday Mini: A Brief History of the Bob

Transcript

Monday Mini: A Brief History of the Bob · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Stephane
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: ever told your production of iHeart Radio. So, Samantha, have
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you ever gotten what you would call a trendy haircut?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: And follow up question, have you ever gotten a really
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: bad haircut? So? Yeah, I I would say I definitely
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: got a trendy haircut. My trendy haircut would have been
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: recent ones where I get it pretty short to the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: point they have to shave a little bit of the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: back of my neck and it does the whole like
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: one sided type of little bit of a syth metric,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: not completely type of style. I really love the hair too,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: so that's going to be what I go back to.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: But again, yeah, so I feel like it's trendy quote
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: unquote because I'm trying desperately not to be a forty
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: year old Asian mom. Look uh huh, which can get
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: really a simple and easy when you get the Connie Chung.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: That's what I call it. I would disrespect the Connie Chung.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: But from like the late eighties early nineties, hair to
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: beautiful woman, wonderful, married a really bad person whatever. Outside
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of that, her hair to me signified Asian moms, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I tried to stay far away from that. Okay, but
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the really bad haircut, I would say my historical bad
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: haircut was because I was in the orphanage coming into
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the US so much. Life solution was give a bowl cut.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So I really made my mother very sad because in
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the pictures I had very, very very long hair, and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I came into the US with a bob. Not even
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a bob. It was a literal bowl cut. Like it
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: definitely because my hair is also really think at the top,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: so he even bushed out a little more, so that
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: was even better. And my mother, because gender was very
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: important to her, made sure I were wearing I was
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: wearing was in such signify that I am, yes, a female,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: even with a bowl cut. So that was it. That's
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: probably the worst haircut I've ever gotten. Yeah, well, that's
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: interesting you say that. Well actually returned to that point
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: in a bit. I I definitely tried to get haircuts
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that were trendy that I had no business kidding. So
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I was really into friends when I was in elementary
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: middle school. He did the feather I did. I tried
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to get to Rachel did not look anything like it.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I tried to get when Monica Courtney Cox had pretty
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: much a bob. I tried to do that, and my
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: hair is really thick, and I think the person who
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: cut it and this is like no shade at all,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: but I think that she wasn't used to dealing with
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: really thick hair like mine. But mine also poofed out
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: and it looked quite funny. I think that's the worst
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: haircut I've ever had. Fifth grade, bad year to have
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that head cut too. Yeah, and that's before you know
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: I had like a right ner or anything to do
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: something with it, and most of the time we were
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: so young, we didn't know what to do with it
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: right exactly. So it did feel like because I didn't
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: want to upset the person who cut my hairs feelings,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: but I remember being like, don't cry. I don't cry.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: My whole ruined. You paid the money, so it's kind
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: of like, oh, why am I sparing your feelings my
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: bad haircut only a couple of months of Mockerrea. Yes,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I think that was like I have good friends who
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: will just go to and not nothing wrong with the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: cheaper haircuts, but generally just like it's cheaper or whatever,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: not realizing a lot of times hair is not as
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: easy as you think. I think that many people have
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: learned as they've tried to do the home haircuts, and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: they'd be like, it grows out. But there's been a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: couple of situations where they would say that that would
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: be like are you sure, and they'll like, okay, I'm
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: gonna fix it. Are you sure? Are you? Are you sure?
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm the same way is. I don't feel
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: like my hair is hard to do, but it is
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: very straight and though it's thick, it's still fine. So
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: you can see any mess up right, any off kilter
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: like one, you know, snag, you can see it. So
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I definitely have a little concerns like what at least
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: need you to be you know, straight, properly straight, whatever.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: And I know many of friends who have very curly hair.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: It is a nightmare trying to find a specialism. And
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: we also know, especially like black women who's trying to
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: get their hair done. It's a whole level and conversation.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think it's there's a lot you have
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: to do about haircuts. Why did you have to consider
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: there are there are and and yeah, I also went
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: through a really big Mary Kate and Ashley phase or
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: whatever haircut they had. That's the haircut I wanted. And
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: eventually I'm glad I reached the point. Well what people
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: would tell me like, you can't pull that off. I'm
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: sorry your hair is it right for it? But it
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: could do all these other amazing things but not that.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: But I had one that was like, yeah, the big
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: flipping out like layered flip the outlook, and it wasn't
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: good here. I believe I had that hair to too,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and I liked it for the most part, except once again,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: it it aged me more than I wanted it to. Yeah,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: so we we're talking about one of the trendiest haircuts
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of all time for this, and the reason we're talking
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: about it is, Yes, like the day I had my
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: two weeks out from vaccine fully vaccinated, I went and
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: got my hair cut and I was donating it and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I needed ten inches and she was like, there's really
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: only one hair you can do and it's pretty much
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: a bob And everyone came over and they were all
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: like pointing at the hair like what are you gonna
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: do about this? And what are you gonna do about this?
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And I was just like, oh gosh, please, because I've
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: never had it this short before and they did. I
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: asked about that. Have you seen a lot of people
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: coming in with their self haircuts? And she said, yes,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of disasters we've had to try to direct.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: But I do like it. I do keep like feeling
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: at it and I'm trying to put it up and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yeah, there's no no hair back there anymore.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: But it's so fun to wash. It tries so quickly. Yeah.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I did like having long hair as well, but this
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: is a nice I feel like, I'm pretty sure you've
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: at least used, on two separate occasion the excuse of
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: washing your hair as to not being able to do
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: something previously before this new happen. Of course, that's a
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: legit excuse. At it's like a whole thing. People would
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: laugh at me. Excited would be like I have to
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: take my long shower today and they'd be like what
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: does that mean, and like, well, it's ten minutes in
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the shower, but then it's like hours like wa hair.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: But yes, for this Monday, Manny, we thought we would
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: do a really quick brief history of the Bob haircut.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I think way back in tween thirteen, the host christ
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and Caroline did it an episode on short hair women
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: with short hair, because there are a bunch of stereotype
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: that come along with that historically that are still around,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: maybe not as strong, but still around, right, So if
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: you want to hear more about that, you can check
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it out. And yes, long hair has long been associated
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: with fertility, youth, and femininity. In May of nineteen f
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Scott Fitzgerald published a short story called Bernice Bob's Her
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Hair in This Saturday Evening Post. It told the tale Bernice,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: who was sort of this hapless and gullible person and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: how her cousin convinced her to chop off all of
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: her hair and the fallout was just enormous. She's uninvited
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: from events, she shunned by men, and worried about bringing
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: scandal to her family or her haircut. Right. So, while
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the bob is primarily associated with the flapper look of
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the twenties, one of the most famous examples made headlines
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifteen when trend setter and dancer Irene Castle
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: cut her hair short so it would be easier to
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: deal with. The look was called the Castle bob. Nice. However,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: in the early days, if a woman wanted to get
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: this look, hairdressers at salons might refuse to give it
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to them. To be fair, Sometimes they still will because
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: it was seen as controversial and scandalous. Not necessary because
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: it was scandalous. People will refuse it because they're just
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: scared that you're making a mistake. Because I know they
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: also talked about the whole boyfriend ex boyfriend, you know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: drama stuff and cutting your hair, and I know I've
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: seen stylus saying no, just wait to sleep on it,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: or they may not know how to do it because
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: it was so new, or have the proper tools, so
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: women might go to barber's instead. Again, women still do this,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and for the most part barber's complied. That's what I
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: had considered until we were talking about it. Just now
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: how odd it might be to have a haircut named
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: after you and you just got there like hope that
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: it was a good haircut. So did we do we
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: talk about the wise called the Bob. Yes, hair dressers
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: realized that they had better get on board or they
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: were just going to get left behind, and so they
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: got on board. It turned out to be a financially
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: wise decision. Newspapers even wrote about it. The Washington Post
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: published a piece called Economics of Bobbing in detailing the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: monetary impact of this hairstyle, reporting that from four the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: number of hair dressing shops in the US arose from
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: five thousand to twenty one thousand. And this didn't take
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: into account barbershops, right, And I can imagine the upkeep
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: because when you have short hair, you have to go
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: more often. That's true if you want to upkeep is costly.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: It was so popular and so widespread in the twenties
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that was pretty much the standard for the Sears mail
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: ordered catalog. Oh those Seers catalogs, and several variations developed,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the Marcel, the finger wave, which I've desperately wanted to try,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: but I can't do it with my hair, the shingle bob,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and the eaten crop, and accessories like bobby pins were
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: created the style these haircuts, and there were still concerns,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: including something called the shingle headache, describing as a type
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of neuralgia caused by the abrupt removal of hair exposing
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the system of back of their necks. Yeah, so I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: didn't know that about bobby pins, but that's where the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: name comes from. And going back to what you were
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: saying earlier Samantha about your mom putting you know, the
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: bows and all these kind of gender indicators in your hair.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Some of these were like the head band and then
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: we get the bobby pins that that was kind of
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the same idea, right, And yes, the name for Bob
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: comes from a seventeenth century word meaning short hair. So
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: pretty okay, okay, that's pretty straightforward. Yeah, the Castle Bob
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I highly recommend. There's a really great infographic of all
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the types of these haircuts and what they looked like.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And yes, I think the like shingle one is being
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: oh dangerous, is gonna give you pain. And then it's
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: just interesting because a lot of the historians where I
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: was reading these articles and they would wrap it up
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: with something like there's never been a haircut quite like
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: this winter. It's so it's pretty rare that this was
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: such a trend and it was so different than what
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: had been before. And uh yeah, just like jump start
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the hairstyling industry and to have all these accessories come
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: out along with the and to be so like everybody
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: wanted one, right, I mean definitely that Bob, that shortcut,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: the finger wave. We know what that era is automatically.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Everyone knows. Everyone knows, you know, different hairstyles like the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: fair faucet, but we don't really attribute that to the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: whole generation. We don't see that as iconic, even though
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: that is an iconic Harede. It's because a fair faucet
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: making it an iconic care doe s just the Rachel.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I do remember kind of an our era outside of
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the Rachel was a haircut that happened because of Dawson's Creek,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Michelle Williams and Carry Russell during that like early two
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: thousand's cut off the hair to the pixie cut almost
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: and people lost their minds. Like I remember the amount
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: of vitrol that they went through for cutting off their hair,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and it's such a like to me, that's kind of
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: also that iconic, but it's still never going to be
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: as big as the Bob was. That we definitely can
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: associate pixie haircut to like the early two thousand's, late
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: nineties because of them, but it still will not be
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: on par as what happened with the Bob for sure. Yeah, man,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: wild that must have been where it's kind of like
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: everyone has long hair and then all of a sudden
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: everyone's cut off again to have be the first person
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to do this and then just being chastise and then
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: later on be like, oh, well that's that's kid. We
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: like to never mind. Yeah, sorry, all right, it's fashionable now, okay,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: get you a hat. Yeah, And that's a different conversation,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: perhaps not for this mini that was just a brief history,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: but there was a lot of and still is talk
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of like the feminism of certain haircuts, and the bob
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: does come up in that one a lot. But that's
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that's more than what we're going into you in this one.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, if there are any other haircut styles
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: we should look into, you let us know. You can
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at I hurt
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: me dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and Stuff I've Never
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Told You. Thanks, It's always to our super producer Christina.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Christina. Thanks to you for listening Stuff I
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Never Told You The production of iHeart Radio More podcast
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: from my Heart Radio with the Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.