Film star Louise Brooks wasn’t the first woman to bob her hair, but she became to poster girl for the controversial new hairstyle when she sported the look in the 1928 silent –screen classic Pandora’s Box. Nearly 40 years later Vidal Sassoon added a little plane geometry to the equation and started a revolution. Now hairdressers are shaking things up again. Let’s face it, the precision bob is a bit of a bore. At Bernae’s Academy in Sacremento, CA co-owner Maurice Barnett is creating a strong, one-length outer perimeter shape, then disconnecting the interior. “The bed-head look is still in, “ he says. Barnett also has a technique for adding body and movement to the bobs he creates for his African-American clients. “Traditionally a black girl’s bob didn't move,” he laughs, “ at least not the way a white girl’s did. So we start by relaxing very curly hair, then setting it on rollers and dry-wrapping it. We do the cut after we take the hair down so we can take advantage of the movement the roller set provides.” Meanwhile at Bumble and Bumble in Manhattan, editorial hair wizard Ward has, well, made a mess of the classic bob. “Styles are messier now, not so done,” says Ward, who first experimented with a look he calls, “The Bad Bob” on actress Milla Jovovich for The Fifth Element and later on model Karen Elson for the February ‘97 Italian Vogue cover. The bob is so classic it could never totally go out of style, but modern means not so proper, even for formal affairs. So I cut it and left it uneven with messy bangs and added a lot of texture. Says Nikki An, also a stylist at Bumble and Bumble, “Our bobs have longer layers coming from the top, which is different from the popular Shag haircut with his more layered at the bottom. Plus a bob generally has a pretty solid bottom edge, but we’re cutting a lot of layers into ours, which is more contemporary.” If you’re planning to use the same shears to cut a shattered bob you would to cut a precision bob, think again. “The right tool is essential to the outcome,” says Bonnie Megowan, president of Bonika Shears, Atlanta. “If you want a nice clean line, you should choose a shear with more handle than blade. A longer blade would move through the hair too fast, but a longer handle could give you more power at the tips of the blade so you could cut through even the thickest hair and get a clean straight line.” They don’t call Megowan the “scissor mechanic” for nothing. In 1996 she staffed the on-site salon in the Olympic Village in Atlanta, hiring four teams of 15 stylists to tend to the locks of 7,000 athletes.* “It was the perfect opportunity to do some field research on the effectiveness of shears on different textures of hair since the teams rotated the same shears.” she says. Megowan, who had previously sharpened and repaired stylists’ shears in the Atlanta area, used her findings to develop the first pair of Bonika shears (she calls them the industry’s first truly multicultural shears because they work on so many different types of hair). “The really hot item today is the curved shear, “ she says, “and that’s what you need if you’re cutting in to the hair to create texture. The curved shear allows you to create shorter to longer pieces. It separates the hair so the ends are raggedy but soft, not the way they’d look if you used a texturizing shear. It allows you to cut the hair so it hugs the head. But you could also use the Bonika Twister for this. It allows you to get the same angles without being a contortionist.” Megowan thinks most hairdressers are ill prepared to buy a pair of shears at an industry trade show (she has a video that takes the mystery out of the procedure). “Do your homework before you walk up to a booth and plunk down a lot of money for a pair of shears,” she says. “Know shat questions to ask.” shear genius In the market for a new pair of shears? Bonnie Megowan has this advice: ERGONOMICS TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER FUNCTION. In other words, make sure the shears fit your hand and the way you cut hair. If you cut palm to palm (thumb-down), it’s better to use an offset handle. If you cut thumb-up, it’s better to use an even-handle shear. Megowan estimates that about half of all hairdressers cut thumb-up, which concerns her. “It’s very hard on the hand, the shoulder, the elbow and the back,” she says. “You’re more likely to experience problems lake carpal tunnel syndrome down the road.” Her suggestion: Choose a swivel-thumb shear that will enable you to cut both thumb-up or thumb-down. CHOOSE THE RIGHT SHEAR FOR THE JOB There are beveled-edge shears (traditional German-style shears) and convex-edge shears (an Asian-type shear.) There German-style was originally designed to cut dry hair while the Asian-style shear was designed for wet cuts. “At the Olympics we found that hairdressers preferred the convex-edge on all hair types because it was smoother and sharper. They’d get a nice clean line.” says Megowan. “But we also found that these shears tend to dull faster on coarse hair.” Her suggestion: “Choose a convex-edge shear with a Rockwell hardness of 58-62. A good rule of thumb: The coarser the hair you’re cutting, the stronger the steel should be.” |
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