Bob or Lob? How to Choose Your Length Before a Big Chop
Every fall a wave of people decide it's time to cut off a lot of hair. Long hair is heavy, it's slow to dry, and after a few years it starts to feel like a default rather than a choice. The two shapes almost everyone lands between are the bob and the lob, and the inch or two that separates them changes how the cut lives on you more than any other decision in the appointment. Here's how I walk someone through it after twenty years of taking people from long to short.
Bob vs. lob: what the names actually mean
A bob sits somewhere between the jaw and the chin. A lob (a long bob) sits between the chin and the collarbone, and most people wear it right at the collarbone. Within each there are shapes: a blunt line, a graduated or stacked back that's shorter at the nape, an A-line that angles longer toward the face, and softer versions with layers or texture cut in.
The length matters because it decides whether the hair can be pulled back. A lob still goes into a low ponytail or a clip; most bobs don't. If you work out, swim, or just like your hair off your neck some days, that one fact usually settles the question before we talk about anything else.
Face shape, neck, and how you actually live
The old face-shape charts are a starting point, not a rule. What I'm really looking at is where your jaw sits, how long your neck is, and where your hair wants to fall when it's dry. A bob that ends right at a strong jawline frames it; a bob that ends a half inch above it fights it. A longer neck carries a short bob beautifully. A shorter neck often looks longer with a lob or a graduated back that lifts the weight off the nape.
Then there's the honest part: a bob is a commitment. It gets styled most days, and it's the first shape to look overgrown. A lob is more forgiving and lets you air-dry. If you're not sure, I'll almost always suggest the lob first. You can take it shorter at your next visit; the reverse takes a year.
If your hair is wavy or curly, read this part twice
Wavy and curly hair shrinks as it dries, so a bob cut to the chin at the shampoo bowl can sit at the cheekbone by the time you leave. That's the classic 'triangle' bob you've seen, and it's not the curl's fault. It happens when a straight-hair line gets dropped onto hair that springs.
On textured hair I cut for where the length will land once it's dry, not where it hangs wet, and I take the shape in stages so we can watch it spring up before committing to the final line. Weight gets removed from the inside so the curls clump into a shape instead of ballooning out. A lob on wavy hair is one of the most forgiving cuts there is: the length holds the wave down just enough, and it air-dries into something that looks intentional. A curly bob is genuinely beautiful too, it just needs to be cut as a curly bob from the first snip.
Taking off a lot of length at once
If you're coming from really long hair, we don't take the whole chop in one pass. I land the length first, a little long, and let you see it in the mirror before we go to the final line. Then the shape gets built: the graduation, the layers, the face frame. It costs a few extra minutes and saves a lot of regret.
Bring one photo, not ten, and tell me how you dry your hair on a normal Tuesday. A bob built for a daily round-brush blowout is cut differently than one meant to air-dry, and the honest answer about your routine is more useful to me than the photo.
Keeping it looking cut, and what to ask for
A true bob wants a trim every six to eight weeks to stay a bob; a lob can stretch to ten. Both look best with a little texture product and less heat than you think. Women's cuts at Rooted start at $50, and a big change like this is still just a cut. Book a cut, say you want to go short, and we'll plan the appointment around it.
Still torn between the two lengths, or not sure what your texture will do once it's short? That's exactly what Ask Rooted, our free online consultation, is for. Send a photo of your hair as it actually dries and tell us what you're thinking, and we'll tell you honestly which length we'd cut and why before you book. We're in Grand Blanc, and sending someone out the door lighter than they walked in is one of the best parts of this job.