The internet is currently losing its mind over Leslie Bibb’s “c*nty bob” – a cut that was expertly tailored to her right-leaning White Lotus character, Kate Bohr, by Hollywood hairstylist Chris McMillan – but, as a longtime bob wearer, I can’t relate.
While the c*nty bob is immovably straight, with no layers and zero texture, I’m hooked on the grittier, runway-inspired realism of the “broken bob” – which is exactly what I got after I showed my longtime hairstylist, Grace Newton-Hedges at Hershesons, a snap of an elegantly dishevelled Winona Ryder from 1988.
Luckily, when the new season beauty curriculum dropped, stylist Guido Palau’s mussed-up, mattified hair at Prada and Miu Miu’s autumn/winter 2025 shows offered proof that Mrs P endorses the burnt-out glam of (seemingly) chemically zapped tresses. Then there were those tousled ’90s indie band bobs on The Row’s resort 2026 runway – another master stroke from Palau. It’s all very “post-clean girl”, you see.
“Stop! There’s a reference?” Newton-Hedges asked, bewildered. In the eight years that she’s been cutting my hair, there had never previously been a reference. Our unspoken pact: the bob should look different in exactly the same way after every visit. Until now.
“Have you seen Heathers?” I Googled a film still, only it turned out to be a grainy gif of 4 different Winonas. One of them toked on a cigarette, squint-staring into the abyss. Her hair? Voluminously scorched.
“This,” I said, tapping the screen.
It’s appealing because it’s a little singed, very chopped into, and extremely undone: in 2025, a salon-fresh look doesn’t feel all that inspiring. “Please can you cut my hair so it looks the same as when I’ve overslept and backcombed it with dry shampoo for the third day running?”
“Yeah,” Newton-Hedges said, scissors poised. “Let’s go for something lived in.” She abruptly razored the ends of my jaw-length bob, breaking the straight lines into jagged pieces.
“You just know Winona would have skipped the blow dry and let the cut do the talking,” she said, axing all remaining 90 degree angles.
I agreed. The broken bob is about the attitude, not the appliances. Ten minutes later, the texture level was almost on par with Meg Ryan in French Kiss. This was still a bob, sure, only chopped to anti-perfection.
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So, what should we be asking our hairstylists for this spring? “Your key words are ‘sliced into’, ‘jaw-grazing’, and ‘no straight lines’,” Newton-Hedges explained, while scrunching salt spray through the ends for hand-made texture. “Then it’s down to you to leave it as long as you like between washes.”
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It turns out the added “grip” of a second or third day mane is your best (read: free) hair accessory this season. Your 72-hour hair journey begins the moment you massage a mattifying spray (preferably by Living Proof) into clean roots and begin carving out your layers.
Soon after my cut, I found myself digging through the Vogue beauty closet in New York with beauty editor-at-large, Arden Fanning.
“Try this,” she said, handing me a hefty spray can of Fatboy’s Tousle & Go, which easily fits into Balenciaga’s medium City bag. I was jet-lagged, my hair still static from the airplane pillow. In my new wash cycle, I was just one day away from Miu Miu autumn/winter 2025 Look 6. I flipped my head and misted, mentally banking the hours I’d save in blow-drys.
“You’re good to go!”
