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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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Lori Harvey, who lives on many people’s hair inspo Pinterest boards, has also been known to keep her length between a bob and a lob, often going back and forth between the two lengths in a day's time. Los Angeles-based hairstylist Ray Christopher has been styling Harvey for seven years and says her hair was to the middle of her back when they began working together. Harvey cut her hair into a neck-length bob at the start of 2022 and went even shorter (jaw-length) in October 2022.
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According to Christopher, Harvey’s hair has almost returned to the middle of her back now, but while she was growing it out, she would often curl the ends of her lob to achieve a voluminous ‘90’s-inspired bob. But instead of pulling out the scissors, Christopher says he’d reach for a texturizing spray and a curling iron. “I love the Oribe Texturizing Spray and the Paul Mitchell Super Clean Light Hairspray,” Christopher tells Allure. The hairstylist used the texturizing spray to create volume before blowing the hair out and creating iron curls. A generous application of hairspray helps lock the curls in place.
New York City-based hairstylist Miriam Chisala uses the same method to create a faux bob on lob-length hair. Chisala echos that using a texturizing or volumizing spray is best but prefers to use a round brush over a curling iron because it creates more voluminous curls. Christopher also mentioned that he will sometimes tuck the strands up into the hair and use bobby pins to secure them, though Chisala says that “when the length is between the shoulder and the neck, you don’t necessarily need bobby pins.”
“If you get it curled enough, sometimes all you need is a little bit of spray,” says Chisala. Teasing the hair at the roots with a fine-tooth comb (especially further down by the nape of the neck) can create even more volume, according to Chisala, as it lifts up the hair to create the illusion of shorter length.
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For an even lower-effort transformation, look to Hailey Bieber, who was the talk of the Internet when she got a bob haircut back in 2023. Now, it seems the Rhode founder has grown out her crop, but not so much so that she can’t revisit the look at a moment’s notice. The new haircut, courtesy of hairstylist Justine Marjan, sits just above Bieber’s shoulders with the ends flipped out in different directions for a slightly tousled look. According to the experts, all Bieber has to do is tease her roots, create round brush curls, and douse her hair with hairspray, and she’ll be back to a bob in just minutes.
So, if you’re noncommittal when it comes to your hair’s length or you just want to look like the lead in an early 2000s rom-com, consider flexing between a lob and a bob as your signature hairstyle—it’s guaranteed to keep everyone on their toes.
