FINALLY CUTTING MY HAIR

May 10, 2021 3:10 PM

I will be getting my first hair cut since before the pandemic in a few weeks and am looking for example photos. I like this piecey cool girl bob that Claire Danes was sporting in the late 90s.

Can you please help me find either this haircut or other cuts like this haircut that show it from more angles, perhaps on someone who is not a willowy teenager, or perhaps a similar cut from this century. Thanks!

posted by phunniemee to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (13 answers total)

I don't know if this is what you're after... but I think Gillian Anderson has had some decent bobs over the years (1, 2, 3).
posted by cranberrymonger at 3:31 PM on May 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

I love Anh Co Tran’s cuts, one bob linked as an example, but many more on Instagram. I suggest trying to avoid the “Karen haircut”, which could be an easy side effect of trying for the Claire Danes bob you linked above.
posted by music for skeletons at 3:47 PM on May 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

I would call that a long pixie-bob, like here, here, the back more like this. You can peruse a loooot of pixie images and pick out the back you like the most - depending on your hair texture you probably either want a bob or (very gently) layered bob and not an undercutty or stacked bob. More side/back options: this, this is really stacked but from the front looks a lot like your example but an inch-ish longer, slightly less stacked and really piecey, longer layered bob.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:50 PM on May 10, 2021

Best answer: Here's the back of Claire's bob. Shannyn Sossamon had some good choppy bobs in the 90s too.
posted by pumpkinlatte at 3:51 PM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I would go chinlength not layered else it’s way too Karen

Google “bob Kiera Knightley” for some great non Karen examples.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:39 PM on May 10, 2021

I’ve been looking for a similar cut, and have found that searching the term “soft razored bob” on Instagram is returning the results I like.
posted by okayokayigive at 4:44 PM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have a similar haircut, and my stylist calls it a messy bob with a lot of layers. Usually razoring the edges a bit. You can go slightly asymmetrical (where the back is a bit shorter than the front) without going full Karen/Kate Gosselin.

If you hair has waves/curls in it, you may not need any layers, but mine is stick straight, and I like layers so it doesn't just lay flat against my head.
posted by hydra77 at 4:49 PM on May 10, 2021

Response by poster: Just to head this off since it's like half the comments, idgaf if somebody thinks I "look like a Karen." A Karen is who you are on the inside. People can go ahead and think I have Karen hair and I will care exactly as much as I do when they think I'm too chubby or too wearing mens clothes or too any other way that I am generally mass market unpalatable.

Listicles like the one linked above could easily be retitled to "thirty different ways to shame women for their choice to cut their hair or age past 20, because fuck women." Going by that list the only acceptable haircuts are the gen z and the cocker spaniel, which are both fine, but some of us just want short hair thanks.


Here's the back of Claire's bob. Shannyn Sossamon had some good choppy bobs in the 90s too.

I've had a tab group just of Shannyn Sossamon's turn of the century hair open on my phone for the past three weeks now, you are on the right track for sure :)
posted by phunniemee at 5:12 PM on May 10, 2021 [66 favorites]

I don't have any particular pictures, but Pinterest is a great place to look for hair styles of all lengths.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 7:41 PM on May 10, 2021

Samantha Mathis in Pump Up the Volume.

be still my teenage heart

Google image search
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:54 PM on May 10, 2021

I think this Robin Wright haircut looks like the last Claire Danes pic you linked to. I like this one too.

Also, this pic (at the top of this article) of Helen Mirren's bob.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:15 PM on May 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Very belatedly (because I read AskMetafilter questions and think about them for days, apparently) - you could check out Ruby Rose's cut in John Wick 2.
posted by Paper rabies at 9:20 PM on May 14, 2021

Response by poster: This just in, Clea DuVall also had a cool girl short bob in the late 90s.

Did everybody have a powder blue fuzzy sweater in 1998? I certainly did. Was this a law?? Does anyone remember???
posted by phunniemee at 10:00 AM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]