A post shared by Sofia Richie (@sofiarichie) on Aug 10, 2017 at 7:06am PDT

There?s no arguing it: bobs are the most talked-about hairstyle of 2017. (Buzz cuts, you fought well.) By our calculations, the most recent bob resurgence began this past February. Around that time, Cara Taylor opened Alexander Wang?s Fall 2017 runway sporting a blunt, freshly chopped mane and it seemed as if, in that moment, the age-old bob cut was reborn. It girls and street style stars were quick to embrace the abbreviated hairstyle. Among them Bella Hadid, who debuted a long bob cut ? and shiny new Alexander Wang catsuit ? on the steps of the 2017 Met Gala. (She?s since gone even shorter.)
Obviously, once Bella does something, the fashion world follows suit, but it?s not just the supermodel?s co-sign that?s given the trend wings. Bobs are an easy sell: they?re incredibly easy to maintain, they?re surprisingly versatile (especially in lob form) and for reasons we?ll get into in a second, they exude confidence. As Fashionista contributor Sara Idacavage explains in her deep dive into bob history: ?On a subconscious level, [the bob haircut] still serves as an indicator of a woman’s choice to break from tradition. While cropped hair has been worn by women across the globe for thousands of years, beauty ideals for women throughout the majority of Western history have usually included long hair (a standard that’s held far more constant than those ascribed to ‘ideal’ body ...