the precision bob

she had a bob already. or something that had started as one.

it had been cut in a rush six months earlier, grown out unevenly, and by the time she came in the left side was sitting a centimetre longer than the right. she had been compensating with a deep side parting that pulled the hair across and hid the discrepancy. she had been doing this for four months without mentioning it to anyone.

this is more common than people admit. a cut goes slightly wrong and the client adapts around it, quietly. the problem then beds into their routine and starts to feel permanent.

the challenge with correcting an asymmetric bob is that the most obvious solution — taking both sides back to the shorter length — usually results in something too short. dense, straight hair like hers requires length to fall correctly. remove too much and it lifts at the jaw and begins to round.

instead we levelled the perimeter from the spine outward. using the natural fall of the hair as the reference rather than the floor. this is a slower method and requires the client to sit still for longer than usual. the result is a line that is true to the hair’s weight rather than to a geometric ideal.

the finished bob sits at jaw length, perfectly even, and requires nothing from her to hold its shape. the parting she had been using as a correction is gone. she parts it in the centre now.