Lily Collins – the star of Netflix hit series Emily in Paris – cut her long hair into a jaw-length bob in June. Posting images of the style on Instagram, she wrote “new hair era unlocked”.

Other stars are joining her in this hair era, from Jessica Biel to Zendaya in tennis drama Challengers. Singer Gracie Abrams, who has supported Taylor Swift on her Eras tour, puts her bob front and centre on her album, The Secret of Us. Meanwhile, Gigi Hadid sent ripples across the internet when she cut her hair into a bob in March.

The bob is taking off among the public, too – as well as being a popular style with the new intake of MPs. Rush, the hair salon chain, has noticed a rise in demand for the style. “Bobs are a classic haircut which are always on trend,” says Rush editorial director, Tina Farey. “However, this summer they have been more popular than ever … a bob has been one of the most highly requested cuts.”

“Chic” is the adjective often applied. “People do associate femininity with longer hair but I think the bob looks so chic, sexy and elegant,” says Mollie Burdell, the contributing beauty editor for website Who What Wear.

There’s also the impact of cutting long hair off into a bob. Celebrities from Victoria Beckham to Kate Moss and Beyoncé have created “stop the press” moments by doing just that. Beckham’s style in 2006 had its own name: the “pob”, a portmanteau for “Posh Spice’s bob”.

It works beyond celebrities, too. A bob can symbolise a new beginning. Burdell cut her hair into a bob after her wedding in 2022 and says that this is a common occurrence. “The bob is a dramatic reveal I think that’s why people cut their hair after their wedding. They’re entering a new era.”

The impact may in part be down to the trajectory of the bob. Rachael Gibson, who runs the Hair Historian Instagram account, says it first became popular in the 1920s, associated with a new style of femininity. She references the Scottish opera singer Mary Garden who said in 1927: “Bobbed hair belongs to the age of freedom, frankness and progressiveness.”

“Cutting hair short still stands for freedom and fresh starts,” says Gibson. “It makes headlines when female celebrities cut their hair short. People still associate a bob with strength and independence. Perhaps because long, loose and unstructured hair very much continues to represent traditional femininity.”

If the bob maintains these qualities from its history, it also works for today because it has relevance online. Farey points to variants of the bob that are popular after gaining traction on social media. These include the baroque bob (a wavy style), the micro bob (verging on a crop), the flippy bob (with flicked-up ends) and the mushroom bob (with hair curled inwards towards the face).

It is part of meme culture. The phrase “fuck ass bob” circulated online in 2022 through a tweet about the Euphoria character Kat Hernandez, who has her hair styled in a bob. It’s a term used by Gen Z to describe a haircut and an alpha woman who wears this style, such as Anna Wintour.

Halima Jibril, junior writer at Dazed, has written about the “fuck ass bob” and explains what the term means online: “She’s a powerful lady, a little bit kooky. You want to embody her at times for her ‘don’t mess’ energy. Zendaya in Challengers is a good example. That bob is its own character.” Though the phrase has until recently been an “if you know, you know” reference, it’s threatening to go more mainstream – Biel even used it to describe her haircut it on Instagram.

Jabril compares the term to “brat”, the title of Charli XCX’s album that became shorthand online for no-holds-barred abandon before it was taken up by Kamala Harris last week. She says: ”’Fuck ass bob’ could end up like that, when it’s in spaces it’s not intended to reach. But it depends how it evolves. It could stay in the mix.”

As for the actual haircut, it is now a perennial thanks to qualities that don’t get old. “It’s a very adaptable cut that can work for most people,” says Gibson. “Beyond that, there’s something eternally liberating about getting your hair cut shorter and reinventing yourself, even if it’s only for a short while.”