Birthday Wishes

Louise Brookes - one of the first actresses to wear the bob

This year the bob haircut - currently famously sported by Anna Wintour (well... I think she's had that haircut since she was born actually), Katie Holmes (I kinda think it ages her, but... being married to Tom Cruise and a part of the Scientology "religion" is probably also rather draining on one's reserves of youth, fun and frivolity) and, at various times, Posh Spice (who we know I love!) and also by Britney Spears via her hot pink bobbed wig (probably not one of her proudest moments - I think it was only eventually taken off her because someone managed to convince her it didn't match her strait jacket).

At the time of the bob's release on to the fashion scene in 1909, the church (what is it with church and censorship?) denounced it, and once the bob hit the USA in the 1920s feverish (insane) preachers stated that: "A bobbed woman is a disgraced woman". Like showing one's ankles 20 years prior, I presume. It was so offensive, that women with a bob were fired from certain department stores; a teacher in New Jersey was forced to grow her hair (how, exactly? no scissors for the arts and craft teacher? good luck with that one); men divorced their wives for having a bob; and at the height of bob hysteria in New York, 2,000 women were having a bob cut, trimmed or re-styled per day.

The bob was the brainchild of Parisian hairdresser Antoine de Paris, whose inspiration was Joan of Arc - wearer of men's clothes and early independence fighter. The bob was later embraced by the "flappers" of the roaring 20s who wore the bob with heavy eye makeup and a cocktail in hand. Bless.

Twiggy revived the bob phenomena in the 1960s when she adopted the bob for a while, and since then... well, we've pretty much been alive to see the influence of the bob. I for one adore the bob, but love my long hair too much and worry about Brisbane humidity to really go for it. If I had the guts, and if my hair would grow back in a month, I would do it. However...

Turning 80 this weekend is Belgium's cartoon favourite Tin Tin (just in time for Steven Spielberg to commence work on a Tin Tin film). Tin Tin was quite the popular pin-up for anti-communism back in his day (which is potentially why he's so popular across Asia? hee hee) - depicting communism as a ruthless regime which created cities of cardboard cut-outs and where anyone who spoke against the regime was dispensed of. Sounds about right... ? However, Tin Tin lost his appeal to American readers when he started being mean and nasty to natives in editions from the 1930s.

Tin Tin was a cult hit in Europe, however, with stamps, phonecards, t-shirts, and even a museum dedicated just to him.

So to a boy-wonder and a boyish hairstyle - happy birthday!