Gendy AlimurungWhy is it that every time they need an edgy, bad-ass, anti-hero-type chick, they stick her in a skintight bodysuit and a bob cut? Presented here are a baker's dozen of pop-culture's greatest bob cut women. An homage, if you will, to the hairstyle preferred by little girls, dominatrixes and flappers.
1. Quorra in Tron
Olivia Wilde told Playboy that it took three hours to get out of her Tron costume, it was so tight. Aww, poor baby. She has kind of a big forehead, so the bangs work for her. Many comparisons are being drawn right now between Quorra and…
2. Aeon Flux
Charlize Theron's emotionless depiction of Aeon Flux was pretty much the best and worst part of Karyn Kusama's adaptation of Peter Chung's animated MTV Liquid Television cult classic. Theron is eye candy deluxe in that bodysuit. Extra points for the wedge boots. Double extra points for the little secret compartment inside the wedge boots.
3. Natalie Portman in The Professional & Closer
Portman has gone on record saying the haircut she had in The Professional was the best haircut she ever had in her life. Agreed! She got that same haircut a second time when she was older and starred in Closer. Have you seen her do her sexy dance with Clive Owen? Whoa, Natalie.
4. Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction
She played Mia Wallace in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. The bobbed hair, the white shirt, the slim black pants, the attitude, the intense cat eyes–they all add up to cool beyond cool. No wonder this movie revitalized John Travolta's career. Dancing the twist opposite this bob cut femme fatale? How could it not?
5. Rihanna
She's got great hair, this woman. She's done every variant of the bob cut there is–blunt, asymmetrical, Cleopatra, shaggy, fringe-y.
6. Victoria Beckham
Before Katie Holmes copied her, before the anorexia, and the plastic surgery, and the shopping sprees, Victoria Beckham was Posh Spice of the Spice Girls. Then she married some soccer player, and her hair took on a life of its own. It became known as The Beckham Bob, and suburban soccer moms requested it at Super Cuts salons across the heartland.
Credit: Photo on right via Duchovny.net
7. Ensign Ro Laren
You probably know her as the creepy Maryann in True Blood, but do you recognize Michelle Forbes as Ensign Ro Laren? That's right! She was the rash young Bajoran ensign on Star Trek The Next Generation. She had a chip on her shoulder. She refused to take her earring off (ah, fashion!) and flirted mercilessly with Commander Riker. Forbes also wore the bob cut in Kalifornia. She plays a photographer married to David Duchovny, who hitches a ride with serial killers Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis, who copies her haircut, and develops a bad case of single white female.
8. Winona Ryder
She wore a bob cut for years, back when she was the gen-x “it girl.” She was practically married to Johnny Depp and still doing cool movies and not yet getting busted for shoplifting. The picture above is Winona from the movie Mermaids, with Cher. Winona plays a Catholic-wannabe who gets drunk, has sex, and inadvertently almost gets her little sister killed. Sorry for the spoiler, but for god's sake, if you haven't seen it by now, that's what happens.
9. Linda Evangelista
She was one of the great and terrible supermodels stomping the runways of the late 80's and early 90's. Not sure what she's doing now–time catches up with everyone, even the young and beautiful–but people still remember the whole “I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day” comment.
10. Laliari (a.k.a. Jane Doe) in Galaxy Quest
Okay, Missi Pyle's Laliari isn't mean, or diva-esque. She's sweet. She makes funny noises. But did she or did she not sprout tentacles while she was making out with Tony Shalhoub on the spaceship?
11. Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil
Milla Jovovich is perpetually type-cast as the ass-kicking, bodacious superhero girl. She wore a bob cut in most of the Resident Evil franchise. They say short hair actually requires more maintenance than long hair, but it must be a practical style for killing zombies.
12. Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago
Catherine Zeta Jones as a murderous vaudeville star in fishnet arm stockings who sings and dances in prison? I buy that. Because CZJ is the personification of the word “diva.”
13. Louise Brooks
No list about bob haircuts would be complete without the legendary Louise Brooks. She rocked the bob cut before any of these other women did. She was a flapper, and a rebel. No skintight black bodysuit required.
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