I have been firmly a part of team bob since 2021. In September of that year, I took a meeting with iconic hairstylist Garren and asked for a trim..
. an hour later I left the salon with “The Linda” . Since then, my chin-skimming bob has become a part of my signature pin-up beauty look – but inspired by this year’s Met Gala ’s “Sleeping Beauty” theme (and all the long hair we’ve seen on celebrities), I felt like I had reached peak bob and was craving something new, but wholly unattainable in the time frame – butt-skimming hair.
No hair growth supplement or oil on the market could fulfil this dream in a timely turnaround, so I found myself in the back room of West Village’s Bellami Beauty Bar on a Friday morning. And that’s where I would be firmly planted for the next six hours while celebrity hairstylist Dhairius Thomas and his team (six hands were on deck) transformed my Italian bob into Botticelli lengths . “Having long hair is like having long nails, it’s a luxury because it takes a lot of maintenance to keep up,” says celebrity hairstylist Andrew Fitzsimons , who recently released an Ariana Grande-length ponytail extension with Bellami.
“Back in the day, the only way to get length was to take the time to grow your hair out, and for a lot of people, there’s a certain length that either your hair stops growing or stops looking good. But now, extensions are the perfect option for someone who wants to have it for a night or a month.” I wanted something I could enjoy for more than just the weekend – and with Cher, British Vogue contributing editor Tish Weinstock, and the Dune press tour looks from both Zendaya and Anya Taylor-Joy on my inspiration board – that meant rounds and rounds of 24-inch tape-in extensions were applied to my hair.
This was my first foray into extensions, and while I wouldn’t call it painful, there was certainly an adjustment period as the weight of new hair increased on my scalp. My existing haircut was incredibly blunt, so Thomas took the time to blend my self-grown hair and my new hair together to look more seamless. Next, he added in long, face-framing layers like patron boho goddess Jennifer Aniston’s early aughts hair.
I looked in the mirror thought to myself: I belong on the front row of the next Chloé show. Have you ever felt like you were an entirely new person after a haircut? That was me the moment I walked out of the salon – probably times a thousand. I felt cooler, I felt sexier, I felt more model-off-duty (with my bob, beauty was a bit more calculated because of the styling involved).
My first FaceTime was to my fiancé, who said I looked like “a clean Ringu”. Yes, the hair was that long, so..
. not wrong. Long hair has long been a symbol of health, wealth and beauty for women.
Would Mona Lisa’s smile feel as warm or regal without mid-back lengths? And there’s a handful of things to say about the hair of Botticelli’s Venus, who continues to be referenced more than 530 years later. Our obsession with hair growth tonics didn’t start with 2023’s Mielle Rosemary Strengthening Oil – in the 1800s, the Seven Sutherland Sisters forayed their incredibly lustrous, floor-skimming hair into a successful beauty business, selling more than three million dollars in their hair growing tonic. Some version of long hair has always been in fashion, since the Renaissance – while short hair on women was never deemed stylish or even really acceptable, until the 1910s.
My first few days with ultra-long hair were thrilling. I instantly found myself gravitating toward a completely different way of dressing, ditching my prim-and-proper Betty Draper dresses for ’70s flares and unbuttoned vests. I was also stopping friends in their tracks and had become a (willing) human petting zoo while answering questions about how long it took, how I felt, and whether or not I was going to keep it.
There was also an interaction with a befuddled (male) coworker who scratched his head while adding, “Wait, this isn’t what your hair always looks like? I’m so confused.” Now living in my long-haired world, I became jealous of anybody who just simply had this length, grown all on their own. “Ever since I was around eight years old and got mistaken for a boy while I was on holiday, I’ve gravitated towards long hair,” says the previously mentioned (and mood-board dream girl) Tish Weinstock about her self-described “long, dark, and straggly” hair.
“I totally feel like it’s part of my identity now. I can hide behind it but also draw strength from it at the same time.” If Weinstock is bringing Morticia Addams to the long-hair conversation, then Hill House Home founder Nell Diamond is her foil.
“There was a moment in high school when I thought my hair was boho,” Diamond jokes when I ask about her elbow-length auburn hair. “I quickly came to the realisation that nothing else about me says boho. I’d describe it as pre-Raphaelite.
” It’s horse girl perfection in the most positive sense of the description – thick and shiny, sometimes braided or topped off with a bow – and almost feels like a model on its own for her brand. Diamond has had variations of bobs in the past (“I could never do that again,” she says) and it’s off the table for Weinstock, too. “I’d feel totally naked without my hair, [and] I just know I wouldn’t suit a bob.
It’s actually quite ironic considering how many times I’ve gone out in a ’30s lace dress and a pair of thongs.” Weinstock must have been reading my mind – because days later I took my new ‘do to the Cote d’Azur with a plan. While staying at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, I did the most French thing I can think of – used my mermaid hair as a prop for topless beach photos.
On the same trip, I ran into Taylor-Joy in the flesh at a Dior party – and stopped to chat with her amazing stylist Gregory Russell . “Keratin treatment,” was the advice he had for me as another way to make the blend between my natural and new hair even more seamless. Seven weeks later, after a much less thrilling four hours in the back room of the Bellami shop, the hair was out and I was back to my “normal” self.
My head feels lighter – and my hair thinner (they warn me this is a normal feeling). I’m surprised to realise my bob has also grown quite a bit while I’ve concealed it under my dream length. Just a little bit closer to returning to boho hair.
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