The bob is back

When Kate Moss changes her hairstyle, it’s usually blown up into a Big Style Event — discussed at length by the tabloids and celebrated by the weekly fashion mags. But, back in early September when Moss cut her long, bleached rock’n’roll hair into a longish, side-parted scruffy bob, only a modicum of fuss was made Photograph: Empics

Perhaps we were all far too distracted by Sarah Palin’s demi-beehive ... Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA

or Cheryl Cole’s heavy curtain of extensions to notice. But now, after almost two months have passed, it seems that Moss’ cut was an early indication of a shift in the tonsorial landscape. As if by stealth, scruffy bobbed hair has become the ’do of the season Photograph: Mark Campbell/Rex Features

Strangely, considering that James Bond films don’t usually count as significant in style terms, it is the Quantum of Solace posters that have crystallised this look into the contender for ’do of the year. Witness Olga Kurylenko walking barefoot away from some explosion but miraculously still clutching her shoes. Yes, the sooty blusher is noteworthy, but it is her artfully dishevelled bob that really steals the scene Photograph: Karen Ballard/EON Productions

And it isn’t just on widescreen that the scruffy bob is gaining ground either. Kurylenko’s hair is echoed on the small screen by the studiously unkempt bob of Alexa Chung Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Over on the red carpet, film-maker and style leader Sofia Coppola has freshened up her brunette locks by lopping off a few inches to create a shoulder-grazing bob Photograph: Gustavo Caballero/Getty

Meanwhile, Gwyneth Paltrow has a somewhat less scruffy version of the cut Photograph: Rex Features

Even on the campaign trail the bob is winning out. Michelle Obama’s relaxed bob with long side-swept fringe suggests both an easy confidence and a woman in tune with the times. Here is a cut that can travel from the clubs of Soho to Hollywood via Washington without losing its shine Photograph: Craig Lassig/AP

In fashion, the trends that stick are rarely the trends that are forced upon us, they’re much more likely to be the ones that creep up on us as if by accident. Think how reluctant we were to take up the jumpsuit, yet with a thousand times less spin, we are suddenly all happily wearing ankle boots. It’s the same with this year’s reincarnation of the bob. The cut isn’t some style diktat from on high, just an easy update that most women can pull off Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features

The DIY aspect of Kate’s ’do hints at more subtle semantics of the scruffy bob. It is meant to look hacked off, not carefully snipped, giving the wearer a devil-may-care attitude. It is the hair of the kooky bad-girl of cinema - think Juliette Lewis in Kalifornia - the polar opposite of the sleek, razor sharp Sasoon-shiny bob Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

For celebrity hairdresser – and Kate Moss mate – James Brown it is Julie Christie, especially in Shampoo, who is the most iconic exponent of this look. “She’s had a messed-up bob pretty much all her career. She looks like the kind of woman that does it herself, rather than spending loads of time and money on her hair,” he says Photograph: Kobal Collection