There is no question that when it comes to fashion, men are often far more creative than women when it comes to trying something new. Men are constantly looking for the next big thing when it comes to styles and this includes men from Hollywood too who often try out new fashion trends when filming. One such trend that has been prominent in Hollywood for the past couple of years is the short-haired look. Actors such as Robert Pattinson and Bradley Cooper have all been seen wearing short hairstyles and the craze has even extended to some of Hollywood’s hottest producers with Russell Simmons and Scott Rudin both sporting short hair as well.
Whether you like it or not, the short-haired trend is here to stay. While many men have sported short hair for years, the latest craze sweeping Hollywood was first brought to our attention when the actor Robert Pattinson cut his hair into a cool bob. Since then, the short-haired look has been on the rise and with the 2020 Olympics fast approaching, it wouldn’t be a surprise if many more athletes decide to experiment with the look in the coming months. We have all the details on how to get the look below.
Short On Hair But Tall On Saves
If you’ve ever shopped at Nordstrom, you’ll have seen the many one-of-a-kind items on display behind the counters. One of the most intriguing stories behind that array of unique products is the tale of the Fisherman. Back in the early 1900s, Mr. Fisherman was a famous Swedish fisherman who would wade into icy waters and bravely yank fish out of the water. One fateful day in 1908, Mr. Fisherman was pulling a particularly large fish out of the water when his arm got stuck in the net. The fish was too big to be removed by hand and the heroic fisherman was subsequently pulled under water until he finally expired. Since that day, his visage has appeared on innumerable cigarette packs and he is still the subject of numerous urban legends today.
In the years following Mr. Fisherman’s death, his family sold his catch to butchers across the country who then prepared the fish for market. The story goes that if you possess the ‘tales of the sea’ gene, you are predestined to have a massive arm. And so it was that Mr.Fisherman’s gaunt, bony arm became an object of fascination for artists and designers who saw in it the embodiment of male beauty. Indeed, Mr.Fisherman’s death has been attributed to the discovery that a person with an arm like his could never fit into the social whirl of the 20th century.
The Rise Of The Bob
The look of the early 20th century was, in many ways, the heyday of the bob. A traditional style that had been prominent since the 17th century, a bob is a short haircut designed to frame the face and accentuate the features. In the early 20th century, men often sported short bangs in the front and long hair in the back in an effort to emulate the elegant look of the ‘gentleman’ or ‘artist’ in a manner that would appeal to women. Women then, as now, often found a way to mix business with pleasure and as a result, sported short bangs and long hair too. For a look at the changing face of beauty in the early 20th century, visit this charming blog post by Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times.
The Modern Bob
The so-called ‘gentleman’s bob’, which was short for ‘bobbed hair’, became popular amongst both men and women in the decades that followed the First World War. As a result of the Great Depression, many men were looking for practical ways to save money and one of the most popular ways for people to save money was to go on a diet. And so it was that when the bobsledding community came across the statistics that men who went on a diet survived the winter better than men who did not, they decided to experiment with the diet themselves. The result was the ‘slim bob’ or ‘crepe bob’ which is what you see above. Named after the French word for ‘crisp’, the crepe bob is characterized by thinning hair on the top and a thickening of the hair on the backside. It was originally intended as a practical solution for men who needed to shed pounds while remaining fashionable. The crepe bob remained popular for much of the 20th century and even today, some men prefer it over the ‘traditional’ or ‘robust’ bob.
Shorter Means Sweeter
When the 20th century arrived, people were much more concerned with what they were putting into their bodies than how they looked on the outside. As a result, when the chemical industry discovered vitamins, many people were delighted to learn that they could ‘serve their bodies right’ by taking supplements. One such supplement that was hailed as a miracle for men was vitamin A. When administered in high doses, vitamin A is extremely effective at lowering cholesterol and triglycerides whilst increasing ‘good’ cholesterol. What’s more is that in the years following its approval by the FDA, many men decided that the humble vitamin A tablet was the perfect fit for their personal grooming regimes.
As a result, the demand for vitamin A tablets soared and so it was that one day in 1930, the pharmacist Thaddeus Lowe received a call from his friend and colleague, Dr. Max Gerson. In a quixotic effort to combat the Great Depression, Dr. Gerson had organized a bachelors and masters competition for physicians, lawyers, and other professionals. In an effort to keep the participants active, athletic, and youthful looking, the organizers of the competition had decreed that any participant who lost more than ten pounds during the competition would be disqualified. In the spirit of the event, all of the participants were expected to lose a good deal of weight and to do so in a stylish manner.
As the competitors were encouraged to be creative, the young assistant pharmacist was determined to give his boss, Mr. Lowe, something different for his hair and so he concocted a quick and easy way to shed pounds whilst imitating the style of ‘the doctor’. And so it was that the short-haired look became popularly known as the ‘Gerson diet’. After losing more than forty pounds in a single competition, the young athlete decided that he liked what the Gerson diet was doing for his body and so he decided to continue the diet on a regular basis. And thus was born the trend that later became known as the ‘bobsled team sport’.
The ‘Bobsled Team Sport’
While many people have taken inspiration from the great innovators of the 20th century to shape their own unique styles, few have done so more effectively than the members of the bobsled team from the 1930s through to the 1950s. Indeed, the entire look of the 1930s through to the 1950s is often referred to as the ‘bobsled team sport’ and the influence that the Gerson diet and vitamin A had on the design of the era cannot be overstated. Some sources claim that the Gerson diet affected as many as 12 million Americans alone and it is perhaps no coincidence that the decade of the 1930s is often referred to as the ‘Roaring Twenties’.
The Rise Of Hybrid Crops
Although much of the 20th century was a time of great innovation and design, it was also the era at the end of a long and painful chapter in human history. The world was on the receiving end of an economic and social crisis and many people were searching for ways to save both themselves and their countries. Fortunately, there were people who had the foresight to see that in order to truly save the planet, humanity would need to reinvent itself. People such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg who founded Microsoft and Facebook respectively, saw that the way forward was in terms of ‘software’ and so it was that in an effort to save the environment, they designed products and platforms that would allow humans to be much more efficient and effective at conserving resources. In a similar manner, the seeds that Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Gates sent to space have allowed for a new generation of crops that are much more energy-efficient than their predecessors.