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BY KAREN GUZMAN
STAFF WRITER
RALEIGH In the beginning, there was Wendell. And Wendell cut the bob. He trimmed hair a uniform length, so it hung, a sleek tribute to good taste.
To Cameron Village, the matrons and belles who dwelled inside the Beltline flocked, all clamoring for Wendell's golden shears.
Thus the "Raleigh bob" was born. Or at least borrowed.
Up until two years ago, hair stylist Wendell Edwards ran the ultrachic Wendell & Co. salon. Back in the early '90s, he tapped into his Vidal Sassoon beginnings and fashioned a haircut that, although not unique to this city, was nonetheless embraced with aparochial passion that has outlasted Edwards' reign.
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Today, whether you're a lady-wholunches, a managing partner, a soccer mom or any combination of the three, if you live inside the Beltline, you know the look. You may very well have it.
No one knows for sure who dubbed the cut the "Raleigh bob," but most insiders give credit to the man known in style circles simply as Wendell.
"I can't tell you who coined the phrase," says Wendell, who today runs a combination hair salon/bed-and-breakfast on the coast in Morehead. "It's just a look that caught on, and being Raleigh, and the capital city, it got named."
SEE RALEIGH BOB, PAGE 3D
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The lines of this version of the Raleigh Bob are chicly short. STAFF PHOTO BY MEL NATHANSON
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RALEIGH BOB
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1D
A self-described "hair therapist," with clients in Denver, Richmond and Washington, Wendell, by all accounts cranked out a lot of bobs during his nine years in Cameron Village.
His specialty was a volume-boosting, precise onelength cut that flatters many a face. Today's Raleigh bob has a host of variations. There's cute and perky, sleek and sophisticated or spiked and edgy. And although the cut originated as the style du jour in well-heeled, old money neighborhoods, now it's embraced by women across the economic and age spectrums.
The bob itself is far from new. People have been lopping their hair to chin-length since the dawn of h a i r h i s t o r y . Those page-boy bangs and smooth lines depicted in drawings of ancient Egyptians on the walls of the pyramids look suspiciously like bobs.
In the United States, the cut experienced a r e i n c a r n a t i o n about 10 years ago.
"Now again we're having a bob revival. If you look at the runways and check out the celebrities and the actresses, there are a lot of bobs out there," says Serena Milne, owner of Serena Signature Spa Salon on Peace Street. Check out Catherine Zeta-Jones bobbing on the big screen in "Chicago," Reese Witherspoon's jagged, razored take, even Condoleezza Rice's helmety version.
This time around, the City of Oaks, where women have been bobbing big-time over the past decade, is way ahead of the curve. New to town six years ago, Toni Hernandez, the owner of Salon 21 on Glenwood Avenue, got a crash course in the bob.
"I see it in all ages," she says. "I have some girls who went to St. Mary's [school], and I've seen them through their debutante balls and they're still wearing the bob, however they
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Although the basic cut features clean lines that end between the chin and shoulder, the bob's secret lies in its flexibility. There's the one-length look or the soft layered approach. There are fringy bang and stacked backs and angled fronts. You can razor cut the ends or the top. You can wear it straight and slick or curled and classic.
"That's why it's so popular. It's just a great style for any kind of hair," says Theia Clukey, manager of the hair department at Jolie, The Day Spa & Hair Design in Cameron Village.
Sandy Brown, owner of Sam and Bill's Hair Design on Oberlin Road, estimates the stylists in her salon trim about 200 bobs a week. More than half her clients sport bobs. Professional women in their 40s and 50s seem to have a particular passion for the look.
"It's because it's a little bit easier. It takes about five minutes [to style at home.] They want to just blow and go," Brown says.
Beth VanAmber, a paralegal and client of Brown's, has had a bob for years. "It's just part of my life really," she says. "It's easy to blow dry, it's quick and get out the door."
The Raleigh bob shows no sign of decline. Take a stroll through Cameron Village on a Saturday morning and count the bobs along with the variety of heads sporting them.
"I have fine hair, so it's an easy cut to manage," says Christine Gornto, moments before slipping into Clukey's stylist chair at Jolie for a quick trim. "I've tried longer and layers. I used to have very short hair. I just find this the easiest." Gornto plans on staying with her bob for the foreseeable future. But what about the long-term prospects for the Triangle's hair multitudes? When will the next Wendell rise from our midst and point the way? Fashionable minds, and their faithful minions, want to know.
Staff writer Karen Guzman
can be reached at 829-4752
or kguzman@newsobserver.com
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Jessica Howard snips the hair of Maia Silvia, 19,
of Raleigh into a Raleigh bob at Sam and Bill's
Hair Design.
STAFF PHOTO BY MEL NATHANSON
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Reprint permission granted by the News and Observer of Raleigh NC. Reprint permission does not imply indorsment.
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