So you finally achieved your ambition of longer hair.
Was that hard or what?
But something rather unexpected has happened. Now that you have the longer hair of your dreams some days you find it, well, kinda boring and wish it was shorter.
What’s up with that?
Rather than dig into your “short attention span” issues, let’s make a suggestion that can change your look in a big way.
Better still that big change can be had without involving scissors.
Yep. You can fake a shorter look with a faux bob. (Probably something you didn’t pay much attention to back in your shorter hair days.) But it’s a seriously genius, commitment free way for you to rock shorter locks.
Plus it’s easy and quick to do.
Best of all there are so many ways to work a faux bob that leave you with a gorgeous look. No wonder we’re obsessed with them at times.
So if you’ve always wondered how to achieve this look here are seven different ways to go about. One of them is destined to transform your locks to an entirely new level of pretty without cutting them.
Yet don’t feel the least bit guilty about cheating. Any number of Hollywood celebs also rely on this chic styling sleight of hand that makes vintage fake bobs super easy to create.
Seven Easy Ways To Faux Bob
Here’s exactly how anyone with shoulder-length or longer locks can cheat their way to fabulous a looking cropped style – seven hand-picked videos included.
- #1 Fab Fake Curly Bob
- #2 Easy Faux Bob Using a Flat, Circular Braid
- #3 Go from Endless Mane to Short and Tucked Under In Mere Minutes
- #4 Cute and Curly Version With Body to Spare
- #5 Tease Free Soft Bun Maker Hack
- #6 Two Faux Bob Tutorials for the Price of One
- #7 Faux a Perky A Line
But first let’s discuss…
Your Fake Short Hair Tool Kit
You don’t need a lot to go into fake bob mode but as you’d expect you do need a few things that I’ll bet are in your bathroom already.
- Hair elastics
- Comb
- Clips for sectioning
- Hairspray
- Plenty of bobby pins
- Curling iron or wand (for curly bobs)
And while we’re at it here’s some …
Simple Faux Bob Styling Tricks and Hacks
All fake bobs have to conceal your mane’s length in some way. (Too obvious?)
Then too you often need something to pin the top layer of hair up and into. This is called the “base” or “anchor”.
There are a variety of ways to do any of this as demonstrated in the videos below. However the ones listed here for you are the most common ways to do that.
For example when it comes to length concealment the go-to is braids.
An alternative would be a braided and rolled up ponytail that is then lost in the tangle of strands at the nape of your neck.
Many find any soft bun maker naturally gives shape and volume perfect for the look you’re going for.
As you’ll see you can even twist the strands and pin them to the side of your head above your ears to create a realistic looking angled bob that’s to die for.
Others simply roll up the underneath hair pinning it all snug and cozy against the scalp.
Remember too that curls are a perfect way to create shorter a looking coif since coiled locks are shorter naturally. Soft waves count as well.
Gentle backcombing near the roots would be the final hack. It can help add a little volume where needed.
All these tricks can lead to a deceptively beautifully-ever-after style.
To see them in action let’s kick off our seven faux bobs fest with a very wearable curly example that’s loaded with texture.
#1 Fab Fake Curly Bob
The way the illusion of a frothy bob is achieved here is different from those that start with a low ponytail that is tucked up and hidden from sight.
All it takes to put this look together is plenty of bobby pins and you’ll be downright fab looking in next to no time.
Video Tip: It’s smart to have quality styling tools. That applies even with something as simple as bobby pins. For that reason you might want to skip the drugstore brand that often offer next to no holding power and invest in something like these highly rated ones from Sally’s. You want ones with superior grip so they are not falling out 10 minutes after sticking them in. Enough said.
Anyway this curly chicness is super cute and super memorable.
It gives you a high impact retro look inspired from that decade after World War II when film stars shaped our culture. It’s a sexy, quite curly, pin tucked look that exudes volume.
Amazingly, aside from the time spent curling your tresses all this glam is achieved in just minutes.
Don’t forget this isn’t an every hair perfectly in place kind of style. You’re actually looking for a hint of gently mussed imperfection.
Okay so this faux style is done in sections. Separate out the first one. If you have just curled your hair, fluff things up a bit by raking your fingers through your locks to loosen up those big coils just a little.
Take that section and loosely wrap or coil it around your fingers until the length comes to about chin level.
Bobby pin this to the hair closest to the scalp behind your ears and at the nape of your neck. You want to be sure you are getting the pins inside the roll so it doesn’t come down. And don’t skimp on the number of pins used. You want those strands securely anchored in place.
Work your way around your head repeating the process with about the same amount of hair.
Remember too that you want each attached section to be about the same length as the others and that may take some practice to achieve.
Curls like this make it look like a natural, if slightly unkempt, curly bob.
Pro Tip: If you want more volume and texture try applying some dry shampoo or mousse at the roots.
A couple of other things:
This approach works whether you have layers or your mane is all one length.
If you’re working with layered strands it’s okay if some pieces fall out for a more wispy effect. (Plus you can always pull a few short, wispy strands loose to frame your face.)
While if your locks are all one length you can create a clean, classic looking bob. With volume to spare at the bottom of the ‘do.
Now if you pay attention you’ll notice more are wearing this look than you might have imagined.
And no wonder. It’s versatile and perfect for any dressier occasion that calls for a glammed up style that looks shorter yet belies the hidden length.
Not to mention it might just satisfy your urge to cut your hair when the heat has you fantasizing about going shorter.
Did I mention all this styling goodness can be achieved in 10 minutes or less?
Okay so next up are three ways to use a maze of braids to build the anchor for your bob. Perfect for anyone looking for different ways to use braided hair to hide the length.
#2 Easy Fake Bobs Using a Flat Circular Braid
This approach to bob base building mentioned earlier uses a twisted braid in the back made from the lower (read longer) parts of your mane.
The idea is for those longer strands to lay all snug and flat against the back of your head. This then serves as the base that you pin other sections into to both hide the braid and shorten the length of the top layer of hair.
Split your hair starting with the strands from the tops of your ears on back. Clip or tie the top layer up and out of the way to get to later. (You might want to leave the front strands that frame your face loose.)
Roughly braid all that lower hair securing the ends with an elastic tie. Then wrap the braid into a flattish bun pinned securely with bobby pins against your scalp to keep it out of sight. (I just wish she would have shown how she did that exactly.)
The rest pretty much involves curling iron time. When done curling the ends are secured into the braid. Got it?
This next video makes an important point. It proves seriously long hair shouldn’t stop you from going short for a night. You just need to use more than one way to shrink the length.
#3 Go From Endless Mane to Short and Tucked Under In Mere Minutes
Now this tucked under look requires you know two tricks.
As is pretty much standard practice, the mane is first divided from the ears back with the top layers clipped up and held out of the way with an alligator clip.
Now the first bit of styling trickery required to deal with all that length uses two long, loose braids to seriously cut down the volume. They are then twisted into one tightly coiled, well secured low bun.
Having accomplished that the top half of hair is taken down and pulled up like a very high pony so two or three sections of the top layer can be teased lightly near the scalp for volume.
Then the rest is then draped backwards over the teased sections.
This is where the second trick comes into play. Gather the top portion in the back and pull it into a low pony held with an elastic. Coil that onto itself and fold it up and under so it disappears into the hair in the back.
Use as many bobby pins as needed until the tucked up strands feel secure in the coil of braids.
The end result is a dramatically different, smooth, voluminous style that positively oozes glamour.
But wait. There’s yet one more novel variation on the theme of using braids.
#4 Cute and Curly Version With Body to Spare
Again divide your mane from ear to ear as before clipping the top portion up and away.
Next divide the hair not clipped up into three, more or less equal, sections.
Spritz one section with hairspray before backcombing the under-layers (a little) to build in some body.
Then here’s the hack. Braid the bottom of the section, and by that I mean the unteased hair, keeping the plait nice and loose. Leave about an inch of hair unbraided and secure the ends with a tie.
Repeat with each of the three sections.
Hairspray. Tease. Braid.
Oh and don’t worry about how scary these sections look. No one will see them.
Pro Tip: You don’t have to use hairspray at every step. It can be saved and applied at the end to hold things together. But working it in as you go leaves room for movement and avoids creating anything approaching helmet hair. Know what I mean?
Now take one of braided sections.
Loosen the braid a bit more before looping it up and over pinning the end into your hair. (This is what makes your strands shorter.) Use at least one bobby pin inserted on each side but don’t hesitate to do whatever it takes to affix this slightly braided bit in place.
Repeat with the other two braided sections.
Did you catch what this does for you? It’s helps to mask the true length of your hair for one. And creates some added “padding” to give the finished faux bob hairstyle some depth.
Next release the top layers. Tease them just a bit and curl for added movement.
Gather all the ends into a pony tail and tuck them out of sight as your next step in creating the illusion of a much shorter ‘do.
How’s that for another approach to braiding to get an adorable, romance-novel-esque look that’s good for one day?
The elegantly undone style that results will be a totally convincing curly faux bob. Reminiscent of the 1920s for sure. Only thing left to do is ask “Has Zelda arrived yet?”
But maybe you don’t like backcombing. In that case here’s a
#5 Tease Free Soft Bun Maker Hack
The emphasis of this video is on using a donut bun maker as the base to wrap up quite long hair. The benefit being you can pin into the bun maker which is harder to do if using sock.
As before don’t sweat how messy the bun is. Just don’t let it get totally away from you either in case it peeks through the bob. You want no one to notice it exactly.
Pretty much work with the upper layers as the previous videos have shown.
There you have it. Another way to satisfy your short hair envy without sacrificing the length you’ve worked so hard to grow out and keep healthy.
#6 Two Faux Bob Tutorials for the Price of One
This two minute plus video quickly demonstrates two different approaches that produce two dramatically different looks.
About now it should be dawning on you that this isn’t anywhere near a time consuming involved styling technique.
The first approach involves using the more classic a braided ponytail technique to disguise the length producing a chic, sleek style.
The second bit of styling sleight of hand goes for more of a tucked in curly bob with texture to spare built on coils of hair as the base.
Aside from the curling iron time with the second both of these are high speed methods. Or what you might know as my kind of hairstyle.
Smooth Bob
This one produces a sleek, elegant and extremely polished looking “bob”. Can you say so ladylike?
Simply pull your hair back into a low ponytail and secure it with an elastic like you normally would.
Next braid the pony tail portion below the elastic and secure that braid with a small elastic.
Roll the braid up onto itself and pin it up and under the rest of the hair. Hiding the length like this will give a smooth style that looks something like a bob with a graceful under curl to it.
Be sure to fasten that roll of hair in place using plenty of bobby pins.
Smooth out as needed in the back and the camouflage act is complete.
Finish the look by styling the piecey strands nearest your face with a flat iron to give them a bit more bounce and wavy texture. Spritz with your fav holding product.
Viola! A picture perfect look. And another way how to make long tresses look like a bob without cutting.
Curly Bob
Whenever voluminous spiral curls are involved you just know the outcome has to be sexy, smart and sophisticated looking.
You also just have to know an impressive pin job might be lurking just out of sight.
There’s not a lot of time required here either if you don’t count the curling iron or wand prep work to curl the hair all around your head.
Tuck Tuck and Away – With the Length
Divide your hair about ear high from the sides around to the back of your head and pin the upper part out of the way.
Working with the lower sections, take about inch wide portions and twirl each around a couple of fingers to create a little coil of rolled up hair.
Roll it up tight against your scalp.
Slide a bobby pin on either side to hold each roll in place.
Repeat until all the hair of the lower part is all tucked snugly against your head. It doesn’t hurt to pin each roll up a little into the one next to it to make sure they stay put.
Let the rest of your hair down.
Take small sections and tie off each with a couple of elastics – think like a bubble pony tail.
Pull the strands above the elastic out just a little to create a bit of volume and added bulk. This also helps to give a loose, airy, effortless feel to the style.
Take the ends of each section and pin into the roll ups underneath. Be sure the ends and elastics are properly pinned out of sight.
Play around with the strands using your fingers to position them just right.
Hopefully you agree the result is a totally flattering, curly, faux-bob.
Bet you never thought faking commitment free styles like this could be so easy.
Finally one more way to change up your look without sacrificing length.
#7 Faux a Perky A Line
The clever approach revealed here takes out the length by creatively using twisted strands concealed on the side of your head. But to me the thing that makes this one fascinating is you actually create a convincing A-Line bob affect.
Quite the hack.
Again as you’ve seen again and again here is the hair is divided so the lower half can be twisted.
After twisting about half the length of the section bring the twist up above your ear, and fold it down over itself to create, hmmm, like a little bun on the side of your head.
Criss-cross the bobby pins to make sure things stay put. You want it as flat and flush to your scalp as you can.
Do the same on the other side paying attention so the lengths drooping down on both sides are about the same.
Pro Tip: If your tresses are too slippery for the bobby pins to hold try applying some texturing powder first to give the pins something to grab onto.
Turning your attention to what’s left, unclip the rest.
Blend it with what’s already hanging down.
Backcomb the underside of the top most section for volume. Do the same with the hair on sides from mid strand to the roots to get some poufy action going to help hide the pins.
Smooth the top most layer some to help create a more convincing bob like appearance. Probably more than she did in the video.
To lock in the look apply a generous amount of hairspray.
Great way to fake short hair creatively applied.
Just wish her tresses were a little bit healthier so the final result looked prettier. Poor thing. If nothing else she could surely use a serious dusting, if not a half inch trim, to remove the most dry and damaged ends hampering the look.
That’s a Wrap
Apply any of the seven methods shared here and don’t be surprised if some start calling you a hair artist! Because any of these “pretend” haircuts easily give you a change of pace style without snipping a single hair on your head. The perfect fake nip and tuck for April Fool’s or an elegant Gatsby event.
Leave a Reply