The Bob That Changed Everything: How 1920s New York Fell for Short Hair
Before balayage, before blowout bars, there was a single haircut that scandalized and thrilled New York all at once: the bob. And the man most responsible for bringing it to Manhattan wasn't American at all — he was a Polish-French hairdresser who went by one name: Antoine.
A salon at Saks that changed the city. In 1924, Antoine de Paris opened a salon inside Saks Fifth Avenue, and it quickly became, in the words of hairdressing historians, "the most fashionable hair salon in America." Wealthy New York women who had spent decades in long hair, elaborate updos, and hours in front of a mirror suddenly had somewhere on Fifth Avenue to go short — and they went in droves.
From Joan of Arc to the flapper. Antoine's relationship with short hair actually started years earlier, in 1909, when he introduced a cropped style inspired by depictions of Joan of Arc. But it was in the 1920s, with his "shingle cut" — a close, tapered cut at the nape that let hair swing freely at the jaw — that he found his moment. The style became the signature look of the flapper: daring, modern, and a visual rejection of everything Victorian femininity had asked of women's hair for a century.
Why a haircut needed a bodyguard of controversy. The bob wasn't just a style choice in the 1920s — it was a statement. Barbershops and hairdressers across the country reported women arriving in secret, husbands objecting, and newspapers running actual debates over whether short hair belonged on "respectable" women. That the trend had a Fifth Avenue address only added to its cultural weight: New York wasn't just adopting the bob, it was seen as legitimizing it for the rest of the country.
What it means for a Manhattan salon today. A hundred years later, the through-line is direct: New York salons don't just follow hair trends, they've historically been where those trends get decided. That's still true of color today the way it was true of cutting in the 1920s — which is part of why a complimentary, in-person consultation before any color work isn't a courtesy at Salon Icon NYC, it's the same instinct that made Antoine's chair the one everyone wanted to sit in: look at the person in front of you before deciding what looks right on them.
Curious what a confident, modern cut and color looks like on you?
Read more from The Journal: The 2026 Hair Guide, New York's Hairdressing Legacy, and Madam C.J. Walker and Harlem's Beauty Industry.