Gigi Hadid’s Bob Caused a Sensation: Here’s How to Do It

Gigi Hadid, who used some hair stylist magic for the American Music Awards on Nov. 22. Credit Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated Press

Three days before this year’s American Music Awards, held in Los Angeles on Nov. 22, the hairstylist Bryce Scarlett received a text from the model Gigi Hadid: “What do you think about wigs?”

He replied: “I love them. Tell me more.” The two set out to create a style that would dupe the Internet.

The resultant faux bob looked so real, social media immediately began buzzing. Had Gigi cut her famously long, thick hair?

The fervor was fueled by more than collective celebrity obsession. In Ms. Hadid, the public saw themselves. She was a young woman who had faced a timeless dilemma: Should I go short? (The look, for a few minutes, even fooled the E! red carpet interviewer, Giuliana Rancic, who, when complimenting Ms. Hadid on her new short style, was greeted by a small smile and the suggestion that she “check back tomorrow to see if I still have short hair.”)

Ms. Hadid’s mother, Yolanda Foster, the former model turned Real Housewife, clarified on Instagram that the style was a #JustOneNightBob. It was then that observers realized that Ms. Hadid, like many, couldn’t quite commit to a cut.

Happily, Mr. Scarlett devised a wholly believable way to fake a bob.

First, he separated and pinned away the front two inches of Ms. Hadid’s hair. He saturated the remaining hair with water and Matrix Style Link Super Fixer Strong Hold Gel, $18, and wrapped it tightly around her head in a circular pattern. (Picture the result looking like a cinnamon roll.)

“The hair must be as flat as possible to the scalp so there are no lumps,” Mr. Scarlett said. He cut the front few inches off a color-matched wig and glued it the scalp. He then covered the wig with the free front section of Ms. Hadid’s hair.

“To pull this off, the only thing you really need is face-framing layers,” he said. “You have to have enough short hair to hide the wig. If you have long one-length hair like Cher, you can’t do this.” It took two hours just to get the wig in place, and there was still some additional styling to be done.

“But Gigi was really committed to the idea,” Mr. Scarlett said. “Her dress had so much going on and a high neckline, so she wanted hair that was easy-looking.”

Bobs tend to proliferate during fall and winter. During a season when fashion encroaches upon the face — fluffy turtleneck sweaters and scarves envelop us — bobs make a sleek, unfussy pairing. Naomi Campbell arrived at the British Fashion Awards on Nov. 23 with cropped hair. Coincidentally, she, too, wore a rather involved dress (with a wide choker that gave the illusion of a high neckline).

The bob to wear right now is disheveled. It eschews blown-out-just-this-morning perfection. “The cut should be tapered and layered with not a lot of weight in the ends,” Mr. Scarlett said. “That way, the hair didn’t look wiggy.”

In terms of daily maintenance, there’s no better season to go short. Low-humidity air makes frizz, a concern for short hair, less likely. Mr. Scarlett suggests mousse for volume toward the roots and a serum to sharpen the ends. He dusted Matrix Style Link Height Riser (a volumizing powder, $18) along the hairline and worked it through with a boar-bristle brush.

“It makes it look like you just casually pushed your hair back, but it’ll actually stay there,” he said.

Mr. Scarlett’s No. 1 styling tip: Do not be afraid of product. “There’s a misconception that hair products aren’t modern,” he said. “Young girls are like, ‘My mom uses hair spray.’ But you’ve got to embrace it. It took so much product to make Gigi’s hair look that effortless.”