WHAT ABOUT BOBS?

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

Softer. Wispier. More natural colors. Hair named "Bob."

The classic bob seems to never go out of style when it comes to women's hair; it only gets modified.

"We've come up with a name for this one," says Dayna Evans, owner of Panache Hair Design in Eugene - "Shattered Bob."

Indeed, Jeanette Hatch's new red do definitely has a "shattered" thing going on, in a good way, and is downright "bobbish."

And she likes it.

"I think it looks great," says Hatch, 46, a bartender at Wings Bar & Grill at the Eugene Airport. "It's kind of like spring."

Exactly.

"It's kind of what's going on with hair right now," Evans says.

Precisely.

What's going on with hair "right now," when it comes to women, depends on what season it is, says Christa Tollefson, a hairstylist at Chikara Salon & Spa at the Oakway Center. When it comes to men, well, that often depends on what decade it is, Tollefson says with a laugh.

Change.

Not what most guys are into. Just check out the Baby Boomer next to you in line at the grocery store and notice that his hair, although there's less of it than in the 1970s, might still very well be parted down the middle.

Soooo three decades ago. That's OK, though, with some styles.

Hairstyles change with the times, stylists say, and a lot of it has to do with what Jennifer Aniston is doing with her hair and what Johnny Depp is doing with his. And more than anything, with what Europe had going on months ago or last year, says Sheri O'Brien, co-owner of Imagine Creative Hair Design on West 18th Avenue in Eugene.

This spring brings - brace yourself- some of the '60s, '70s and '80s back to hairstyles. But again, only in a good way. The straight look with blunt ends is slowly disappearing, says Cindy Hookland, a hairstylist at Panache. Now, the look is toward a softer, more vertical flip at the ends, with more soft curls. Similar to the Farrah Fawcett look of the '70s, minus the "big hair" aspect, Hookland says as she works on 19-year-old University of Oregon student Chelsea Hinman, who's getting quite a bit more curl and flip put back in her hair.

Hinman says she doesn't really remember Farrah, of "Charlie's Angels" fame, but "I know her hair."

Not that she wants Farrah's hair, she's just wants that sort of movement. That bounce.

"Let hair be natural," Tollefson says. Wash it, and go with it, she says. "Like you just got back from the beach."

As for men, short, tight hair with a textured look is still in, as is the "fun, messy look," Tollefson says. So is a longer, shaggier look made popular by the Lukes of Oregon hoop fame. That would be Luke Ridnour, now with pro basketball's Seattle SuperSonics, and Luke Jackson, soon to be playing pro hoops somewhere.

`The `shag' is coming back for men and women,' O'Brien says. Long, heavy bangs with a lot of softness, she says, so you can "just run your fingers through and don't have to brush it."

Also in vogue are hair cocktails, mixing a couple of different hair products to get the look you want, Hookland says. For example, mixing a texturing glaze that enhances curl with a hemp seed oil that gives your hair a lot of shine.

If curls and bangs and warm, natural colors are in the mainstream, look out for the electro-clash look of the 1980s walking down a sidewalk near you, says Eugene's David Wilson, a stylist who owns Hair by David on West 11th Avenue.

"It's all about the underground, baby," Wilson says, tongue in cheek. "That whole look in hair is coming back."

You won't see Versace models walking runways in Eugene with their big, wavy, textured hair, but you'll see it in those of us who want it. And you'll start seeing more shaved and sculpted sides on hair with bangs hanging down.

Yes, all of these dos will cost you a penny or two, but only half as much, if not less, than in the big city, says Kim Finch, a stylist at Panache.

And if you don't want to spend any money going for that shaggier look, you could always have a friend cut it, as UO student Garrett Seabolt discovered earlier this week. Seabolt sat outside of his dormitory, Hamilton Hall, in Monday's hot, brilliant sunshine as friend Natalie Johnson cut his long, wispy locks.

"Everyone in our hall has short hair except me," says Seabolt, who also used to wear his high and tight. These days, it's either one way or the other for guys.

"In between looks like you forgot to cut your hair, " Johnson says, "or like you just got lazy."

CAPTION(S):

Panache stylists Cindy Hookland (left) and Kim Finch work on Chelsea Hinman, 19 (left), and Angela Copeland. Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard Dayna Evans, owner of Panache Hair Design, dries Jeanette Hatch's newly styled "shattered bob" hairdo.