THE chancellor George Osborne may have missed it and the Bank of England has still to give its verdict, but the most visible sign that the economy is indeed on the up has appeared: women’s hair is getting shorter.
The celebrity world has embraced the bob, the pixie crop and the lob (a long bob) with such enthusiasm that the trend is spreading, with hair salons reporting an upsurge in women taking the plunge.
Short hair means more frequent trips to the hairdresser and that is not cheap, so the fashion to go shorter suggests there is more money around — not so much the green shoots of recovery as the dark roots.
Among the celebrities who have adopted the new shorter trend are Kristen Stewart, Kim Kardashian, Rosamund Pike, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Anne Hathaway.
Miley Cyrus went for a pixie crop when she wanted to distance herself from her long-haired alter ego, Hannah Montana, and Robin Wright, who plays the ruthless Claire Underwood in House of Cards, combines Chanel dresses with a severe but feminine short cut.
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“It is always the celebrities who start it off,” said Stuart Phillips, the hairdresser who has styled well-known figures such as Serena Williams, Brigitte Nielsen, David Hasselhoff, Jonathan Ross, Jamie Oliver and Jaime Murray. He has a salon in Covent Garden, central London.
Phillips, who charges up to £200 for a haircut, believes the trend for shorter hair is a sure sign of better economic times.
“I meet people on a daily basis and they seem to be spending far more money on their hair. Products are flying off the shelf, more than they used to — even a few months ago,” he said.
“That trend for shorter hair is very true, not just with women, but with men as well. With short hair you need to keep it in shape. With long hair, a lot of women just tend to leave it for months on end.
“Women are having their hair almost as short as men these days, softer of course, very feminine. But it grows so fast — it’s great for the hairdressers. People are asking me when they should next come to the salon and I am saying between four to six weeks; it used to be a couple of months.”
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Hair is not the only thing getting shorter. Skirts are, too, and that has long been seen as an indicator of economic recovery, ever since the creation of the Hemline Index in the 1920s. Sales of micro-miniskirts are up and at the recent catwalk shows of Ostwald Helgason, Peter Som and Tome, miniskirts were a popular look, particularly when paired with tailored shirts.
It is the A-line miniskirt by the designer Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton that is setting the style for the season. “It is a cult skirt,” said Claudia Croft, the Sunday Times fashion editor.
“The shops have completely gone for it. Topshop has done it — it is all over the high street.”
The idea of shorter hair appeals to Grace Emily Skinner, 27, from Preston, Lancashire, a former model who has opted for a crop.
“Women are less afraid to splash out on maintaining short hair and getting all the products that go with it,” she said. “People are happy to spend more money and time on their own appearance.
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“I get my hair trimmed every month so that it is neat around my ears and I use wax, creams and hairspray — but then people use that even if they have long hair, too.
“It’s expensive whatever hair you’ve got, but with short hair you’ve got to keep it maintained.”
Women’s hairstyles have long been studied as a cultural indicator. Fiona Minors, programme director of fashion image at the London College of Fashion, said: “It can be about affluence, but I think it is multifaceted as to why this happens. It’s about new times ahead.
“Often when people make drastic cuts it’s about new times in their life, new periods involving either austerity or being more affluent. There is definitely something going on.”
A study in Japan in 2008 — one of the rockiest years for the global economy — suggested that in days of affluence Japanese women tended to grow their hair longer and in hard times they cut it — the opposite of what appears to be happening here.
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Fashion, though, is never going to be a science so it can vary from country to country. Also, hair is like any other trend: when it becomes too familiar it gets boring.
Whatever the reason, shorter hair is bad news in one family. The Duchess of Cambridge and Pippa Middleton are so far off trend that they could be living in Japan.