Shingle

The shingle was considered the most feminine women's short hairdo of the 1920s. The style featured short hair worn close to the head with the front and the sides cut to cover the ears and the back cut and shaped into layers of short fringe at the neckline to resemble shingles on a roof. The sides were cut at a slant, with the shortest hair at the nape of the neck and the longest hair falling at the bottom tip of the earlobe and forming a curl. The hairdo was parted at the center or on the side. The shingle hairdo sometimes was waved a bit, and it was less flat and heavy looking than the bluntly cut bob, an extremely short haircut.

The shingle was created in 1914 by Polish-born, Paris-based hairdresser Monsieur Antoine, also known as Antoine de Paris (born Antek Cierplikowski; 1884–1977), who was hairstylist to several of Europe's most renowned actresses. Monsieur Antoine designed the shingle hairstyle especially for Irene Castle (1893–1969), a trendsetting American ballroom dancing star who was performing in Paris, France. The style quickly caught on in Europe, and by 1927 Monsieur Antoine opened an elegant hair salon in New York City and formally introduced the shingle cut, or shingle bob, to wealthy American women. At the same time the shingle cut also was introduced to millions of movie fans when it was worn by film star Louise Brooks (1906–1985). After admiring the onscreen hairdo of Brooks, thousands of young women asked their hairdressers to give them shingle cuts. The shingle hairstyle remained stylish into the early 1930s, and then its popularity gave way to looser, more traditionally feminine mid-length hairdos.