“I love taking beauty risks,” Cara Delevingne tells me on a sunny afternoon. “I feel like, in some ways, I’ve never grown up. I still love playing dress-up and exploring, whether that’s a character or gender, trying something on for a day can be fun.”
As of today, that “fun” is now officially part of Delevingne’s job title—the model, actor, and philanthropist is now a part of L’Oréal Paris’s Women of Worth collective and the face of the Superior Preference hair color line. Just earlier that week, in fact, she tells me she partook in some fun on the job at Larry King’s cool girl salon in London. “I try to not spend too much time thinking about a decision when it comes to my hair,” she says. “I’ve had my natural hair color for the last two or three years, haven’t dyed it. But I woke up last week and just decided ‘I’m going blonde.’ I texted Larry King about it, and here we are.”
And while hair experimentation is something Delevingne has dabbled in—like her shaved head and pastel pixie phases—she vows she’ll never touch her brows. “I have bleached them before,” she says. “I didn’t love them when I did. I just don’t want to mess them up!”
All of these learnings (both bleach-related and not) converge as the model enters a new decade. “In my thirties, I’ve learned how to really slow down and sit in myself,” she says. “Working with L’Oréal right now just makes sense, because because it’s a brand that tries to celebrate someone’s individuality and really empower people for who they are. At this age, I can really embody the slogan genuinely.”
A slower, more genuine life (because, well she’s worth it per the L’Oréal motto) includes a little gardening (“after Cabaret, I built an asparagus patch,” she says), bird watching, tea, and playing the returning to video games for the first time since her youth. “In some ways, I’ve grown up,” she says. “But in some ways, I’m still the same crusty teenager.”