Emily Ratajkowski—model, business woman, and famous brunette—is officially blonde. Understandable, when you’re stuck in quarantine and the face of Kérastase haircare. “I’m in LA. I’m in my bed, drinking coffee, waking up as my first morning as a blonde,” she told ELLE.com over the phone. “With quarantine, you’re staring at yourself in the mirror and you’re like, I need to change!”
But quarantine can’t take all the credit.”I’d seen a lot of fan edits of me as a blonde, which is really dorky,” she explains. “I’ve also been a longtime fan of wigs.” After talking with one of the heads at Kérastase, a blonde was born. “They were like, let’s do it. There’s the new Blond Absolu Collection coming out, and we love the idea of a transformation. So with their full blessing and support, we went for it yesterday.”
Ahead, Ratajkowski talks quarantine life, Instagram haters, and answers the age old question: Do blondes really have more fun?
Why did you trust Kérastase with this transformation?
I’ve been the face of Kérastase for two years, so I have a long relationship with them. But even before that, their products are really amazing. It’s always hard because I know that whenever I’m the spokesperson for someone, people are like, yeah, you’re just saying that. But honestly, it changed my hair. It’s such good shampoo and conditioner. My friends who stay at my house and use the shampoo, never go back. My husband’s hair is so nice because of it.
How long did the process take?
So long! I got in the chair around 9:00 AM and I left around 4:30 PM. We were getting it right though, too. We did the first stage of it. Then we did a second. The colorist did a mask. Then we went in to fix the roots. I didn’t want streaky or stripey blonde. If I’m going to go blonde, I want to go blonde. But the root was really important. So it was just kind of about finessing it and getting it right. I also wanted the color to be kind of more like yellow than ashy. I know a lot of people love the ashy right now, but I just think for my complexion, that wasn’t right.
Were there any blonde icons that you looked to for inspiration?
I looked at a ton of pictures. Some were just random nineties models. Then I actually looked at Pam Anderson and I looked at Sharon Tate. I looked at contemporary people who’ve done transformations. I was kind of very nervous yesterday to be honest with you, but now I feel really good about it.
Do you think your beauty looks will change with your blonde hair?
Yes. I’m coming back to New York relatively soon and I was looking through my closet and I was like, okay, red silk dress feels very different now. Like I don’t know about this. But yeah, definitely. I mean, I think I’m still sticking to the signature look that I always do, which is just like a little bit of a cat eye and a lot of blush. But my eyebrows definitely read a lot darker now, which I love. And I think I’ll probably end up playing that up a lot more.
How do you think your brunette fans will feel about your new look?
It’s going to definitely be controversial, I think. I’ve posted [and asked my followers], “Should I do it?” before. And people are like 50/50. But I feel like that’s just mostly men telling me what to do with my hair, which like, I’m not that interested in. So they can learn to deal with it.
You’re going to debut this blonde look on Instagram. Do you have any idea what the caption will be?
No. Do you have any advice? I took a bunch of pictures yesterday and they looked edited, so I ended up landing on a video to post today. Just so like the haters can’t say it’s Photoshop, you know? I sat in the chair for eight hours. Like I deserve a medal.
Do blondes actually have more fun?
It’s early, but I can say I definitely am having a lot of fun. That’s what’s cool about beauty and fashion. Especially when the world has all these things going on. It’s really a wonderful way to feel in control of your body and your look and have fun with your existence. I think transformations and having fun with your look is a joyous thing that more women should partake in.
What have you been up to in quarantine?
I actually finished a book proposal, which is a collection of essays that I worked on. A lot of them were worked on before quarantine, but the final edit and like putting them all together happened during quarantine. So I was weirdly blessed with the situation, because I had absolutely no FOMO. I’ve been reading a ton. I read Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. I read a lot of bell hooks. Alexander Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, which is an incredible collection of essays. I read Chanel Miller’s Know My Name, which is a book I think everyone should read. I watched ‘Mrs. America‘. I wish more people were talking about it because it’s really timely as well.
Besides going blonde, what’s the craziest thing you’ve done in quarantine?
I probably tortured my skin a little too much. Like there were moments, where you decide to give yourself a facial and then the next day, wake up and you’re like, that was a terrible idea.
Has your skin gotten better or worse in quarantine?
It got really bad at one point. I felt like I didn’t recognize my skin, the texture, everything felt weird. Then I got a bunch of new products. That’s actually a thing that I did that was a little crazy. My new routine actually really helped my skin. Now I use P50. There’s less chemicals. It feels like my skin feels better and tighter. I use snail mucin as a base. I’m really obsessed with Dr. Loretta’s moisturizer and cleanser.
You’ve been very outspoken on social media about issues you care about. Why is that important to you?
It’s always been important to me. I think that if I didn’t have a platform, I would still be talking about politics. It’s obviously an amazing thing to have an audience, but the truth is, everyone should be engaged in politics and things that they believe in. Politics is for everyone. It affects all of our lives and our existences. And it’s very important that we are all outspoken, whether you have 26 followers or 26 million followers.
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