Don’t Like Her Shaved Hair? Cara Delevingne Doesn’t Care, Calls It ‘Liberating’

In a recent Instagram post that made headlines, model-slash-actress Cara Delevingne urged her followers to redefine beauty.

She’s sticking by her words. And it’s why she didn’t hesitate to shave her head to play a young girl suffering from cancer in the upcoming film Life in a Year.

“Before I even got the project, I said to the director, ‘I want to shave my head for it,’” she said at an event for Magnum x Moschino in Cannes on Thursday. “My agents and managers were like, ‘Please don’t! Why would you do that?’”

For Delevingne the decision was an obvious one. “When it’s a part like that, especially when it’s about cancer, I needed to feel what it would be like to have no hair,” she said. “I think it’s so important to feel beautiful, no matter if you have hair. It doesn’t matter at all.”

Not that she was ever going to heed their warnings, says Delevingne.

“I don’t listen to other people. If someone tells me to do something, I do the opposite most of the time. Even for things like the [Met ball], people wanted me to wear a wig, and I said, ‘Why would I do that? I want to be proud of having no hair.’ I think it’s important to be who you are and be happy about that.”

Though the actress admits to initially being afraid, she now says shaving her head was “one of the most liberating things I’ve ever done. I really like it a lot. It’s been really amazing.”

Her hair transformation is just the most recent bold move from Delevingne, who is not afraid to express her individuality. She has been a vocal advocate for self-acceptance, a message not lost on her 40 million followers, and she thinks the way we treat others starts with how we treat ourselves.

“I think the first thing that people can do for a positive impact is to start treating themselves better,” she says. “A lot of people have a lot of hatred for themselves, and judge themselves too much. I’m not saying I’m perfect or that I completely have self-acceptance. I just think that that is the most important thing.”

Delevingne is also known for expressing herself through her ever-evolving style but says she is happiest in her pajamas. “I think I draw a lot of inspiration from the people around me. I’m friends with a lot of very stylish people,” she says. “But I think, for me, it’s all about being individual in terms of I don’t like to follow trends. I love to go thrift shopping, and wear clothes that I’ve had forever. I’ll wear one jacket a million times until it breaks. I’ll wear one pair of shoes every single day. I most of the time just like to be in my pajamas all day.”

What she loves most about collaborating with friends, stylists, and designers is to push her own limits.

Keeping in theme with expressing herself through fashion, Delevingne was in Cannes to discuss her collaboration with designer Jeremy Scott for his new line of Moschino bags featuring wild animals. The two worked together on a short film Scott directed called Release the Beast.

When it comes to unleashing her own beast, Delevingne says it’s hardly something she saves for special occasions.

“I don’t feel like a need to release the beast. I am my beast. I release it all the time,” she says. “Especially in the morning. I like to release the beast on the dance floor. I think being a beast isn’t a bad thing. I think it’s a good thing. Just about being instinctual and spontaneous.”

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