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The Big Chop: Coco Rocha’s Bold Blonde Bob

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Photo courtesy of Locks & Mane

Who doesn’t want the long, luscious locks of the spring 2017 runways—or wait, we mean the lobs of the spring 2017 runways. Wait. (Exactly.) Both styles were trending big-time, and both styles are giving us hair envy. And luckily for those of us who want it all, the hair extension game is getting better, easier, faster, less damaging, and frankly, more widely accepted and encouraged.

Canadian hair extension company, Locks & Mane, has supermodel Coco Rocha on their side, as the face of “The Trunk Show,” a travelling pop-up hair-extension boutique that will make its way to select Hudson’s Bay stores across Canada until November 5th. Rocha, who recently switched up her signature brunette hair for a platinum blonde bob, is the poster-girl for changing up her style, but we’ve never seen anything quite like this. It’s chic, it’s shocking, and we want it, but we’d miss our longer locks too… and that’s exactly where Locks & Mane has us covered.

Here, Coco Rocha gives us the scoop on her drastic chop; why she did it, how it’s changed her career, and how Locks & Mane is her answer to the inevitable bouts of hair-envy that come with the territory.

Photo courtesy of Locks & Mane
Photo courtesy of Locks & Mane

S/ magazine: What’s it like to go short and blonde so suddenly?

Coco Rocha: For me, personally, I think I got used to it after a day or so. But I think the first thing [we noticed] was with the baby [Ioni Conran]. Going home, I knew it was going to be interesting, so we filmed it. We knew she would just be so confused, and she was. She didn’t cry, but she was like: “your voice is my Mum, but you are not my Mum.” [laughs] Every few days, she points at me, and goes “hairrrr!” Just to remind me that, you know, “that’s new!”

S/: You’re probably used to seeing yourself look vastly different from day to day. Are you happy with it?

CR: Well this is something I’ve wanted to do forever. And funny enough, I’ve only shot, what, I think two… [she glances at a nodding husband and mother on the other side of the room for confirmation…] I’ve only shot two times with wigs that are blonde in my entire career. I’ve shot all sorts of wigs, but it’s silly to me… I feel like I should have had a lot more blonde in my repertoire.

S/: Yeah, you would think!

CR: So, I think that’s why I really wanted to do it, and when I approached the hairstylist and creative director of Balmain Hair, Nabil [Harlow] (we’ve worked together many times), he was like “let’s do it for [Balmain’s] haircare campaign!” He wanted to really cut it [short], and I wanted a lob, so we went in the middle. But I actually love the length. I think it’s a lot of fun.

S/: How will a major change like this affect your modelling career?

CR: That was actually [the most important] thing. Before even working with Locks & Mane, I knew I’d have to be able to put extensions in. For my work, people can be a little short-sighted. They look at [your short hair] and they’ll go: “Well, that’s all you can do.” And it’s like, no! We can do everything with this! But this is the perfect length to add hair, take away hair, etc.

S/: Does it feel different on set?

CR: It’s funny… we were just shooting my clothing (I was the model for [the line]), and we were joking about how easily hair just makes the look. I felt like a lazy model, because usually as a model, I’ve really owned the pose, and really… I wouldn’t say overdo it, but I like to be exaggerated with my poses. And with this hair, I literally would sit on a chair, and they’re like: “That’s amazing! We love it!” So it’s just interesting how a different perspective makes [being on set] exciting again. You’ve been seeing this face and this hair the same way for years, but when there’s new hair, it’s kind of exciting to see… it’s a new kind of Coco!

S/: Will you stick with it?

CR: I’m sure in a few weeks or months I’ll change it. I’ll cut it, change the colour around, grow it… It’s funny, I think we are more open than ever to [the idea of] people having short hair one day, and long hair the next. Nobody goes “want, WHAT?” So now I’m not too nervous to keep it short.

S/: You make a very good point. I mean, there was certainly a time when… heaven forbid anyone find out your hair isn’t entirely “natural.” Now we just switch it up, and call it fashion.

CR: Exactly. And funny enough, [my Mum’s] generation would wear wigs. She’s a flight attendant, and they used to wear wigs to work. Every day they’d change their looks, and it wasn’t a big deal. Now wigs are coming back. Extensions have been back for a while, but it used to be that when you had a short haircut, you were supposed to own it and leave it that way. And now, if I wake up and I want to have long hair, I can do it myself.

S/: And do you? Do it yourself, I mean? Are extensions tricky to put in?

CR: It’s hard to do it yourself if you have certain types of extensions. But, for example, with Locks & Mane, [you’re using] two perfect rows of hair and they’re filled, so you just put one down here [she points to her hair], and one on top, and then you’re done. Whereas, if I were to do it the old-school way, with glue, they’re very fine, and I’d have to put in like 10 layers before it’s perfect. I don’t have time for that—especially with a baby. I don’t want to do that. I love the fact that I can literally just pop one, pop two, and I’m done. I can have my fix of long hair for a day.

 

S/: I remember when you went red. And I remember seeing (maybe on Instagram?) that you had to keep the red colour under wraps (literally, with a scarf), until a specific date. Did you have to do that this time?

CR: I did! I recently had an event, and I had a wig and a hat on. No one knew, which I was very impressed with, but yeah, it had to be under wraps for a week. But that’s good. A week is not that bad. I think today is my second day of seeing people without a wig.

S/: That’s got to feel pretty strange.

CR: It is the silliest thing. I just did a little TV show, and I had to tell everyone that no photos were to be taken, and no social media, and no tagging, no nothing, and I was like… this is silly. It sounds like I have this great, I don’t know, power. Like, its not that big of a deal, but supposedly it’s a big deal? [laughs]

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