"Basically, I needed some new hair stuff and thought these guys could point me in the right direction," jokes Suki Waterhouse. We're talking to the model and actress about her new role as brand muse, her second big beauty signing since Burberry's Brit Rhythm fragrance in 2014. And she knows how big a deal it is. "Redken is such an iconic brand. It's a huge honour to work with them, and get all the products! I love everything and am pretty happy I now get to use it all."
Waterhouse's first role is as the face - or rather the big, bouncy hair - of the brand's new Diamond Oil Glow Dry, starring in a print and digital campaign set to launch next month. It's undeniably her laid-back approach that makes her such a good choice for the brand. A natural, pared-back beauty in her own time, she's a chameleon when it comes to her modelling and red carpet appearances - ethereal and feminine at the recent Serpentine Summer Party in diaphanous Valentino or sexy and Sixties-esque in Vogue's April issue, which she appeared on the cover of alongside Georgia May Jagger and Cara Delevingne.
"I really enjoy having my hair properly 'done', like for the campaign - it's fun to see what you can look like and to be transformed like that. But on a day-to-day basis I'm a wash and then leave the house kind of girl. Shower, leave, scrunch. It's all about the scrunch," she admits. "I love the Diamond Oil Glow Dry, it gives you shine without being too heavy and is really easy to use. You can blow-dry with it or you can put it in wet hair and then just stick your hair out of the car window. I also love Redken's Windblown spray - basically the messier I can make my hair, the better. I love hair like Sienna Miller's, hers always looks amazing - especially when she had it that pale pink colour."
When it comes to hair upkeep Waterhouse turns to George Northwood, the man behind Alexa Chung and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's similarly tousled styles, while colour is simple and natural (a stint as a brunette for a film role last year gave her an "identity crisis"). Right now though, her focus is on growing out her fringe - a task harder than it sounds.
"It is so annoying. I keep wanting to cut it. I loved having a fringe at the time, but I'm not good with hair upkeep and it became a nuisance. Eventually I just thought: 'Enough!' I've had plenty of hair disasters in my time, when I was younger I had some bad pharmacy hair dye jobs, but my worst hair mishap was probably when I dyed my little brother's hair platinum blonde. He was about six. He was the only one of us four children that wasn't blonde, so I thought I'd help him fit in. My mum cried."
With her new Redken campaign, a Burberry Beauty contract, several upcoming film roles and a steadily-increasing number of magazine covers to her name, business is good for Waterhouse. But it's not all work and no play. Currently house-hunting in London after a stint of filming in LA, she was endlessly photographed at Glastonbury at the end of June - definitely one of the better-dressed in her signature Sixties sunglasses, classic denim cut-offs and a riotously colourful fringed jacket.
"Glamping isn't nearly as fun as camping - I started out glamping but ended up camping anyway. I don't really dress up for festivals - just one or two pieces and a good jacket," she tells us. "My essentials were a head torch - you'll become really cool if you've got one of them - and a bum bag. I love bum bags. You do not want to be carrying a real bag at Glasto. With a bum bag I didn't lose anything. I'm going to design a range of them."
Read more: Style File - Suki Waterhouse
But in classic Suki style, no rest was to be had upon her return - it was straight into training for next year's London Marathon which she plans to run in aid of her father's charity: Facing the World.
"I've got ages though because it's next year... I've just done my third run, so I have a way to go! But I have a trainer and I'm finding it really fun," she says. "I did my last big run after my sister Immy's twenty-first birthday party and it was so, so hard. Basically I never seem to make things easy for myself."
Perhaps not, but there's no denying it all seems to be falling into place anyway.
Read more: Style File - Suki Waterhouse
Read more: Behind The Cover: Cover-Girl Hair
