This feature appears in the pages of V117, our Spring Preview 2019 issue, on newsstands today!

The Queen of Nostalgia Traces Her New Look Back to Her Roots

This past year, Charli XCX released five singles, opened for Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” tour, and serenaded Jimmy Fallon with her biggest hit to date, “1999” featuring Troye Sivan, so you’d forgive the self-described beauty beginner for not finding time for a routine haircut. “I’ve always just let my hair grow, and it always looked messy and sort of vague,” XCX admits. “I’ve never had, like, a haircut.” 

Instead, the Cambridge-born bop machine has used wigs to try out looks, including a $10 Party City wig she bought on tour with Halsey. “It looked so bad and fake but I wouldn’t take it off. I became obsessed with it,” she says. In 2018, the illusion became a reality when the singer upgraded to an IRL bob cut. “I thought, ‘Fuck it. I love it, let’s cut it like this.’” 

It was the first step in a glam overhaul, which has now inspired a new beauty-centric tour zine, entitled Beyond Beauty. In it, Charli XCX’s versatile ombré bob can be seen in various updos, complemented by dewy cheeks and vibrant eyeshadow. The looks reconcile XCX’s low-maintenance impulses (“On my own I just wear lip balm”) with her natural expressiveness. As for her overall beauty philosophy, the queen of pop nostalgia traces it back to her roots: “My dad would always encourage me to be as weird as possible; he wanted me to explore everything,” she says. “Beauty comes from within, but makeup is fun.”

Click through Charli XCX’s Beyond Beauty zine below.