Royal family

Princess Diana's hairdresser would never betray her confidence, but he did admit they tricked the media with secret haircuts sometimes.

Published on March 27, 2020

People loved Princess Diana for her huge heart. But it seems they were equally enamored by her hair.

Diana became a fashion icon in her time and arguably, the influence of her sartorial selections is still relevant today. From her outfits to her jewelry, fans wanted to copy everything about the Princess of Wales’s look. Including her signature hairdo.

Princess Diana’s hairstyle only changed slightly over the years but when she did alter it, she always made headlines. Diana’s personal stylist revealed in an interview how the two of them strategically planned her haircuts and never snipped too much at once.

Princess Diana’s personal hairstylist won’t reveal her secrets

The Princess of Wales probably spoke plenty to her hairdresser Richard Dalton, whom she saw almost daily. But even decades after her death, he’s shared very few details about her life with the public out of respect for her sons.

His co-worker Kevin Shanley is the one who first created Diana’s iconic short and feathered ‘do and also styled her hair for her wedding to Prince Charles. But it was Dalton who maintained her look for day-to-day events and who gave young Prince William and Prince Harry their first cuts. “I was with her every day for 12 years,” he told Town & Country.

Dalton had to cut her hair over time to keep it secret

Unlike most people in world, Princess Diana couldn’t just change her hairstyle at will. Every time she made the slightest change, the new look made headlines around the world.

The stylist recalls how the Princess of Wales wanted a shorter style for convenience before embarking on a tour of Africa. But instead of going for it in one session, she and Dalton conspired to make the change more subtle.

“Whatever I did to her hair became front page news,” he explained to Town & Country. “We had to be very careful. We had to do it one-fourth of an inch at a time over several weeks.”

Even with their careful efforts, the press still picked up on Diana’s ever-evolving hairstyling.

Princess Diana’s hair got her in trouble with Queen Elizabeth

There was one time when Diana wasn’t so careful about changing her hair and it got her into some trouble with her mother-in-law, the queen. Just after she gave birth to Prince Harry, Diana had been growing her hair a little longer and decided to debut the new look at a major royal event. The only trouble with that plan? She stole the show.

“[Diana] had this incredible new hairstyle and this very important dignified occasion – which is all part of the process of being the sovereign – was just blown out of the window because all the newspapers and the televisions really concentrated on Diana’s hairstyle,” the narrator for H.M The Queen: A Remarkable Life said.

“Now, this I was told really close to the time really infuriated the queen. She didn’t mind Diana having a new haircut – that wasn’t the point. The point was that by introducing it on the day of the Opening of Parliament, she took all the emphasis away from the dignity of the occasion. That was not very good for democracy and for the House of Windsor.”

After that, Diana was much more careful about changing her look too dramatically. The press took her new hairdos way too seriously.

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