Royal hair causes a frenzy — whether it’s Kate Middleton cutting her glossy chestnut strands into a lob or Meghan Markle making the cool-girl low bun a Duchess ‘do, blue-blood tresses never fail to set new trends. But before the Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex, there was the Princess of Wales, and as it happens, her hair caused such a stir, that she and her stylist Richard Dalton had a special method to revealing a new look.
Dalton, who worked with Princess Diana from 1981 to 1993 revealed in an interview with Town and Country, that instead of drastic chops, he would instead do it gradually, clipping ¼ of an inch every week.
Prior to a trip to Africa, Dalton recalls that the late Princess of Wales asked for a new look, but he felt that the change would be too stark to unveil all of a sudden. “Whatever I did to her hair became front page news,” he said,” We had to be very careful. We had to do it one-fourth of an inch at a time over several weeks.”
Given that the hairstylist personally assisted Diana for 12 years, he styled her tresses for many an occasion — some requiring tiaras. As it happens, styling hair around a bejeweled royal headpiece is more difficult than one would imagine, because hair product can’t touch it. “It’s a crown jewel, and must be respected and protected. You have to be extremely careful and gentle with it, and absolutely no hairspray or styling product can touch the stones,” said Dalton.
Given that, the former royal hairdresser was impressed by Meghan Markle’s wedding day hair, noting how elegant it was.
Princess Diana’s hair may have been full of secrets, but now we know a few of them.
