Back in the first years of marriage, the Duchess of Cambridge’s hair was out of control. I think she got addicted to the volume she achieved with hairpieces and weaves, so she just kept adding more and more until her head looked like a sausage-curled cotton ball. Eventually, she went for a less hilarious look, gently phasing out the tight doll curls and cutting her hair to a more manageable length. She started wearing fewer hairpieces and weaves, although in many appearances, you can see that she still clings to that “fall” wiglet in the back to give her some volume. My point? Kate’s hair is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, and that enigma is wearing a noticeable wiglet. But Kate wants you to know that she donated HER hair to a charity. For sure.
The Duchess of Cambridge has donated some of her hair to go towards making wigs for young patients suffering from cancer. The 36-year-old’s hairdresser is believed to have trimmed more than seven inches from her usual length. An aide is believed to have picked up the hair which is thought to have been sent to the Little Princess Trust. The organisation helps make wigs for children who have lost their own hair after receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment.
The idea is believed to have come to the Duchess after she had her hair cut at Kensington Palace by hairdresser Joey, 30, who works for Richard Ward Hair in Chelsea.
‘Four months ago Joey persuaded her it was time to take off some of her hair; he said it was just getting too long,’ a royal source told the Daily Express. ‘While Joey was snipping away the idea came to her of doing some good with it rather than throwing it away. She mentioned it to Joey, who thought it was a brilliant idea. It was sent using someone else’s name, so that the trust didn’t know it was from a royal source – they just thought it was from a female donor in the Kensington area.’
The source added: ‘It’s lovely to think somewhere a little girl is happily wearing a wig made from a real princess’s hair. It’s a very heartwarming thing for Kate to have done, and very thoughtful to use hair that would have otherwise just been thrown away.’
I have this image of Kate sitting in her Kensington Palace home-salon, being worked on by six hair stylists, and tossing them one of her wiglets: “Give this to the children!” Then she looks in the mirror and says to herself, “My goodness, I am such a selfless person!” In truth, the wigs-for-cancer-patients charities are great and if she really did this, good for her. But there are so many parts of this story that ring false to me. I mean, seven inches of hair? She got a dramatic haircut several years ago, but she didn’t get seven inches taken off four months ago. I also have my doubts that a wig charity would accept some highly-processed hair, right? Maybe Kate’s hair isn’t as processed as I think it is though – reportedly, she insists on organic dyes, so maybe they would take her hair.
PS… I know this “donate her hair to charity” story is about a week old, but here’s a late-breaking Keen Hair update: Kate’s hairdresser Amanda Cook Tucker had to delete her Instagram last week because she posted a photo of the 13 hairbrushes she needed for the Sweden-Norway tour. Tucker posted the photo of the brushes with an eyeroll emoji. Ooooh… that’s interesting.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
The hair dresser doesn’t know her place. Assumably she chose to be a hairdresser and work for royals, so what exactly is she rolling her emoji eyes about? It suprises me she’s not fired by them now.
Right. I’m sure working for celebs or royals would make me roll my eyes too just because it’s a LOT. But that’s me and why I would never work for someone like that. You chose the job…don’t be an idiot about it.
Yep. I’m a peasant and I still I wouldn’t want anyone who gave me personal services to discuss it. I hate my feet, they are ugly and I rarely get a pedicure. I wouldn’t want someone posting 🙄 about my bunions.
Hairstylists are mini-therapists. They know all the dirt on people and you know celebs blap just like the rest of us. A good one knows to zip up the lips and typing finger.
Somebody is about to be fired!
Following in the footsteps of HM’s (former) bra maker.
Sounds to me like she’s planning to quit-it doesn’t sound like it’s something she and Kate were joking around about at the stylist posted this. I actually am surprised she’s not out the door already.
I don’t know any stylist worth their salt who’d do that to ANY client much less a public figure. The woman is either tired of having a career or flat out having a nervous breakdown to pull that nonsense.
I am not buying it. Because companies who produce wigs do usually want non-dyed hair. Because they sorts of re-dye it.
7 inches is quite some length. I don’t recall her ever cutting of 7 inches in one strike 😉
Pretty sure hair donated for charities has to be tied together and sectioned before it is cut. A couple of years ago a good friend donated her hair to little princess trust, and I believe the hairdresser checked her hair was healthy enjoying and the. Separated it into 4 braids before cutting it off straight across, so it would be viable for a wig. I can’t imagine it would be feasible for someone to scrabble on the floor collecting strands of hair to send to charity – this sounds insane.
I think this was so nice of Kate, didn’t know she had hair that long!! 7 inches is longer than half a foot, thats very long, wow good for her!!! Don’t they donate minimum length 10 inches? Not sure about this but good for Kate.
Kate has never had her hair cut that drastically to fit the minimum donation. At most she has had four inches cut off and it’s all dyed anyway. KP never confirmed this story so it seems pretty sketchy and made up.
@ Nic919
Exactly. kate never chopped of 7 inches in one strike. She gradually cut of 4 inches and then 4 inches again.
Nevertheless it is a win-win for Kate.
Those who believe it believe it.
Those who don’t blame the hairdresser.
It must be in ponytails or braided. Also, hair may be coloured, but not “bleached” (color stripped out and put back in another color).
My brother in law’s nephew did this. He grew out his hair for Locks for Love, this luscious, thick blonde hair, and just before his bar mitzvah, he cut it all off and donated it all. All his own idea. (We are very proud 😊).
Thanks for the info about the coloring bit, I’d always vaguely heard your hair couldn’t be colored (there’s no way Kate’s isn’t) but it makes sense that color is ok without bleach.
I have read that colouring or dying hair does damage the hair too much so wig-makers can’t use it any more. Any permanent hair dye damages the hair too much, apparently. I think it is because the donated hair gets dyed again and they want no additional damage nor any colourful interferences.
Mr. R. used to grow out his lovely red gold hair into a long braid to donate every couple of years. They won’t accept less than 10 inches- it has to be cut, tied, combined with other donations, etc. so ends up shorter. It cannot be treated – permed, bleached, etc. Also, check your charity! Locks of Love is a popular one but they charge for the wigs. Pantene does not charge.
I used to work in a salon that had regular donations, tied back in one ponytail was fine. Just checked Little Princess Trust website and they do have a little notice thanking Kate Middleton for her donation.
My friend did this. If they discover the donated hair isn’t of high enough quality, it still gets used. The place she donated to puts together bags of hair to be used to help soak up oil spills from the ocean.
I recently donated hair and he just put my hair in a pony and cut that off. And it does have to be completely natural hair. At least where I come from
It’s incredibly nice and thoughtful when someone donates their hair for the people going through treatments which leaves them bald. I didn’t get a wig made of human hair, but many would rather have human hair, not fake hair.
I don’t think it’s a big deal that Kate wears hair pieces, because she’s definitely not the only one who does . Famous or not famous, rich or poor, bald or not bald, there thousands of people who wear kinds of hair pieces
Mmmmmm…7 inches? Not saying she didn’t, but it is a tad hard to believe. Be that as it may, we know a little girl who was at school with another little girl who had cancer. She’d heard about the Wigs for Cancer charity through her school and seeing a couple of documentaries about CanTeen etc. She vowed to donate her hair for the cause, but had to wait 3 years until she was eligible. Most people thought she’d forget about it. She didn’t. Last year, on her 10th birthday, she had her waist-length hair chopped off to a bob just below her ears and donated it to the charity. My daughter wanted to give her something, and I suggested a pair of butterfly earring with amethysts. When the little girl opened her gift, she exclaimed, “But how did you know I love butterflies and the colour purple?!” That’s secret teacher’s business. She was stunned by the surprise. We just told her that any little girl who would do something so selfless should have something nice done for her. I’m sorry, I’m still not buying the seven inches…
Thats exactly my thoughts. Hair to be 7 inches has to be waist length, not shoulder length.
I have curly hair (medium curls) and it can go from shoulder to rib length depending if I straighten it. It’s deceptive how long it really is.
7 inches is not a lot at all. You definitely don’t need waist length hair.
You don’t need waist length hair to cut 7 inches off, but Kate’s hair at its shortest still remains more than shoulder length and she would have needed to have her hair cut from mid shoulder length to chin length to have that much cut off for a donation. And that is ignoring that she dyes her hair and most places won’t accept dyed hair.
@ Annakist
That was really thoughtful and beautiful of the girl and your daughter. We (grown women) can probably learn something from how these little girls treat one another. (I know I can)
An inch isn’t as big as most people think or imagine, its about the tip of your pointer finger on an average size hand. Seven inches, if you have a medium sized hands, is about length of a hand. Its not a lot.
I am not buying seven inches either. Kate had cut her hair step by step. I would say that each cut reduced her hair lenght by 4-5 inches at most.
I posted links to the little princess trust above (and below). And of course Kate donated her hair anonymously. I guess her alleged anonymous donation is similar to her alleged secret work for charities.
“…The charity was informed that the Duchess of Cambridge’s hair was donated anonymously. It would have gone through the charity’s processes, just like everyone’s kind hair donation. The wig manufacturers are the skilled specialists who blend the hair donations together, as it can take between 7-10 individual donations to make a single wig. …”
http://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/duchess-cambridge-donates-hair-little-princess-trust/
7 inches is a bit longer than 1 ft or a bit shorter than a shoe US 0 or UK -2 or EU 29.
A foot is 12 inches, so 7 inches in not a bit longer than a foot, it is a little more than half a foot. Also there is no size 0 in American footwear. And it seems weird that there would be a size -2 in UK, but I don’t know about UK shoe sizes.
I cut my hair from mid-back length to the Katie Holmes angled bob about 10-ish years ago and I was told I couldn’t donate it because it’s dyed. So I have my doubts about this, even if she does use vegetable-based dyes or whatever.
PGrant, it depends on the charity, some accept dyed and permed hair, some don’t. I know for sure that bleached hair is never denotable.
The charity she supposedly donated to welcomes color-treated hair. It’s in their FAQs.
When I donated it had to be non processed, (no colour or perm) and 12 inches, maybe it is different for different charities. I am an old now so will have to find somewhere that will accept dyed hair.
Came here to say the same thing. The charities that accept hair asks that the hair is completely untreated with hair dyes or processes….katie’s been covering her greys for some time now
It depends on the charity.
The little princess trust does allegedly not require the hair to be non-treated / dyed. Respectively they don’t want “unnatural” hair colours according to their website.
Well, personally I don’t buy that Kate chopped of 7 inches in one saloon session. And secondly I doubt that they can use Kate’s dyed and double-dyed strands for anything because the girl has both highlights and low-lights (wtf). I think that this trust wants Kate’s name which is probably good for them. And they simply crossed that line which said they can’t accept dyed hair as donation.
I am somewhat miffed about this. I think a lot of women might cut off their dyed strands and donate them and this trust will accept them at first and then they will secretly throw them away because they can’t use them. Chopping off your hair for nothing. Nope, don’t like it.
I really don’t buy that anybody would make a wig from dyed hair. I have seen documentaries about wig makers and they all say: non-dyed hair only. That is why indian temple hair is in demand. In India you can donate your hair to a temple as a religios offering and the temple sells it to wig makers. And that hair is in demand because many people in India can’t afford to dye their hair.
Well, this is the trust’s website:
http://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/donate-hair/
Hair we are able to use:
Clean, dry hair in good condition (no split ends) from any gender, and of any natural colour
Straight, wavy, curly, permed or chemically straightened
Containing the occasional grey (less than 10%)
Dyed, bleached/highlighted (any dyes must be of a natural colour)
Ponytails(s) cut a long time ago, preserved in good condition
Hair we are unable to use:
Hair that is less than 7”/17cm in length
Dyed an unnatural colour (blue, green, purple, dyed red)
Largely/mostly grey hair
Afro (the wig-maker is not a specialist manufacturer of Afro wigs. The Trust buys in these wigs separately)
Dreadlocks
Hair extensions
New guidelines:
Wash and dry your hair
Do not add conditioner or styling products
Put your dry hair into a ponytail(s)
Secure at both ends with a hair band, and one half way down for good measure!
Ask your hairdresser to cut above the band(s) nearest your head
Now have the rest of your hair styled as you wish
Put your dry ponytail(s) into a clear resealable plastic bag
Place them in a padded envelope and post using a standard service to:
I personally believe the whole thing is a fib, now if she were to donate some of her many coats, i would believe she cared a little but truth be told she doesn’t want anyone to wear anything she has ever worn!
Isn’t Amanda her longtime trusted stylist? The eyeroll, then, is an interesting development indeed.
Looks like she’s practically begging to be fired.
But I gotta say — THIRTEEN hairbrushes??
Thirteen hairbrushes, half a dozen combs, two hair dryers, several cans of hair spray, plus various hair treatments. For four days.
Perhaps some of these thirteen hairbrushes are those that you leave-in after blow-drying … kind of like rollers.
Or perhaps it is one hairbrush for every piece of extension?
She’s the hairdresser though… Kate didn’t demand the use of 13 brushes lol
She is the one who decides which brushes to use…
What a dumb story
I mean, it’s possible the eye roll was just a general ‘isn’t it crazy I use so many hairbrushes’ thing or a ‘so over packing’ thing, not really directed at Kate.
The eye roll emoji is one of those ones that’s used to denote a really broad range of feelings, and like lol seems to have little to do with whether someone would actually be rolling their eyes in real life.
I have doubts about this too. I recently considered donating my hair and many charities’ requirements are quite strict. You can’t just scoop up hair off the floor and send it in. The hair also can’t be layered – it all has to be a certain length. You couldn’t BEGIN a haircut and then think “I know, I’ll donate!”. You’d have to know that’s what you were going to do from the beginning. Also Kate’s hair has never been that short, so I don’t believe this.
That was as my thought, too. You don’t start a haircut & then decide to donate. The intention needs to be there from the beginning. Hair is caught into a ponytail & cut. Plus I agree, she didn’t have seven extra inches just four months ago.
7 inches? Nope. I need to see a before and after photo and I think it is plenty odd that this just now comes out without an ounce of proof. Most people proudly show the images to document the whole thing. I have not seen her hair change that dramatically.
The only thing I can think of is that she donated 2 ponytails of 3.5 inches each. But that wouldn’t work bc the hair has to be at least 7 inches for them to use it. Though I guess there’s no reason why she couldn’t have donated it, even though once they got it, they couldn’t use it. Maybe that is exactly what happened. Her stylist either swept stuff off the floor or they cut two 3.5” ponytails and sent it off without checking any of the requirement beforehand.
I am not buying it either.
Kate never chopped off 7 inches in one strike. Kate dyes her hair and has both hightlights and low-lights. (Both are so subtle you can’t see them so dear Kate did probably get ripped off.)
I have never heard of a wig-maker who uses dyed hair.
I hope she did make this donation, but I find it VERY interesting this story came out now, right when Meghan Markle is getting lots of attention for her work events and wedding preparations. Many of these articles also tout Meghan’s long history of charity work. No one seems terribly excited about the birth of the third Cambridge child or the Sweden-Norway tour, so I can almost see Kate (or more correctly, Carole) thinking that a so-called “anonymous” hair donation would be just the ticket to remind everyone who is the future queen consort. I wish I could think better of Kate, but she has never shown much interest in her job or philanthropy thus far. Which begs the question…why now?
Right??? I think the same. That Kate is more & more in the spotlight, doing her job since Meghan came along. She will not be upstaged. Who knew she was this competitive? Maybe that’s how she ‘got’ Wills. Also, last photos I saw of Meghan, her hair looked long, shiny & beautiful.
Meghan’s hair is treated somehow. It looks nothing like her natural hair. And that’s fine.
But everyone needs to stop bashing Kate for doing even less to her hair than Meghan does.
I find this story unlikely as Kate’s hair hasn’t changed length that drastically – unless she donated one of the wiglets.
And I thought she had stopped using Richard Ward’s salon after he confirmed that she used wiglets on his website? Am not sure Amanda Tucker works for him.
As for why now – Meg’s getting all the press and someone isn’t too happy about that. I can’t imagine that either Kate or her family will be happy with the upstaging – the DoLittles are NEVER this busy this time of year, pregnant or not. This is normally when her family have a winter holiday and the Cambridges are almost always part of the group.
He never confirmed she used faked hair, that’s fanfic. Also I’ve never seen evidence Kate wears a weave, and I’m pretty good at spotting it. If someone is photographed from every possible angle, in windy, active conditions, you are bound to see something at some point. Nothing in 15+ years. Until someone posts a clear picture of a weft or extension attached, she doesn’t wear them.
Never seen evidence of the weave? …. cast your mind back to the early days when she had a track line in yhe front of her head. It was seen immediately and a fake story was invented about a childhood hockey scar. Funny how the scar vanished along with the cheap hair piece. I’m pretty sure her hair dresser admitted to it too, like no big deal. Then all of a suuden he wasn’t her hairdresser anymore.
My sil donates every two years. Her hair is color treated, not dyed and usually grows to the top of her shoulder blades. Maybe the requirements are different from charity to charity or country to country? Either way this is sure to get more people talking about/considering donating.
That’s great of your SIL, but I’m not understanding her hair is “color-treated not dyed”. Those are the same thing.
Dye is permanent.
“Colour-treated” might be non-permanent colour which washes out?
I read that she’d donated 9 inches, but 7 inches seems more like it. Her hair was actually quite long before she had it cut last summer. So yeah, she might have. 13 hairbrushes! Seriously?
Did Will donate his hair too?
LOL! He did it a couple of weeks ago!
I call major BS. Seven inches hardly seems like it would make for a significant length wig when you take into account that it has to be bound to the wig base and then additionally cut into a style.
There are shorter, and layered styles, that wigs are fashioned into. I know because I got one after my hair fell out after chemo (never could wear it out thought lol). Anyway, all I’m saying is not everyone gets a fall of long hair.
After chemo, my mother got a short, pixie hair style wig. 7 inches would be enough to make that, and a short hair style wig is easier to take care of than a long hair wig
The charity my friend donated to said they used 4 donations to make 1 wig so it’s never just the one donation
A bit off topic, but since the Tour was mentioned ny Bearcatlawyer, did anyone else notice that in the gift exchange, where Kate and Will got sweaters, She and Charlotte got red, Will and George got black, and there was *another* BLACK sweater labelled “for the new prince or princess”. Makes me think they’re having a boy.
Ooh, good catch.
Also the Norwegian royalty labelled the sweater to “Kate”. Since there is a lot of protocol behind gifts during tours, that is not an error.
Her name isn’t Kate though…
You don’t have to have waist length hair to donate 7 inches of hair! I never had waist length hair cause I find super long hair tacky but I had donated 10 inches of my hair a few years ago and I didn’t have a bob cut either to donate that much hair. I also have dyed my hair years before I donated it but never bleached it. I don’t blow dry my hair – just air dry it and I don’t really curl or iron it (which can damage your hair) just when I try to go on special night out so fortunately, i have a healthy, shiny, and straight jet black hair.
Kate could well have donated her hair, depending on which charity and their donation criteria. And the length is no biggie, a lot of charities take shorter than 6 inches and use it to offset wig making. Good for Kate if she did indeed donate. Just looks and feels a bit calculated since she has never done anything charity related for the last 8 years till Meghan came on the scene (Im not counting Heads Together or Endeavour as I feel these are all Harry ideas and the Cambs just riding on his coat tails). It would have been better if Kate donated but not publicized it, there was no need to make that a public announcement. But I guess that’s too much to ask of the Middle tones.
Heads together is all Harry’s idea, interesting! Do you have a link?
ITA @Masamf
@ MASAMF-“Middle Tones” YAAAASSSS!
Well, we know those brushes weren’t for William.
Ha Ha 😂
I wish she would donate some of her coats and dresses that she only wears for an hour.
Exactly, let’s hope she donates some of those coats.
Yea, the coat situation is getting out of hand.
She would be better off auctioning them off, bringing in $$ and donating that to a charity. She certainly wouldn’t bring in what Diana did, but she might bring in something.
When Diana’s gowns are sold at auction for millions of dollars, where do the proceeds go? Is there a foundation that always oversees these and the money is disbursed to charity? Or does the money just go to William and Harry? Ive always been curious about who is deciding which pieces go to auction when/where and who Is actually cashing in.
Exactly Veronica. She would bring in quite a bit of money, enough to cover her clothing costs and then some.
Why make the donation anonymously, then reveal yourself weeks later? Can’t help but think it’s for PR.
Four months ago, not a few weeks later. The fact that this just happens to come out now is highly suspicious.
4 months? I stand by my suspicions as to why this was announced.
You donate your hair anonymously and the organization you supposedly donated to now have a message on their website thanking you. Seems odd. Like you I believe it’s all PR.
True.
Kate’s natural hair is very curly/frizzy. I think many people have forgotten that since she gets blow outs everyday.
A wig made out of 7 inches of curly/frizzy (and probably heat-damaged) hair would make a little girl look like Pat from SNL, not a cute pixie.
And if she did indeed donate her hair (to make a Pat wig), since she only thought of it AFTER it had been cut, that means her hair was just swept from the floor and put it in a bag in a tangled, unusable mess.
And if she did indeed donate anonymously, i don’t think the organization bothered to get someone to sort the bag of tangled hair (strand by strand) to make into a Pat wig.
It isn’t ‘very curly/frizzy’ naturally. Do you know what curly hair is?
Also they use multiple donations per wig.
I’d take this story with a grain of salt – maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. But given her curls, she could have had more cut than is obvious. Seven inches really isn’t that long. My hair curls naturally but it’s amazing when I get a blowout (rarely) how much long it actually is that I can see once the curls are gone.
Right. Kate donated her hair and my farts are potpourri.
They’ve been having us on for the past seven years straight with one whopper after another. But this fabrication is a touch too far.
Why are we only now hearing about this? What an annoyingly obvious and stupid lie.
Who’s lying? The newspaper?
Kate Middleton and Sophie, Countess of Wessex to unite the Commonwealth with new fashion exchange programme – 9Honey
This should interesting.
Excuse me if I don’t believe even a tiny smidgen of this story.
Kate started Heads Together
https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2017101043086/kate-middleton-started-heads-together/