It seems silly to talk about optics in a pandemic, but then again, the Duchess of Cambridge has shown time and time again that she struggles with substance. And for what it’s worth, the handful of times we have seen Kate via Zoom videos in the past month, her appearance was a topic of conversation on other outlets beyond this blog. I wasn’t the only person who noticed that Kate looked like she had gotten some sun on her face. Some people theorized that she had been on a short, sunny holiday, but I doubt it. I think the answer is probably that she’s been sunbathing by a pool somewhere at Sandringham, or maybe she’s talking long, sunny walks around the huge property with some regularity.
And of course people noticed her hair as well. Pre-lockdown, Kate had taken several inches off her royal locks. But in last week’s BBC interview, her hair looked a bit different, and it wasn’t just the cut. She clearly – ?? – isn’t running off to get blowouts every three days during the lockdown, so is she styling herself? The Daily Mail’s expert thinks so:
The Duchess of Cambridge has been styling her own hair, an expert has claimed, after the royal was seen speaking alongside Prince William on on BBC Breakfast this morning. Kate Middleton, 38, was pictured sporting a bouncier and more relaxed blow dry with her pre-lockdown trimmed ends visible as she isolates with William, 37, and their three children at Amner Hall in Norfolk. And now celebrity hair stylist James Johnson has told FEMAIL how he believes the Duchess has been styling her own hair, and how it looks healthier as she goes to less events and has given it a break from regular heat.
James said: ‘Kate’s hair is usually more full of volume and pristine. Here her hair looks more undone, and definitely shows signs of her doing it herself. Although we are used to Kate’s perfect locks, Kate’s effort is great and it’s nice to see a more relaxed style on her. It’s not easy doing your hair yourself when you’re used to getting it done professionally, so Kate has done well. Kate may have even created the blowdry look with a medium tong, which can easily be done at home.’
He continued of her new style: ‘This mirror like structure to the style also opens the face up more and is perfect for showing off Kate’s beautiful features. Kate had her LOB (long bob) cut before lockdown and luckily she went for a shorter, lighter style which I no doubt is easier to maintain in these conditions. Not being so active with work is a great time for her to re-condition her hair, and it shows in the shine. The use of less heat day-to-day as Kate goes to less events is ideal for helping restore her hair, perfect for someone like Kate who normally has a busy schedule and a lot of hair styling’.
Yeah, in motion in last week’s video, her hair seemed pretty bouncy, but it also seemed… light. Physically, not as thick. I wonder if Kate has taken out her weaves/extensions and this is all her natural hair. I also wonder about the color, and if she’s dyeing it at home. Pre-lockdown, she absolutely went to the salon once a month just for color treatments, and I believe she probably had a hair stylist come to her house twice a week (at least) for blowouts and styling. So is she doing ALL of it herself? If she is, it looks good. But again, we’re setting the bar kind of low here, right? “It’s not easy doing your hair yourself when you’re used to getting it done professionally, so Kate has done well.” We’re really supposed to praise her for washing, blow-drying and coloring her hair herself??
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Praise her? Nah. But her hair does look good. She’s always had pretty hair.
This is a stupid story for some paper to right. Of course she is doing her own hair, it looks nice but we are in a pandemic and if she doesn’t look perfect well join the club.
Yes, this. Can we just not with all this speculation?!
I actually like her hair this color and length, so whoever is doing it is doing a pretty good job. It’d make sense for it to be her for the most part.
I know there are a few hair dressers here who have dropped off care packets to a few of their clients – they’ve made toning conditioners and stuff like that for them to prevent them from grabbing a box dye, which I thought was clever. Helps the client and the hairdresser avoid a more dire situation later on down the road lol.
Mine dropped off deep conditioning stuff.
She looks pretty without the pageant hair. More her age, in a good way.
It’s a vast improvement over the Shirley Temple perfect curls she used to wear. Her hair has been looking really good lately. It looked fantastic in the pictures of her dropping her kids off at school on their first day.
That’s because that colour is her original hair colour. She was fake brunette. She spends way too much money on her hair. obvious it’s not the genes because carole and pippa have dull and flat hair. I read somewhere that she spend 300 pounds for hair each engagement.
Her hair has looked the best recently than it ever has but am not sure she’s doing it herself – maybe she is but she is def doing her makeup herself. It’s as bad as always.
My sole comment is that Kate’s media coverage is generally limited to her appearance — clothes, hair, makeup — and it is cloyingly positive from the British press. (“A true Queen”, they say!) Whereas Meghan’s philanthropic/charitable efforts are panned as “attention grabbing.” Are Brits so misogynistic that they prefer a lazy, silent, pretty girl smiling widely at public events over a hardworking, independent, and ambitious badass who spends her time trying to benefit the public?
I definitely think she took the extentions out, and is styling it herself for these zoom calls.
I wouldn’t be surprised though if she has her hairstylist come to her house for touch-ups in terms of dye though. Her eyebrows also look very nice.
well, I tried to colour my roots at home and got the wrong colour so now my roots are two shades too light! that is really all I can offer this conversation.
Oh no! See… that’s my fear about doing my roots, but at the same time, if I make a mistake who’s gonna see it?
I learned my lesson with that in college. I dyed my hair this awesome dark maroon (looked black until the light hit it). It was demi perm, so once it started to fade I had to touch it up. I had A LOT of hair at the time, so starting at the roots to completed was probably 1/2 hour. My roots came out fuchsia! I could only laugh and be grateful it was winter and I could wear a hat. I have not colored my hair at home since.
My roots are really starting to show now (I was due to get my hair colored last week, actually) and I have a touch-up kit that I bought at the pharmacy. Right now it’s just sitting in my cabinet because I’m leery of using it even though my hair color is pretty simple: very dark brown.
I think I might bite the bullet in early May, if there’s no sign of things improving / salons reopening. I normally don’t fret too much about my hair but it is starting to get on my nerves…I look like a grizzled old lady hahaha.
Do a test patch on a section that’s not usually visible. How long you leave the color in also makes a difference.
LadyMTL, you made me laugh, I thought I was the only one who did that! Thank you!
I don’t colour any more, because my natural colour is quite unique and gets lots of compliments- but I cut my own hair with a razor yesterday. I knew I would never last till I can get to the hairdresser again.
Too me her hair looks so much better this way than with all the weaves, wigs and whatevers she normally puts to it.
+1, she looks young and way more natural.
We are having really nice weather in my country and I spent a lot of time outdoors last week and got a nice tan…and the weather in the UK seems to be really sunny as well…so easy to tan at the moment.
I hope she keeps the current hair. It looks a lot better on her.
She actually looks modern and her own age for a change. None of this memaw business. And if that’s all the positive things I can say about you after almost 10 years, you ain’t doing it right.
How sad that ALL they continue to talk about is her appearance!!🤦♀️this will backfire on the courtiers or whomever was okay with this vanity driven show as once she grows older and the wrinkles are more evident,the tabloids wont be as cooperative & praising!! With the Sussexs not backing down I predict that fleet street will turn on the RF soon. NormalBill must watch his back as his “human rights” threat isnt going to silence them for long
Is this real life?
No.
What a relief. Now I can sleep better at night. Looking forward to the day when experts will discuss something of substance about her other than her hair and clothes.
@MEL- don’t hold your breath…nothing substantive can be said about someone so unessential.
I think she at least had a hairstylist take out her hair pieces and do some touch-ups with hair color. Maybe she’s been styling it herself since then. In the video with the kids of NHS workers (yellow sweater), she also looked like she’d gotten a fresh/recent treatment of Botox/fillers. I wouldn’t be surprised if she occasionally has people coming to her to do the “necessary” beauty routines.
Oh please. She’s definitely had someone come to the palace to do her hair. They probably took out the extensions and colored it. Kate is not doing her own hair lol.
Honestly, this is the best she has looked in years. Love the hair, and the makeup looks great too. Kate strikes me as someone who probably enjoys all of this. She gets to be at home, isn’t pressed to appear like she’s doing very much at all, kids are home, etc. I think she’s pretty darn comfortable and happy and it looks good on her.
HA, I think you are spot on. My country has been in lockdown since 15th March and I’m surprised how many of my friends and family are not bothered at all / don’t mind the whole situation. Super interesting!
Sunbathing? Top temperatures in Norfolk last week were 18 degrees – 19 max. Hardly sunbathing weather. No, I bet she’s been pratting around with the St Tropez Tan homekit.
Thats “taps aff’ (sunbathing for the local chavs) weather here in Glasgow!
I’d kill for 18 degree weather! It’s been hovering around 0 alot here (Ottawa) today it’s a tropical 5 degrees! 🙁
I would be so embarrassed if, during a world wide crisis, the best thing that could be said about me is that I style my own hair.
She has a fair amount of grey roots in her part (as do I), so it’ll be interesting to see what happens to those as this progresses. Maybe she’ll have to temp color with that fake spray, because if I’m her hairstylist, there’s no way I’m letting her anywhere near her own hair with permanent dye.
I think shorter hair looks good on her. She would look great with a long bob, but unfortunately I think she’s emotionally attached to her wiglets.
Hair extensions are nasty, IMO.
Accept yourself, people. We are spirits in a material world. Clean and tidy are enough.
Imagine if most of the $$ spent on makeup, hair, fashion was funneled into helping others, feeding people, shelters, rehab, etc., etc.
Yeah, I know, I sound like an old hippy. But, it would be great if we all moved away from the superficial looks agenda.
I hear ya…We could all be doing so much more good if we had better priorities (myself included) , our society’s priorities are broken.
Hard to imagine she’s doing this on her own. If she is, good for her & welcome to the lesser human race but this is the same Duchess who dragged a full hair & makeup team with her & Will on a hike in the Himalayas & had touch ups done before every photo.
She’s done two zoom calls and nothing else so we are going to talk about her hair? It really shows how little she is doing right now. What is stopping her from delivering food to those in need, or frankly anything that goes beyond a zoom call.
The Duchess Does Her Own Hair! Quick, alert the media!! Oh, wait, they just did…..
Right, Freeshalori. And, as I suspected, not one story using a body language expert to analyze her and William’s bizarre performance. The best we get is a story about how amazing Kate is for combing her own hair. Personally, she looks to me like she just rolled out of the tanning bed and forgot to even comb her hair.
err, isn’t everyone doing their own hair at this point? I mean, it’s not difficult to blow-dry your hair. Coloring your own hair, yes, but blow-dry? Not that difficult.
I really never paid attention to the stories of wiglets and extensions because I simply did not care. But when comparing her hair to the last “in person” engagement she and William did when they went to go meet frontline workers (the pictures of her wearing the pink pantsuit), her hair does seem so much fuller and thicker and there just seems to be way more of it. It’s possible it’s all down to the magic of hair styling and she doesn’t have a center part in these Zoom call videos like she does in the pink pantsuit pictures. But I can believe she wears extensions, you all finally convinced me lol. But again I don’t really care what she does with her hair, so long as she likes it herself. Her hair does seem shorter and it looks good on her.
As for DIY hair care, I don’t dye my hair yet though I have a few gray hairs here and there. My mom though is in her 60s and still dyes her hair so she ordered some hair dye and my sister helped color it last week (we are all in quarantine together). The color turned out okay though my sister did miss a few spots (it was her first time coloring hair!) but overall it looked pretty good. Unfortunately that hair dye is now on back order so in about a month my mom will be in the same position with her gray roots showing. I have to admit I’m really glad I don’t have to worry about this while in quarantine!
i think she is great. i don’t get the pathological hatred for her.
She is not hated.
“An expert claims,” lol. And expert in what exactly? Someone who can tell if you’ve cut your hair? I will never stop laughing. Hardly news.
I would hope she’s doing her own hair. No need to expose her family or her stylist’s family to COVID just so Kate can have her bouncy, fairytale princess curls.
… and hair extensions.
She looks good. Less pinched.
She’s doing her own hair. Can you imagine the headlines: “Duchess endangers lives by bringing in hair stylist!” Now that the tide has turned against them and the comments are nasty, that would be fodder for all the nasties.
After staring at my dye boxes for three weeks I finally but the bullet and did it myself yesterday. I was really terrified. My stylist sent me instructions and I followed them. My husband helped me do the back of my head. It wasn’t as neat as when my stylist does it but honestly it came out great! No small feat considering I had like an inch of dark roots. I still sent my stylist some money via Venmo for her guidance. Remember that these folks are not working and not earning money.
I think her skin and hair both look better in those photos they usually do, More natural and less fussy. She looks younger, which I’m not saying is good or bad…she just looks a bit more youthful because her skin has a little natural ruddiness to it. Some women just don’t wear makeup well (my face, for example just looks better before I put makeup on..so I keep it very light…but my best friend does her makeup in really cool ways and it looks amazing on her). Anyway, I think she looks good here. Still not a fan of hers really, but she looks good here.
Kate is nearly 100% gray so yes she is coloring her roots and/or they have staff in quarantine with them. Even Jennifer Garner has her assistant in quarantine with her. I doubt the royal family is going it alone!
She’s nearly 100% grey? How do you know this?
Well it appears she still botoxing though she looks so much older than WIlliam in that video. Like a Mrs. Robinson, lol.
Her face looks fuller and thus healthier. Either it’s the angle or she’s more relaxed and has allowed herself a few treats a day.