Princess Diana's Stunning Hair Transformation

Everything about Princess Diana is perfection. Whether she was leaving the gym or leaving Prince Charles, our princess put the royal sashay into every look, embodying a distinctly Euro-fabulous style that's still influencing us today. (Hello, Dianacore!)  Her jewelry was remarkable. Her makeup was fresh and glowing. She even made shoulder pads work when every other photo of '80s and '90s fashion makes us shudder. She also used clothing to speak to her power. Diana frequently broke royal rules, nixing the stuffy expectations put on other royal women, and wore some pretty iconic outfits that probably made The Firm at Buckingham Palace sip their tea a little too loudly. 

While there's so much about the princess we love (and want to copy), we're focusing on her hair for style inspiration, simply because we love delving into everything Diana. While Diana predominantly wore her hair short, she rocked several different styles throughout the years. And, like her clothing, her hair often spoke for her. It told a story of the bashful bride, the dutiful wife, the happy mother, and later, a woman stepping into power and independence.

Before she became a princess, Lady Diana Spencer was a young working woman, putting her talent and charm to use as a kindergarten teacher. In the notable photograph where she wore a monochromatic outfit in regal purple, Diana was only 19. She favored a fuller hairstyle at this point, which wasn't as deliberately styled as it would be once she was a princess. Like her son, Prince William, would later show, Diana was a fan of fringe. Perhaps it was something she could hide behind as she learned about the invasiveness of the paparazzi. 

A lot of brides look back on the big day with something they'd like to change. For Princess Diana, it was her hair. Her hairdresser, Richard Dalton, wrote about the nuptial hair in his book "It's All About the Hair — My Decade with Diana." However, Dalton didn't do the actual styling for the wedding, which occurred on July 29, 1981; that was his colleague Kevin Shanley. However, Diana spoke about it with Dalton later. "Diana did express to me that she wished she could do the wedding over again to 'get the hair right,'" he told People. She still looked beautiful.

In 1984, Princess Diana attended the State Opening of Parliament and didn't mean to cause such a scene, but she did. Diana's hairstylist, Richard Dalton, sculpted her hair in monumental sweeps around the iconic Spencer tiara. It was a new 'do for Diana, and she looked absolutely fabulous. However, the late Queen Elizabeth II did not agree. The problem was that Diana's hair was so sensational that it overshadowed the occasion. "The Princess learned her lesson that day and vowed her hair would never again be the center of attention and distract people away from the work of the royals," Dalton told the Daily Mail years later. Talk about the power of hair. 

Princess Diana rocked a shorter cut for most of her adult life, but it wasn't until the early '90s that Diana embodied her statement cut. Unsurprisingly, this was the same period where her relationship with Prince Charles was dissolving, and her hair was a reflection of the change to come. Hairstylist Sam McKnight made drastic changes to Diana's hair, and the princess noted this change later. In the 2017 documentary "Diana In Her Own Words" a friend asked her, "What have been the turning moments in life that turned you from victim to victor?" Diana replied, "I suppose last summer when Sam cut my hair differently, it let out something quite different," (via Vogue). It was a powerful turning point for Diana.

In 1997, Princess Diana visited the Hale Clinic in West London, a wellness clinic with holistic treatments. Her hairstyle had taken a different turn, reflecting her life at that time. Diana was establishing herself as an entity separate from the royal family, pouring her energy into her charitable endeavors. Her hair was softer than it was in the early '90s. The blonde shade was lighter and fresher, with a sleeker cut that boasted less curl and more layer. Tragically, Diana died on August 31, 1997, leaving a void not only in the U.K., but across the world.