Princess Anne, with comedian and singer Harry Secombe, attends  the "Fall In the Stars" show in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund at the London Palladium. © PA Images

Princess Anne's extremely rare 'Blondie' blow dry and metallic winged eyeliner at age 21

The Princess Royal rarely lets down her hair from her signature balletic chignon...

Senior Lifestyle & Fashion Writer
September 24, 2024

Princess Anne's style is much like her unrivalled work ethic; practical, to the point, and unchanging. 

The Princess Royal is consistently hailed as the "hardest working royal", having attended 212 engagements in 2023 alone - and her hair works just as hard. 

Recognisable by her signature chignon updo, the Princess has worn her hair in the same hairstyle for more than four decades. While unearthed photographs from her youth show that Anne often wore her waist-length hair in an array of elegant styles, after her second marriage, the Princess developed an unbreakable bond with her no-nonsense pinned hairstyle. 

© Getty

The Princess Royal has worn her hair in a chic updo since the 1980s

"I read an article the other day about the, I don't watch Netflix and The Crown, but the actress was talking about how long it took them to do their hair like I did," said the late Queen Elizabeth II's daughter said in an ITV documentary, referencing Erin Doherty who played the young Princess Anne in the third and fourth seasons of the Netflix drama.

"And I'm thinking, 'How could you possibly take that long?' I mean, it takes me 10 or 15 minutes."

100 years of royal hairstyles

Princess Anne's rarely-seen curls

HELLO! delved into the archives to unearth an extremely rare photograph of the Princess Royal during her twenties, which revealed a 21-year-old Anne sporting a Debbie Harry-esque bouffant blowdry that wouldn't look out of place in a Blondie music video.

The photograph was captured during a traditional Persian Dinner hosted by the Shah of Iran and Empress Farah at Persepolis during the lavish celebrations of the 2500th Anniversary of the Persian Empire in 1971.

© Getty Images

Debbie Harry's now-iconic hair in the 1970s may have influenced Princess Anne

Adding to her eccentric 1970s aesthetic, the sister of King Charles wore a vibrant metallic winged eyeliner and accessorised with chunky gold jewellery. 

The royal appeared to be wearing her beloved Grima Pearl earrings, which feature an opulent additional droplet and pearl that the Princess seems to have removed. 

© Bill Cross/Shutterstock

Princess Anne's hair reached new heights with a bouffant blowdry

According to jewellery expert Steven Stone, the earrings were gifted to her by the Queen and Prince Philip in the late 1960s and have since become one of the royal’s longest-serving pieces of jewellery.

© Chris Jackson

The Princess Royal's 'Grima Pearl earrings' are the most special in her personal jewellery collection

The earrings also accompanied Princess Anne on her first royal tour as an adult and during her marriage to Sir Timothy Laurence in 1992. 

She wore them again Australia with her mother at just nineteen years old – and are believed to be worth more than £3,000.

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