Royal hairdresser reveals all: Princess Diana's beauty secrets and how stylist was 'worried' about 'blinding her'
Princess Diana is a style icon even 28 years after her death
Princess Diana’s hairdresser has lifted the lid on her much discussed beauty secrets and how her hair and makeup routine cemented her as a style icon.
Keep reading to step inside Diana’s glamorous world…
Princess Diana’s beauty secrets
In his memoir, It’s All About the Hair: My Decade With Diana, Richard Dalton shares a glimpse into his time as Diana’s right-hand-man.
Divulging some of the most stressful moments and his funniest memories, Dalton has detailed the behind-the-scenes secrets of Diana’s glam routine in his new book.
Speaking to Marie Claire with Renae Plant, his co-writer and the founder of the Princess Diana Museum, Dalton recalls his time with Diana, including one of her best kept secrets.
Renae Plant, who recently won Princess Diana’s famous Caring Dress for $400,000 at auction, is close with Dalton and the pair mused over how Diana didn’t actually have a makeup artist.
In fact, one secret to her stunning complexion was her own handy work – the Princess of Wales was her very own makeup artist, a fact that Plant “found very interesting”.
Dalton confirmed that “unless she was doing a portrait or something like that,” Princess Diana preferred to apply her own cosmetics.
“If it was like a photoshoot or, you know, official pictures with Charles or the boys. Yes, it would be a makeup artist,” he explained.
Princess Diana’s hairstylist lifts lid on doing her hair
On high-profile events, Diana did work with makeup artists, most notably Mary Greenwell who did Diana’s makeup for her famed 1991 British Vogue shoot.
Greenwell said on the My Wardrobe Malfunction podcast in 2023: “I used to go and see her at the palace and just hang out with her. She used to call me up say, ‘Can you come and see me?’ so I would go round there and give her makeup lessons and hang out with her and the boys.”
According to Dalton, Diana would apply her makeup whilst he was working on her hair.
“I had to be very careful, you know, when she was putting her eye pencil on, like, ‘Oh god, I don’t want to blind the princess!'” he detailed.
Princess Diana ‘didn’t need makeup’
He also added that Diana “really, really didn’t need any makeup,” describing her as having “flawless skin,” and being “beautiful” like an “English rose”.
Dalton said that Diana “was open to ideas” even though she had her signature style. “Some days, I’d say ‘Good morning, Your Royal Highness,’ and she’d say, ‘Hurry up, you’ve got 15 minutes,'” he shared. “Some days it was a bit longer, and we’d experiment.”
When the Princess of Wales ‘upstaged’ Queen Elizabeth
For instance, the dup experimented with her style for the 1984 State Opening of Parliament, where Diana sported an up-do. A style that some speculated “upstaged” Queen Elizabeth.
Addressing these rumours, Dalton said that such assumptions amuse him and that the queen “couldn’t have cared less”.
Unfortunately, Diana’s hair fell flat on one very important occasion – her wedding day.
Princess Diana wished she could ‘redo’ her wedding day
Dalton said that this work was that of his assistant and that he “hated” the outcome and so did Diana. So much so, the princess said she wished she could redo her big day, just so the hair could be done right.
Dalton also shared a glimpse into the playful side of Diana. He said that he once applied a treatment to Diana’s hair and William complained of the odour.
William allegedly said it smelt like “bees” with Dalton assuming he meant “honey bees”.
However, William was thinking of a very different scent.
“No, bees. Biggies! Big jobs!” he explained, which reportedly meant poo. Dalton added that “Diana went, ‘Get out, William!'”
Read more: Heartbreaking photo was found inside Princess Diana’s handbag after her tragic death
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