Is it time for a right royal change?
Why a crowning glory needs to shine
LAST week Camilla, the Queen Consort, paid a visit to the road where our salon is located. In fact, she actually spent her time not only on Belfast’s bustling Lisburn Road, but literally on the same block as ours.
Camilla wandered in and out of the famous Arcadia delicatessen which has been in that location since 1933 — the longest independent shop on the road currently owned by Mark and Laura Brown and a true Belfast institution.
She also popped into Knotts bakery next door and the popular butcher shop, Coffeys, on the other side.
It appears she was here to promote independent and family run businesses, and although I’m not sure how much help she can offer, we will take anything we can get in these uncertain times.
From our salon window we got a bird’s eye view of the media scrum, the security and the general excitement any royal visit brings. Our clients clamoured for a good vantage point to get videos and pictures to share on their social media and of course there was the usual banter on whether she’d be popping in for a blow dry.
But royal hair is always a bone of contention in hair salons — who does their hair? Who advises the royals? What’s the protocol? And more importantly why do royals have such boring or old fashioned hair?
Not that I can complain much, I remember when Queen Elizabeth died in September 2022 there was an outpouring of grief and remembrance throughout the world.
Almost every country united in respect and love for the late sovereign, and as the week passed I noticed all around my home city of Belfast flags, emblems photographs and warm messages adorning houses walls buildings and public areas celebrating the queen.
One evening as the late summer started to fall, I was out on one my meandering runs. I ran through the west of the city, my old stomping ground making my way up the Falls Road, not known for its support of the royal family.
As I passed the shops, restaurants and bars along the way, I was distracted by a portrait or picture at least of her majesty herself hanging in the window of car showroom. Could it be true? Have we come this far? Feeling a sense of pride that here in the heart nationalist west Belfast was a tribute to Britain’s longest serving monarch, a closer inspection was required and with my phone at the ready to catch this momentous event. I broke from my run to explore deeper as I got closer to the ‘portrait’ the shocking reality started to emerge as the white haired roller set queen of England was in fact a reflection of yours truly. The Snow White hair? Check. Bemused stare?
Check. How my hair had come to look like the Queen’s on my run is another thing but needless to say, Mrs S was given serious instruction to rectify the unwanted royal barnet immediately!
The thing is, in my entire career no one has ever asked me or anyone I know who works in hairdressing to replicate a royal hairdo. Yes, there have been Diana-likes but that was a popular look at the time — the late Jill Dando, Selina Scott and numerous daytime TV presenters had similar looks.
In truth, it was a bit of a ‘Karen’ moment, though Sam McKnight was pretty inventive with making it fashion when Diana was enjoying a media profile.
The younger royals pretty much have standard generic go-to looks too — bouncy blow dries galore, subtle colour and ultimately nice, inoffensive hair.
My personal favourite era of royal hair has to be the Elizabethan era so beloved by Vivienne Westwood, sheer theatre, regality, danger and outrageous pomp and ceremony — the true punk rock of royalty.
Being a member of a royal family comes with conventions to adhere to.
But watching Camilla mingle with the crowds on Thursday was interesting — in real life she appears younger, she moves and reacts quickly but not urgently, she takes her time and seems comfortable in people’s company, she radiates warmth and has a word or two here and there with anyone and everyone who catches her eye.
Camilla is a natural, there is an attractive quality to her, you can tell by watching her work her way through the crowd that people were genuinely glad she was there. She has star quality to her personality, but the thing that distracts from all of this is her hair.
It’s not exactly unflattering, in the same way novelist Jilly Cooper’s hair wasn’t, it’s not even an awful colour. In fact that may be the best thing about it.
It’s just that it’s so ageing and seems to lack thought. I can’t tell you how exciting it is when a lady with all those great qualities and attributes arrives into our salon.
The first thing Mrs S will say is ‘let’s keep the colour’, the next thing I’ll say is ‘let’s take 20 years off it’ and the rest is easy.
Like Helen Mirren, Camilla is in the enviable position where people will tell you she is an inspiration, a modern royal with guts and steel, a role model to all women.
But could she also be a little more cool when it comes to her hairstyle? I remember seeing a book of mock fly-in-the-wall images of a Camilla lookalike, they were quite bawdy but relatively inoffensive. She was smoking and drinking, maybe a little ‘sartorially relaxed’, but ultimately great fun.
Her hair was mussed up and messy, a little Farrah Fawcett if you like.
ALTHOUGH these were fake, I get the impression that Queen Camilla likes to have fun — every horse riding country set girl loves to let their hair down every now and then and I’m pretty sure Camilla is no different.
Can you imagine the impact a cool new foxy chop would have on Camilla or other women of a certain age? Especially if she decided to take the plunge as she could really change peoples attitudes and perceptions to age-old royal and female stereotypes.
A haircut is about personality, it’s about attitude, it should say something about who you really are and what you are really about. There has never been a better time or in fact, person to bring the image of the traditional royal family in to the 21st century.
So I know what you are thinking – what would I do with Camilla’s hair?
I’d release all the good stuff, the natural texture, movement, open up her face so it looks less long, focus on her eyes and cheekbones, basically free it up, allow it to breathe and live where it wants and most of all make a statement so that ‘the Camilla cut’ is a thing.
So if she happens to be reading this and is planning another Lisburn Road visit, the invite is there. Camilla, let’s do it.
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