The Queen avoided a dreaded case of lockdown hair during the early days of the pandemic after trusting her personal adviser and dresser with the royal tresses, it has emerged.
Many commented on the monarch’s elegant coiffure during her TV addresses from Windsor Castle, where she was shielding, protected in “HMS Bubble”, made up from selected staff.
Now, Angela Kelly, the Queen’s senior dresser, has described in an updated chapter to her book how she took on the role of hairdresser as well as her other duties as one of the staff who isolated with the Queen for periods. Her pandemic role included setting and cutting the monarch’s hair.
Her revised book, The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, first published in 2019, also covers the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral and the first public engagements post-lockdown, and looks ahead to the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations this June.
Katya Shipster, the Harper NonFiction publishing director, said of the book: “It tells the story of the royal bubble as well as the lengths Angela and the royal household went to, to ensure the safety of the monarch.”
Kelly, given permission by the Queen to write the book, has worked for the monarch for almost 30 years. She rarely gives interviews but she once disclosed: “We are two typical women. We discuss clothes, makeup, jewellery.”
Her book reveals some of the behind-the-scenes tricks used for the monarch’s attire.
She sews in extra layers of lining to cushion the impact of beading and crystals on the Queen’s back when events require glamorous gowns. Tiny weights are also put into daywear hemlines in case of windy weather, and fabrics that crumple or could develop messy loose strands are avoided.
Kelly – who has the same size feet as the Queen – wears in the monarch’s handmade shoes to ensure they are comfortable when first used.
The Queen is understood to have used the same London-based hairdresser for 23 years, who visits her at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. But, on occasions in the past, she was not averse to doing her own her hair, especially at Balmoral during her summer holidays.
