Have you ever been kept up at night wondering how the Princess of Wales’ bangs don’t budge while she’s on duty at royal engagements? How they effortlessly stay in place no matter what? No…? That’s just us? Okay, then.
Well, we aren’t the only ones, apparently, as TikTok is aflutter investigating how Kate’s on-trend curtain bangs stay so doggone perfect all the time. Kate debuted the new look back in September to much fanfare and, in a video that has gone viral on TikTok (it’s view count is at 3 million and climbing, People reports), a professional hairstylist speculated that Kate’s achieving this feat through pretty simple means: hairspray, and lots of it.
“Watch her hair,” TikToker @Bekah_and_co commented as footage rolled of Kate at a royal engagement in November. “The wind blows, her hair doesn’t move at all.” The visit included a walk in the park, and Kate’s hair—center parted bangs with soft waves—stayed sleek despite being outdoors. “She uses tons of hairspray to keep her hair in place, to keep her bangs in place,” Bekah said. “So if you want bangs, and you live in a windy city or humid city, you have to use product in order to keep them still.”
To drive home the point, Bekah posted a second video “of her own curtain bangs as she put a blow dryer directly on her bangs both without and then with hairspray,” The Independent reports. “Without hairspray they were blowing all over the place, while hairspray largely prevented them from budging.”
This past September wasn’t the first time Kate sported bangs. She had fringe as far back as her 2005 graduation from the University of St. Andrews (where, of course, she met and fell in love with Prince William); she also rocked bangs in 2012 and 2015. The subtle style “adds a certain softness around her face and lift to her hair,” Michael Van Clarke—who styled Princess Diana’s hair in the 1980s—told People. “Fringes do need a bit more styling maintenance, but they’re very versatile.”
Because her bangs aren’t blunt, Kate can pull the longer layers back, as she did at a diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace in December, when she swept her hair under the Queen Mary Lover’s Knot tiara. She also wore her hair half-up for the royal family’s annual walk to St. Mary Magdalene Church at Sandringham on Christmas Day, where she twinned with her daughter, Princess Charlotte, in matching mother-and-daughter braids. “Charlotte rocked her signature look—two small braids tied back with a bow and the rest of her hair flowing—while Kate wore a two-braid half-updo and topped the look with a fascinator,” People reports.
As perfect as her hair always seems, Kate has admitted in the past that her hairstyling skills could use some work. At one royal engagement in 2019, Kate complemented two little girls on their “pretty” braided hairstyles. “I tried to do a plait with Charlotte this morning, and it didn’t really work very well,” Kate said. Somehow, as perfect and put together as Kate always seems (hair-wise and otherwise) this is deeply comforting.
