‘How hair can help us turn the page in life’: Princess Diana’s stylist Sam McKnight recalls what it was like to create the legendary pixie cut that made her the powerful and modern Lady Di

Charisma and passion for charity turned Diana of Wales into a “People’s Princess” who became an empowered woman at a certain point in her life, when she no longer had anything to do with royalty.

The role of mother was her priority: Princess Diana managed to break protocol and take off her shoes to celebrate Mother’s Day at William’s school

And that is that before her divorce from the now King Carlos III, she knew how to impose herself with her personality and her style in every public appearance.

However, one of the events that attracted the attention of the media was look that she wore in terms of hair, a fact that her personal stylist recalled mcknight himself.

In the edition of Vogue magazine, the famous hairdresser spoke about his relationship with Diana and how he went for the mythical hairstyle pixies it made her a powerful woman.

McKnight was a beauty contributor for the British edition of Vogue and followed Lady Di for seven years until her death in 1997, according to an announcement in the same medium.

“She didn’t have a large entourage, but in the seven years I spent with her, I accompanied her abroad several times, including visits to Mother Teresa in India and refugee camps on the Afghan border,” she told the November 2022 issue, a time when some fans were immersed in the fifth season Crown.

The professional recalled that it was in 1991, the year in which he first met and manipulated the hair of Diana of Wales.

“What would you do with my hair if you could do whatever you wanted?” she asked him then, and McKnight answered without hesitation.

Then she slightly “falsified” her short hair for a report prepared for Vogue by the late editor Anna Harvey and photographer Patrick Demarchelier.

“I told him I was going to cut it short, cut it short and start over,” he told the magazine. This would be the door through which the “princess of heart” would pass to modernize her hairstyle and leave behind everything that she reflected in the 80s, wearing various versions of her voluminous hair. That’s where her pixie cut came from.

“We wanted to move away from big puffy sleeves towards a much simpler and stronger business woman. It took us a few years to get to that point with her, but we finally got there.”

And yes, according to her story, Diana stayed in her comfort zone because it was difficult for her to ditch the perms, which were sometimes done in secret, so it was Sam McKnight who had to straighten her hair, which she wore for most of the day. fluffy time.

Four iconic dresses worn by Princess Diana by the same designer who created Queen Camilla’s coronation outfit

“It took me two years to get rid of my obsession with those stale perms. I had to convince her that she didn’t need them,” she recalled.

There she finally took a step and as a divorced woman decided to change her look, not only in her hair with that pixie haircut, but also in her wardrobe, which led her to a new stage in her life where she felt more modern, elegant and in the best mood to face with the world.

“She wasn’t just his look who lived a new life after the divorce. And her,” said the stylist, speaking of his personal liberation.

For Sam, it was the best example of how a haircut can help turn a page in life. (AND)