Princess Anne has inadvertently become a hair icon, perfectly toeing the line between glamorous and practical. While she has remained loyal to her 10-minute updo to prevent distractions during her busy calendar of royal engagements, she experimented with longer, more daring styles in the past.
Some of her most memorable hairstyles are the ones where she lets her long locks flow freely – a rare sight in the past five decades. Back in 1967, the then-17-year-old Princess Royal was pictured with her brother, then-Prince Charles, taking the train back to the capital following the royal family's traditional Christmas celebrations at Sandringham.
Following her train journey to Liverpool Street Station, Anne looked polished in a cream jumper layered underneath a tailored jacket, completing her look with 60s curls tucked neatly behind her ears. Parted at the side, her hair featured plenty of volume at the roots and flicked ends that sat just above her shoulders.
According to Best Quality Designer Handbag 's Deputy Beauty and Lifestyle Editor, Melanie Macleod, it marked a departure from her "wild" childhood look.
"In her younger years, if Princess Anne wore her hair loose, it tended to be long and wild, but for her departure from Liverpool Street, the Princess Royal opted for a neat, coiffured 'do. The shorter length makes her hair look thick and voluminous - I'd love to see her hair like this again!" she said.
© Getty ImagesAnne's changing beauty looks
Anne also experimented with length and colour in the past. She was pictured with long curtain bangs and feathered layers with ashy blonde money pieces framing her face in 1973, which Melanie described as an "expensive" bronde style that made a comeback in 2025.
© Tim Graham Photo Library via GetYears later, in 1980, the royal, then 30, sported flowing Rapunzel-style hair while spending quality time with her first husband, Mark Phillips, and their eldest child, Peter Phillips.
Since then, she has favoured updos, styling her hair in a French twist, which she admitted she styles herself at home.
Quick royal hairstyle
In a 2020 documentary, Princess Anne responded to actress Erin Doherty, who portrays her in The Crown, claiming she spent hours in hair and makeup to achieve the royal's look.
"Makeup literally took 10 minutes, but hair, sometimes it would take two hours," Erin told Town & Country.
© Getty Images"It's its own beast. Literally, I would sit in the chair, people would come in and go and come in and go, and I sat still in the same place. But it was so necessary for her character because it felt like her hair and her fashion were the way that she was able to express herself in the confined, controlled environment that she grew up in."
The show's hair and makeup designer, Cate Hall, added, "As you know, Princess Anne had famously thick hair, with a very natural wavy texture through the '60s and 70s. We created a ‘ladder wig’ which supplements and blends with Erin’s hair beautifully, giving it the kind of volume and texture most of us could only dream of!"
Exclaiming her surprise about the lengthy process, Anne said in an ITV documentary marking her 70th birthday that it only takes her 10 to 15 minutes to do her own hair.
