Obviously, we’re still dealing with the fallout from the Blonde Doll Wig Fiasco. Last Thursday, the Princess of Wales stepped out with a completely new hairstyle. Her hair was suddenly really long, really full and a very odd shade of caramel-bronde. Wig experts quickly declared that Kate was 100% wearing a wig, even if many believed that some of the front hair pieces (around her face) were actually growing out of her scalp. I think the biggest “tell” that Kate is addicted to wigs and hairpieces (and has been for years) is that Kate’s hair was so different over the weekend, when she attended a rugby game. She still had a lot of extensions in, but her hair was noticeably darker and, you know, not a big, puffy blonde doll wig perched atop her head. Well, Tom Sykes recently wrote about the Doll Wig Fiasco in his Royalist Substack. His take is that the fiasco is related to Natasha Archer’s absence – Archer quit as Kate’s stylist in July. Sykes also spoke to wig and hairpiece experts.

My hot take is that today’s less than ideal coverage of Princess Catherine’s hair—and on social media it has been vicious—might be due to the fact that this was Kate’s first official public engagement since the July departure from Kate’s household of Natasha Archer, her long-time stylist and trusted aide.

“Tash,” well-known among royal watchers but invisible to normies, joined William and Kate’s household in 2007 and went on to become the princess’s stylist. She left Kensington Palace this summer to launch her own fashion consultancy. Today’s look—Kate’s first official public engagement since Archer’s departure—may mark a shift in that carefully managed aesthetic.

The online frenzy raised a question—was this more than just a new look? To investigate that, I asked multiple staff at two London wig suppliers, who work daily with hairpieces. They were unanimous: not a wig, but extensions—expensive and well-fitted. They explained the method: sections attached above the ears, blending into natural hair to create seamless fullness. With trained eyes, they said, you could just spot the transition line. A costume designer I later consulted also agreed.

The Palace declined to comment. Kensington Palace long ago stopped responding even to questions about Kate’s clothes, so silence on her hair was no surprise. However, official sources close to Kate strongly denied she was wearing a wig or extensions.

Whether or not that’s correct, the fact remains: her hair looked different, and it was impossible not to connect this with Archer’s absence. For years, Archer was one of the least visible but most influential forces behind the princess’s consistently immaculate image. She liaised with designers, organised fittings, and perfected the balance between modern style and regal symbolism. Her marriage to Getty’s royal photographer Chris Jackson gave her unusual insight into what worked in pictures.

Her departure in July followed Kate’s decision to stop publicizing designer names—she felt that fashion coverage distracted from her causes. That, along with Kate’s reduced public schedule since her cancer diagnosis last year, likely influenced Archer’s move. Of course, any critique of appearance is arguably unfair and objectifying, but scrutiny is inseparable from royal life. Kate has never previously been caught out by a “bad hair day.” This one coincided with a dramatic new colour, ensuring it drew attention.

The bigger issue is what it signals: the loosening of the once-airtight image machine. With fewer public appearances, every outing counts more than before. Hair, jewellery, clothes—each element is parsed for meaning. For years, Archer controlled those levers. Without her, who does? This is why the hair matters. It is not about superficiality, but about the machinery of image in a monarchy that trades on appearances. That machinery used to be invisible. Now, with Archer gone, its absence is showing.

[From The Royalist Substack]

It’s interesting that he’s connecting Kate’s doll-wig makeover to Natasha Archer’s absence. I didn’t consider it, mostly because I never thought Archer had any involvement in Kate’s hair. Archer was all about Kate’s clothes, but perhaps Archer was involved with everything, styling Kate from head to toe. That’s sad. It’s also sad that Kate doesn’t have qualified fashion stylists and hair stylists helping her for her public events. As for the conversation about exactly what’s happening with Kate’s hair and whether it’s a wig or extensions… Kate has a lot of hairpieces, and no, none of them are particularly expensive or well-applied. Sometimes, she uses a sh-tload of extensions to make her hair look crazy-full. Other times, she wears just a full wig, like she did a lot in the second half of 2023. She also plays around with half-wig “falls” which are basically plopped down on the back of her head and never blended properly.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.