The Clever Way Princess Diana Kept the Tabloids from Talking About Her Haircut

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Not all press is good press. When you’re one of the biggest names in the world, it’s practically impossible to go grocery shopping, pick up your kids from school, or even get a haircut without the paparazzi watching your every move.

Constant media attention was a tough reality for Princess Diana, who was known as “the most photographed woman in the world” before she died. She might have looked natural in front of the camera, showing off her iconic style and showcasing causes she cared about, but she wasn’t a fan of the limelight. “I’m never comfortable in it. Never ever,” she confessed during a secret interview in 1991. And yet, the flash of cameras followed her to the bitter end, with a high-speed race from the paparazzi leading up to the tragic car accident that killed her in 1997.

It’s natural, then, that when she wanted to get a shorter, airier haircut before a trip to Africa, Diana knew all eyes would be on her—and her hair. She and her hairdresser, Richard Dalton, knew the press would pick up a drastic change, but she wanted to avoid the headlines. “Whatever I did to her hair became front-page news,” he told Town & Country. But these are 20 rare photos of Princess Diana you’ve probably never seen.

So the two of them came up with a plan that would keep the tabloids from getting too chatty over a simple snip. “We had to be very careful,” Dalton explained. “We had to do it one-fourth of an inch at a time over several weeks.” By trimming just a bit at a time, she kept her hair out of gossip magazines’ conversations and perhaps escaped just a little bit of extra press. Don’t miss these other 9 secrets no one knew about Princess Diana until after her death.