That's Why Her Hair's So Big...

Today I saw a photo that truly shocked me:

This is not photoshopped (that we know of yet, anyway).

Kate Middleton has been in the public eye for two decades. And the one thing that everyone has always agreed on is that she has great hair:

She even lets her natural curly hair texture come through on very rare occasions (mostly when the humidity is too intense to do anything else but embrace your natural texture.) Her curly hair is gorg, and I wish we would see it more often!

Even as she’s gotten older, had three children, and announced a cancer diagnosis, she has always stepped out with flawless hair. Kate’s hair is her most defining feature—and it’s been styled (literally) for us to think of it as perfectly befitting of a future queen.

Now, to refresh your memory, here is the most recent photo of Kate:

Unequivocally, this is bad hair. The color is off, the length is off, and the styling is a mess. It’s not something that I’ve ever seen from Kate before.

“Are you really commenting on a woman’s appearance in 2025?” I can hear you whining. But, yes I am. You might not believe me, but we’ve been trained to see Kate’s perfect hair as the future of the monarchy. This is an institution that deals in symbols, and Kate’s hair is one of them.

I used to joke to my friends that they should take a look at the state of my nails before asking me how I’m doing. If they were peeling, chipped, broken, or unpolished? Safe to say I wasn’t doing great. The same principle applies to Kate’s hair, the stakes are just different.

The British royal family is in a place of immense transition and precarity for the first time in a long time. Queen Elizabeth died, and the perennially unpopular Charles took the throne. Queen Camilla is…there1. Prince William is continually positioning himself as a modern royal, a breath of fresh air to counter the stuffiness and old-school mentality of the monarchy. Which would be fine, if he ever did anything to support those claims! Charles, William, and Harry are still icing each other out at every chance, and of course, Prince Andrew is still being included at public family events.

They’re a mess, and the one small beacon of hope that they have is Kate. Simply for being a young, pretty, white royal woman, she is the most likable and most popular of the bunch. If nothing else, her fashion and hair were guaranteed to make headlines, sell out clothes, shoes, and jewelry, and inspire people to see the monarchy as an aspiration. If Kate wore a Zara dress that retailed for £129, you could have that Princess-worthy dress too!

If it sounds facile, it is. But it’s also the truth of how these people work, and how they maintain their grasp on power. The general frustration with the role of the monarch in 21st century Britain, the increasing number of former British colonies choosing independence, and the overall unease with the growing wealth disparity are all pushing the monarchy towards a tipping point.

So, how does this connect back to Kate and her hair?

If you remember—I’ll certainly never forget—Kate had no public appearances between December 2023 and March 2024. For 4 months, one of the most senior members of the royal family was just…nowhere to be found. Rumors went wild, people thought she died (or had been killed) but it turns out that Kate had good reason to be out of the spotlight: she was navigating cancer treatment.

Kensington Palace did such a bad job of managing that entire time period that it will be one for the PR history books. (If you want a good analysis of the “Where’s Kate” frenzy, I recommend The Catherine Chronicles: A Timeline of 2024 from the Off With Their Headlines podcast.)

When Kate announced her cancer diagnosis in March 2024, she explained that her “return to public engagements” would be deliberate and in keeping with her medical team’s advice. According to Kensington Palace, in 2024 she completed 13 engagements in 2024—although we only have photo documentation of 6 of them. And in 2025, she’s only had 10 engagements.

The first question that comes to mind might be that Kate’s health, either mental or physical, is shakier than we’re being led to believe. It’s a fair question, but I don’t think that is the most compelling one to ask here.

Instead, I want to know who the fuck is in charge here?

If you work in communications for the most powerful and well-known monarchy in the world, shouldn’t you be better at your jobs? The comms team is happy to let Kate bear the brunt of speculation, rumor, controversy, and conspiracy every time something goes awry in the narrative. Which is even shittier considering that she has fucking cancer!

If I was in charge, I would protect the hell out of the only likable member of the entire family. The fact that they aren’t, in my opinion, really seals the deal that this family will never “modernize”, no matter how many selfies Prince William takes with Taylor Swift.

So, yes, this all comes back to her hair. Whether Kate’s hair is thinning from age or cancer treatment, or she simply wanted a refresh, it is not the fact that she changed it up that worries me. It’s that her team believed that this was the best way forward. You are part of an thousands-year-old institution with an obscene amount of wealth where image is everything and iconography is being minted in real time—and you cannot handle a single haircut.

It is very bleak, indeed.