The One Time Princess Anne Switched Up Her Signature Hairstyle
From the beginning of her career as a working royal in 1969, Anne, the Princess Royal, has been a model of steadfast consistency. Anne has often been recognized as the hardest-working royal, and she frequently completes 400-plus appearances in a given year, providing people with thousands of opportunities to see her. During the vast majority of her career, those individuals would most likely have seen Anne with her hair piled high into a bouffant. After that many decades of wearing her hair the same, Anne's locks practically style themselves. She was shocked to discover that others find quite a learning curve with her hairdo. "I mean, it takes me 10 or 15 minutes," Anne revealed in the documentary "Anne: The Princess Royal at 70" (via Town and Country).
Even so, variety is sometimes necessary. While her typical 'do works well alone or with any number of hats — including the plumed bicorn from Anne's unusual coronation outfit on King Charles III's big day — she opted to mix things up when she wore her Festoon Tiara for a state banquet in July 2025. Instead, Anne styled her hair in a low chignon.
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While the front and top of her head lacked their usual distinctive volume, Anne still let the sides puff out a bit. The style was an ideal way to show off the platinum tiara's numerous diamonds, and since the headpiece is valued at $4 million, it makes sense to let it take center stage.
Anne's had decades' worth of hair experiments with the Festoon Tiara
Although Princess Anne is too low in the line of succession to become monarch, she's still a queen of re-wearing her favorite fashions and accessories. The Princess Royal has owned the Festoon Tiara since 1973, and, like the many pieces Anne has re-worn over the years, she often tries to introduce a few variations.
Some of the hairstyles Anne has gone for while wearing the diamond tiara are more successful than others. For instance, in photos with her first husband, Mark Phillips, Anne wore a half-up, half-down style with the tiara far back on her head. Unfortunately, this placement obscured the shining gems from certain angles. Likewise, when Anne paired the tiara with her typical bouffant, the thick swath of hair in front often blocked a portion of the diamonds.
Anne seemed to showcase the piece to better advantage when she adopted a strand strategy similar to her 2025 chignon. For instance, the first time Anne wore the tiara in 1973, she kept the tiara in front of the high hair on the top of her head but let the sides pouf out. As the picture above shows, Anne's 2017 Festoon Tiara and hair combo was similar. This seemed like her classic bouffant, but like her bun style, she kept the front of her hair from hiding the stunning piece of jewelry by having most of the volume on the sides. It was another state dinner, and Anne wore the same necklace and diamond ribbon brooch pinned to her Order of the Garter blue sash that she wore in 2025.
Anne's gloves are another style signature
Although Princess Anne's July 2025 chignon was atypical, that same outing included one of her consistent style staples. While the Princess Royal's arms were bare when she showed off the low bun for a 75th birthday picture, by the time Anne arrived at the state dinner, she added elbow-length gloves to her 'fit. Catherine, Princess of Wales skipped gloves at the very same event, so it's clearly not a royal rule, but likely Anne's preference.
Just like Anne, her mom, Queen Elizabeth II, was a gloves devotee from way back. Elizabeth reportedly wore the same pairs for decades — a practice that her daughter likely follows, given that some of Anne's repeat outfits date from the 1970s and even the 1960s. While the theory is that Elizabeth preferred gloves to keep her hands clean after busy meet and greets, Anne's reasoning is less clear. "The theory was that you couldn't shake hands with everybody, so don't start. So I kind of stick with that, but I noticed others don't," Anne explained in the documentary "Queen of the World" (via People).
Even though she won't shake hands with just anybody, Anne has greeted plenty of people this way during her decades of royal service. Surprisingly, some of these encounters have been bare-handed. In the end, it appears that Anne's reliance on gloves for most engagements is likely more about preserving traditional royal dress codes, particularly for formal evenings like a fancy state dinner.