What's Really Going On With Prince Harry's Hair, According To A Hairstylist

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle recently appeared on the TIME 100 cover, which chronicled the 100 most influential people of 2021. The prince is well-known for his luxurious head of curly red hair, which used to be thick, and looked impressively full on the magazine's cover. However, the Daily Mail reported that Harry's signature hair had thinned noticeably over the past few years. Parsa Mohebi of Parsa Mohebi Hair Restoration said that the balding area has grown in size since his 2018 wedding to Meghan. 

During a recent outing in New York City, the 37-year-old prince's hair looked markedly different than it did on the recent TIME cover he shared with his wife. The difference in the prince's hair in the magazine versus real life became the talk of social media, with many mocking the photo retouching in the iconic magazine. Celebrity hairstylist Tom Smith discussed the difference in Prince Harry's hair with FEMAIL, explaining what is happening with the British royal's thinning hair. Read on to find out more about the situation and why he looked so different.

Because Prince Harry's hair looked dramatically fuller on his TIME cover, people noticed when photos of him and Meghan Markle out and about in the Big Apple surfaced a few days later. "It seems to look like Prince Harry's hair is fuller in the TIME picture, and it would not surprise me if clever retouching skills helped play a part in defining his hairline and given him a fuller body of hair to match Meghan's," explained hairstylist Tom Smith (via the Daily Mail). 

Smith also had another possibility for Harry's thinner-looking mane. "As a natural redhead," Smith noted, "his hair will be far more susceptible to lightening in the sun." Because Harry and Meghan live in California these days, Smith felt that the sunlight might make the prince's hair seem lighter than it used to when they lived in England full time. Unfortunately, that lighter look might also make the prince's hair appear even thinner than usual. 

Hair loss runs in the family, though. Harry's late grandfather, Prince Philip, was bald, and his brother, Prince William, also began losing his hair in his 20s. Princess Diana's father was also bald, Parsa Mohebi reported. The Daily Mail reported that Harry went to the Philip Kingsley Trichological Clinic in London in 2019 to address the issue of his growing balding spot. It's not clear if the prince sought hair thickening treatment in the United States.