The hairdresser behind Princess Diana's androgynous 1990s haircut says he suggested she 'cut it all off and start again'
- Sam McKnight, the hairdresser behind Diana's 1990s haircut, said the look was an impromptu decision.
- He said she asked him what he'd do with her hair, and he replied: "Cut it all off and start again."
Princess Diana's former hairdresser said her 1990s androgynous hairstyle was an off-the-cuff decision stemming from her desire to change, according to a new Channel4 documentary, "Diana: Queen of Style."
Sam McKnight, who went on to work with Diana until her death in 1997 according to InStyle, said he first met her on the set of a British Vogue photo shoot in 1990. It was on her way out after pictures were finished that she asked him, seemingly spur of the moment, what he'd suggest doing with her hair, he said.
"I could sense that she wanted to change," the British hairdresser said. "I said I'd just cut it all off. Cut it all off and start again. So she said 'Ok, let's do it.'" McKnight, who captioned a clip from the documentary on his Instagram on sunday saying it was a "stroll down memory lane," went on to describe how he put then put a "bit of plastic" around Diana's shoulders and "cut it all off there and then."
Though it was an impromptu decision, the Princess of Wales later called it a critical moment for her personal growth. In the 2017 documentary "Diana In Her Own Words," overlaid with audio from interviews Diana self-recorded, a friend asks her if she can pinpoint turning points in her life where she went from "victim to victor," Vogue reported in November 2020.
"I suppose last summer when Sam cut my hair differently," she responded. "It let out something quite different."
Upon learning the impact the haircut had on her, McKnight became emotional, the publication added. "It hit home because it shows the power of hair for not just a celebrity or a royal, but for anyone. Hair is so powerful," he said.
Speaking in the documentary, McKnight said in retrospect "that was a time of change for her." Diana and Prince Charles would announce their separation in December 1992 and ultimately file for divorce in August 1996.
McKnight added that "the haircut became instrumental" in Diana gaining control of the direction of her own life.