Lady Diana had a secret weapon to keep her famous bob perfect all day

Although Princess Diana’s famous haircut appears to be easy to style, the royal actually had some help from a team of beauty professionals, including her hair stylist Richard Dalton, who has worked with her for more than a decade to ensure her style is always flawless. According to the chemist and cosmetologist Sheree Ladove Funsch, Dalton made it his mission to make sure Diana’s hair was always perfect, which meant having a custom hairspray formula.

Today CEO of the family company that produces cosmetics, la LaDove Inc, Ladove Funsch was in her early twenties when hair stylist Dalton approached her with his requests: “She didn’t want anything that made Diana’s hair look glued on, because she was so young and so beautiful,” he told Page Six. «She didn’t want… a helmet effect look».

Diana, Dalton and Ladove Funsch had in mind something that would have strong hold and leave a lightweight finish on Lady D’s feathered hair, and that took some scientific ingenuity. “We found this rubber resin from a tree and that’s how we were able to create that special formula,” revealed the cosmetologist. «I spent a long time in the laboratory formulating, understanding what the melting point of that resin was, how it could be made so that it wasn’t too sticky». After much trial and error, the trio arrived at the finished product they called Helicopter Hairspraythat is to say Helicopter-proof lacquerbecause she was so resistant that the gusts of wind raised by the blades of an aircraft would not have ruined her hairstyle.

Ladove Funsch also made another version of the hairspray for the princess, specially formulated to leave no residue on jewelry, including tiaras she might wear on a special occasion. “When she wore a tiara, we were talking about millions and millions of dollars of jewelry decorating her head,” he said, “we had to create something that wasn’t as strong as hairspray, but still gave her some hold ».

Ladove Fusnch also told Page Six about the only meeting she and Diana had at Kensington Palace: «It was in England and it was incredible. I got a big hug from Lady D and it was magical. And there was no press, so it was a beautiful moment,” she revealed. «The first time you feel so intimidated. Here’s this American business girl… coming into her career and she was so welcoming and reassuring and loving and very kind.”

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Hairstylist Richard Dalton, one of three who worked with Diana during her time in the public eye, spoke about his approach to working with the princess and her famous hair in a 2018 interview with Town & Country Whatever I did to his hair became front page news,” he revealed of his decision to cut his hair very slowly: “We had to be very careful. They cut about 13 mm at a time for several weeks.”