Princess Diana's Stylist Revealed The Reason She Cut Her Hair Short

From her hair cuts to her wardrobe, Princess Diana was one of the world's biggest fashion icons and remains one to this day. During a recent episode of British Vogue's 'Vogue Visionaries' series, Princess Diana's hairstylist Sam McKnight revealed her decision to cut her hair into a pixie cut was actually a spur of the moment decision.

"The first time I met the Princess of Wales was on a shoot," McKnight shared. "This leggy blonde comes bouncing up the stairs, and sticks her hand out and introduces herself, smiled and made us all melt, and it was Princess Diana."

When McKnight and Princess Diana first met, the royal still had her hair styled long in a feathered bob. "I made it look short under the tiara. I faked it a bit," McKnight said of his first shoot with the Princess of Wales.The shoot was "really lovely," the hairstylist shared. "We laughed so much—she was very funny."

"At the end of the day, she said, 'What would you do with my hair if I just said 'do anything'?'" McKnight said. "I said, 'I would cut it all off and just start again,' because it was the beginning of the '90s and it was at the time when I was doing lots of shows and covers, and a lot of the girls had short hair, and we were moving from the big frou-frou '80s into the sharp, more androgynous, business chic of the '90s."

Princess Diana surprised McKnight with her response—she told him to get ahead and chop her hair off. "'Well, why don't you just cut it off now?'" McKnight recalled Princess Diana telling him. "So I just cut it off and we never looked back."

McKnight was even asked to help out on the most recent season of The Crown when it came to styling actress Emma Corrin for her role as the late princess.

Photo: Getty