An Influencer Recreated Princess Diana’s Signature ’80s Hair — And The Resemblance is Uncanny

Princess Diana was a ‘People’s Princess’ and a fashion icon. Though it’s been decades since the late princess died, her sense of style, especially her iconic hairdo, is still a hit among women. Inspired by that, a social media influencer named Rose Nora Anna recreated Diana’s blonde hairstyle , which was famous from the 1970s to the 1980s, and the resemblance is uncanny.

The Dutch influencer, who seems inspired by vintage looks, brought Diana’s feathered hairstyle to life in a TikTok tutorial. She created the trendy look using a hot styling brush, following instructions from a 1981 hairdressing article titled Lady Diana Haircut: Clip our sketch to show your hairdresser ! Anna parted her blonde tresses into different sections and curled them to perfection.

Diana’s hair was always front-page news and she was aware of that. For this reason, she’d hesitate to get a major change in her style and communicated the same to her hairstylist Sam McKnight who worked with her for 7 years. “Even if you changed her parting to the side, it would hit the press,” recalled McKnight. “[And] she didn’t want to distract from the charity work she was doing,” as per Vogue.

So it took the hairstylist two years to convince Diana to get rid of her signature feathered hairstyle and try something new. “I had to persuade her she didn’t really need them,” said McKnight. Hesitantly, she let go of the old fluffy 80s froufrou cut and emerged a new Diana in her new modern short hairdo. Coincidentally, the style became symbolic of her new phase in life which was post-divorce from Prince Charles. She credited McKnight for it as he recounted, “It wasn’t only her look that blossomed in the post-divorce period. She did, too.”

Lady Di may have outgrown her hairstyle, but it lingered in the hearts of millions of girls for whom she was a style icon. That’s why influencer Anna’s Instagram account has multiple posts in which she tried to match Diana’s look, outfit, and demeanor. For instance, in February 2023, she recreated Diana’s 1987 Cannes look in which the Princess of Wales donned a powder blue silk chiffon strapless dress with a matching chiffon stall in the same shade. She even explained the whole look in detail in a YouTube video.

Diana and Charles attended the 40th Cannes Film Festival in May 1987. The former couple were there for a 10-hour visit and rubbed elbows with Hollywood’s A-listers. Although they were there to promote the British film industry, it was Diana’s look that once again outshined everyone, including the prince. Her powder blue Catherine Walker gown and her scarf were heavily discussed in the press.

But it wasn’t a random dress that Diana chose to wear. As Newsweek put it, her show-stopping gown was a homage to Grace Kelly’s movie star glamor. In her lifetime, she bonded well with Kelly and later remembered her in Andrew Morton’s tape, “How wonderful and serene she was — but there was troubled water under her; I saw that.”