It’s never surprising when a famous person’s new look sparks online conversation. So, when Catherine, Princess of Wales (Kate Middleton to most of us) stepped out with a new head of blonde hair on Thursday, it quickly became a matter of breaking news for several publications.
The Princess of Wales has been a brunette for as long as we’ve known her, so the debut of an image revamp outside the Natural History Museum had people talking.
However, social media comment sections also found that the colour of Kate’s hair was not the only noticeable change – many have claimed that her new look comes courtesy of a wig.
‘LOL, that’s a wig,’ reads one of many comments, with countless others mocking the shape and styling of her hair in the various pieces of footage released from the paparazzi moment.
As someone who’s been on the internet since childhood, I’m not surprised – I know that nothing’s off-limits when it comes to sharing unsolicited opinions on the web.
However, I do wish we’d exercise a little more restraint with vocalising these assumptions in such public forums – especially when we have context for why Kate is possibly using hair enhancements.
Kate announced last year that she’d been diagnosed with cancer after it was discovered by doctors during abdominal surgery. After that, she underwent a course of preventative chemotherapy and has made infrequent public appearances since.
One of the most common side effects of chemotherapy is hair loss, so it’s not impossible that Kate would use enhancements in the months and years afterwards. But either way, the onslaught of comments and critiques of this possibility is evidence of a lack of empathy in internet culture.
The Princess of Wales recently completed cancer treatments.
There are plenty of things to criticise the royals for, and I’m definitely no fan of the British monarchy – but thousands of people making the same public remark in a sort of ‘gotcha’ moment feels unnecessary, and implies that there is something wrong if Kate is wearing a wig.
So many people wear hairpieces and extensions on a daily basis for a myriad of reasons. I wore wigs for most of my adult life – partly because I loved the freedom it gave me to transform from a black bob to a honey blonde blowout at a moment’s notice, without any damage to the hair growing from my scalp.
But part of my long allegiance to wigs came out of insecurities I felt having experienced hair loss, myself. Beauty standards for women across cultures hold hair fullness and length as a key component, so I relied on wigs to replicate what was difficult to achieve on my own.
No matter the reason someone may be wearing a wig, I think it’s far better for people to keep observations like these to themselves – by making a ‘thing’ of it, even in a ‘harmless’ Instagram comment about a famous person, it could make so many others feel self-conscious when there's no reason to be.
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With 1 in 2 people in the UK affected by cancer, we all probably know people in real life who have had the experience of having chemotherapy and dealing with hair loss as a result. The courage it takes to present yourself to the world after such physical turmoil must be great – and if someone chooses to wear a wig while dealing with it, they should feel comfortable doing so without feeling as if they’re being judged on the quality of their hairpiece.
I can’t pretend that I’ve never speculated privately on whether someone has had body enhancements, plastic surgery or hair plugs – as someone who’s spent the better part of a decade writing about culture and celebrities, I’m always looking closely at details.
Perhaps it’s to do with Kate Middleton's privilege, and her distance from the experiences and struggles of everyday people that makes it seem okay to sound an alarm at her perceived ‘error’ in styling. But to point fingers in comment sections without any further analysis or a hint of understanding feels lazy.
It’s not a crime to speculate, but we could probably do better to be more discreet when talking about it. By committing our criticisms to the wider internet, it feels like an unnecessary pile-on that can end up harming people we love.
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