Two years after Prince Harry expressed horror at his older brother Prince William’s “alarming baldness” in his book, “Spare,” the famed London hairdresser who cut Harry’s “thick, lush” red locks as a boy, said it’s time that he looked in the mirror and deal with his own encroaching baldness.
Sam McKnight offered some blunt, unsolicited advice to the “aging,” California-based Duke of Sussex in an essay for the the Daily Telegraph. McKnight, who also worked as a stylist for Harry and William’s late mother Princess Diana, said that Harry should either get a hair transplant or embrace his baldness, as William has done and cut what’s left of his hair very short.
“I don’t think you lose your looks because you go bald,” wrote McKnight, who’s also known for his work with celebrities and supermodels, the Daily Beast said. “You have to embrace it. Or you have to make the decision not to embrace it, and have a hair transplant.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 04: Andrew Ross Sorkin and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, speak onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2024 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 04, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times)
Harry’s current strategy, keeping that “fluff” on his head, is “just horrible,” McKnight said.
“That fluff on his head is like a newborn chick,” McKnight bluntly said. “It says 1950s geography teacher. It doesn’t make a man look good.” McKnight observed that 40-year-old Harry otherwise looks tall, lean, fit and in his prime. “It’s been driving me mad for years, and I don’t know why he hasn’t had a hair transplant yet or shaved it all off.”
Knight observed that Harry’s cover photo for his 2023 best-selling memoir “Spare” looked “really retouched,” especially in the hair department. McKnight said it was as if the Montecito-based son of King Charles III feels self-conscious about losing his adolescent “mop of red, glorious hair.” McKnight said Harry’s remaining “little wisps” disempower him.
ANGUS, SCOTLAND – FEBRUARY 06: Prince William, Duke of Rothesay laughs as he attends a roundtable hosted by the Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies), a charity working throughout the UK to address the attitudes and behaviours to farm safety and poor mental health in the next generation of farmers during a visit to East Scryne Farm on February 06, 2025 in Angus, Scotland. (Photo by Steve MacDougall – Pool/Getty Images)
“You see people and you think: ‘You’re hanging onto these little wisps, let it go and free yourself,’” McKnight wrote. “I know it’s a psychological thing, hanging onto the wisps, but now’s the time to let it go.”
McKnight said he understood, first hand, how difficult it is to “let go” of the idea of youth, which, for men, can be symbolized by a thick head of hair. Now 69, McKnight said he began to lose his own hair in his early 30s. Men in the British royal family also have been known to start losing their hair in their 30s.
The hairdresser also took to task Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, a former TV actor with access to plenty of Hollywood stylists, for not intervening and encouraging her husband to get better advice for his hair, including a possible hair transplant.
“I’m surprised his wife hasn’t done that yet,” McKnight wrote. “He’s in L.A., he’s in the best place for a hair transplant. I’m sure some of his friends have really good ones, and he’s got plenty of time on his hands. He could have it done and hide away for a month, no one will notice. Nowadays who cares? It doesn’t matter.”
