The Mail is full of praise for Princess Kate’s new ‘honey blonde highlights’

On September 4, 2025, the Princess of Wales stepped out at the Natural History Museum with a big, puffy blonde wig perched atop her head. I still think about that and giggle to myself. All of the photos from that day were unhinged, not just because of the wig, but because Credible Early Years Expert Kate had no idea what to do when it started pouring rain during her photo-op with some children.

A year later, Kate joined her husband in Liverpool for his launch event for a suicide-prevention kit. The PR around the launch was pretty clear: this is about preventing men’s suicide, and the event was organized around William hanging out with footballers. Instead, Kate joined him. It’s a small mercy that she didn’t debut a brand new blonde wig, but she did get some new highlights, and what looks like some lighter tracks. Predictably, the Daily Mail was full of praise.

The Princess of Wales appears to have debuted caramel-blonde highlights during today’s joint engagement with Prince William. Days after she dropped Prince George off at Eton College in a big milestone for the family, Catherine, 44, made a surprise visit to Everton’s stadium in Liverpool to support the launch of her husband’s suicide prevention toolkit.

Catherine’s hair looked visibly lighter, possibly as a result of a subtle golden balayage when a stylist ‘paints’ the hair directly without using foils. The technique results in a softer, more natural finish that requires less maintenance, with experts previously telling the Daily Mail the look feels like a ‘natural evolution’ of the princess’s caramel highlights from seven years ago.

In September 2019, Catherine ‘experimented with caramel tones that softened her natural tresses’ as she revealed her new hair while taking Prince George and Princess Charlotte to Thomas’s Battersea for their first day of school. While going darker feels like the natural choice for the colder months, the caramel-blonde is actually the ‘perfect transitional shade’ for autumn, according to Tina Farey, Editorial Director at RUSH HAIR.

‘Honey blonde is the perfect way to brighten your hair for the colder months and add a glow to your complexion,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘The placement of lighter pieces has been blended throughout the top of her hair and around her face for a multi-dimensional finish, adding depth and framing her face beautifully,’ Ms Farey continued, adding the loose waves ‘amplify texture and movement’.

While Prince William was due to host the occasion solo, it was later decided that Kate would also attend today’s engagement – marking their first joint royal event since their summer break and the return of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to the UK.

[From The Daily Mail]

Sometimes, I go through my photo archives, hunting for particular Kate pics, and I’m struck by just how much she has lightened her hair in recent years. Like, even after she had her kids, when she was feeling a bit more experimental, she stuck with rich, dark brown shades. The blonde highlights, wigs and extensions really started after QEII died. I remember soon after QEII’s death, Kate turned up somewhere with noticeably lighter hair and she’s never really stopped. Anyway, her hair looked okay on Thursday. Nowhere near as unhinged as last year’s blonde wig debut.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.