Women We Love (Hair Edition): Princess Charlene

I know so little about Princess Charlene that when I clicked on a story about her I was expecting to see holiday photos of the newest little English princess. Uh-oh. That would be Princess Charlotte. Instead up popped a beautiful blonde with a pixie haircut who also happens to be Princess Charlene of Monaco.

With twins Gabriella and Jacques

There are many British Royal Family watchers here in the US. As a dyed-in-the-wool-jumper Anglophile, I am one of them. But I've no idea what's going on with other monarchies, though I do understand Spain, The Netherlands and a couple of Scandinavian countries still have them. Since Monaco isn't even a country (but a principality), I'm not sure how theirs rates.

Princess Charlene, 37, is South African and a former Olympic swimmer. She is the wife of Prince Albert of Monaco, who was a bachelor so long we all lost interest when or with whom he'd finally settle down. They met at a swim meet in Monaco in 2000. He already had "two known illegitimate children" (don't you just love Wikipedia) when they married in 2011.

Charlene and Albert 2011

Grace (with Rainier) 1956

Charlene bears a striking resemblance to Albert's mother, Princess Grace, a Hollywood princess before she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956.  She also looks a lot like Charlize Theron, Jean Seberg and the grown-up Twiggy. But Charlene was not a movie star or a model before her marriage, and we've all had too much scandalous information about the Grimaldis down the years. I think it's been a relief to hear so little about her.

So I don't know enough about Princess Charlene to love anything other than her hair. As a short-hair-forever gal, I always jump at beautiful celebrities who've chopped their locks— from Charlize Theron to Michelle Williams to Anne Hathaway— although they've grown them out. Don't worry; I have photo files on all of you if you need reference material.

A hairy tale from this...

to this...

to maybe not this...

to this

A pixie is hard to deal with if you need your hair to look perfect all the time (aka in public if you're a princess). The best pixie cuts look a little messy. Too sleek and you're either a flapper or a boy. Charlene has achieved the right balance.

The short hair seems to be fairly recent, since the birth of twins (and the male heir) in 2014. Under normal circumstances it's understandable a busy mother of twins might want to simplify her hair care routine. Considering she is a princess, Charlene surely must have hot-and-cold-running help, no? More likely she is trying to rectify that choppy do with the dangling earrings in the photo above.

She doesn't smile much in pictures, and there have been plastic surgery rumors, but I'm pretty sure her hair is hers alone. Only her hairdresser knows for sure...