There were a few moments during last night’s ITV interview with Prince Harry that watching it as a regular old humdrum human, you might’ve raised an eyebrow at. ‘Beardgate’ was one of them for me, the part where Harry explained that he and William actually got into an argument about the fact Harry was allowed to shave his beard when William wasn’t. It sounds petty to the average joe whose family problems are markedly more strife, but perhaps it does give rare insight into just how tightly controlled the royals' lives are.
One must then ask, of course, what’s the issue with beards? Is it really royal etiquette to have a clean-shaven face, or was this a rule made for Prince Harry? Well, Harry does a good job of explaining it in hismemoir Spare, and it’s less to do with the royal family than the fact he served in the military.
Why can’t the royal family have beards? The Prince Harry beard rule explained
When writing about the requests he made ahead of his wedding to Meghan Markle, Harry outlined the issue in the following passage:
‘I now dared to make another ask – Granny, please, may I, for my wedding, keep my beard?’ Harry writes. ‘Not a small ask either. A beard was thought by some to be a clear violation of protocol and long-standing norms, especially since I was getting married in my Army uniform. Beards were forbidden in the British Army.’
In 2017, Harry caused controversy for sporting facial hair on Remembrance Sunday, reportedly upsetting a number of military members when he participated in the service with his full beard. He had already retired from the military and so wasn’t breaking protocol, but sources told the Daily Mail at the time ‘There's no place for beards in the Queen's cavalry. He should have shaved it off for such an important day.’
In last night’s interview though, Harry describes his beards as an anxiety shield, but explains that even William took issue with him even requesting to keep it for his wedding.
‘I think William found it hard that other people told him to shave it off, and yet here I was on my wedding day wearing military uniform, no longer in the military, um, but thinking as though I – believing as though I should shave it off before my wedding day,’ Harry said. ‘And I said, “Well I don’t believe that Meghan’s gonna recognise me if she comes up the aisle and sees me beardless”. I would feel very, very different without my beard, and that’s hard for people to understand who’ve never grown a beard, um, but hopefully those beard people out there will go “Yeah, no, I fully get that, I can understand”.’
According to royal experts, Queen Elizabeth II was never a fan of facial hair and ordered her husband to shave the beard he grew during a solo tour around the Commonwealth in 1965. However, Harry writes in Spare that she completely understood his desire to keep it and allowed him too, it was only William that took issue.
So, there you have it – beards are a major issue for the brothers, who’d have thought it would all come down to follicles.