Royal wedding: Crowning glory dubbed a demi-chignon
02 MAY 2011
With such a beautiful dress, an equally stunning hairstyle was needed as the crowning glory.
And Kate's wedding day 'do was truly enchanting. The 'half-up, half-down' look has been dubbed the 'demi-chignon'.
The half-bun was created specially for Kate by her trusted hairdressers James Pryce and Richard Ward.
It involved months of planning and practice, and the two men commenced their work at 6.30am on the big day, embarking upon an operation of military precision.
"This was something we'd practised many times, so we were confident," said Richard, the owner of a salon in Chelsea of which Kate and her family are loyal customers.
"James could have done it in his sleep. He's practised it countless times on one of our PAs who has long hair.
"I had a sheet with instructions on and ticked the list off one by one while James worked on the hair. There were a lot of stages to the hairstyle. We don't want to give away the secret to the demi-chignon – that's for Kate."
Richard also talked about the name they chose for the hairstyle likely to become the most copied in the world.
"We thought about calling it the demi-do, but demi-chignon sounded much better.
"It was my wife Hellen who came up with the name."
Kate used mood boards, which consisted of an array of images, to aid her in her search for the perfect hairstyle.
"We took her mood boards and pictures from magazines, and when we decided on half-up, half-down, she had a clear idea of what she wanted," Richard said.
The hairdressers were full of praise for their royal customer.
"Kate was amazingly generous with her time and told us we could have as long as we wanted with her so as to get it right," James said.
"She was very patient and made us feel incredibly at ease.
"Kate was amazingly calm. She is very down to earth and just so easy to work with."
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