Queen told William to shave his beard

[BradfordGirl]

But Harry got to keep his beard.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382098/Royal-wedding-speech-Prince-Harry-pays-tribute-Prince-William.html

What amazes me most about this is the level of control the Queen has over their lives by deciding if they can have a beard or not.

The army don't have beards, it's the navy that can!
That was the objection.

Sorry wrong link.
pagesix.com/2023/01/05/prince-william-ordered-prince-harry-to-shave-his-beard-for-wedding-memoir/

If he was wearing a uniform he should be clean shaven, no special rules for royals. I think telling him those are the rules is fair enough.

These people are open to scrutiny in everything they do, it would be normal in their world when deciding on what to wear to discuss it. He takes offence at everything.

My MiL told my DH to shave off his beard because she hated it 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t think it’s uncommon for people to have an opinion about these things!

"The 26-year-old Prince grew the facial hair during a recent 10-day exercise in Barbados with the Navy's Special Boat Service.
He returned a week ago but appears so enamoured of his new look that he has yet to shave it off.
He was photographed on a pheasant shoot at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk with his brother, Prince Harry, and girlfriend Kate Middleton.
Rules on facial hair in the Armed Forces differ according to the service. The Royal Navy allows a full beard - although no moustaches, goatees or 'designer stubble' - if permission is sought from a commanding officer."

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/3759482/Prince-William-grows-a-beard.html

But Harry says the Queen told William to shave his beard off afterwards. While the Queen told Harry he could keep his.

@MareAndSpare Your comment makes no sense. William had a beard in the Navy. Harry was allowed to keep his beard by the Queen for his wedding.

Looking at the Telegraph article one problem for William might have been:

"Prince William has grown a beard during his last weeks of freedom before he begins pilot training with the RAF."

As has been said by pps rules on facial hair very between the services and the RAF is no beards (medical/religious exemptions aside)...

I wonder if HM the Queen told William that as heir to the throne he needed to be seen to stick to service rules/set an example.

As for "H" There was some unhappiness expressed elsewhere about H, army uniform beard during the wedding but I wonder if the Queen cut H some slack due to it being his wedding etc....

Generally PH does seem to have been cut some minor slack with regards to uniform standards over the years (as images will show), maybe that changed under new management and perhaps that may have led to the reported gripes about not being allowed to wear uniform and ADC insignia at the time of Queen Elizabeth's funeral.

All RAF Personnel are allowed beards.
The allegation is that the Queen told William to shave his beard but allowed Harry to keep his.

It shows an extraordinary level of control and power.

This is true now. It was not true when William was serving in the RAF. He was allowed an "established moustache" not a beard. Queen's regs changed around 2019.

@JADS

This is true now. It was not true when William was serving in the RAF. He was allowed an "established moustache" not a beard. Queen's regs changed around 2019.

Thanks for that info, I (fairly obviously) didn't realise they'd been relaxed at all from back in the day 😬.....

What amazes me most about this is the level of control the Queen has over their lives by deciding if they can have a beard or not

Not the Queen, the Queen's Regulations.

Uniform regulations for the military are common - not unique to Britain.

And they vary between Army, Navy and Air Force in UK.

Harry sought, and obtained, special treatment. Harry married in a Blues and Royals uniform to his wedding (which he probably should have done as didn't hold an honorary appointment with them) and Army should be clean shaven.

So he sought, and got, special treatment

Just realised I’d never seen William with a beard.
So had a quick google.

I like it!

Is Harry complaining about getting special treatment? I assume you haven’t been in the services @BradfordGirl?

I remember reading all this stuff stuff about beards at the time of Harry's wedding. Discussion in the papers about rules in various branches of the services. I seem to remember that it was because H was ex-army by then that he got away with it.
The Queen was Commander in Chief so not unreasonable for her to expect her own family to comply with military rules. And they would both have known this.

Harry was favoured by granny every one knew it she indulged him like she did with Andrew

You all keep talking about rules in the forces but they are irrelevant.
William was in the Navy and then the RAF both of which allow beards. The Queen told him to shave it off.

See previous poster on when the rules changed

Beards not allowed in RAF at time of incident

(Only Rodney I ever knew with a beard had it as a result of a month excused shaving because of impetigo. It's so easy to shave in 5* hotels with lots of fluffy towels)

Have you read any of the previous posts? The rules are not irrelevant.

As has been kindly pointed out by @JADS at the time PW did his RAF course the RAF did not allow beards (they didn't in my time their either but it was a long time ago)

So in a nutshell ..

William did some time in the RN - whilst doing that beard allowed (with caveats),

He was then about to head off to the RAF to do some pilot training and at that time beards not allowed.... Sounds like somebody reminded him of the regulations that applied and the beard came off.

As for Harry - overall it's Harry that's actually been favoured status by being an exemption to the regulations covering Army uniform standards by being allowed to wear a beard at the wedding.. so he really has zero room to gripe.

I know Harry was favoured. My point was that the Queen made this decision.

@MareAndSpare ”no special rules for royals?” Are u kidding? 😂

Their whole lives are special rules 😂

The Queen was the head of the Armed Forces. It’s perfectly reasonable that she should require the rules to be followed.

Of course she was going to make her feelings known, and of course her orders were going to be followed. Do you not know how the Royal Family works? There’s a very strict hierarchy and the Queen was at the top of it!

You’ve been very busy today?

It shows that Harry is the whiny brat that the royal family have clearly spent years placating. Quelle surprise.

Oh boy...

I'm old enough to have been in the forces when the current KC and also PA were either serving or did extended training courses ( RAF/RN), such as flying training etc.

As far as I know they both seemed to try and comply with the appropriate regs for the appropriate service with regard to uniform, beards etc. (Navy beards OK, RAF not)

Personally in more modern times I'd still expect that PW would comply with the rules in a similar manner and I know pre-2019 many forces personnel ( and we're talking commissioned and non- commissioned) would have raised eyebrows at PW if he'd have turned up at an RAF station in full RAF uniform to do a lengthy course sporting a beard.........

Now of course PW might have "gone stuff it, I don't care, I'm a Prince"...or just maybe PW understood the idea of leadership by example....if so good on him.

If the Queen was involved at all in all this it might have been a comment along the lines of "I'm not sure about the beard, what do my regulations say".............🤔