#Matthias Lavesson

[royal-hair]

SWEDEN - Peter Hägelstam, Johan Hellström and Matthias Lavesson

I will start with Peter Hägelstam, who has been the hairdresser of Queen Silvia for more than 40 years, him and Johan Hellström are the owners of Björn Axén, and both took on the task of styling also Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine.

Thank to the recent release of the book "Björn Axén – Haute Coiffure" and the round of interviews and podcasts, Peter has been giving a little insight behind the scenes of the updos we all love. Like how he clears his schedule when the Queen calls or that they do have a hairdresser station in the palace for him and his team to work his magic.

Peter Hägelstam is behind most of Queen Silvia's Nobel looks (apart from her regular tiara hair), even my absolute fave, 1991's Silvia with red orchids in her hair (he assisted Björn Axén on it).

According to Peter, they plan the hair so it interacts with the dress, if the dress is big and has volume, the hair is also big and with volume. The hair must be a continuation of the tiara, so his hairstyles are always well integrated in an harmonious styling. Peter also talks about how this Nobel looks fixes the wearer's posture, as they tend to have their back strighter so the hair don't come undone with all the movement.

Silvia and Victoria like to wear jewelry on their updos, so that an apparently simple updo, can be elevated with a little bling.

He also talked about some tricks like after doing a bun and just before applying haispray one last time, they pull a bit the hair so it has a little bit of more body, or about why Madeleine is the best with he hair down, not my words, just Peter's:

"If there is anyone who can wear her hair down with full control, it is Princess Madeleine. She has the ability to move carefully so that the hair does not move. An open hairstyle demands a lot from the hairdresser and this time it was Ring Ljung who received that honor. He is fantastic at working in layers. You don't spray everything into one unit, but the hair is a little articulated while still staying in place."

And you all would think, how much time do they spend doing the hair? Because one would think that this kind of intricate work would take a few hours, but that's far from the truth, because according to Peter, there has been times where doing Silvia's hair took a whooping 20 minutes. Maybe hair pieces and extensions facilitate his work and shorten the time, but even when asked about it, he doesn't confirm nor deny that they use them, he just talk about a little bit of help after Silvia cut her hair short and that sometimes, the hair needs a little rest. So in Royal Hair talk it is a yes, but we'll keep his secret.

Peter was also asked about Victoria's hair being always in a bun. He says that Victoria is the most conservative and less adventurous with the hair, and while I don't agree with him I get where he's coming from as in recent years the style is always a variant of a bun.

Victoria prefers her hair out of the face so her features are showcased, and she also has that preference because she has curly hair and as a person on the curly side, I know that the weather can change drastically your hairdo, so that's why she mostly wears a safe hairstyle to not worry about how she's looking. But what Peter also says is that privately Victoria does wear her hair down often! In this blog I always celebrated like a wedding announcement when Victoria wore her hair down, and all I ask is to have more of those days because the looks stunning like in her 10th wedding anniversary photos.

If you want to see how Peter works, he gave a tutorial on tiara hair in 2020 when SVT released a documentary about the swedish tiaras, just go to around the minute 20 and you'll see:

(@tiaramania I remember us being so excited about this when it was released hahaha)

Lastly, I don't want to forget about Sofia's hairdresser Matthias Lavesson, we don't have as much information about him like Peter Hägelstam as Sofia's time as a royal is just 10 years.

Matthias was trained by Peter himself, so it's not surprising that Sofia chose him as her hairdresser.

He was the man behind the beautiful updo with the black ribbon flowers in 2023 and that should not be a shock as he's also a head piece maker, so if we combine his two talents, all we get is combos like the ponytail with a huge ribbon headband on Julian's christening or a few headpieces on the opening of the Parliament:

As I said, there's not so much information on him and how he worked specifically with Sofia, I just found one interview where he talks about tips and products he uses (that's the last link if you want to read it). But what we do have is a testament of his work with Sofia's appearances.

Sources: x x x x x x x x

[gaga-selfies]

Hat by Matthias Lavesson

[royal-hair]

If you missed any of the Royal Hairdressers series posts, here you have a masterlist of them:

BELGIUM - Frédéric Van Espen, Claude Noterdame & Alain Tholl de l'Enclos

DENMARK - Poul Nejlund & Søren Hedegaard & Dennis Knudsen

NORWAY - Tom Eriksen & Thorbjørg Bache

SPAIN - Luz Valero, Francisco Segura & Gloria Delgado

SWEDEN - Peter Hägelstam, Johan Hellström and Matthias Lavesson

THE NETHERLANDS - Martina Stanislavova, Elles Nijkamp & Alexandre de Paris

UNITED KINGDOM - Jo Hansford, Ian Carmichael & Richard Ward