We all know Prince Harry is the spare heir to the British throne, but a new headshot of the royal renegade has tongues wagging in regards to his sudden crop of 'spare' hair.
The headshot shows the 38-year-old sporting a full head of hair, a dramatic departure from the thinning thatch seen in photographs the week prior - prompting speculation on social media that his balding barnet was given a little touch-up in Photoshop.
The new photo of the prince was published on his profile page on the website for BetterUp, a US-based mental health tech start-up he joined in 2021 as its chief impact officer. In his profile, the duke is described as a "humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate, and environmentalist".
In the headshot, however, Harry's crop of hair is noticeably thicker and darker, particularly compared to recent shots of the royal at a charity polo match in Singapore - in which his ginger locks were pictured looking a little sparse on top.
The Duke of Sussex visited the southeast Asian country to raise funds for Sentebale, a charity he and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho founded in 2006 to help children and adolescents affected by HIV/Aids in Africa.
It's not the first time pictures of Harry's famous ginger locks have sparked Photoshop speculation. In September 2021 he appeared on the cover of Time 100 alongside wife Meghan Markle with what appeared to be a fuller head of hair, with any thinning patches seemingly retouched to compliment Markle's flowing mane.
Meanwhile elder brother William, 41, began balding in his early twenties - which Harry made sure to point out in his bombshell memoir Spare, which was released earlier this year.
Branding William's baldness "alarming" and "more advanced than mine", Harry also noted his brother's similarities to their late mother, Princess Diana, had "faded" over time.
"I looked at Willy, really looked at him, perhaps for the first time since we were little, taking in every detail: his familiar scowl, which had always been the norm in his dealings with me," he wrote.
As per the Daily Mail, in 2021 a leading UK cosmetic surgeon claimed Harry's hair loss had accelerated following his and Markle's relocation to the United States, predicting he would be almost completely bald by the age of 50.
Dr Asim Shahmalak from Crown Clinic in Manchester agreed Harry was balding at a far slower rate than his brother, noting that then-36-year-old Harry was at the same stage of hair loss as William when he was just 26.
"The baldness gene is not as strong in Harry but he is still losing his hair quickly. At present most of Harry's hair loss is around the crown area," Dr Shahmalak commented.
"Without treatment, the acceleration we have seen over the last 15 months will only increase over the next year. Harry may never be as bald as his brother William, [who] has been more affected than any of the royal men."
