Queen Elizabeth trusted this person to do ‘very intimate work’

Queen Elizabeth was known for her private nature and deeply devoted to royal protocol. It was rare for people to get close to the queen, and even rarer for them to have an intimate personal relationship with her. There is, however, a rather surprising person who would have approached the queen to carry out “intimate work”: her hairdresser.

Talk to wife and househairdresser Ian Carmichael has spoken about his work for the late Queen, who “never” did her own hair. “It was a very intimate job and there probably weren’t many people who could touch her in such a normal way, because you just didn’t touch the Queen,” he said. “I loved being with her and it was always an honor, but I knew my place.”

According to Carmichael, the Queen placed “enormous trust” in him to do the job.

Carmichael began working as Elizabeth’s hairstylist in 1998, helping her create her iconic silver bob. According to the interview, the hairstylist “used to wash my hair, then perm it with rollers and set it.”

In 2017, he was recognized in her New Year honors list for his services, which involved visiting her twice a week for hair appointments.

Elizabeth died in 2022 at the age of 96 after a historic 70-year reign. The Queen reportedly battled bone cancer before her death; However, the famous private monarch chose to keep the diagnosis a secret from the public during her life.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed his illness in his 2024 memoir. Unchained. Just two days before his death he visited the queen. “Edward Young, his private secretary, tried to groom me,” Johnson wrote. “I had known for a year or more that she was suffering from a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were concerned that at any moment she could experience a precipitous decline.”