The Prince and Princess of Wales sent a congratulatory video message at the end of the Olympics - but that wasn't all that people noticed. For once, it also wasn't the wellbeing of Catherine that was under scrutiny. Instead, it was Prince William's holiday beard.
Royal fans immediately began asking: was this going to be a permanent feature? Or was the beard an outbreak of summer bohemianism that hits middle-aged men on their holidays? You know what it's like - they start thinking it’s Glasto in the 1990s. It begins with the socks disappearing, then moves onto that creative T-shirt, or the collarless linen shirt, and then the shades that looked cool in the reflection of the third bottle of wine. But if this proves more than a fleeting moment of royal stubble, it wouldn't be the first royal beard.
It might now be a case of God Shave the King, but when Charles was a young man in the navy in the 1970s he sported an impressive beard. It was a kind of gamekeeper chic. Although all Windsors with beards run the risk of looking like Russian tsars.
Prince William's brother Harry has also been a prominent beard-wearer. Although whatever you say, don't mix up hair with heir. The issue of beards came up in Prince Harry's book Spare.
"To beard or not to beard, that was the question," wrote Harry, as he remembered how his grandfather Prince Philip wanted more beard rather than less. "Let grow the luxurious bristles of a bloody Viking!" he wrote. The beard was also a source of contention b.