To shave or not to shave....

While Prince Harry is apparently staging a royal revolution all of his own by refusing to lose the facial hair he acquired while trekking to the South Pole even though granny, Elizabeth II, has told him to remove his beard, a future king has made his New Year's resolution to revert to clean shaven.  Felipe of Asturias appeared at the Pascua Militar in Madrid on January 6th looking slightly grumpy but several years younger after getting rid of the beard he'd been sporting for several months.

Crown Prince Felipe takes ten years off himself by losing his beard - the facial hair had been a feature for several months but disappeared in time for the prince's first official appearance of 2014

There's no doubt that Harry's beard ages him and it's nowhere near as thick looking as the facial hair that Felipe or fellow heirs, Frederik of Denmark and Haakon Magnus of Norway, have sported in the past.  But if press reports are to be believed, the now fourth in line to the British throne is holding tight and refusing to obey his queen who is said to have told him to get back to clean and smart as soon as possible.  Harry's first official appearance of 2014 will be very interesting indeed.

Prince Harry with the controversial beard that the Queen has apparently asked him to shave off as the new royal year gets under way. The prince is seen with the Duke of Cambridge at a charity football match at Sandringham over the Christmas holidays.