Claudia Winkleman’s fringe was once voted ‘the most annoying haircut on TV’, even prompting letters of complaint about it falling into her eyes. Not that she minded. As the TV presenter once told me: ‘I couldn’t agree more! Even I know my fringe is bad. But basically I’ve got such bad eyesight, I can’t see it anyway, so it’s not a problem.’
The Traitors presenter was born with severe myopia, and has spent her whole life battling with blurry vision despite undergoing surgery more than once. As she also cheerfully admitted to me: ‘People tell me I’m squinting, but because my sight’s so bad, it’s made no difference whether my fringe is down to my nose. My fantasy is to have it so long I have to part it to answer a question!’
However, it seems like there may be a change of plan. Last month, Claudia revealed on Instagram that she’d undergone another corrective procedure on her eyes, sharing a photo of herself with eye surgeon Dr Julian Stevens. ‘This amazing human makes me see. He’s operated on my eyes before and he did it again today.'
‘No eyeliner for weeks and I sleep in goggles (no words) but I’m eternally grateful.’
Four weeks on from the op, and Claudia is now seeing the benefits – quite literally. Appearing last night at the launch of a new immersive spin-off, The Traitors: Live Experience, the presenter arrived with a freshly-tweaked fringe and a softer shape. Presumably it's the work of her long-term hairdresser George Northwood, who famously talked her through a hilarious 'DIY fringe trim' tutorial when his salon was shut during the pandemic.
While she’s hardly had a micro-fringe makeover, we noticed that her previously straight sheet-like fringe has been given a gently curved shape that’s shorter at the centre and graduated towards the edges. Could this be the beginning of Claudia, the curtain bangs era?
That might be a stretch, but it certainly shows off her eyes more than earlier incarnations, which would have left even those with 20/20 vision struggling to see.
To complement the graduated trim, her fringe had also been given a gently rounded shape, presumably with a big round brush as part of a blowdry.
We also spotted a tweak with her overall hair style, as her usually ruler-straight lengths had a gentle ‘ghost wave’ addition to her face-framing pieces.
Beyond that, it was a classic Claudia look. Having had to follow doctor’s orders and go cold turkey on the eyeliner while her eyes healed, her signature kohl liner was back in situ last night. Her makeup artist Debbie Dannell has previously posted about using Victoria Beckham Satin Kajal on Claudia, so we’d guess that’s the product behind her softly-smoked – but not smudged – look.
And yes, we could (just about!) see her eyeliner this time, thanks to the tweaked fringe, although the lash and eyebrow makeup remain an eternal mystery. Some things never change. As Claudia has previously explained, the fringe is a brilliant, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ strategy for her forehead. ‘It's wrinkled like a Shar Pei under there,’ she’s told me at a previous beauty press day. ‘It's never been cleaned. There are small creatures under there. It should be protected by UNESCO for the wildlife.’
If you’d really like to see what lies beneath, though, there’s past evidence to show what Claudia looks like minus her signature fringe. A shot from Red Nose Day 2003 shows just a lone strand of fringe, while a 2001 snap of Claudia with her husband Kris Tykier offers further proof that yes, she really DOES have a forehead.
We even caught a rare, present-day glimpse of Claudia's under-fringe zone, when a gust of wind briefly dislodged her hair at an event earlier this summer, but don't expect to see the forehead out and about by choice.
Her half-hearted Noughties fringe was never her favourite look, as Claudia told GH. 'It started out quite wispy and floaty, but I immediately got my hairdresser to change it for a strong, Lego-like style. Once I saw that I fell in love and haven’t been without it since.'
We respect a woman who knows what she likes and sticks with it.
