Featured Image Credit: DPA/Avalon.Red
Topics: The Queen, Royal Family, UK News
Chloe Rowland
'Haunting' pictures of a bald waxwork of the Queen have gone viral after a German wax museum gave a behind-the-scenes look during a photocall.
It's renovation time at Panoptikum in Hamburg – an annual event during which its wax figures are cleaned, their hair washed, clothes dry cleaned and scratches repaired – and the museum decided to give fans a glimpse into how it's all done.
During the process, staff revealed their figure of the 95-year-old monarch is completely bald under her hat to save money, and it makes for an interesting viewing experience, shall we say.
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'As we are using real human hair for our waxworks which is very expensive, some figures which have hats don't have complete hair,' Dr Susanne Faerber, managing partner of the museum, told the Mail Online. 'We just install the amount of hair which is visible for the visitors.'
In a series of images taken during the press photocall, Her Majesty can be seen in her full pink attire donning a bare scalp and having the hair that pokes out of the hat combed, while other images show her completely bald and being vacuumed.
Quizzed over whether she thought it's disrespectful to put the bald monarch on display in this way, Faerber stressed, 'It is a waxwork, not the real person, this should always be kept in mind.'
She also pointed out that the position of 'Her Majesty is in Germany different than the handling of the royal family in Great Britain, where the press have to be more sensitive dealing with them'.
The museum, which is home to more than 120 wax figures including the likes of Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, posted the behind-the-scenes look to its Facebook page, with the images quick to do the rounds on social media.
'Big shout out to Hamburg's Panoptikum wax museum for an image that will now haunt my every waking hour,' wrote one Twitter user, while another simply said, 'Oh my gawd.'
With renovation work on its wax figures complete, Panoptikum reopens to visitors today, January 27. Luckily, the Queen will have her hat and wig firmly on this time.
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