We just stumbled across this photo of King Charles with a full beard and to be quite honest, we're digging it

We’ve stumbled across a photo of King Charles with a full beard and if we’re being totally honest, we’re digging this casual look. 

• There was a picture taken of His Majesty supposedly at the Badminton Horse Trials in where he had a full beard.
• It’s quite a contrast from his usual look and Prince Harry has recently claimed he had to get permission to keep his own beard. 
• This royal news comes as Prince William revealed who's a better cook between him and Kate Middleton and joked about his 'lumpy' sauces. 

King Charles might be better known for having a smoothly-shaven face but it seems it wasn’t always the case! We’ve stumbled across a throwback photo of His Majesty said to have been taken back in the 1970s and he couldn’t look more dashing - or more like his youngest son Prince Harry. The surprising snap shows the then-Prince Charles wearing a smart, checked blazer with a matching flat cap, white shirt and trousers. 

His tie featured navy and maroon stripes and he looked every inch the country gentleman when he was, according to the caption, at the Badminton Horse Trials. There were also several more pictures of King Charles with a full beard riding at the trials there too. 

This event still takes place in Gloucestershire every year, close by to King Charles’ Highgrove House. And perhaps the most startling thing about the throwback photo is King Charles with a full beard, which is something not seen for decades. The choice to keep a full beard here gives His Majesty an overall off-duty look and his resemblance to Prince Harry looks very pronounced when he sports facial hair. 

It’s not known whether the King still grows a beard in private during breaks throughout the year when there are no royal appearances scheduled for him. But in public, this is a very rare sight that we can’t help digging, though Prince Harry is now always seen with a beard.

The Duke of Sussex, who is fifth in the royal line of succession, has been pictured with a full beard since 2015. And according to The Telegraph, Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which was released on January 10 made some pretty candid claims about beard-growing within the Royal Family. He alleged that he had to seek permission from the late Queen to keep his signature facial hair and that this caused tension between him and Prince William.

Writing that the Queen “understood” that having a beard apparently made him feel “calmer”, Prince Harry declared, “Yes, she said, you may keep your beard. But then I explained it to my brother and he... bristled?”

After claiming to have given the Prince of Wales a brief “history lesson”, showing him pictures of ancestors who served in the military and had beards, he suggested that his older brother “wouldn’t let it go”. 

Asking “Willy” why it mattered so much to him, the Duke of Sussex alleged that Prince William replied that it was because he wasn’t allowed to keep his own.

"Ah, there it was. After he'd come back from an assignment with Special Forces, Willy was sporting a full beard, and someone told him to be a good boy, run along and shave it,” the King’s youngest son added. “He hated the idea of me enjoying a perk he'd been denied."

Whilst fans might not see either Prince William or King Charles with a full beard in public again, the throwback photo of the monarch with one shows that now and then it was something he’s enjoyed over the years.