You Have To See Meghan Markle With Her Natural Curls

This past Monday, the world woke up to what might just be the most positive news story to come out of 2017 thus far: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, his girlfriend of over a year, were engaged to be wed. The announcement sparkled an inevitable social-media frenzy, and naturally, people had questions about the 36-year-old American who was now mere months away from officially joining the British royal family. Who is she? Where is she from? What's her favorite drugstore body lotion? Where did she get that wrap coat?

Inquiring minds took to the internet (where else?) to find out, and dug up something glorious in the process: throwback photos of the actress rocking her natural curly texture. Considering Markle has never been spotted in public over the past few years without a shiny, fresh-from-the-salon blowout, this is actually one of the first times we're seeing her ringlets in all their natural glory — and her new fans are thrilled.

After unearthing pictures of Markle and her lush curls pre-fame, model and TV host Kamie Crawford took to Twitter to show the receipts — and to express her excitement. "We got curls in the royal palace y'all!!!" she wrote. One of her followers responded, "I will lose it if she wears that beautiful curly hair!"

It remains to be seen whether the soon-to-be Duchess will let her natural texture shine more often once she's a full-fledged resident of Kensington Palace. But no matter how she chooses to wear her hair, Markle has said how proud she is to identify as a "strong, confident mixed-race woman" — and it'll be pretty amazing to see her bring her strength to this new role. (Not to mention the 100% increase in royal hair flips.)