When Kei Komuro, the boyfriend of Princess Mako, was accosted by a Japanese TV crew on the streets of New York last week, a resulting headline made a show of the fact that he was sporting a ponytail.

“Kei Komuro spotted in New York, his long hair tied back,” a Fuji News Network (FNN) article read.

It was the first time in a while that the embattled aspiring lawyer had been caught on camera.