Thatcher's hairdo was high-maintenance

Margaret Thatcher's immaculate hairdo took intensive efforts to perfect, with the late British prime minister having her bouffant reworked every three days on average, records showed Friday.

Her appointments diary for 1984, released by The National Archive three decades on, showed she had 118 hair appointments in the year.

Around the G7 summit in London in June 1984, she had her hair done on five consecutive days.

The diary confirms her reputation as a workaholic who struggled to relax, as evidenced by her two-and-a-half week summer holiday, spent in Austria and Switzerland.

During her 'break' she met the German chancellor Helmut Kohl, Austrian chancellor Fred Sinowatz, former UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim and the Swiss Confederation president.

She also attended a dinner for bankers and visited a local chipboard factory.

One morning was spent working and writing letters, another was logged as "worked in library".

Only one morning was given over to "swimming and relaxation", while three mid-afternoon slots were scheduled for "rest". The hair got eight time slots.

Thatcher, Britain's only female prime minister, who governed from 1979 to 1990, died in April last year aged 87.