Meghan Markle recently shared details about her hair journey during the pandemic on her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder. In the April 22 episode, she spoke with her hair colorist, Kadi Lee, about her early struggles with hair dye before they met.
During the height of COVID-19 in 2020, Meghan tried to dye her hair at home using boxed dye. She recalled, “I thought, ‘I’m going to look just like she does on the box.’” However, the result was not what she expected. “It was this very inky, almost Elvira-esque black hair,” she said.
Meghan was introduced to Lee by hairstylist Serge Normant, who styled her hair for her 2018 royal wedding to Prince Harry. “He and I became friends after he did my hair for my wedding,” Meghan explained. At that time, her family had just moved to California, and because of the pandemic, she kept ordering boxed hair dye.
After the “Elvira-esque” hair mishap, Meghan texted Normant, who recommended she see Lee. “You came over. I mean, we were masked and all the things. It was such an interesting time, but I remember that day so well,” Meghan recalled.
Their relationship grew beyond client and stylist, becoming a friendship. Meghan said her children, Archie and Lilibet, even call Lee “Auntie Kadi.” “It’s my favorite when they run out to your car. It’s like, ‘Kadi!’”
The episode also touched on Meghan’s earlier hair challenges. She described her college days at Northwestern, saying, “When I moved into Kappa Gamma, I don’t even think they made plug-in flat irons at the time.” She used a small stove flat iron that often smelled like burning hair. “Most of the girls who were not Black would say, ‘What’s that smell? Is hair burning?’” Meghan said, explaining it was her way of managing her hair texture.
At a recent event in Venice, California, Meghan joked about her boxed dye days, which drew laughter from the audience. She is an investor in Highbrow Hippie, Kadi Lee’s female-founded haircare brand. Meghan supports between five to ten female-founded businesses and sees investing in them as part of her personal growth.
“Investing in them has helped me line up for this chapter where I’m investing in myself,” Meghan said, referencing her own lifestyle brand, As Ever, which launched its first products earlier this month.
Regarding Highbrow Hippie, Meghan told InStyle, “I am so proud to invest in [Lee] as a friend and as a female founder. Kadi has a mastery of hair health, and her Highbrow Hippie collection is a perfect reflection of that.”
Lee, who also colors hair for Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Roberts, shared Meghan’s custom hair formula on Instagram last year. She described it as a “Chocolate chestnut brunette” with red and golden undertones. The color enhances skin’s glow in winter and gives hair a high-shine finish.
