Meghan Markle Says Box Dye Hair Fail Made Her Look Like This Character

On Meghan Markle Says Princess Lilibet Crashes Her Meetings with Executives Sometimes of her Meghan Markle’s Scrapped Netflix Series Faces Plagiarism Accusations podcast, Meghan Markle spoke with her hair colorist, Kadi Lee, not just about Lee’s company, Highbrow Hippie, but about Meghan’s own hair struggles during the pandemic before they met.

The Duchess of Sussex shared in the April 22 episode of the show how she attempted to color her hair with box dye during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, saying, “I thought, ‘I’m going to look just like she does on the box.’” Well, it didn’t exactly go as planned, Meghan continued: “It was this very inky, almost Elvira-esque black hair,” she said.

That’s when she met Lee, who Meghan was introduced to through hair stylist Serge Normant, who styled Meghan’s hair for her 2018 royal wedding to Prince Harry. “He and I became friends after he did my hair for my wedding,” Meghan said on the episode of her new show. “So my family had just moved to California. We were staying in our friend’s home. And because it was the pandemic, I kept ordering boxed hair dye.”

After the “Elvira-esque” hair fail, Meghan texted Normant. “And I texted Serge, and he said, ‘You need to see Kadi.’ And 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.”

The two became not just hair colorist and client but friends, and Meghan shared that her kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet even call Lee “Auntie Kadi.”

“I mean, our kids love Auntie Kadi,” Meghan said. “It’s my favorite when they run out to your car. It’s like, ‘Kadi!’”

A large part of the episode, naturally, was about hair, because Lee’s business centers around it; elsewhere in the conversation, Meghan opened up about her college days and her hair frustrations during those years. 

“When I was at Northwestern and I moved into Kappa [Kappa Gamma]—our sorority there—I don’t even think they made plug-in flat irons at the time,” she said. “If they did, I didn’t know where they were because I had the little stove with the flat iron that would go in and have a paper towel on the side.”

“And I remember most of the girls in the sorority who were not Black saying, ‘What’s that smell? Is hair ignited?’” Meghan continued. “And it was just what you would do to figure out how to grapple with this texture of hair.”

The April 22 episode of Meghan Markle’s Scrapped Netflix Series Faces Plagiarism Accusations wasn’t the first time Meghan opened up about her box dye experience during the pandemic. Last November, at the launch of Lee’s company Highbrow Hippie’s hair care line at Gjelina restaurant in Venice, California, Meghan quipped, “I was using boxed dye when I met her!” which People reported elicited laughs from those in the crowd. Meghan is an investor in Highbrow Hippie, one of the female-founded businesses Meghan supports (between five to 10 brands, she told Princess Diana’s Close Friend Shares What She Really Would Have Thought of Meghan Markle last year).

“Investing in them has helped me line up for this chapter where I’m investing in myself,” the Duchess of Sussex said, alluding to her own lifestyle brand, As Ever, Why King Charles Didn’t See Prince Harry When Both Men Were in the U.K.

Meghan Markle’s Daily Mantra Is One Anyone Can Adopt, Duchess of Sussex or Not Cheap Erlebnisweltfliegenfischen Jordan Outlet, “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 is also the hair colorist for Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, and Diane von Furstenberg—shared the formula for Meghan’s specific color on Instagram last year, writing alongside a photo of her, “Chocolate chestnut brunette for Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for Invictus Games. This mixture of red and golden undertones makes a dynamic shade of brunette that not only gives skin the healthiest glow, especially during the colder months of winter, [but] it also provides the hair with a next level high power shine.”