Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, shared a humorous tale of her pandemic-era attempt at home beauty fixes, revealing that her experience with boxed hair dye didn’t go as planned. Speaking on the “Confessions of a Female Founder” podcast on April 22, Meghan, 43, recalled ordering boxed hair dye in an attempt to recreate the look of the model on the box. “I thought, ‘I’m going to look just like she does on the box,’” Meghan said. “Instead, it was this very inky, almost Elvira-esque black hair,” she added with a laugh.
Meghan reached out to celebrity stylist Serge Normant for help. He recommended she see stylist Kadi Lee, who had recently opened her salon in Los Angeles. “It was very much 2020,” Meghan said, reflecting on the period when the world was in lockdown. Lee, who recalls the moment vividly, remembers wearing a mask and receiving a “big bear hug” from Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, when she arrived to fix Meghan’s hair.
Despite the hair mishap, Meghan’s makeup artist, Daniel Martin, shared with Us Weekly that the Duchess is highly skilled at doing her own hair and makeup, especially when she’s on the go. He pointed to her appearance during her May 2024 tour of Nigeria, where she showcased her natural beauty without the help of a stylist. “It’s just her. There’s no stylist, no hairdresser,” Martin said. “She’s doing everything herself and she’s so good at it.”
Meghan’s self-reliant beauty approach goes back to her early years. Earlier this month, she recalled starting her first business at age 11, making and selling scrunchies from leftover fabric. “I’d buy the remnants of fabric from the fabric store and elastics, and use my little home sewing machine to make scrunchies and sell them,” Meghan told Fortune in an April 8 interview. She previously shared in a 2021 appearance at The New York Times DealBook Online Summit how she sold the scrunchies for “five bucks,” noting the sense of pride that came with her early entrepreneurial efforts.
Through these experiences, Meghan’s passion for creating something herself and her hands-on approach to beauty have been a constant theme in her life.
