Meghan Markle has said that “non-black” students at her university were left baffled by her routine.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, welcomed hair colourist and friend, Kadi Lee, onto the latest episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, where the duo discussed racism and intersectionality when growing up.
Lee and her colleague, Myka Harris, launched Highbrow Hippie in 2012 as a blog, which developed into a brick-and-mortar hair salon in 2018.
Its description on the website says: “Highbrow Hippie was created to fill a void. Our goal is to expand the definition of a salon and return to its historical meaning – a gathering place to exchange thoughts and ideas.
Meghan Markle says ‘non-black’ students were baffled by her routine
PA
“Creating a sense of community, self care and a way to drop out for a few hours and focus on yourself.”
Meghan began attending the Highbrow Hippie salon after her move back to California in 2020, and has become close friends with both Lee and Harris.
During Lee’s stint on the Duchess’s podcast, Meghan said: “You were doing hair at 11, and in Connecticut, there weren’t a lot of people there who could do your hair, the right texture hair, so you were experimenting on your own.
“I can’t imagine what that was like.”
Meghan Markle and Kadi Lee pictured together last year
Getty
The mother-of-two opened up about her time at Northwestern University in Illinois, when she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.
The Duchess continued: “It kind of reminds me of when I was at Northwestern and I moved into Kappa, our sorority there.
“I don’t even think they made plug-in flat irons at the time, they couldn’t.
“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.
Meghan Markle’s new podcast – Confessions of a Female Founder – was released on April 8Lemonada
Meghan Markle and Kadi Lee pictured together on social media
“Probably half the people listening to this will be going ‘What is she talking about?’
“You would pull it out, it would have the little scorch marks and I remember most of the girls in the sorority, who were not black, would say, ‘What is that smell? is hair burning?’
“It was just what you would do to figure out how to grapple with this texture of hair.”
Confessions of a Female Founder launched earlier this month on Lemonada Media, and new episodes are released every Tuesday.
