Meet Hollywood's Top Colorist, Kadi Lee, and Her New Haircare Brand Highbrow Hippie (Exclusive)

What do Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meghan Markle and Diane von Furstenberg have in common? Each trusts Kadi Lee with their hair color. 

The colorist to the world’s A-list has been making her mark from Los Angeles to London — and back again — for 25 years, and now she’s ready for her next beauty move. 

Lee, along with her friend and business partner Myka Harris, are introducing Highbrow Hippie Haircare & Wellness, solutions that curb the root causes of hair loss to promote healthy aging of hair. 

The brand, named after the exquisite Venice, Calif., atelier where they tend to their clients in private, debuts with its Essential Wellbeing Complex Supplements and its Root Replenish Active Growth Serum, both of which have been road-tested and approved by some of their high-profile clients.

Says Roberts, who’s used the serum for almost six months, “My hair feels healthier and stronger.”

“The formula is incredibly light and absorbs quickly into my scalp without leaving any residue, even after multiple days in a row of use,” the movie icon also tells PEOPLE exclusively.

For the launch, Lee spoke to PEOPLE about some of the game-changing moments in her career, from what catapulted her into the industry to the time she knew she “crushed” a celeb’s look.  

Kadi Lee.

Liza Voloshin

“I always say that I’m the most accidental hairdresser,” Lee asserts to kick off the interview. 

In fact, her need to do hair, at least her own, was inevitable.

Her mother, a single mom of two, was a housekeeper who worked around the clock. As such, she left tasks like hair care to her children to figure out. 

But, Lee grew up in a predominantly White town in Connecticut, one that lacked hairdressers who had experience with her hair type. “Salons are still kind of the last bastion of segregated places. You need to go to somebody who traditionally looks like you to know how to do your hair,” she says.

Without any resources, Lee took to experimenting with her own hair, and headed off to college with not only the confidence to do her hair, but others’. 

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At Spelman College in Atlanta, Lee’s natural gift was apparent. “I became the girl who did hair,” she says. With what seemed like thousands of Black women “lined up wanting to get their hair done” Lee turned her talent into a side hustle. 

“I’m pursuing an English degree, but really I was making sure I could get through school by making extra money on the side in the dorms. Those days really make me smile because the trust that they put in me was baffling. Like, what were we doing? But no one is surprised to this day that this is my career.”

During her time at the HBCU, Lee also met Harris, who’d become a life-long friend and business partner. The two worked at BCBG together, where they both picked up on similarities in how they approached the job. “We definitely saw ourselves in each other there. We had a particular way about ourselves, but we had a laid-back way about ourselves, also.” 

[Sidenote: The BCBG gig, along with hairstyling, were among Lee’s many jobs, but she says, she and her circle were “just doing the most, and having a really good time, by the way!”]

Highbrow Hippie Supplements and Serum.

Liza Voloshin

In 2000, Harris graduated college and entered a workforce experiencing a recession. “I could not get a job,” she recalls.

“You don’t think after attending Spelman that your next move is: hairdresser. I’m an immigrant, but I was on that pathway of tradition, so you use that degree and you make your parents proud. But when I was back at my mother’s house and couldn’t get a job, she was like, ‘Well, you’re not going to stay here.’”

Lee had to figure out her next move. That led her to enroll in Aveda’s revered cosmetology school. 

Bolstered by an “army of Jamaican women” who pitched in to help her pay tuition (“It could make me cry on the spot, because they just knew that I had a gift,” Lee says), she boarded the Metro-North to New York City every day.

“If I’m going to be in this industry, I’m going to actually make it as big as I can make it,” Lee remembers thinking as she inched toward graduation. During her time there, the art of coloring seemed to come naturally. She researched salons and, as Frederic Fekkai was the most esteemed, she determined: “I’m going to be a colorist there.”

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They had other plans. “You’ll be a shampoo girl,” she laughs of her start. But, while in its apprentice program, she learned from the best in the business.

Lee, however, was over N.Y.C’s cold weather and asked for a transfer to its L.A. location. But before she left, she bumped into Harris on Madison Avenue, and their friendship took off.

She moved across the country with no friends and no money, so she walked to work in Beverly Hills from her Santa Monica apartment every day. But then, she got promoted. Not only could Lee pay her bills, but, as a colorist, she amassed a long list of notable clients, fast. 

“I didn’t care whose hair I was doing as long as someone was in my chair and trusted me,” she says. “They used to give the junior colorists, which I was at the time, anyone who was a model that wanted to come in at a discounted rate, and I loved those women. Some of these models are still my clients today, and now I do some of their children. It’s wild.”

Kadi Lee.

Liza Voloshin

Meanwhile, Lee and Harris were cooking up ideas.

“We were like, ‘We should have a vlog. [But] if we had a vlog, what would we call it?’ One of her exes called her bourgeois bohemian but we were like, ‘People will butcher that name.’ I always loved the word highbrow, and I was like, ‘highbrow hippie.’ And we both just squealed and immediately went and trademarked everything we could get with that name. And that was how it started in 2010.”

Today, their atelier in Venice, Calif., features high-end beauty and wellness services and more, including their newly launched products.

Of the ambiance, Lee says she aimed to create a “sense of peace” for her clients and herself as well.

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While coming up in the industry, she worked in “environments that weren’t so peaceful,” she says. “I remember thinking, this doesn’t make any sense. People are coming to have a moment to themselves, and the music was always too loud, and the atmosphere was always too charged. It didn’t feel like a place where people were actually getting any sort of self-care and recognition. Everyone was kind of gritting their teeth getting through the appointments.”

“We thought, if Highbrow Hippie was ever going to come into a physical manifestation, it was going to be visually stunning, and a place where clients could recharge. We also wanted people to have a sense of privacy, especially with just some of my client list it was important that everyone just feel it was like their safe space. And it also needed to be my safe space as well.”

It also needs to be an environment where Lee can focus. “I really get into a zone. With color and with chemicals, I do think one has to be that way. And, I always give very honest responses about what I think your hair can do. I never really proceed unless I know we’re all on the same page, because if it’s not going to remain healthy, I’m not going to go near it. It’s just always been my number one rule. If someone’s walking around with damaged hair, that’s my calling card. I never try to wave a magic wand. It’s always very honest, very real, and then I just get to work.”

Highbrow Hippie Supplements and Serum.

Liza Voloshin

Lee’s work ethic has earned her some of the most high-profile clients in Hollywood by way of her mentors. “They were the ones who led me to these women. Serge Normant, he changed my life. He was the one that was just one day like, ‘I would like you to come with me and do Julia Roberts’ color.’ It was as simple as that,” Lee says.“At that point, I had left Frederic Fekkai and went to work with Serge, and there were a group of us that really operated as a team, even though some of us did the same job. There were two French colorists who I’m still close with to this day, and we were all, I think, up for the job, but they actually insisted that I was the right match for that particular client in that moment.”

She didn’t shirk the opportunity. “I take the work very seriously. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s just kind of the way it had to be, especially me not looking like the traditional master colorist. I had to always perform. Also, these are people that are full of grace and integrity, and it just made me always want to level up. And by the time I looked around, I thought, ‘this is wild,’ because this is not something I ever envisioned for my life, but it’s something I’m very, very proud of.”

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In some ways, Lee says, caring for her famous clients’ hair is no different than caring for anyone else’s. “Everyone just wants kind of the same core things in life: to be heard and to be taken care of.” 

The looks the colorist has created have been written about in countless magazines. As for the inspiration behind them, the colorist says it’s all about making her clients’ hair color “the best version of whatever it should be.” 

“It tends to be something that’s close to what they naturally had as a child,” she explains. “I always try to make it realistic, something that can be maintained easily, because it doesn’t matter if a person’s famous or not, no one wants high-maintenance hair. They want hair that’s effortless. They want it to be flattering against the skin, they want it to make them glow.”

Kadi Lee.

Liza Voloshin

A haircare line, Lee says, “would not have been worth it unless we could somehow translate the care that we’re giving here within these walls to a physical product,” she explains. 

The Covid-19 pandemic ramped up self-care and allowed them to explore the concept further. “We ended up leaning into this whole philosophy of this radical customer care, and we said, ‘Okay, what do you really need?’ and we actually did an official survey with our clients. It seemed really clear also from everyone’s answers that they were looking for something to keep their hair healthy. And, it was clear our clients weren’t satisfied with what else was on the market. ‘These supplements are too big, this serum leaves my hair greasy,’ we took all of this information and went to work.”

The brand would launch with those very products, first. “Everyone always starts with shampoo and conditioner. For us, that just was not enough. We wanted to get to the root cause of what was happening with everyone’s health, whether it be stress or environmental causes.” 

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As to why tackle supplements, Lee explains, “Topicals need some sort of internal mechanism to make sure that they’re working at their best. If you are completely stressed out but you’re putting this $200 luxurious mask on your hair, it’s not going to do anything. This is the starting point for everyone.”

The supplements are created by women, for women, and consist of an ingredient list that’s backed by more than 20 clinical studies for specific areas of health. According to a release, the “formula supports hormone levels, assists in stress reduction, improves gut health, and optimizes nutrient intake all while supporting your body’s natural balance and promoting healthy aging. The result: healthier hair and a boost in overall wellness and vitality.” 

“It’s a complete formula that can replace a multivitamin,” Lee says. “We think the only thing [clients might need] would be a really good probiotic, but you don’t have to rely on three, four, five other things.”

Kadi Lee.

Liza Voloshin

Lee knows the question on everyone’s minds: do they really work? 

“We’re doing ongoing clinicals, so right now, I’m literally seeing the results before my eyes,” she says. Her clients are also heavily involved in this process. “I’m getting pictures every day. I’m getting clients coming in sooner for their appointments, because they’re like, ‘I usually could go four weeks now can only  go three weeks’ because their hair is growing.”

The serum, meanwhile, uses naturally derived, plant-based ingredients to balance the pH level of the scalp. It’s meant to be applied twice daily. 

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“We’ve always looked at things from a very 360 point of view,” Lee says of her and Harris’ approach to hair care. We asked: how does this affect not only my beauty, but my wellness, and my lifestyle? So it’s good for you. It’s leaving a responsible footprint on the planet. All of these things.”

“It’s definitely one of my proudest moments, seeing that we are giving clients something that works, and that they feel like someone has listened to them,” Lee continues.

Kadi Lee.

Liza Voloshin

Another proud moment: The very first time she colored Roberts’ hair.

“It was a really difficult assignment. I had one day to take it from brunette to blonde for a campaign. I really kind of talked myself through it, walked myself through every step, and after I was done, her hair not only looked beautiful, it felt great. And I knew in the moment that I had crushed it, and that everything that I’d been working towards as a colorist had really kind of culminated in a beautiful moment with this iconic talent,” she shares.

“When I look at my career now, when I’m in the atelier with my clients and my team, and the music is really good and everyone is singing along, and I just look around, and really, truly my dream space with my dream people, I think that I kind of accomplished the American dream.”

Shop Lee’s new products now.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education