The Duchess of Sussex’s Confessions of a Female Founder podcast drops their new episodes on Tuesdays, and this week’s episode is an interview/conversation with Kadi Lee, the colorist who founded Highbrow Hippie. Kadi Lee has been Meghan’s colorist since 2020, and Meghan invested in Kadi’s Highbrow Hippie. This conversation was so interesting! Meghan ended up talking about the “American Riviera Orchard” trademark issues and how the name ended up feeling like a “word salad.”

The Duchess of Sussex has claimed she didn’t like her old brand name American Riviera Orchard. Meghan ran into trademark issues when the US Patent and Trademark Office said geographical locations could not be patented, and she eventually renamed her venture As Ever. But in the latest episode of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder, Meghan called the old name “word salad”, adding: “I didn’t love that so much.”

The duchess recorded a conversation with her hair colourist and “dear friend” Kadi Lee, co-founder of hair wellness brand Highbrow Hippie, which Meghan reportedly invested in last year. After she was forced to turn to a new name, she insisted it was “really just helpful to have that quiet period” before her As Ever name was unveiled, “when no one was sniffing around”.

The former Suits actress said: “I had secured As Ever as a name in 2022, and then, as everything started to evolve last year, and bringing in a partner the size that it was, it was just so interesting. You remember, I said ‘I like American Riviera as an umbrella’, and then be able to have verticals beneath it. And maybe have the Orchard really small. But when that’s not feasible… suddenly it became this word salad. I didn’t love that so much. I was like ‘OK, let’s go back to the thing that I’ve always loved. Let’s use the name that I protected for a reason that had sort of been under wraps’. And then we were able to focus in the quiet and put our heads down and build on something that no one was sniffing around to even see about. It was really just helpful to have that quiet period.”

Meghan greeted Lee by saying: “Disregard the state of my hair right now. I’m so excited I’m seeing you next week. I should have a baseball cap on.”

The Duchess said the pair met in 2020 – the year of Megxit, when Meghan and the Duke of Sussex quit the working monarchy for a new life in the US – and told of her attempts to dye her hair at home during the pandemic. Meghan said: “It was 2020 – it was very much 2020. 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, and I thought I’m gonna look just like she does on the box. And instead it was this very inky, almost Elvira-esque black hair.”

Lee, who was called in at the time to help Meghan with her hair, said: “I remember meeting you guys, and you were so warm and both you and H wrapped us up in these big bear hugs and I was like ‘I don’t even know these people and I’m not a hugger but let’s do it’.”

Reflecting on having to close her hair salon during the pandemic, Lee added: “It felt like such whiplash and it felt like, gosh we cannot get a break, you know?” Meghan laughed and added: “Oh, I understand.”

[From The Telegraph]

I was fine with the ARO name but I wasn’t in love with it, and I like that Meghan admits that she wasn’t in love with it either. It’s also a confirmation that ARO, however unintentionally at the time, was the “cover name” while Meghan made up her mind to go back to As Ever. I also wonder if Meghan ever considered putting her own name in her brand name – as in, American Riviera Orchard could have become something like Meghan’s ARO, and As Ever could have been As Ever, Meghan. As for at-home box dyes… I use box dyes! You sort of have to go a touch lighter to get a dark color which doesn’t look too inky. But yes, it’s better to have a professional colorist on hand. PS… Kadi is a Leo, like Meghan. That’s why they get along so well.

Photos courtesy of Kadi’s IG, Meghan’s IG and Lemonada Media.