In Los Angeles, hair colorist Kadi Lee is known as The Fixer. “Clients come to me when their color is wrong and their hair is damaged,” says the longtime pro to the stars. Through much of Julia Robert’s career, for example, Lee has kept the actress’s strands healthy and glossy as she’s gone from red to blonde to brunette to blonde again—whatever her roles require. “When I heard recently that we needed to take her from red to a cool blonde, I thought, Oh, dear Lord, here we go. That’s practically impossible to do, especially if you don’t want your client to lose half their hair,” Lee says. “But we spaced the process out into three sessions with two-week rests and reparative treatments between each.”
Gwyneth Paltrow’s hair was so transformed in Lee’s chair that her hairstylist is a loyal client of Lee’s now, too. She’s also known for keeping textured hair, like Meghan Markle’s, amazingly healthy and shiny. “Her focus on the health of hair with any texture has been a gamechanger,” Markle shares. Clearly Lee, the guru of healthy hair, would be the perfect person to create a product line that helps nourish and strengthen strands.
And, so, besides standing appointments with Lee, these clients share another insider perk: They’ve been using hair growth products developed by her and her business partner Myka Harris. Starting today, the formulas are available to everyone.
Lee, who describes herself as “the least woo-woo person on the planet” and Harris, an herbalist in training, are co-owners of the Highbrow Hippie salon and co-founders of its namesake haircare brand. For the last few years, they’ve been formulating a serum and supplements to solve a problem their clients have been extremely vocal about: hair loss. “After the pandemic, I kept hearing the same questions: What’s happening to my hair? Why is it falling out?,” Lee says. She found that the hair gods had spared no one: Everyone from new mothers to post-menopausal women was watching their strands circle the shower drain and their parts grow ever wider. “And many still are. Our bodies just aren’t wired to deal with our unrelenting stress,” Lee says.
She and Harris quickly realized that they had a perfect focus group right in front of them. “Based on their feedback, it was clear that we couldn’t just give them a shampoo and conditioner,” Lee says. “They also didn’t love existing hair growth supplements; they said the pills were too large and didn’t make their tummy feel great.” So the pair went to work, and the verdict is in: The final formulas are potent. “Our clients, discerning women who don’t have time for BS, have been using them consistently, and now they send us photos of their hair growth,” says Lee.
How to Use the Root Replenish Active Growth Serum
Regardless of your color or texture, distribute a dropper-full all over your scalp while hair is dry twice a day and massage it in for thirty seconds. “In a pinch, once a day works too,” says Lee. “The formula is super lightweight. It’ll absorb seconds after you put it on, so it doesn’t mess up your style and—the huge thing for me—it doesn’t affect the color. I can always tell when someone is using Rogaine; it tends to add a green tinge.” If you have curly hair, you may have to re-smooth the roots a bit with a blowdryer or flat iron afterward. “Meghan doesn’t want heat on her hair every day, so she sometimes applies the serum every other day and takes the supplements daily,” Lee says.
What’s in the Essential Wellbeing Supplement
What isn’t? When working with the formulators, Harris and Lee shot for the moon: “We said, ‘Make a supplement to help alleviate stress, anxiety, and hormonal changes while boosting immunity and hair growth—and they have to be small pills.” The team got there; the daily dose is four easy-to-swallow, gel capped pills that contain 13 essential vitamins (vitamins A, C, D3, E, Bs 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6) as well as biotin, chromium, ashwagandha, GABA, resveratrol, and a hair health blend with black rice, wheat germ extract, and prickly pear extract. The idea is that this replaces all other supplements (you’re welcome!), although you may still want to add a probiotic.
Essential Wellbeing Complex
Root Replenish Active Growth Serum
Kate Sandoval Box (she/her) is the Beauty Director at Oprah Daily. She has over 18 years of experience at national women’s media brands; and, in fact, started her publishing career at O, The Oprah Magazine. She’s also held beauty editor roles at Shape, Self, Latina, and Cosmopolitan. Kate tests hundreds and hundreds of beauty products that cross her desk each year and interviews many top experts, celebrities, and indie brand founders to bring you the best in beauty. Follow her on Instagram.
