Dakota Lee Nagel is found safe after hairdresser disappeared one week ago

A young popular hairdresser who mysteriously vanished after a night out with friends has been found ‘safe and well’.

Dakota Lee Nagel, 24, left her Doncaster home in Melbourne’s north-east at 2am on January 8 to visit several clubs and bars with mates in Prahran and South Yarra. 

She left her friends the following afternoon on Sunday wearing a hot pink crop top with a Playboy bunny logo, and had not been in contact with any friends or loved ones since.

But on Sunday night Victoria police confirmed Ms Nagel, has been located ‘safe and well’ in the South Yarra area.

The nature of her disappearance at this stage remains unclear. 

The nature of her disappearance at this stage remains unclear

Fears ramped up two days after she was last seen on January 10, when she posted an image of her late dog to her Koda Hair Extensions Instagram page.

Loved ones immediately reported the ‘strange’ post to investigators pointing out that Ms Nagel has only ever used the page to promote her business and does not upload personal photos.

‘Not one single photo on this account is similar to this picture, this is definitely off,’ one person wrote.

A police investigation was launched on Wednesday when Ms Nagel’s mum reported her missing.

Distraught family launched a desperate plea for help and said her her disappearance was ‘out of character’ as she was about to become an aunt for the first time and would not have abandoned her beloved dogs.

‘Our family are worried sick and her puggy fur-babies are distraught. She would not have left them this long,’ her aunt Anne-Maree Key wrote on Friday.

A photo of Ms Nagel’s late family dog posted on her business Instagram on Tuesday has sparked concerns from family and friends

Ms Nagel was wearing a hot pink crop top with a Playboy bunny logo on the front when she went missing a week ago

‘Her fur-kids are her life and mean as much to her as ours do. She’s also about to become an aunty and is so excited, so there’s no way she would miss it.

‘This is out of character for her to not contact someone.’

A cousin added: ‘Please pray for her safe return home.’

Her frantic family said detectives had been looking into the Instagram post which had no caption.

One commenter on the post said ‘It looks like a screenshot of the wallpaper of a locked phone.’

Another wrote they ‘reported it due to the dates and how out of the blue the post is considering the rest of the page is strictly business. Feels very off.’

Dakota (pictured) was a hairdresser who ran Koda’s Hair Extensions in South Yarra