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Anthony Overton
a leading African American entrepreneur during the twentieth century. Overton created the Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company in Kansas City, Missouri. The company sold baking powder, cosmetics, perfumes, hair products, and toiletries. In 1911, Overton moved his company to Chicago. The company’s success allowed Overton to employ over four hundred people, and in 1912, they exported over fifty-two cosmetic products to countries including Egypt, Liberia, and Japan. -
The Start
Sarah "madam cj walker" began to experience hair loss, which made her interested in hair care and products. She became a commissioned agent for Annie Malone, African hair care entrepreneur. -
The Next Step
A former employee of Annie Turnbow Malone, Madam C.J. Walker invented her line of black hair care products in 1905, at a time when there weren't any options for black hair on the market. -
First Convention
Sarah held the first conference of the Madam Walker Beauty Culturists in Philadelphia. There, she stressed the significance of philanthropy and political activism. Sarah was more than a beauty consultant. -
Marcus Garvey
Garvey encourages African Americans to wear their natural hair. Garvey was a Jamaican political leader who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. After his death, a speech by Martin Luther King declared that Garvey, “was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny.” -
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Marjorie Joyner
"the invention is the construction of a simple and efficient machine that will wave the hair of both white and colored women.” Although Joyner never received payment for her creation, she continued to give back to the community. -
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John H. Johnson
he owned Supreme Beauty Products and Fashion Fair Cosmetics, the largest black-owned cosmetics company in the world at the time. Fashion Fair was created with the goal of creating makeup to meet the specific needs of women of color, and they went on to manufacture skin care, fragrance and hair care products. The National Visionary Leadership Project did an oral history interview with Johnson in 2002. -
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Rose Meta Morgan
Morgan opened her first salon, the Rose Meta House of Beauty, albeit decades later in 1945, in New York. The salon offered hair and skin care, as well as other services catering to black women. -
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Christina Jenkins
Jenkins changed women's lives forever when she invented the hair weave also known as the sew-in, a huge advancement in hair styling. was working with a wig-making company and decided to consider an alternative way of attaching hair without the use of any heat or chemicals but one that was quite secure as the wigs tended to fall off the customers head quite regularly. -
The Johnson Products Company
The Company launches a brand new at home permanent hair straightener for men. The Ultra Wave Hair Culture hair product was the first in its class to be made just for men. The woman’s version, Ultra Sheen, would soon follow. It would also surpass the sales of Ultra Wave Hair Culture. Johnson Products Company because the first African American owned corporation listed on the American Stock Exchange. -
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Angela Davis
Davis wears a large afro and becomes an icon for the Black Power movement. Several years later the curly perm, Jheri curl, hits the black hair scene and lasts well into the 1980s. If you’ve ever wondered what the “jheri” in Jheri curl was referring to, look no further than the inventer Jheri Redding who was a hairdresser. -
Box Braids
The early 90’s marked the time period when traditional African hairstyles took on a modern update. One of the most iconic hairstyles of the early 90’s were box braids. When Janet Jackson rocked them in Poetic Justice, it quickly became the go to style for black girls. Whether they were being worn down or pulled up with accessories, this style was it. -
"Badu"
On the cover of her album “Baduizm”, singer Erykah Badu wears her hair in an African hair scarf sparking the new era of neo-soul Afrocentrism. Years later, Badu would make another statement on black beauty when she became the face of Tom Ford’s White Patchouli fragrance in 2008. Badu has been dubbed “the first lady of neo soul”. -
The Locs
Locked sister Lauryn Hill is named one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People. This can be seen as a turning point in Black History, because up until this point the standard of American beauty (especially in Hollywood) was fair skin and stringy hair. -
The weave
Lil’ Kim makes a different turn when she rocks a blonde weave while other entertainers like singers Macy Gray and India Arie sport their neo-soul afros and African head-wraps. This is where the divide between chemical straightening women and au natural women becomes more noticeable.