Madam C. J. Walker
With last month being Black History Month and this month being Women’s History Month, let’s meet a woman who was an African-American hair-care entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist.
She was born Sarah Breedlove in December of 1867. She became one of the wealthiest African-American women in the country and was known as one of the world’s most successful female entrepreneurs of her time. She made her fortune by developing and marketing beauty and hair products for black women.
The story goes that she learned about hair from her brothers who were barbers. She then began selling products for an African-American hair-care company and eventually combined her knowledge of hair and those hair-care products to develop her own product line and her own hair-care business. She sold her products door to door and taught other black women how to groom and style their hair. As her business grew she later built a factory and a hair salon and a beauty school and added a laboratory for product research. All of this in the late 1800’s.
She and her company became very well-known. Her company claims that she trained nearly 20,000 women to use “The Walker System”, which was her method of grooming that was designed to promote hair growth and make lackluster and brittle hair become soft and luxurious through the use of her products which included shampoo and an ointment applied to the hair or scalp. The company employed several thousand women as sales agents for the products. They visited houses across the US and in the Caribbean and after her death in 1919 the company’s business expanded to Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Panama, and Costa Rica.
In addition to training women in using her products and grooming system, she showed black women how to build their own businesses and encouraged them to become financially independent. As her fortune and fame rose, she also became a philanthropist and political activist.
Fast forward to 2018. New England Associates® has developed its own line of products and services designed to promote healthy looking hair called HairStart®. Among other things, HairStart® products also include shampoo and solutions that are applied to the hair and scalp:
Additionally, HairStart® services include Laser Hair Therapy treatments and devices which can be utilized with or without HairStart® products.
Similar to Madam Walker, the goal of New England Associates® is to help people grow healthy hair and to restore and repair hair. At New England Associates®, how you feel about your hair, and making the right choice to solve problems, is what matters to us. Make New England Associates® “Your First Step to a Better Looking Future!™”.
Founded in 1982, New England Associates® is one of the only accredited Hair Replacement businesses at the Better Business Bureau® in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont. We are also proud members of the American Hair Loss Council.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_C._J._Walker