This year, during Women’s History Month, we highlight a woman who has impacted the world and helped many women get their hair healthy and long. Madam CJ Walker (aka Sarah Breedlove) was born on December 23rd, 1867, in Delta, Louisiana. She was also born with enslaved parents, and during the era of Jim Crow, which was a law in the United States (mostly in the South) where racial segregation was enforced.
Back at that time, there weren’t many ways for African- American women to have products to protect their hair, let alone have someone do their hair without getting looked at a certain way, or nobody doing it generally just because of their skin color. So Madam CJ Walker decided to make products just for their kind.
Not only did she make the ‘Wonderful Hair Grower’. She also made ‘Glossine’ (a pressing oil), ‘Vegetable Shampoo,’ and so much more. To make sure it was the right chemicals she was using, she tested it on many people and herself to make sure there was no irritation or burns.
She was America’s first female self-billionaire in entrepreneurship. Her business started as a $1.25 investment and over the years grew to a million-dollar empire by 1910. Her main focus was to empower African-American women through economic independence.
In the beginning, it started very slowly, but as she traveled through the South and Southeast, her products became more popular. She utilized newspapers, beauty schools, and personal branding to expand her business. When it reached that point, she employed 40,000 people to work with her.
While she was making so much, she used that money to help support Black schools, organizations, and arts, and also spoke up against discrimination, lynching, and the political movement.
Madam CJ Walker’s remembrance still lives up to this day, like her theater that’s located in Indianapolis, and there are many black-owned beauty stores that are in that same category.
