3. Madam C. J. Walker Made Her Fortune on Hair Products for Black Women
In the 1890s, Madam C. J. Walker began experiencing scalp irritations that caused most of her hair to fall out. In addition to consulting with physicians, she experimented with numerous home remedies and homemade concoctions. She also tried the products of Anne Malone, another Black woman entrepreneur. She became a saleswoman for Anne Malone’s hair products, moving to Denver where she met her third husband Charles Joseph Walker.
It was in Denver, after her marriage, that Sarah Breedlove changed her name to Madam C. J. Walker and began selling her own Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing treatment. She claimed that the recipe came to her in a dream. Her husband aided her growing business with his knowledge of marketing gleaned as a newspaperman in St. Louis. She also traveled extensively through heavily black areas of the South and Northeast to promote the product.
A clever marketing person in her own right, Walker did extensive demonstrations of her products in the churches and lodges where Black people gathered. She also devised her own marketing and promotional strategies, like hiring women exclusively to be the door-to-door salespeople of her products. Walker also trained her saleswomen as “hair culturists” to provide a uniform experience for anyone interacting with her employees. She eventually expanded her range of products to numerous shampoos, salves, and balms.