Monday, December 3, 2018

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HAIR RELAXERS

A repost
feeling rebloggy

Madam C J Walker is probably the original Naturalista.

Believe it or not, she did not invent the relaxer. G.A. Morgan did. Actually he and a woman named Annie Malone both invented hair relaxers for black women.* 


 
MADAM C J WALKER
Some of us might turn up our noses at some of of Walker's ingredients these days--petrolatum, beeswax, copper sulfate, precipitated sulfur, coconut oil and violet extract. 


Another word for chemical relaxers (perms). 
must be retouched every 6 to 8 weeks,
and become reliant on them, like a crackhead on crack.


But she didn't sell chemical straighteners for hair. She did not invent the creamy crack. She didn't even invent the first hot comb. She only modified the french hot comb for black women.  

Sarah Breedlove, who would later marry and become Mrs. Charles Joseph  Walker, was into healing the scalp and healthy hair growth.














G.A. Morgan

Morgan, famous on black websites everywhere for inventing the gas mask and the traffic light, is one of the people who deserves some or most of the credit for inventing creamy crack, otherwise known as hair relaxer
In 1909, Morgan was working with sewing machines in his newly opened tailoring shop—a business he had opened with wife Mary, who had experience as a seamstress—when he encountered woolen fabric that had been scorched by a sewing-machine needle. It was a common problem at the time, since sewing-machine needles ran at such high speeds. In hopes of alleviating the problem, Morgan experimented with a chemical solution in an effort to reduce friction created by the needle, and subsequently noticed that the hairs of the cloth were straighter.
After trying his solution to good effect on a neighboring dog's fur, Morgan finally tested the concoction on himself. When that worked, he quickly established the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company and sold the cream to African Americans. The company was incredibly successful, bringing Morgan financial security and allowing him to pursue other interests.

Good Thing Mr. Morgan doesn't need the money from hair straightening how. Relaxer sales reportedly dropped 26% in 2014. Black women are still moving toward healthier, more natural hair styles.


ANNIE TURNBO MALONE


MALONE STARTED BY FOCUSING ON HEALTHY HAIR


BUT WITH THE HELP OF AN AUNT SHE WOULD  CREATE CHEMICAL STRAIGHTENERS FOR BLACK HAIR

While experimenting with hair and different hair care products, she developed and manufactured her own line of non-damaging hair straighteners, special oils, and hair-stimulant products for African-American women.[4] She named her new product “Wonderful Hair Grower”[5] To promote her new product, Turnbo sold the Wonderful Hair Grower in bottles from door-to-door.[5] She began to revolutionize hair care methods for all African Americans....
One of her selling agents, Sarah Breedlove (who became known as Madam C. J. Walker when she set up her own business), encouraged Turnbo to copyright her products under the name "Poro" because of what she called fraudulent imitations and to discourage counterfeit versions.

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