Beauty Biography: Madam C.J. Walker

On December 23, 1867, a young black girl was born on a plantation in Delta, Louisiana. She was the fifth out of what would be six children of Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove, former slaves-turned-sharecroppers after the civil war. In 1874, Minerva died, followed by Owen a year later, leaving the young girl an orphan at the age of seven. At age 14, in order to escape her oppressive, she married a man named Moses McWilliams, and their daughter, A’lelia was born in 1885. You may be wondering what my purpose is in sharing all this information with you about a nameless figure. Her name was Sarah Breedlove; however, we now know her as Madam C.J. Walker.

Two years later, after the death of Moses, Sarah and A’lelia moved to St. Louis, where Sarah's brothers had established themselves as barbers. Sarah found work as a washerwoman and earned $1.50 a day. While in St. Louis, Breedlove met husband Charles J. Walker, who worked in advertising and would later help promote her hair care business.

During the 1890s, Sarah developed a scalp disorder that caused her to lose much of her hair, which led her to experiment with home remedies and hair care treatments in an attempt to improve her condition. In fact, Breedlove was not the only black woman to experience hair loss at this time. Since indoor plumbing was a luxury for most families, regular shampooing wasn't possible and problems like lice and pollutants went untreated.

Since her brothers were barbers at the time, she was able to use them for their expertise in the hair care department, but they were not very knowledgeable when it came to women’s hair and scalp diseases. By 1906, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company started selling Madam C. J. Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower. Ingredients included precipitated sulfur, copper sulfate, beeswax, petrolatum (like petroleum jelly), coconut oil, and a violet extract perfume to cover the sulfurous smell. Along with her hair grower, Walker's early products included Glossine (a pressing oil) and a vegetable shampoo. To add to her product mix, Walker produced hot combs for healthier hair. Her goal was never to alter the appearance of Black women's hair, but to focus on improving the health of.

With her business and profits continuing to soar, Walker opened up a factory and beauty school in 1908 inPittsburgh. In 1910, Walker transferred her business to Indianapolis, where Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company had become wildly successful with profits that were today’s equivalent to several million dollars.

“I want the great masses of my people to take a greater pride in their personal appearance and to give their hair proper attention”.

Madam C.J. Walker is not only an entrepreneur, but an inspiration as well. Her formulas and products cured many scalp diseases while also continuously advancing the status of African Americans. Her ideas have both inspired and changed the beauty industry for the better. In fact, her legacy lives on and you can still buy her products today!

Her products are sold exclusively at Sephora under the same name. They first relaunched Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Culture in 2016, followed by a re-launch in 2019, offering eight new products. The selection includes moisturizing jelly shampoo, texture definition cream, styling serum, and scalp restoring treatment.