The Will to Adorn

Master gardener and herbalist Fannie Hamilton creates beauty products in her kitchen.

Photo by Camila Bryce-Laporte

This badge is from a Walker Convention. In 1917, the Madame C.J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America Convention in Philadelphia was likely the first national meeting for African American women entrepreneurs. The convention promoted business success as well as charitable giving and political activism. The second annual convention was held in Chicago in 1918.

Photo courtesy of National Museum of African American History and Culture

Mrs. Annie Turnbo Malone founded and developed a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered around cosmetics for AfricanAmerican women.

Photographer unknown, courtesy of Chicago History Museum

Cosmetics, hair ointments, and folk medicines are significant traditional home enterprises within African American culture. From shea butter, to perfumed oils, to processing creams for the skin, to recipes for “hair grease,” African Americans have had to invent their own solutions to everything from “ashy skin” to hair treatments.

Some of these solutions and techniques date back to the earliest experiences of Africans in the United States. Africans working as captive labor on American plantations developed strategies for cosmetic care and for wresting out a distinctive and African-rooted expressive culture of body arts from the limited materials and technologies available to them. Following emancipation, the African American beauty industry niche became a path for many to economic independence.

Annie Turnbo Malone (1869-1957) is widely recognized for her pioneering contributions to black hair care, including building PORO Hair and Toilet Preparations. Madame C. J. Walker (1867-1919) worked for Malone and eventually established her own thriving hair care corporation. The tradition of homemade beauty products and beauty schools continues in the 21st century. With the help of the internet and social media, many entrepreneurs are creating new products that address specific beauty concerns of fellow African Americans.