Since the 1800s, the American beauty market has been intent on reshaping Black hair texture. The chemical hair straightening industry, valued at a vast $5.51 billion in 2021, is expected to grow 6% between 2022–2027 despite several years of weakening sales due to the trend towards natural hair.
So, where did this all begin?
The first chemical hair relaxers were invented in the early 1900s by Black men for Black men – then formulated for women. Garret Augustus Morgan, a Kentuckian born to former slaves, was a young inventor who accidentally discovered in 1909 that the alkaline-based solutions he used to repair sewing machines doubled as a relaxer for his “wool-like” hair texture. First, he experimented on an Airedale Terrier, a dog breed characterized by tightly coiled hair. It worked, and Morgan was next to try it!
In 1917, Madam C.J. Walker became the first self-made female millionaire in the U.S. with her line of non-chemical pomades and a pressing process called the “Walker System.” Netflix streamed its 2020 film exclusively about Walker’s entrepreneurial and philanthropic influence in “Self-Made,” starring Octavia Spencer.
In 1954, George E. Johnson created a permanent chemical hair relaxer for Black men — the “Ultra Wave Hair Culture” —later revised for women. His company was called Johnson Products.
In 1962, Childrey & Doty introduced a hair-relaxer cream for Summit Labs, speeding up the popularity of permanent chemical hair relaxer products.
In 1971 lye relaxers were officially produced commercially. Proline, the manufacturer of Dark and Lovely, developed the first commercial lye relaxer, which straightened hair by weakening the internal protein and loosening the natural curls.
In the mid-1970s, Revlon created a texturizing relaxer, prompting Johnson Products to develop a relaxer cream that incorporated a conditioning and softening quaternary ammonium polymer.
As time progressed, more products with harsher chemicals became popular, and sales soared for both at-home and in-salon use.
“I knew slathering my roots with the whitish paste of relaxer cream probably wasn’t a good idea,” said Traci Bethea, an assistant professor at Georgetown University in D.C. “It wasn’t until recently that I realized that relaxers could be doing far more than just roasting my scalp and that this grooming process could actually be deadly.”
