RIP Miss Jessie's Titi Branch

Sad news in the natural hair community: Titi Branch, co-founder of popular and pioneering natural hair care line Miss Jessie's, died of an apparent suicide on Dec. 4, according to media reports.

It's important to point out that NV Magazine posted an obituary for Branch on their Facebook page on Sunday, Dec. 14 and while media outlets have confirmed her death, there has been no independent verification that her death was a suicide.

Branch is credited with creating Miss Jessie's curly pudding, helping to cement the hair care product in the minds of legions of natural hair care years before hair care products that catered to natural hair were available on the shelves of major retailers such as Target and Walmart.

What started out as a small natural hair start up soon expanded to an empire: Miss Jessie's was one of the first natural products available at mass retailers and its success is credited with helping the natural hair care movement explode.

RIP

It is one of a handful of sudden deaths in the natural hair community in recent months. Karyn Washington, 22, ounder of the forbrowngirls.com and the Red Lip Project, which encouraged dark skinned Black women to rock red lipsticks, died of a suicide in April. Another popular blogger, Domineque Banks, 27, died of lupus in April 2014. l

Black-Owned Natural Hair Companies Carve A Large Slice of the Market, But Can They Sustain It?



Lisa Price, founder of Carol's Daughter, is among a wave of new Black hair entrepreneurs with products for natural hair



 In case you didn't get the memo, natural hair products are running things, launching homegrown products that cater to customers with natural hair. Many of those entrepreneurs are also Black.

Check out thisClutch Magazine article about black-owned natural hair companies eclipsing large, mainstream brands.

The article was so brilliant that I thought it should be reprinted in its entirety.

Black Hair and Black Business

Nothing much to add, only that, this is exactly what should be happening. While mainstream (white) hair manufactuers can and do make ethnic products, they shouldn't be the only choice. If this was the Hispanic hair care market (or name your ethnic group), this wouldn't even be a convo. How crazy does it sound for an ethnic community NOT to control the hair care products used on THEIR hair?

Crazy, right? But, it's what we've endured for years, after many Black hair care manufacturers were bought out by international companies decades ago.

Fast forward a few decades later. Shunning relaxers, more black women are wearing their natural hair. But they had few on-the-shelf products for their natural kinks, curls and coils. Black entrepreneurs, many of whom started their companies mixing up p ingredients in their kitchens, saw an opportunity in the natural hair care market and seized it.

Mainstream companies were still sipping the Kool Aid, thinking natural hair was a trend that would quickly pass. Nah, boo, boo. They ignored it -- to their  peril, as relaxer sales have declined double digits since 2007. They've since seen the light and, while late to the party, they're now gunning toward natural hair companies' profits and customers with new natural hair lines of their own.

Modern Day Madame C.J. Walkers?

A lot is fair in capitalism, but let's be careful not to let history repeat itself. Once large Black-owned hair cair companies like iconic Johnson Products were bought out by large, multi-national conglomerates in the 70s and 80s, we saw what happened after that: few, if any, quality Black hair care products emerged from those lines. We used to control our own hair products, but no more. Hair styles shifted, and the larger companies that swallowed the Black-owned companies whole predicted the death of Black-owned hair care companies.

That didn't quite happen.

Though their ranks were decimated, Black brands like Dudley and Luster upheld the Black hair care tradition. Now, they're joined by hordes of smaller, though effective, natural hair care companies like Miss Jessie's, Kinky Curly, Shea Moisture, Karen's Body Beautiful, Oyin Handmade, Jane Carter Solution and Carol's Daughter --- and hundreds if not thousands of tiny upstarts.

I'm not anyone to tell another entrepreneur how to run their business, but let's make sure we learn from our history.

The reprint from Clutch Magazine is below.

What do you think about Black-owned companies' survival in the natural hair market?

This year popular cosmetics and hair care line Carol’s Daughter launched the site Transitioning Movement. Meant to help guide women giving up chemical relaxers into the oft-confusing and conflicting world that is “going natural,” the multi-million dollar corporation seeks to both inform — and expand their base.

Can you blame them? There’s money in those curls. But for once, it seems women and minority-owned product lines got to the market first.Carol’s Daughter. Miss Jessie’s. Karen’s Body Beautiful. Qhemet Biologics. Oyin Handmade.Kinky-Curly. All leaders in providing products to those moving from chemical processes to natural. All still independently-owned. All started by women of color – like African American Karen Tappin of her namesake company and biracial black and Japanese sisters Miko and Titi Branch of Miss Jessie’s.

But that’s not how it typically goes down. While several natural hair care alternatives run by women of color dominated the conversation, L’Oreal and other major retailers saw their overall sales in the black hair care market fall in 2009.

Long gone are the days when you had civil rights activists pushing for stores to carry black hair care products on their shelves. Rainbow Coalition/PUSH, activist Rev. Jesse Jackson once spearheaded a campaign to get major retailers to carry black hair car and skin products in their stores in the 1970s and 80s.

Jackson’s effort was a sort of capitalist attack on racism. He famously held a funeral for cosmetic company Revlon when a representative declared black businesses would become extinct from larger white companies snatching them up. But the reverend had a point – black people shopped at Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, and a multitude of places. Why not carry goods for them and integrate the cosmetics aisle? Segregation divides us. Capitalism teaches us the one with the most money wins.

Racism can really impact your financial bottom line.

Yet, since racism is nonsensical, with every new black innovation, there’s typically a lag time between what black people want and when corporations start providing. This is why a company founded by black Americans, Johnson Products — creator of your grandmother’s hair oil of choice “Ultra Sheen” — found itself bought up by Proctor & Gamble. (And after floundering there for years, having its thunder stolen by the likes of multinational cosmetic corporations, it was sold to a black management firm in 2009.)

How does this happen when, since 1954, Johnson was one of the only people making black hair care products? It happens when Johnson becomes complacent and doesn’t adapt to the needs of its customers for so long that multinational firms finally are able to catch up, realize there’s money to be made, copy and improve on the product, then woo away their consumer base.

My father, a loving creature of habit, used Afro Sheen for decades. Myself, my mother, and sisters did not. We moved on to products less heavy and greasy, giving us better results. And for a while, those came from the likes of the slowest adopters to black hair care, but once they smelled the money, were the most aggressive, dogged, and prolific.

But not anymore.

While companies like L’Oreal, Pantene, Revlon, and Proctor & Gamble rush to adapt themselves to this rapidly shifting market, they aren’t the ones able to dictate what’s hot and what’s not. They can’t afford to have the attitude former Revlon President Irving J. Bottner had back in 1986 when spoke on what it meant for companies like his to compete with black-owned firms: ”In the next couple of years, the black-owned businesses will disappear. They’ll all be sold to white companies.”

These companies are now followers – shifting formulas and marketing strategies to keep up with their African-American lead upstarts, who came out to dominate the market right from underneath them.
Going natural is now a big and growing part of the more than $165 million black hair care mass market. Companies that focused primarily on creating hair relaxers are scrambling to capitalize on what they initially thought would be just a “fad.”

But the fad talk has faded away to the realization that this might not simply be a trend, but a larger movement in hair maintenance for black women.

“Views of beauty have shifted,” said Winston Benons, brand manager for Miss Jessie’s, a hair care line catering to women with naturally curly hair. Benons emphasized that, with this new idea of beauty, black women have more choices in products and styling techniques than ever.“We have products that perform well. We have products that enhance their natural hair. It looks beautiful. It looks presentable. These products are here,” Benons said. “Generally salon brands tend to keep their secrets. They keep on how the product is used and all that stuff. We’re putting up before after pictures, how-to videos and materials, talking about the best ways to use them.”

Benons said Miss Jessies is “at the forefront” in this “natural hair movement.”

Right now there are a multitude of popular natural hair blogs and online news sites – from popular destinations with large followings like Black Girl with Long Hair, Curly Nikki, Afrobella, K is For Kinky and Hair Milk – to the multitudes of personal blogs, hair video bloggers, and niche writers who detail their personal journey from perms and hair weaves to every type and variety of curl.

The attitude is even revolutionizing black salons. For years I stopped going after tiring of stylists who had no interest in helping me with my natural hair or overloaded their appointments, leading to me spending an endless Saturday at the shop.

But after a brief stint with salons run by recent immigrants, such as Dominicans and Ethiopians, I finally found a salon and an African American stylist in Washington, D.C. who had that perfect combination of hair education and business sense that made me want to show up on time for my appointment and leave a tip. She was largely horrified at my stories of stylists who openly told me they hated doing my hair and over-charged me out of annoyance or excessive wait times – but she wasn’t surprised.

Again, complacency had hit the salon community for some African American hairdressers. But as hair needs and desires change, many stylists realized it was matter of business. Either adapt or lose your customers

You can be another natural hair success story like Karen Tappin. Or you can get left behind as Ultra Sheen had for decades until finally scrambling back to its roots. Just like deciding whether to go curly or straight – the choice is yours.

Curl of View: Are We Obsessed with Curls and Natural Hair?

I saw this natural hair post written by Damn Salon on BGLHOnline and thought it was profound:

"Curls don't come in a jar."

Damn. They said THAT!

You wouldn't know it, though, based on the uber number of curl creams, puddings and gels that are coming on the market. Have you seen the curl aisle at Tarjay lately? It overfloweth with products promising curls. There are so many curl products that even I have a hard time keeping up. Every time I look up, there's another new  product.

Not that it's anyting wrong with that. Companies create products out of demand. We're a few years post- Miss Jessie's, and I can't knock the hustle. There's going to be a shake out of curl products and I'm sure that not everyone will come out on top  -- that's the nature of the hair beast.

But what are our expectations? No product, no matter what it promises or how much it costs, can create what's not already there. Those kinks, coils and naps? Our hair has a natural curl pattern of its own and some of us have textures that are more kinkier, coarser and fluffier than others that may or may not be more likely to curl.

My Curly Story
I've tried my fair share of hair curling products -- too many gels to count, Kinky Curly, Miss Jessie's, etc., all in the quest for the "perfect" curl that would stretch my tightly curled hair. That ain't never gonna happen, because water and my hair = shrinkage.

Haven't seen a curls product -- besides Trader Joe's Nourish & Spa conditoner, which eliminates a good bit of shrinkage in my hair with protective styling -- that could do the trick. And no, I can't use conditioner for wash and go curls. #epicfail.

A Curling Battle?
Maybe there's a product that will give my curls less shrinkage, but I haven't found it yet. And frankly, don't bother to spend the money to find out. But as more girls go natural, I worry that, like me, they'll be searching for that perfect curl product.

No product alone will do it. Puddings, creams, gels, etc. work with the curl you've already got. If your hair is curly, products will accentuate that. No product that I'm aware of can coax a curl that's not there. There was a young lady on YouTube who went through this hour-long ritual of using gel and a comb to get curls (couldn't find the vid). She smoothed, shingled and patted curls for a LOOOONg time in every freakin' section of her hair.

Chile, please! I was tired after watching that. I don't have the time or the patience to even think about doing any of that. Curly hair, for me, is slapping gel in and out the door in 5 minutes and hoping I get most of my hair with gel; no need for long, complicated routines.

Or, if like me, you've seen those "Before" and "After" pics on Miss Jessie's site and wished for the "After" hair. Maybe it happened for you and maybe it didn't, but we've got to love our hair regardless of whether we've got loose ringlets, shrunken curls or no curls at all!

Loving Our Hair
My hair curls easily. But it curls too tight, IMO, because I don't like 90% shrinkage. Now if had nary a curl? I'd probably want curls. It's always like that: One person's challenge is another person's wish. I once had a person who struggled with their wash and gos tell me that they couldn't understand why I liked twist outs so much, because my hair was "naturally curly" and I could do wash and gos with no problem.

Huh?

We all want what we can't have, including when it comes to hair. Some want loose ringlets; other wan't tighter curls. They are all OK!

Does that mean I love my hair any less? Like anything, it's about self acceptance and embrancing what we have. I know what my hair will do and won't do. I know that wearing my hair out in 80 degree, humid temps in GA is asking for frizz. That's my hair, and asking it to do otherwise is like putting a round peg into a square hole; ain't gonna happen. Hell, my hair frizzes in winter here in Georgia!

Unfortunately, I had to Put. Down. The. Gel.  Now, if texture is the look you are going for, there are plenty of options like twist outs, braid outs and bantu knotswhich, quite frankly, suit kinkier, fluffier hair better than finer hair IMO. Kinky, fluffy hair can hold a twistout like nobody's business -- much longer than our finer-haired sisters. The point: Curls aren't our only options.

We can wish, fight, plead and pray. At some point, though, the hair will do what it do; it always wins!

What do you think about the explosion of curl products? Do you think that there are unrealistic expectations about what hair can and cannot achieve?