Joan Johnson was reportedly the biggest supplier of Afro Sheen hair products. She along with her husband founded Johnson Products.
The hair care pioneer Joan Johnson co-founded Johnson Products, reportedly one of America’s most successful black-owned businesses.
Let alone the successful business but Johnson Products company is also the first to be listed on the American Stock Exchange.
The company prospered and evolved numerous innovative products to facilitate the black community, look after their hair.
Did Joan Johnson Found Afro Sheen?
Yes, the hair care pioneer Joan Johnson co-founded Johnson Products which is the maker of hair care products such as Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen.
The company was started with her husband George in Chicago. They took a $250 vacation loan and turned it into a multi-million-dollar company.
In fact, the business made history after becoming reportedly the first black-owned company traded on the stock exchange back in 1971.
The real root of the company’s success was majorly in the way it recognized the political power of hair and used it to prosper the business.
Many African Americans felt the pressure to straighten their naturally curly hair during that time just to fit in among their white contemporaries.
Thriving among them was an even greater challenge. While, some straightening products were available, but not to the mainstream consumer.
Meanwhile, her husband George saw an opportunity and later teamed up with a barbershop owner to create a hair straightener for black men.
After he became too busy with the business for the barbershop was also busy, he teamed up with Joan Johnson, his wife eventually.
Johnson Products by the end of the 1960s dominated the black hair-care market during the decade. It in fact made $10m in annual sales.
Joan Johnson Husband And Wikipedia Biography
At the age of 21 the hair care products pioneer Joan Johnson married her high school sweetheart, husband George Johnson, that made history.
George Johnson is reportedly a former salesman who served as a chemist for a beauty products company until his life took a turn for good.
The successful businesswoman worked like an unsung hero. She was born in Chicago in 1929, however little is explored about her upbringing.
Reportedly, the Johnson’s regularly gave back to their community. She provided an annual scholarship to a select set of HBCU students every year.
The business tycoon was also a member of women’s boards at the University of Chicago and Northwestern and various other organizations.
Learn About Joan Johnson’s Cause Of Death.
Joan Johnson died at the age of 89 on the 6th of September 2019 while the cause of her death still remains precisely unspecified to this day.
She is speculated to have passed away with a combination of medical conditions coming from a 2005 accident that sent her to 5 back surgeries.