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9 Black Inventors Who Made Hair History
These history-makers hold patents for hair tools we still use today.
Marjorie Stewart Joyner (1896-1994)
Marjorie Stewart Joyner is the first Black woman to ever hold a patent. In fact, her life is full of firsts. The Virginia-native was the first African American to graduate from A.B. Molar Beauty School in Chicago in 1916.
After running her own salon, she met and soon worked for Madam C.J. Walker, as the national supervisor of the company’s 200 beauty colleges. In 1928, she invented the Permanent Wave Machine which helped women to straighten curly hair and curl straight hair. Inspired by the pins she used to cook a pot roast, the process set hair wrapped in rods, allowing women to keep their hairstyles for days.
She also helped write the first cosmetology laws for the state of Illinois and co-founded the United Beauty School Owners and Teachers Association in 1967 alongside Mary Bethune McLeod. In 1973, she was awarded a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bethune-Cookman College.
