Television News Journalist A'Lelia Bundles: "Black Women Have More Options than Ever"

Article by iVillage

Madame CJ Walker

Television news journalist A'Lelia Bundles tells her great-great grandmother's story in a new book: “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker” (Scribner). A century ago, Madam Walker built an international hair-care empire that forever changed African-American women's self-image.

How did Sarah Breedlove -- a.k.a. Madam Walker -- get into the beauty business?
She was working as a washerwoman and like so many other African-American women of her day, she had scalp problems and was going bald, because they only washed their hair once a month. So she developed a product system to cleanse and heal the skin based on petrolatum, sulphur, beeswax and coconut oil. She sold it in small packages to women like herself.

Madam Walker claimed that the formula came to her in a dream. Do you believe that?
Oh yes. In that era, African Americans couldn't have survived without a deep, abiding faith. She was an orphan, single mother and widow by the time she was 20.

There were products similar to Madam Walker’s. Why were hers so successful?
If you look in old newspapers you'll see there were a number of white-owned companies advertising hair-care products and cosmetics to black women with before and after pictures. "Before" would be a pen and ink drawing of a woman with blotchy skin, acne and hair that was wild. The "After" would be a mulatto, with flawless skin and hair in Gibson Girl style. They were appealing to some of the insecurities of black women. By%2