George E. Johnson died at age 99, the founder of a pioneering Black hair product company.

George E. Johnson died on Monday, aged 99. His eponymous Chicago-based company, which marketed brands such as Afro Sheen and Ultra Wave, radically changed the way Black women cared for their hair in the U.S.

Johnson, who was reportedly born in a "sharecropper's" shack in Mississippi, and moved with his mother to Chicago at the age of 2, died in his condo in downtown Chicago from natural causes, according to his son John Edward Johnson.

The New York Times reported, citing Johnson's second wife Madeline Murphy Rabb as the cause of death, that Johnson had died from a respiratory disease.

In 1954, the Johnson Products Company was established to cater to African Americans’ evolving tastes in fashion, hairstyles and cosmetics at a time when?U.S. Companies and advertisers did not pay much attention to Black customers.

Johnson founded the business with his first spouse, Joan Johnson. She died in 2019. The company grew to control nearly 80% in the Black haircare market by 1960. In 1971, it became the first Black owned company listed on the American Stock Exchange (now called NYSE American).

The company's marketing campaign, which echoed the slogans and images of the Black Pride and Black Power movements of that era, helped the Chicago-based television music show "Soul Train" grow from a weekly broadcast to a nationally syndicated success.

The roots of the company illustrate the challenges faced by minority entrepreneurs at the dawn of the civil right movement.

Johnson, who began as a door to door cosmetics salesman, after dropping out high school, launched a business with a $250 bank loan he obtained by telling a loan officer that he needed the money for his family's vacation.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, and BlackPast.org an online encyclopedia dedicated to African American History, his first bank had turned down his request for a loan.

I knew that this request for a vacation loan would not shake [the loan officer]'s belief that he is superior to me. Johnson's 2025 memoir "Afro Sheen" recounted that it would not challenge the stereotypes he held about Black men being subservient and unintelligent.

From HAIR STRAIGHTENER to the AFRO

The company introduced its first major brands as hair-relaxing products for the home, such as Ultra Wave for women and Ultra Sheen, to achieve the straight and wavy styles popular during 1950s and 1960s.

Johnson's Company adapted to the Black Power movement by introducing its Afro Sheen Blow Out Kit in the late 1960s.

Classy Curl is a product that allows consumers to achieve the "Jheri curl" perm, first popularized by Jheri Redding, a white hairdresser and chemist.

Johnson's venture started to struggle as it was faced with competition from large cosmetics and hair care companies such as Revlon, who were looking to gain market share in the lucrative African American hairstyling industry.

After the Johnsons' divorce, the ownership of the Johnsons' business changed several times before a major African American investment company acquired it in 2009 from Procter & Gamble.

(source: Reuters)