The man who put Black hair care on the map: George Johnson, 97, shares his inspiring journey

He may not be as spry as he used to be, and we haven’t heard much from him in decades, but at 97 years of age, George E. Johnson’s memory is sharp as a tack.  

The man who put Black hair care on the map, has gratitude that goes all the way back to the beginning.

“My mother brought me to Chicago when I was 2-years-old in 1929 and I thank God for her every day, because she got me out of Mississippi,” he said.

That commitment to family, set an example that would serve him for nearly a century.

On a February day in the late ‘50s, Johnson met  barber Orville Nelson in an elevator at Chicago’s Fuller Products company. Johnson worked at the company as a chemist. At the time, it was the largest Black-owned cosmetics business in the country. Nelson had developed a hair straightening product for Black hair, and hoped the company could help him take it to the next level.  

But afraid of competition, Fuller turned him away.  

“So I told him, ‘I work in the lab, and I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you have a card give me your card, and when I get some time, I’ll come and see if I can help you,’” Johnson said.

Johnson put the card in his dresser drawer and two months later he noticed it. His entrepreneurial curiosity got the best of him. So he stopped by Nelson’s shop.

“When I walked in the door, I was shocked,” he said. “That barber shop was so busy, no place to sit, no place to stand. All four chairs were busy and they were moving their hands like they were racing. … They were straightening the hair, to get it straight enough to put a finger wave in the hair.“

Back in the day, Black people with traditionally thick curly hair, wanted to fit into white culture, hoping to be hired for jobs. So they took the curl out, by straightening it with chemicals. 

Johnson ended up partnering with nelson, to perfect the product. With Johnson’s help, and expertise, this new product, would revolutionize the African American man’s hair care business

Johnson borrowed $250 from a loan company to start the business, not easy for a man of color in those days. It took a couple of tries, and a lie that he needed the money to take his wife on a vacation. He got the check and raised the other $250 from friends. 

“I was able to get everything to make the first batch. When I wrote the last check I had one dollar in the bank,” he said. “The $500 stood up and I was able to make a good batch and get going in the business.”

Nelson started selling his own version of the product without telling Johnson. And the relationship soured. But Johnson’s products took off – first with Ultra Wave, then Ultra Sheen—and as society changed, then came Afro Sheen.

“When Dr. King stated telling people, ‘Be yourself. Black is beautiful.’ And ‘What God gave you is good enough.’ And people started going for the natural, I had to make up for what we were losing and created Afro Sheen. And with the good talent of Vince Cullers, he created some tremendous ads.”

By that time, JPC had garnered 80% of the Black hair care business in the country becoming the first Black company to go public on the New York Stock exchange in 1971. That same year, he put the popular dance party show “Soul Train” on national TV with his sponsorship. 

But before that, johnson built a business like none other. By 1960 he offered profit sharing with his employees, provided full health care, an onsite nurse, family leave and college tuition reimbursement, among other things.

And a building that made civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proud. 

“When I built that building on 85th and Lafayette, that was deliberate, because I wanted to put some something that Black people would be proud and would be inspired by. … I wanted to give them something to shoot for,” he said. “If they know it’s a Black man (that) did that, they know they can do it too. And that was my objective when I went to 8522 South Lafayette Avenue and built that building. … Dr. King came in the door, and he looked around and one of his ministers was with him. Bevel, he stood inside the door, and he looked up and then he looked down and he looked at Bevel and he said, ‘Mow this is Black power.’ And I never forgot that. And I was standing on the landing up above when he said it.”

Johnson’s life became iconic, but he never chronicled it. Until one now in his memoir, “Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule.”

His wife of three years, art consultant Madelyn Rabb helped him along the way. 

Over the years, Johnson’s received several honorary doctorates and won a myriad honors and accolades. He’s made friends with celebrities, Civil Rights leaders, presidents and the like.

But he maintains what he’s most of, and what’s in the title of his new book, is how he’s lived his life all of these years, by following one rule and one rule only.

“The Golden Rule says, ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’ And that is what I tried to do. And that is what I think our success came from,” he said.