Hi , I'm Madam C.J. Walker who created specialized hair products for African American hair care and was one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire.
I invented a line of African American hair products after suffering from a scalp ailment that resulted in her my hair loss. I also promoted my products by traveling around the country giving lecture-demonstrations and eventually established "Madame C.J. Walker" Laboratories to manufacture cosmetics and train sales beauticians.
My business acumen led me to be one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire. I was also known for my philanthropic endeavors, including a donation toward the construction of an Indianapolis YMCA in 1913. My life was portrayed in the 2020 TV show Self made, with Octavia Spencer portraying Walker.
In 1905, I was hired as a commission agent by Annie Turnbo Malone — a successful, Black, hair-care product entrepreneur — and moved to Denver, Colorado.
In 1907 my husband and I traveled around the South and Southeast promoting my products and giving lecture demonstrations of my "Walker Method" — involving my own formula for pomade, brushing and the use of heated combs.
Walker died of kidney failure and complications due to hypertension on May 25, 1919.