Marjorie Stewart Joyner knew there was an easier way for Black women to straighten their hair and stay well coiffed. She just had to find it.
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In the late 1910s, the standard method was a slow, arduous curl-by-curl process. But Joyner, a beauty industry trailblazer, salon owner and executive at Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing, set off to do it better. She worked to improve the straightening process. That made it easier for women to create raging hairstyles like the “marcel wave.”
By a twist of fate, Joyner (1896-1994) visualized the solution while cooking a pot roast. “It all came to me, looking at these long, thin rods that held the pot roast together and heated it up from the inside,” Joyner told The Chicago Tribune. “I figured you could use them like hair rollers, then heat them up to cook a permanent curl (or wave) into the hair.”
The result? The “Permanent Waving Machine.” And the invention revolutionized the way women styled their hair in the 1920s.
Push Your Limits Like Marjorie Stewart Joyner
In 1926, Joyner developed a product prototype. She attached 16 pot roast rods to a hair dryer hood. The machine “evolved into a device that could do the job of multiple curling irons used simultaneously,” said a statement announcing Joyner’s induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023.
Joyner received a U.S. patent for her invention in 1928. In her patent petition, she stated the goal: “The object of the invention is the construction of a simple and efficient machine that will wave the hair of both white and colored women.” Joyner would become one of the first Black women to receive a U.S. patent.
Joyner’s device was a quick success at her Chicago-based beauty shop. Other salons got on board fast. They looked to help Black and white clients to straighten or curl hair, too. In 1929, Joyner patented a scalp protector to add comfort to the styling procedure.
Develop Your Leadership Style
Joyner’s success as an inventor taught others a valuable lesson about building leadership.
“If I’ve set an example for other people — not just Black people, not just poor people, not just women — I want it to be that you shouldn’t be limited in what you try to do. If I can take pot roast rods and have a one-of-a-kind invention, believe me, people can do what they set their minds to do,” Joyner told The Chicago Tribune.
Joyner’s leadership reached beyond her invention. She created a lifetime of stunning achievements. As a skilled beautician, educator, political activist and philanthropist, Joyner helped shape the development of 20th century Black beauty culture.
“Her journey to success involved a relentless pursuit to improve the lives of women and children,” said Tiffany Gill, associate professor of history, Rutgers University and author of “Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women’s Activism in the Beauty Industry” and “To Turn the Whole World Over.”
Joyner’s quest to break new ground in product development and education extended to her position as an executive at Madam C.J. Walker. She supervised 200 Walker beauty schools as a company vice president. At Walker, Joyner reportedly oversaw the training of more than 15,000 beauticians during her more than 50 years with the company.
Joyner also sought leadership opportunities at the community and national levels. She raised Black women’s political, social and educational status. She was one of the founding members of Mary McLeod Bethune’s National Council of Negro Women in 1935. In 1945, she co-founded the Alpha Chi Pi Omega Sorority and the United Beauty School Owners and Teachers Association. Joyner also donated to and served as trustee at Bethune-Cookman College (now University) in Daytona Beach, Fla. The school, founded by Mary Bethune, opened higher education opportunities for young Black women.
Refine Your Formula For Success Like Joyner
Given her economic status, Joyner had to be all the more determined to succeed.
Joyner “was a woman of her time … in that she was very much a product of the prevailing order being subject to both racism and sexism,” said Crystal deGregory, associate professor of history at Bethune-Cookman University. “But Joyner seemingly found a way to overcome the challenges presented by both oppressions not just as an inventor, but by creating products that made better lives for her clients, students and many beneficiaries.”
Joyner received “virtually no compensation for her invention,” deGregory said. Yet, rather than being an obstacle to people using it, Joyner became a “conduit (for the invention) by educating scores of women in the best uses of her invention and other products.”
Drawing on her communication skills, Joyner helped beauticians succeed. Joyner was skilled at bringing out people’s potential and was a “masterful” organizer, said Gill. She had resounding energy to work on multiple projects and the “uncanny ability to pivot from one project to the next.”
Find Your Beginning
Joyner began her journey as an entrepreneur and innovator after she graduated from A.B. Moler Beauty School in 1916. She was the first Black student to do so. Soon after, she opened a hair salon in a racially mixed neighborhood in Chicago. Joyner realized her training didn’t prepare her with the necessary skills to style Black women’s hair.
That lesson came to her loud and clear after doing her mother-in-law’s hair. Joyner said the finished job “looked like an accident waiting to happen,” said Gill. At Joyner’s mother-in-law’s encouragement, she paid $17 to enroll in Walker’s beauty school. She learned how to style Black women’s hair.
While at Walker, a cosmetics manufacturing empire, Joyner saw “the incredible opportunity” for Black women, Gill said. Walker allowed women who were styling hair to act as agents selling products. And significantly, there was “a sense of innovation” at Walker, which helped motivate Joyner to create the hair waving machine.
Start A Turning Point
Joyner’s invention marked a turning point for Black women. While at Walker, Joyner understood the great potential for Black women within the beauty industry.
“She was successful in being innovative because like all great inventors she never stopped dreaming and never stopped believing and thus, never stopped inventing,” said deGregory, also director of Mary McLeod Bethune Center for the Study of Women and Girls. “She was very much driven by the very visible nature of the positive impact she and her invention had on the lives of women and girls.”
Joyner’s invention wasn’t just about beauty. Joyner invented her machine in part because “this invention met the mostly unspoken, but deeply held need of Black women to be represented in a world in which they typically (faced) sexism, racism and classism,” deGregory said. “It was very important to show up in the world worthy of the respect they were due.”
Spread Your Style
Joyner worked to keep Black beauticians relevant while sharing their style with the world, too. She brought a group of Black beauticians overseas — first to Haiti and then to Europe throughout the 1950s — to add an international flavor to their work.
Joyner’s path to success wasn’t easy. But she navigated the difficulties with her own style.
Born in Monterey, Va., Marjorie Stewart grew up poor. Slavery ensnared her grandparents. And “history had well documented” at least one of her immediate forebears was a slave owner, says deGregory. But Joyner figured out a way to cut through the limitations established by racism and segregation in a very practical way.
“It was in her nature to be good at finding what were the cracks in the system,” said Gill.
Marjorie Stewart Joyner’s Keys
- Inventor and executive at Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing and revolutionized women’s hairstyling in the 1920s.
- Overcame: Challenges presented by racism and sexism as an inventor.
- Lesson: “If I’ve set an example for other people, not just Black people, not just poor people, not just women I want it to be that you shouldn’t be limited in what you try to do.”
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