Beauty Culturists

I’m the queen of convincing myself I can do something or need something the internet told me I could buy or DIY.

An umbrella for my phone isn’t necessary, but the idea of protecting my phone in this summer heat is intriguing.

Luckily I’ve managed not to place an order for a phone umbrella. The same couldn’t be said about purchasing Marley hair to install passion twist as my protective style for the summer.

Kim from the YouTube channel The Chic Natural is a hair whiz. The girl has made a curly faux mohawk chic and adorable. She can do no wrong when it comes to hair. Every style that graces her head she shows in a way that looks effortless.

I’ve liked the looks of passion twist since I started to see more people wear their hair in this beautiful style.

I’m not a good braider, twists I can usually do, it’s taking two strands of my natural hair and twisting them together, fairly easy. Now add the Marley hair and things start to get complicated.

Kim’s tutorials have done what they always do, convinced me I can do my hair myself.

I watched Kim several times without even taking the hair out of the package. As I replayed her video I thought about Vocals Past Life challenge.

I wasn’t gifted with hands that could slay, lay, curl, twist, and braid hair like Kim. The next best thing would be one of the 20,000 sales agents and beauty culturists that worked under Madam CJ Walker.

To be given financial stability, working with and being surrounded by other black women would be heaven.

There’s a saying if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. Madame CJ Walker made it clear that she stood for equality.

We’ve had blackout IG posts and Black Lives Matter campaigns. Brands and Fortune 500 companies promised to hire more blacks. Madame Walker walked the walk and had brown and dark-skinned women in her ads for her hair products. She encouraged her agents to become political activists. I’d feel pride knowing that when I walked up to someone’s door with Wonderful Hair Grower I wasn’t scamming them out of money promising them their hair would suddenly be straight and closer to whiteness. I’d have a clear conscious knowing that the foundation of the product was based on science. Annie Malone, an educated black scientist offered the knowledge, expertise, and foundation Madame Walker needed to advance Wonderful Hair Grower. Malone was a legend in her one rights having 75,000 people under her and being one of the first female millionaires in 1924 with a net worth of 14 million. Annie was the pioneer behind Walker. The system of door-to-door sales was born out of necessity. She couldn’t go through regular distribution as a black woman. Annie gave tutorials long before they were a thing on social media. She would explain how to use her products which brought her the success she had. Annie created Poro University.

Cosmetology school is not for me otherwise I wouldn’t have minded being under Malone’s wings. Annie thought education was important as she didn’t just have a cosmetology school but a community learning centre. There would have been just as much pride working for her if I was more skilled at doing and not selling.

As you gathered the money you saved after hearing through word of mouth of our products, I’d marvel at being employed by someone that helped the community through actions and not words. Someone who contacted President Woodrow and asked him to help make lynching a federal crime.

I would walk away head held high, hips with a little rhythm, not quite a dance maintaining my professionalism knocking on the next door. As a sales agent and beauty culturist, I sold more than just products I’ve helped build a legacy in black excellency.