Black Hair Care Industry Update 2015, Part II

Think about it. Of all the numerous manufacturing and service industries in this country, which one should be dominated primarily by the consumers they serve? Of course, it’s the Black Hair Care Industry. In Part I of this article, you got the 411 on the Koreans attempt to dominate that industry. And make no mistake about it, only a tiny fraction of the funds Koreans earn from black consumers find its way back to our communities. So let’s put a number on it and say ninety cents of every dollar earned goes to the Koreans coiffures never to return to the hood.

Those black consumers who buy their hair products, wigs and accessories from the neighborhood beauty supply store? On the way, they often pass by empty storefronts, closed schools, and vacated fire stations. Do you ever wonder why we have to shop at suburban malls to find a major department outlet? A store run and mostly staffed by Koreans has no intention of putting any of their profits in your community, nada, zip, none, 0 dollars.

You say our communities are poor and cannot support our grocery stores, sidewalk cafe’s and any entity that provides a quality product for a fair price? Here is a quote from Nielsen’s African-American Consumer Report from 2013.  “Despite historically high unemployment rates, Blacks have shown resiliency in their ability to persevere as consumers. Black buying power continues to increase, rising from its current $1 trillion level to a forecasted $1.3 trillion by 2017.” There is no reason the bulk of that buying power should not be circulating in the black community before heading out to other communities.

You want to improve your environment, your hood, the neighborhood in which you live. Spend your money with those who you know will put the money back into your neighborhood. Especially during this holiday period as there is a call to boycott Black Friday and seek out black business to spend your hard earn cash. If not directly with stores in your community, then indirectly, because as black entrepreneurs rise to the top of the economic scale, so shall you, the black consumer. Consumer spending is the lifeblood of any community located within our United States Economic system.

That ladies and gentlemen is a monumental ethnic consumer change in behavior that has been absent in our communities for far too long. One of the fastest ways to effect major change in the treatment of a race of people in this country is to direct our spending toward people, regardless of color that has our best interest at heart. You feel me?

There are smart, innovative, and hungry entrepreneurs who are looking for you, the consumer to try their product or visit their Beauty salon. They want you to see and report to friends and neighbor the usefulness and quality of their goods and services. And the kicker is, they look like you, meaning that ninety cents of your dollars spent will circulate in your community several times. Over time, you will see other business entities return to your neighborhood. Why, because as we’ve reported, there is money and wealth in your community.

We are not naive here; this has to happen over time. Let’s start this Christmas Buying Season.  If you, the consumer change the direction of your disposable income to those who will help build or feed your community, you will begin to see the result sooner than later. Let’s meet a few entrepreneurial innovators in the Black Hair Care Industry.

Madam CJ Gardner, in her words “having an affinity for promoting cultural awareness” is one such innovator. She also disproves the notion that all ideas should be colossal in nature. The idea should be to see a need and attempt to fill it which is an apt description of her #thehookmeup tool.

Having earned a B.A. from Rutgers and an M.A.S. from Fairleigh Dickinson Universities, she has worked in the juvenile and adult corrections world approaching twenty years. She entered into the cosmetology world because of an overwhelming interest in protecting her natural hair while wearing a ‘sew in hair’ weave. The thought and actual practice of removing the weave was an emotionally taxing and stressful venture for Ms. Gardner. The tools used to go through the weave removal process was no help at all in providing a warm and fuzzy for protecting one’s hair or avoiding cutting a finger. She would ask for herself and eventually answer her question, “What if there was an all-inclusive tool to remedy this problem, along with eliminating the infamous ‘itchy weave pat’?”

We can now report that after talking on the financial and entrepreneurial IMG958358responsibilities that are required, Madam CJ has brought her patented and own Hook Me Up tool to the American market. Predictably the consumer market has welcomed such a innovated tool. So much so that the local TV Fox News affiliate, Channel 29 out of Philadelphia aired the following report during a broadcast of Empire. Click the following link to view the entire report. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8nAdnWvJ7qNUmpDSVI0aDh1U28/view  #thehookmeup tool just hit the market around the second week in September. After viewing the noted Channel 29 report, I am sure you will find the necessity of the tool itself for the entire Hair Care Industry. Go to http://www.thehookmeup.org/ for purchase details. You can also find a taped interview I completed with the New Jersey native for my Blog Talk Radio Show broadcast on September 30, 2015. Click on my shows link at the end of this article to find the broadcast.

We find our next innovator right here at home. Here name is Dalila Dynes, aka DD. She is the owner-manager of DD’s Serendipity Salon and Spa located in Oakland, California. You can visit her website at http://www.serendipityhairsalon.com/

She began at the tender age of twenty-three with the intent to service any and all races of clientele. DD has perfected the craft of multi-cultural hair styling over her fifteen years of hair styling. So much so that she’s developed a healthy hair care class for parents of mixed-race children. Or as she also describes it, “Parents not versed in black hair care.” There is also a styling class for the trans-gender community. These are the among a few of the specialties offered at her Salon

You get the feeling that this entrepreneur is attempting to create a mood when speaking with her about her salon and spa. DD feels her customers 299;419;96181cedfaf12d4dd7c7ed9c5b5705744957b991[1]should and do come to her facility to be pampered in the same manner as if they were in one of the major Las Vegas Hotels. Thus, she offers the use of her Jacuzzi Spa and massage service, with a shower, garden patio, and art gallery. Given her background as a natural artist, photographer, and dancer, she has a performance stage.  One might get the correct assumption that DD is offering complete relaxation, a memorable experience that results in a warm and fuzzy feeling one gets when they have rewarded themselves. All of the services offered are at a reasonable and competitive price.

I interviewed her on my HCofA BTR Show which you can access by clicking on the following link, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hampscornerofamerica/2015/11/18/entrepreneurs-with-a-purpose I bring it up not as a promotional tool for my show. If you want to hear passion and conviction from a professional Hair Stylist-Owner-Manager in the Hair Care Industry, you need to listen to this interview. Dalila “DD” Dynes provides you a detailed description of the relationship and trust issues required between a stylist and their customer. For that matter, any Entrepreneur should take note as she gives an A-plus message on providing great customer service. It was my pleasure to hear that kind of devotion to one’s craft.

And finally, my friend Sam Ennon at www.BOBSA.org, continues to bring Nat Dubeit. He has collaborated with Alex and Natascha Dube. They are the South African couple who invented and manufactured the Afro & Twist comb. If you have not heard, Natascha originally used a tennis racket to get the twist style she used for her hair. Note her picture here. Needless to say, a racket would not fit into a ladies normal size purse. Being the innovators she and her husband are, they came up with a smaller comb to meet her styling requirements that also appeals to the black community. It was a simple fix for entrepreneurs who have a need and find the products or item absent on the current market.

As initially stated, they hooked up with BOBSA’s Sam Ennon who was instrumental in the packaging of and promotion of the Afro & Twist Comb, Cleaning Spray, Moisturizer Conditioner, No Flake Styling Gel, Locking & Twisting cream plus a useful small sponge used in the application to round out the hair twist styling process. The utilization of these items promises to provide the end user with a clean, moisturize and nice minty scent for any preferred twist style. One can step out on a date or attend an evening affair looking fresh and as though your sporting a professionally prepared hairdo. For your information, the products are distributed by Afro & Twist Comb |CA dixassoc@earthlink.net |209-888-4800, CA sam@bobsa.org | 650-863-3491 | IL 708-769-2154 | GA 404-752-9183.

As previously stated in numerous articles, my aim is to get you acquainted with Entrepreneurs that have a purpose. Our entire purpose is to enlighten our community and turn them on to the goods and services that are not only beneficial to you the black community. The people I write about or have on my BTR Show are always quality driven and community conscious which is just what is needed to lift up our neighborhoods standard of living.  That is my promise to you, hoping that you find the individuals and organizations mentioned here meet that standard.

Peace, make it a day in which Jesus Christ would be proud of you,

 

Codis Hampton II

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“In my latest book, Remember Moz, Gracie & John Hampton’s First-Born, I wanted to tell the world about a unique individual. Not because he happened to be my father but to explain who he was, where he came from, and how he evolved into the man he became up until his death. In doing so, I wrote of his ancestor’s roots back to and through the Civil War. The inclusion of his birth and upbringing in the heart of Arkansas, or Jim Crow country, add southern reluctance to learn why our country involved itself in a bloodthirsty four-year exercise in the first place? Then you begin to understand why, our parents behaved the way that they did. See if I captured the essence of this paragraph.” Get the book via the Authors Page at http://outskirtspress.com/webPage/isbn/9781478766056

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Hamp II

This web site is a compilation of all my works, interest, and musical taste. Its intended to display all my talents, dreams, and aspirations. In short, join the ride or stay tuned. Because… I’d been chasing self-independence which led me to open a retail business. Success with no capital for expansion led to its closure. I wanted a career, not just a job. I needed to be in charge of my own destiny. In 1978, I left my beloved Milwaukee and moved to California where a civil service position awaited. It turned out to be one of the best decisions my wife, and I have ever made. A few years before retiring from the “rat race” in 1996, I discovered my true love, writing. I started by publishing an online newsletter with my own opinionated articles leading off each issue. I graduated by writing my first book, Unchon-ni (2010 publication), a semi-biography tale about my military tour in Korea in the early sixties. November of 2013 brought about the release of my second book, entitled Gracie Hall-Hampton, the Arkansas Years, 1917-1953. It’s a tribute to my grandmother’s life and times while living in the segregated south of the United States. After careful consideration, I began broadcasting Hamp’s Corner of America via Blog Talk Radio in June of 2014. I’ve found the show to be an ideal platform for presenting ideas and comments to a segment of our society that may not see or hear the stories that speak to their interest from other American news outlets. In the politically charged years since the election of Barack Obama in 2008, most people have become accustomed to instant critique and sound bites from various media. More so than Obama’s election, the truth is often bent; twisted, shredded, and repackaged to resemble something that your conscious tells you is a lie. Independent thinking is not a lost art. Just because people with those types of opinions seem to dominate the landscape, they are still a minority, no matter their color or creed. The truth must be treasured and not compromised. Those real experiences supply the foundation upon which we are built and thus enable us to do the right thing based upon facts. That is the creed upon which I’ve based my life in every circumstance. No matter what, somehow one should always do the right thing for all involved. It keeps one grounded. I’ve reached my senior years and have an enormous appetite to see our local communities grow and prosper at the hands of the people in that community. In other words, there is no help like self-help. As of this summer’s 2015 date, I have three books in my production hopper. One (about my father’s life) to be released this fall, a fictional story by the spring of 2016 and a political environment book, schedule for a fall release in 2016. It should be noted that all my books have been and will be independently published by my choice of publishers. I can say at this point in my life, I am at peace with my work, my God, and my existence.

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