Marjorie Joyner
Encyclopedia
Monterey, Virginia
Monterey is a town in Highland County, Virginia, United States. The population was 158 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Highland County.-Geography:Monterey is located at ....
. She was the granddaughter of a slave owner and a slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. In 1912, she moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and began studying cosmetology
Cosmetology
Cosmetology is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty including hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, and electrology....
. She graduated A.B. Molar Beauty School in Chicago in 1916, the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
to achieve this. There she met Madam C. J. Walker, an African American beauty entrepreneur, and the owner of a cosmetic empire. Always an advocate of beauty for women, Joyner went to work for her and oversaw 200 of Madame Walker's beauty schools as the national advisor.
Permanent Wave Design
Hair straightening
Hair straightening is a hair styling technique which involves the flattening and straightening of hair in order to give it a smooth, streamlined, and 'sleek' appearance. It may be accomplished by using hair irons and hot combs, chemical relaxers, Japanese hair straightening, or Brazilian hair...
their hair
Hair
Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
, taking her inspiration from a pot roast cooking with heat pins to quicken preparation time. Joyner experimented initially with these pot roast rods and soon designed a machine that could be used to curl or straighten hair by wrapping it on rods above the person's head and then cooking them to set the hair. This method allowed hairstyles to last several days. Her patent for this design, (U.S. pat. #1,693,515) established her as the first African American woman to receive a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
. This claim is disputed by some who say that Sarah E. Goode
Sarah E. Goode
Sarah E. Goode was an entrepreneur and inventor. She was the first African American woman to receive a United States patent.Goode was born in 1850 into slavery. She was freed after the American Civil War and proceeded to open a furniture store in Chicago, Illinois...
was the first African American woman to hold a patent.
It is sometimes falsely cited that Joyner was the original inventor of this type of machine, called the permanent wave
Permanent wave
A permanent wave, commonly called a perm, involves the use of chemicals to break and reform the bonds of the hair. The hair is washed and wrapped on a perm rod and waving lotion is applied with a base. This solution creates a chemical reaction that softens the inner structure of the hair by...
, or perm. Her design was an alternative version of Karl Nessler
Karl Nessler
Karl Ludwig Nessler was the inventor of the permanent wave....
's groundbreaking invention, invented in England during the late 19th century and patented in London in 1909 and again in the United States in 1925.
Joyner's design was popular in salon
Beauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for men and women...
s with both African American and white women. The patent was credited to Madame Walker's company and she received almost no money for it. In 1945, she co-founded the United Beauty School Owners and Teachers Association. In 1973, at the age of 77, she was awarded a bachelor's degree in psychology from Bethune-Cookman College
Bethune-Cookman College
Bethune-Cookman University or B-CU is a private historically black university in Daytona Beach, Florida.- History :Mary McLeod Bethune founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School in 1904...
in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Currently, her papers reside in the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at the Chicago Public Library
Chicago Public Library
The Chicago Public Library is the public library system that serves the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 79 branches, including a central library, two regional libraries, and branches distributed throughout the city....
.
Quote
"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."