Little Known Black History Fact: The Jheri Curl

Redding, also know as Jheri Redding, was a Chicago high school student strongly interested in chemistry, who started experimenting with items in his kitchen like mayonnaise and vinegars to build haircare products. By 1956, Redding started the Jheri Redding Product line in Los Angeles. He followed suit with three additional companies, Redken in 1960, Jhirmack in 1968, and Nexxus in 1979.

Redding put his haircare discoveries into the 1964 publication “The Scientific Approach to Hairdressing” then again in “The Anatomy of a Permanent Wave” in 1967.

In 1990, Jheri Redding was inducted into the National Cosmetology Foundation’s Hall of Fame. Then in 1997 he was also inducted into the North American Hairstyling Award’s Hall of Leaders. In addition, he founded the Hollywood Design Council.