Martha Matilda Harper
Martha Matilda Harper (* 1857 in Canada ; † August 3, 1950 in USA ) was an American cosmetics entrepreneur , pioneer of hair care.
Life
Martha Matilda Harper was sent as a maid to her uncle's family in Leskard, near Ontario, when she was only seven. Her father, Robert Harper, went into debt and the whole family had to live in a one-room cabin in the oak woods. At twelve, Harper worked for a doctor who had a huge impact on her résumé as he explained to her the structure of hair and the importance of combing and shampooing. He also gave her the recipe for a herbal hair tonic that would later make her famous.
In 1882 she left Canada and emigrated to Rochester (New York) , USA, with sixty silver dollars . She found a job as a housekeeper with the lawyer Luther Hovey. A year later, the entire house and household were handed over to the new owners, Luella and Owen Roberts, who took them on like a daughter. Luella Roberts and her friends were the first women Harper tried her hair lotion on. She developed various hair tonics, shampoos and massage creams.
In 1888 she opened the first Harper shop. With her photo, in which she can be seen with her floor-length hair, she advertised her products. Soon all the important ladies from Rochester were her customers, as were the suffragettes who supported Harper and liked to show her as an example of an independent woman. In 1920 she married Robert MacBain, twenty-six years her junior, whom she had met as a tour guide and for whom she financed a course of study at Cambridge.
By 1921 her empire had grown to 450 salons worldwide, and she started her own factory. The stock market crash of 1929 could not harm the Harper Shops as a supplier of quality products. In the mid-1930s, the company began to decline, leaving Harper to her husband as managing director. To care for his wife, who had dementia, Robert MacBain hired a manager a few years later.
Martha Matilda Harper died in 1950. Her company was sold six years later and continued under various owners until 1972.
Business ideas and inventions
In addition to the hair lotion, which she had patented, Harper has also made her head massages a successful business model with her slogan “Beauty comes from within” as a means of blood circulation and strengthening the hair. From the start, her business model was based on pampering her customers, who should be proud to be Harper customers.
The styling chairs and washbasins she designed made a decisive contribution to this success. Before it was invented, people had to have their hair bent forward and washed, which wet their faces and could get soap in their eyes. Their invention was the basin with a neck recess as we know it today.
Their branches were assigned according to the franchising method. In doing so, it established the first system of concessions in America.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Claudia Lanfranconi, Antonia Meiners, "Kluge Geschäftsfrauen", Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, ISBN 978-3-938045-22-0
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Harper, Martha Matilda |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American cosmetics entrepreneur, hair care pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1857 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Canada |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 3, 1950 |
| Place of death | United States |