The Girl With the Beautiful Hair

The year was 1882. The steamship Norseman left the northern shore of Lake Ontario in Canada.  Many of its passengers were headed south across the lake to Rochester, New York. 25-year-old Martha Matilda Harper was among them. She brought what little she owned with her to make a new start in America. With only sixty dollars and a recipe for hair tonic, Harper would revolutionize American business.

Martha Matilda Harper was born in 1857 near Oakville, Ontario. She was one of ten children. Her family struggled to make ends meet. When Martha was seven, her father sent her away to work for some relatives. She cooked, cleaned and hauled water for them. What little money she earned, she sent back to her family. Martha worked as a maid for various families for more than twenty years.

One of Martha’s employers was a doctor. He was very interested in natural remedies. He taught Martha how to make a hair tonic from special ingredients. Martha used it to keep her hair clean and healthy. It really worked! Soon Martha’s dark brown hair reached all the way to the floor. It was thick and shiny.  Martha was proud of her hair and worked to keep it in good condition.

When the doctor moved away in 1882, Martha decided to move to America. She had heard from a friend that America was a land of opportunity. So she packed up all her belongings and purchased a one-way ticket to Rochester aboard the Norseman.

Once in Rochester, she became a maid for the Roberts family. But she had a secret wish: she wanted to have her own business. She knew her hair tonic recipe was unique. She had an idea of how to turn her recipe into a business. She would create a pleasant shop where women could come and get their hair washed with her special tonic. She would also offer head and neck massages, and special treatments called facials to keep their skin looking its best. Every product she used was made from pure, natural ingredients. She created the recipes herself, based on what she had learned from the doctor.

The odds were against Martha. She was a poor working girl. In the late 1800s very few women had jobs outside the home. Of these, even fewer owned a business. But Martha did not let this stop her. Her employers, the Roberts, believed in her. They let her use their garden shed as a workroom to mix her hair tonic. She worked for the Roberts during the day and worked on her business at night.

Finally the day came when Martha was ready to start her business. She wanted to rent a space in Rochester’s finest building. The owner of the building was not interested. He thought her business would fail and she would not be able to pay her rent. But Martha had made some important friends in Rochester. One was a lawyer whose office was in the same building. He persuaded the owner to let her have an office on a trial basis. The owner agreed. In 1888, the Harper Shop opened for business. Martha had a picture of herself taken, showing her beautiful floor-length hair. She placed it on the door of her business. The picture, and her hair, became her trademark.

Martha was taking a big chance. In 1888 there were no hair salons in Rochester. Women had their hair groomed by their servants in the privacy of their homes. Facial products were not generally in use.  Business was slow at first, but eventually word got out. Women from the finest families in Rochester heard about this new shop. At first they came out of curiosity. They came back time and time again because they loved the experience.

The Harper Shops were clean as a whistle with tasteful decorations and a pleasant staff. At first, Martha was the only employee. As business grew, she trained other women to work for her. She hand-picked girls with backgrounds similar to hers. Most were servant girls who wanted to make a better life for themselves. Martha trained them on how to use her products and how to give massages and facials. But she also trained them on how to please the customers. Their number one job was to make sure the customers were comfortable and happy.

Women of the 1800s had extremely long hair. Most did not have the type of bathroom plumbing we have today. Washing the hair was a time-consuming and messy process. Often they washed it by leaning forward into a tub or basin filled with water. Martha thought of a better way. She designed a padded reclining chair so that her customers could sit back in comfort while she washed their hair. She also designed a sink with a special cutout for the customer’s neck. Customers leaned back and relaxed in the special chair while Martha washed their hair. The wet hair and cleaning products stayed in the sink, not in the customer’s clothes or eyes.

Martha’s business was a great success. Soon she opened other shops in other cities. She hired and trained many girls to work for her. Each Harper Shop was built to look the same as the original. All of the girls were trained in the exact methods used by Martha herself. Each time Martha opened a new shop, the person she chose to run it became the owner of the shop. The owners shared in the profits of the Harper business. Martha’s goal was this: whenever a customer stepped into one of her shops, they would find it the same as every other Harper Shop. It would have the same products, services, and courteous help. She also wanted her ‘girls’, as she called her employees, to share in the profits of the company. In this way she felt they would all work together to make the company a success.

Martha’s ideas worked. At the height of her success in the 1930s, there were more than 500 Harper Shops in operation around the world. Martha’s rags-to-riches story was famous. Her customers included movie stars, millionaires, and presidents. Yes, even men enjoyed the relaxing head and neck massages. Martha’s hair tonic was thought to help postpone baldness.

Martha Matilda Harper died in 1950 at age 92. After her death, her fame declined. Today few have heard of her. But reminders of her pioneering ideas are everywhere. Many modern hair salons still use the basic design of the reclining chair she invented in 1888. Many women now own their own business. In Martha’s time, this was highly unusual. She gave many women the help they needed to succeed. Her business model, with shops built alike and individually owned, is what we now call a franchise. Giants in the franchise industry include many familiar names, especially most fast food businesses. Martha might be sad to know she has been largely forgotten, but she would probably smile every time she drove past a McDonald’s.

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