Sonari Glinton

But no, no, no.

George learned on the job, and then one day, after he'd become essentially operations manager, he was riding the elevator at work, and he met a barber, Orville Nelson.

Orville was Nat King Cole's barber, a pretty big deal.

George says Orville would fly to California just to do Nat's hair.

But when George met Orville, he had this look about him.

And these were powerful chemicals.

Leave them in just long enough and you had swinging hair.

But leave these products in the hair too long and it might burn.

Longer than that, you might not have any hair left.

This wasn't your picture postcard barbershop where everyone's sitting around and talking about sports and politics.

This was pandemonium.

The barbers would run to a vat of the concoction where they'd mix it up, then pour it into a small jar, then race back to their clients and apply it to their heads.

The men were squirming in their chairs, waiting for it to work.

Then, just before it burned them too badly, the barbers would turn the chair around and lower their heads into the shampoo bowl.

Night after night, he'd try vat after vat of chemicals in different combinations.

And then he'd give them to Orville, who'd try them out in his barbershop.

I said, we ought to market this.

George recognized in this improved black hair care product a massive economic opportunity.

In 1954, Orville and George went into business together.

The product was Ultra Wave Hair Culture.