During the era when Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were beginning to campaign for women’s rights, another woman was showing what women were already capable of doing.
Canadian Martha Matilda Harper had worked as a domestic servant for many years. She felt that chemicals found in hair shampoo and other beauty products were more harmful than they should be. After some time of trying different chemicals, she managed to develop a hair tonic which she considered safe.
When she had saved enough money, she opened her Harper Method Shop in 1888. She emphasized nutrition, hygiene and exercise in her beauty method. She personally had floor length hair and used it as part of her advertising.
To make her idea of a ‘salon’ more professional, she invented a reclining shampoo chair. The invention plus her beauty products helped her to institute the idea of hairdressing salons. Previously, beauticians visited their customers privately in their own homes for beauty treatments.
She developed a franchise system in 1891, selling salon franchises which used duplication of services and products. She had a strongly regimented training program for every franchisee. Although the franchisees owned their own salons, Harper visited them for quality control and for advertising purposes.
In time, she had over five hundred salon franchises under her control. Along with these salons, she had a number of training schools.
Amazing as it sounds, one of her clients was Susan B. Anthony.
This article is found at:
http://www.quazen.com/Reference/Biography/First-Franchiser-Also-an-Inventor.132795
