The global beauty business permeates our lives, influencing how we perceive ourselves and what it is to be beautiful. The brands and firms which have shaped this industry, such as Avon, Coty, Estée Lauder, L'Oréal, and Shiseido, have imagined beauty for us. This book provides the first authoritative history of the global beauty industry from its emergence in the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring how today's global giants grew. It shows how successive generations of entrepreneurs built brands which shaped perceptions of beauty, and the business organizations needed to market them. They democratized access to beauty products, once the privilege of elites, but they also defined the gender and ethnic borders of beauty, and its association with a handful of cities, notably Paris and later New York. The result was a homogenization of beauty ideals throughout the world. Today globalization is changing the beauty industry again; its impact can be seen in a range of competing strategies. Global brands have swept into China, Russia, and India, but at the same time, these brands are having to respond to a far greater diversity of cultures and lifestyles as new markets are opened up worldwide. In the twenty first century, beauty is again being re-imagined anew.

I consider myself an entrepreneur even though I spent 25 years in the corporate world. My passion is the beauty business. I created a consulting company to work primarily with beauty entrepreneurs. I was a beauty buyer and then advanced to become a Vice President in the high end department store category. For much of my career I observed people coming to sell me new products they created. So many had such great ideas but often missed the critical points they needed in order to sell into stores. Once I left the corporate world and began my own company to assist entrepreneurs in beauty, I was able to see the steps being taken to create a business in beauty. I learned even more about what to do and what not to do on every level. I knew writing this book and sharing all the tips I had for beauty entrepreneurs would help start up businesses to avoid the 10 most common mistakes and save money by working with the right support.

For as long as there have been blacks in the Americas, there have been African-American entrepreneurs.

One of the first transnational, feminist studies of Canada’s black beauty culture and the role that media, retail, and consumers have played in its development, Beauty in a Box widens our understanding of the politics of black hair. The book analyzes advertisements and articles from media—newspapers, advertisements, television, and other sources—that focus on black communities in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary. The author explains the role local black community media has played in the promotion of African American–owned beauty products; how the segmentation of beauty culture (i.e., the sale of black beauty products on store shelves labelled “ethnic hair care”) occurred in Canada; and how black beauty culture, which was generally seen as a small niche market before the 1970s, entered Canada’s mainstream by way of department stores, drugstores, and big-box retailers. Beauty in a Box uses an interdisciplinary framework, engaging with African American history, critical race and cultural theory, consumer culture theory, media studies, diasporic art history, black feminism, visual culture, film studies, and political economy to explore the history of black beauty culture in both Canada and the United States.

The beauty industry is now a multinational, multi-million dollar business. In recent years its place in contemporary culture has altered hugely as salons have become not simply places to have your hair cut or your nails done, but increasingly sites of physical and even spiritual therapy. In this fascinating and nuanced study, Paula Black strips away many popular assumptions about the beauty industry, including the one that says it exploits people's insecurity by projecting an illusory beauty myth. The interviews in this book - both with the beauty industry's workers and its clients - reveal a far more complex and interesting picture, and, in their presentation, Black re-formulates many feminist debates around choice and constraint. The debates addressed include issues around the body; the construction and maintenance of gender identity; changing definitions of health and well-being; and labour processes.

You know you have the talent to make it in the beauty industry, but figuring out where to begin can feel like a mystery—and cosmetology schools often don’t prepare students for the business end of these jobs . . . which can make or break your career. Consider this book your crash course on how current and aspiring beauty professionals can profit from their passions to create wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Entrepreneur and celebrity hairstylist Kiyah Wright knows exactly what it takes to amass wealth in the hair and beauty industry. From the time she was just 14 years old and doing hair in her grandmother's basement for $20 a pop, Kiyah had found her calling. By 17, she had 200 clients and netted over $60K a year. Now, 25 years later, she's at the top of her game with A-List Hollywood clientele, two Emmy Awards, two Hollywood Beauty Awards, a thriving business, and a million-dollar brand. In From Beauty to Business, Wright breaks down her seven proven success principles that helped her achieve her goals: Developing a success mindset Understanding the business of the beauty business Finding your niche Diversifying with multiple streams of income Growing your platform to grow your profits Preparing for the unexpected Planning for your future She also lays out crucial success strategies not taught in hair or beauty schools about entrepreneurship, finance, branding, marketing, product distribution, how to harness the power of social media, and how to build wealth. Whether you’re working from your house or a salon, From Beauty to Business will set you up for success with practical tools for thriving in the beauty business on your own terms. This first-of-its-kind sourcebook features Kiyah’s favorite success affirmations, industry-themed business templates, worksheets, and the foolproof strategies Kiyah used to attract and retain superstar clients like Tyra Banks, Jennifer Hudson, Ciara, Iman, Taraji P. Henson, and Gabrielle Union. Whether you’re looking for tips in your career as a hairstylist, makeup artist, esthetician, or other beauty professional, From Beauty to Business is the ultimate resource guide that will set you on a straight path to success.