Martha
Matilda Harper was put to work as a servant at the age of seven in
Ontario, but she was ambitious. Armed with a thick head of healthy long
hair and a secret formula shampoo from an employer, she moved to
Rochester, New York, and set about her plan to open a public beauty
salon. It was a novel idea in 1888.
After nearly a
quarter century in servitude, Harper knew how to pamper her clientele.
She designed the first reclining chair so they could have their hair
washed without getting shampoo in their eyes, and had a half circle cut
out of her sink (with running water) for ladies to rest their heads. The
emphasis was on customer service, long before the term was coined. Once
women experienced the Harper Method, they were converts.
Her
clients were made up of an unlikely blend of society ladies and
suffragists, whose movement was spearheaded in Rochester. Soon Harper
was catering to both circles, and women in each sphere were spreading
the word about the new salon. Susan B. Anthony was a friend and client.
The
beauty salon became a place for women to socialize and talk about ideas
among themselves unselfconsciously. It was so successful, Harper was
encouraged to open salons another cities. To do that, she had to invent
an entire system of quality control. Read about
the amazing life of Martha Matilda Harper at Atlas Obscura.
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