Angela de Joseph AFRICAN WONDERS Founder/CEO |
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Angela de Joseph AFRICAN WONDERS Founder/CEO |
My mother, Pearl, was a cosmetologist and beauty school owner on the island
of Trinidad in the West Indies. Pearl specialized in scalp treatments and
made her own hair care preparations from the plants indigenous to the island.
She was known for having "growing hands" because people who were suffering
from hair loss would come to her and she would mix up a secret herbal tonic
for them and their hair would grow back. My mother was very serious
about hair care. She didn't believe in damaging hair in the name
of style. She would teach other hairdressers how to take care of
hair but no one, not even her only daughter, was privy to her secret hair
growth formulas.
Pearl gave up her thriving business in Port of Spain, Trinidad to join my father in America. The Josephs settled into a lively West Indian neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. My warm blooded mother never got used to the New York winters so she packed my brothers off to college, scooped me up and headed for the warmth and glamour of the west coast. When we moved to Los Angeles my mother was one of the first beauty instructors certified to teach chemical hair relaxing to hairstylists. She pioneered the practice of graduated relaxing, leaving in some degree of curl texture so the hair would remain healthy. Through the years I had picked up quite a bit of hair care knowledge from Mom and I began writing a series of hair care articles. After dabbling in modeling and acting--writing, my true calling beckoned. My first published article was an 8 page pull out guide, "Everything Your Ever Wanted To Know About Hair." in the center of the January 1979 issue of ESSENCE Magazine. Timeline: 1979 -- Associate Beauty Editor of ESSENCE Magazine, NYC 1982-- Creative Director of Johnson Products Company. (Ultra Sheen, Afro Sheen, Classy Curl, Precise, Bantu, Gentle Treatment etc.), Chicago, Illinois 1983--Studied Hair Chemistry at Pivot Point Academy 1963--Contributing Editor ShopTalk magazine 1984 --Founding Editor Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Care Guide Magazine 1985 --Fashion and Beauty Expert Burrell Advertising (Hanes, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Ford, Martell) 1985-- Winner DOLLARS AND SENSE Magazine Salute to Up and Coming Black Business Women. 1985--Winner Kizzy Youth Role Model Award 1986 --ABC Television fashion and beauty reporter "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee", "AM Los Angeles," "Donahue," "Hour Magazine" "The Home Show" etc. 1993--Completed Film School. Wrote, Produced and Directed, "It's In The Bag" an award-winning film. 1994 -- Winner Best Short Film, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. 1994 -- First Place Winner, Talent Fest Best Short Film. 1994 -- Recipient Bill Cosby Fellowship to USC School of Cinema, screenwriting program. 1994 -- Winner SHOWTIME Salute to New Filmmakers. Film broadcast on national cable. 1994 -- Produced Emmy nominated Documentary "Making Lives Over." 1994 -- Winner PBS Television's Prized Pieces Award. Best Documentary. 1995 -- Finally got Mom to hand over her secret hair growth formulas. 1995 -- Developed African Wonders Botanical Treatment Line of Hair Products. 1996 -- Wrote and Produced Award Winning Play, "THE CHEST" 1996 -- Winner NAACP Image Award Best Play and Best Playwright. 1996 --Launched African Wonders Hair Products through a television infomercial. 1997 -- Winner Best Commercial, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame -- African Wonders. 1999 --Opened the African Wonders web site and online store. 2000--Combined African Shea Butter and Amazonia Nut Oil with an alkaline mineral relaxer to create a conditioning natural hair relaxer, The Naturalaxer Kit In Jar. 2001 --Launched Super-Curly.com a hairstyle e-zine for supercurly hair.
2002 -- Opened the first African Wonders Hair Care Store, Inglewood, California.
2002 -- Winner Caricabela Caribbean Trailblazer Visions Award, for entrepreneurial spirit. 2003 --Producing Feature Film based on the novel "Nappily Ever After" by Trisha Thomas starring Oscar winner, Halle Berry. On The Horizon: Publishing my first book
HAIR-1-1: ALL YOUR HAIR CARE QUESTIONS ANSWERED
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