George E. Johnson, pioneering Black hair care entrepreneur and Afro Sheen creator, has died

George E. Johnson, the pioneering Black hair care entrepreneur who created Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen, has died. He was 99.

A November 6, 1975 edition of JET Magazine, with George E. Johnson on the cover.

George E. Johnson, a pioneering entrepreneur who revolutionized Black hair care, has died. He was 99.

Born in the small town of Richton, Mississippi, on June 16th, 1927, in a sharecropper’s shack, Johnson moved to Chicago with his mother at a young age.

After working odd jobs as a teen and dropping out of high school, he would go on to find his niche working under S.B. Fuller, a prolific Black entrepreneur who had started a door-to-door cosmetics and household goods firm called the Fuller Products Company.

“Working for Mr. Fuller was like getting a degree in psychology and business and business administration,” Johnson told the Christian Broadcasting Network earlier this year.

This opportunity provided the young entrepreneur with the skills to eventually launch his own company, Johnson Products, alongside his wife, Joan Johnson, and barber Orville Nelson, in 1954.

Thanks to a $500 loan, Johnson Products’ very first product was a men's relaxer called Ultra Wave. From there, Johnson grew the company by launching household products such as Ultra Sheen, Classy Curl, Afro Sheen, and more.

“Our success has been a beacon for a lot of Blacks who had the ambition to try to do something and were encouraged by the fact that we were successful,” Johnson said.

Photo: National Museum of American History.

At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Johnson used his wealth to advance Black economic ownership and support civil rights leaders. In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Johnson’s Chicago facility and, impressed, told Johnson: “Now this is Black power.”

“When Dr. King visited us in 1966, Black Power was a phrase that described a new way of thinking about ourselves,” Johnson told The AFRO in 2025.

“But Dr. King used the phrase as a real compliment as he assessed our several floors that were jumping with activity – salesmen, chemists, secretaries – a mostly-Black group of employees who were finding their way into America’s middle class,” he explained.

In the 1970s, Johnson Products became the first Black advertiser to sponsor a nationally syndicated TV program with the iconic musical variety series, “Soul Train.” Commercials for Johnson’s products were often seen during the hit TV show.

“We started in October 1971 when Johnson Products Co.’s sales were reported at $11.2 million,” Johnson told The AFRO. “In five years, our sales had increased to $37 million. ‘Soul Train’ proved to be an answer to my prayers.”

Johnson Products was also the first Black-owned company to go public on the American Stock Exchange.