Jheri Curl pioneer Comer Cottrell dead at 82
Comer Cottrell, creator of the Curly Kit, an in-home hair treatment that allowed users to get the Jheri Curl hairstyle popularized by Michael Jackson at a reasonable price, died on October 10 at the age of 82.
Comer Cottrell, creator of the Curly Kit, an in-home hair treatment that allowed users to get the Jheri Curl hairstyle popularized by Michael Jackson at a reasonable price, died on October 10 at the age of 82.
The black hair care company that Cottrell started in 1972, Pro Line Corp., grew from an initial investment of $600 to more than $10 million in annual sales. With the release of its signature Curly Kit in 1979, the company “democratized the Jheri curl,” according to Lori L. Tharps, co-author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. Cottrell’s Curly Kit allowed African-Americans to fashion their own hair in the popular style for just $8; salon prices at the time of its release often cost upwards of $200.
On his revolutionary hair product, Cottrell was modest, telling the Dallas Observer in 1996, “We looked at the curl process and saw it really was a simple process and people could do it themselves. It was no secret.” Cottrell eventually sold Pro Line Corp. for $80 million to Alberto Culver in 2000, according to the Daily Mail.
In addition to being an entrepreneur, Cottrell was also a philanthropist and activist. During the 1970s, before the explosive success of his Curly Kit, Cottrell was leader of the Los Angeles Black Businessman’s Association, which assisted local African-American businesses in receiving federal contracts. He purchased Bishop College for $3 million, renovated its campus, and helped move historically black Paul Quinn College to 144 acre grounds located just south of Dallas. Cottrell was also known as an avid supporter of Republican politics, assisting in the 1995 election of Ron Kirk, Dallas’ first black mayor.
He moved to Dallas in 1980, and later became the first black owner of a Major League Baseball team in 1989, co-owning the Texas Rangers with an investing group that included future President George W. Bush.
His company’s sales began to taper off as the Jheri Curl became a running joke in popular culture, with the hairstyle notorious for requiring constant chemical spray to maintain that would leave stains on upholstery, clothes and furniture. Keenan Wayans’ character in the 1987 film Hollywood Shuffle sprayed his hair at a ridiculous rate to maintain the loose, bouncy curls. It was also lampooned in the 1988 classic Coming to America, which featured a product called “Soul-Glo” that gave users a similar hairstyle.
On the parodies and jokes, Cottrell said, “All of that helped to destroy the curl.”
Despite the parodies, Tharp said of Cottrell’s legacy that, “You couldn’t find a black person in America in their 30s or 40s who didn’t have a Curly Kit or Kiddie Kit at some time in their childhood or adulthood.”
Cottrell is survived by his wife, brother, five children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
