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Madam C. J. WalkerAround 1904-1905, St. Louis or Denver

Madam C. J. Walker's dream formula

America's first great Black businesswoman said the recipe for her hair grower came to her in a dream. The story helped sell it too.

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The dream

Retold in our own words from the sources below, not quoted.

Sarah Breedlove, later known as Madam C. J. Walker, was losing her hair, as many women did at the time because of scalp disease and harsh washing products. She said she prayed for a remedy.

In a dream, she said, a big Black man appeared and told her what to mix for her hair. Some of the ingredients came from Africa, so she sent for them, mixed the formula, tried it on her own scalp and found her hair growing back faster than it was falling out.

Where the story comes from

Walker told this story publicly in the 1910s, when she had built one of the largest Black-owned businesses in America, selling hair products and training thousands of Black women as agents. Her great-great-granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles, tells it in her biography On Her Own Ground (2001).

Before starting her own company, Walker had worked as an agent for Annie Turnbo Malone, whose products had a similar name and also used sulfur. Malone accused her of copying, and the rivalry lasted for years.

How it has been read

History

Historians read the dream as both sincere and strategic. A formula revealed in a dream belonged to Walker alone, which answered the charge that she had borrowed it, and it gave her product a story that her customers, many of them churchgoing women, found moving.

Research

A person who has been anxiously searching for a solution often dreams about it, and some wake with an answer that combines things they already know. Walker had been experimenting with remedies and had sold another woman's products; a dream could plausibly have pulled those pieces together.

Questions for your own dreams

  1. Have you ever dreamed about your hair, or about losing something that is part of you?
  2. What problem have you prayed or wished about so hard that it followed you into sleep?
  3. Whose idea helped yours along, and how do you give them credit?

Symbols in this dream

Had a dream that stayed with you?

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Sources

Every reading on this page comes from these works. Page references have not all been checked yet; those still waiting are marked.

  1. A'Lelia Bundles (2001). On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker. New York: Scribner.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: chapters on the Wonderful Hair Grower (reference not yet checked)
    • Cited at: chapters on the Malone rivalry and early marketing (reference not yet checked)

  2. Deirdre Barrett (2001). The Committee of Sleep. New York: Crown.

    cited, not reproduced

    • Cited at: chapters on problem solving in dreams (reference not yet checked)

    Harvard psychologist on dreams and creative problem solving, with historical examples.