Sarah Breedlove was born in Louisiana on December 23, 1867. Her parents were both emancipated, so she was born a free child. When Breedlove was six, her parents died from contracting yellow fever, which left her as an orphan. By the time she was seven, she was working on the same cotton plantation as her mother and father. Not soon after, she began living with her sister. She made due there by washing and looking after people's clothes for money. She was very poor, only making a dollar fifty a day. She also never had the chance to get much of an education. When Breedlove was fourteen she was married, and at eighteen she had her first child who she named Leila. She lost her husband, who died two years later.
Breedlove's real journey began during the early 1900's. She noticed that she was having serious issues with hair loss. She began conducting experiments with many different hair care procedures in order to stimulate hair growth. She eventually managed to develop a formula that allowed her hair to grow back very fast. When people started to notice how quickly her hair was growing back, they begged her to recreate the formula for them. She began making the product the product at home. At first she was only selling it to friends and family, then she went on to selling it door to door. Breedlove was remarried in 1906 to a man named Charles Joseph Walker. At this point she became known as Madame C.J. Walker. Charles helped her to successfully advertise her product. Walker began working very hard to keep her business going. After disagreeing with Charles on how much she should work, the two eventually went their separate ways. She kept Charles' surname for life.
Walker's hair products were often simultaneously with a metal pressing comb. The comb would be preheated on the stove, then taken through curly hair to straighten it. This process cause a lot of controversy, because some people thought that African American Women should embrace their natural hair instead of trying to change it.