Hulton Archive/Getty Images By India Espy-Jones ·Updated February 3, 2026 /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Since before the first Black History Month, which was originally introduced as “Negro History Week” in February 1926, Black women have been making beauty history. Annie Turnbo Malone founded the cosmetics school Poro College in 1917 to teach Black haircare; Madame C.J. Walker (who attended Poro and opened the hair school Lelia College) formulated a Black haircare method and product line called Walker Haircare System selling her philosophy of “hair culture“; And, soprano singer Anita Patti Brown founded a mail-order cosmetics and perfume business called “Patti’s Brazilian Toilette Luxuries” in 1920.

Now, on the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, we look at all the women who continued to revolutionize the industry since then.

From the inventor of sew-ins Christina Jenkins to Grandassa Models in the “Black Is Beautiful” Movement and the actresses who put Black beauty in the spotlight, read on for 13 Black women who’ve made Black beauty history over the past century.

Josephine Baker

As the most referenced woman at the 2025 Met Gala, which had a theme channeling 1920s Harlem, Josephine Baker has long established her beauty identity