Ed Gardner is known across the nation as the creator and founder of Soft Sheen hair care products, but in Chicago, he’s much more than that.
Gardner, now 85 years old, is a revered
businessman and community leader and activist—one of his key achievements being
helping in the campaign to get Harold Washington into the mayor’s seat in 1983.
His role as a businessman started in 1964 when,
after selling hair products on the side to make some extra money, he decided
that he could make similar products himself.
“At that time, I was in the school system as a
teacher and assistant principal,” he said. “We had four children and needed
more money, so I started working as a hair product salesman for a beauty supply
company. Soon I found that I could make some of the products I was selling. I
kept fooling around in my basement and I got a product that was pretty good. I
took it to the beauticians all over the city—it was a hair and scalp
conditioner—and they liked it. It eventually got to the point where I was
making more money selling my hair care products than I was in the school
system.”
Gardner said that developing the recipes for the
products was fairly easy and because he received such a huge response from the
beauticians he sold to, he was eventually able to sell in retail stores like
Walgreens. His children and wife were right along with him, helping in various
capacities to expand the business. “My wife took care of the books and paid the
bills and so forth, and my children at that time were teenagers, and they would
go work with me and screw tops on the jars and do things like that. We all were
very much involved in different aspects of the business. It was a family
business.”
As the company and its name grew to become a
nationwide brand, so did its product line, to include items like shampoos and
conditioners, relaxers and gels like Care Free Curl, Let’s Jam, Frizz Free, Sportin’
Waves, Wave Nouveau and Optimum Care. Soft Sheen quickly became a staple in
African American hair care.
Into the 1980s and 1990s, the company endured
some changes in leadership, which eventually led to the selling of Soft Sheen
to L’Oréal USA. The brand, now known as SoftSheen-Carson, is still one of the
most recognized hair care lines in the country today.
Aside from his successes as an entrepreneur,
though, Gardner was an advocate for the African American community. “We were not
only a hair care company—we were also concerned with the needs of the Afro
American community, as far as producing jobs. Our plant on 87th Street hired
many people. We’ve had some of the finest people you could find and they are
out to build the company.”
Besides providing jobs, Gardner said he felt
that as owner of a responsible black manufacturing company, he had to give back
to the community, which prompted him to help fight crime in the city with his
Black on Black Love initiative, an organization that is still active
today. That was also when he became
involved in the political campaign to elect Harold Washington as mayor of
Chicago.
“There was a need at that time,” he explained.
“We had to have the black community feel as though they were apart of the
business, as well as improve the quality of life of the Afro American person.
When you consider that there were very few major manufacturing companies owned
by blacks throughout the nation, those that were successful had a
responsibility to give back as much as possible. We enjoyed doing that part of
the job. That to us was just as important as increasing sales within the
company.”
Gardner said that in these days, though, he
wishes that more politicians would focus on the drug and violence problems
facing the youth in Chicago. “I’m very proud of the many successes we do have
today,” he said. “We’re still producing great people. But how many are we
losing that would be great? There’s the issue of drugs perforating throughout
the community, destroying lives, families and killing people. It’s one of the biggest
problems we have to stop.”
While he’s still an advocate for the advancement
of African Americans in Chicago, Gardner said that these days, he spends most
of his time frequenting Bulls basketball games and spending time with his
children and grandchildren. He said that he and his family are, “enjoying our
lives today.”
Copyright 2011 Chicago Defender
