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Gwen Jimmere is the first black woman in history to score a patent for her natural haircare product, Entrepreneur reports.

Yassss.

Gwen will now have a piece of the $2.7 billion dollar revenue pie that pours into the natural hair industry every year.

After watching Chris Rock’s Good Hair documentary, Jimmere’s eyes were opened to the harmful chemicals she was putting into her hair daily.

“I grew up in a household where if you can’t find it, you can make it,” she told Entrepreneur. “I created the Moroccan Rhassoul 5-in-1 Clay Treatment out of necessity. Having natural hair can be very time consuming and expensive, taking two or three hours to complete your haircare regimen on what we call wash day and costing hundreds in haircare products each month.”

After founding her company, Naturalicious, Jimmere was laid off from her job as global marketing director at Ford.  That’s when she was ready to make her big business move.

However, the process of attaining a patent was no easy feat. The former corporate director saved between $8k-$18k filing for a patent on her own. After hours of library visits and online studying, the recently divorced single mom was ready to submit.

“The patent gives me leverage and can be a part of wealth building. I really want women entrepreneurs to start legally owning our creations via intellectual property. We innovate incredible things all the time. Consider patenting these inventions. Think about protecting yourself, your business and your legacy.”

We are all for women feeling empowered and owning their lives and their businesses. Is there something you would like to patent, beautiful inventors?

 

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