STRONG ROOTS MEAN HEALTHY SUCCESS: THE GROWTH OF ULTRA BLACK HAIR AND FOUNDER CATHY HOWSE
It has been a long road from poverty to professional and personal success, but Cathy Howse, African-American Female Inventor and Founder of Ultra Black Hair (UBH) has taken all the bumps and bends in stride, setting and achieving every goal she has set. Cathy has taken her hard-working roots and nurtured healthy, lengthy success. After all, she can increase the length and healthiness of your hair, provide advice on how to start a business from the ground-up and serve as a mentor while, at the same time, replace the timing belt on your car!
The Roots of Her Success
In looking at Cathy’s roots, it is easy to see just why UBH is so successful. Born into poverty into a family of nine children in 1955, Cathy knew at an early age that she wanted something different out of life. She left home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the tender age of seventeen to find a better life. Cathy chose Denver, Colorado because she had other family there. Moving to Denver alone, she had to fend for herself and times were tight. Deciding that she did not want to be typecast as a single mother of two children on welfare, Cathy worked hard not to be just another statistic.
When the car broke, she had to fix it. Without any mechanic’s training, Cathy put her incredible drive and an auto manual to work, learning to replace anything from radiators and starters to performing tune-ups and rebuilding the carburetors. To make ends meet, she worked multiple jobs from the early morning hours to late into the evening. Although it took eight years, Cathy again used her inner passion for success to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Marketing from Metropolitan State College in Denver.
Driven to End Yarn and Cultivated Hair
With a desire to make a better life for her and her children, Cathy decided to start her own business. She thought about what she could do to change the world for herself and for other people.
Cathy knew from personal experience that hair is an obsession with black women. It already annoyed her to see a black girl with yarn tied and twisted into her hair as if it was her own. She wanted to tell these girls that everyone knew that they have fake the hair, but she realized how desperate they and other black women were for longer hair. Ultra Black Hair (UBH) was born. Cathy’s goal was to give black women better hair by changing the way they care for it.
Cathy researched and found three reasons why the majority of black women have short hair: inaccurate and inadequate information, poor products on the market that provide no real benefit for hair, and an industry that works against black women’s hair. The billion dollar hair care industry focuses on products for people of other ethnicities that do not have to worry about growing their hair. Black women are left with wigs, weaves, braids and glue-on hair that only temporarily provides long hair.
She realized that her mission in life was to create a series of books and information sources that gave black women the information they needed to help care for their hair. It also meant taking the guesswork out of what products to use by creating a hair care product line.
A Practical, Common-Sense Approach
UBH grew from a personal need and desire for longer hair and honest hair care answers. That’s why her creative approach to hair growth is so unique, practical, and honest. She shares why black women have short hair, how to correct these problems and maintain hair to achieve longer and healthier strands. Her methods work. Many women have gotten rid of hair breakage and experienced thicker, healthier looking hair.
She uses her common-sense approach to answer the tough questions and has written hair care articles as well as offered hair care tips that others fail to address. Cathy has also developed hair care seminars that captivate both industry novices and professionals.
Growing a Healthy Business – One Strand at a Time
She decided to leave her job in 2002 and focus solely on her company. Although started on a “shoe-string” budget and funded entirely with Cathy’s own money, UBH has experienced incredible growth. In just six short years, UBH has leveraged their website presence (www.ubhpublications.com), going from annual sales of $12,000 to over $400,000 in 2004. The 15-year old company now has four employees. UBH has thrived from a line of only three hair care products, including dew spray moisturizer, lotion crème moisturizer and deep conditioner, which provide something different than those already on the market – they actually do something to improve the dry condition of hair.
After years of research, Cathy Howse is now considered an authority on black hair care and growth. She is also the author of three books, including Ultra Black Hair Growth, Ultra Black Hair Growth II and Ultra Black Hair Growth, 2000 Edition.
Her biography appears in the Marquis Who’s Who in America 2002 and 2003, Who’s Who of American Women 2002/2003, and Who’s Who in the World 2003/2004 for her hair growth method.
A Passion for More
While Cathy has already helped thousands of black women grow longer, healthy hair, she has only just begun. Her passion drives her to accomplish even more. Cathy wants UBH to be a household name for black women by becoming a world-renowned hair advice columnist that can be relied on for expert advice. With what she has achieved to date in her life, this goal seems inevitable.
