Helene Curtis Industries, Inc.

Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. was an American cosmetics and beauty parlor products firm based in Chicago, Illinois. The company acquired a hair-coloring line through the acquisition of a competitor business. Later the retailer diversified into the field of personal care products, manufacturing Degree, among other items.

Helene Curtis was founded in Chicago in 1927 as the National Mineral Company by partners Gerald Gidwitz and Louis Stein. The company started out manufacturing a facial mudpack product, sold to beauty salons nationwide. The partners soon shifted the company's emphasis to haircare products (also sold to beauty salons), starting with a line of "machineless" waving pads, drastically simplifying the permanent wave process.

The company developed Lanolin Creme Shampoo, one of the country's first detergent-based shampoos, in the mid-1930s. The popularity of the shampoo, available only in beauty salons, prompted the company to follow it up with Suave Hairdressing in 1937. The demand for the hair tonic became so great that the company began manufacturing small retail sizes for salon resale. Suave would eventually become one of the company's flagship product lines.

During World War II, the company's name changed to National Industries, Inc., and factories were converted to manufacture non-haircare-related items for the war effort, including aircraft gun turrets, electric motors and radar equipment.

After the war, National Industries shifted back to producing personal care products. The company was renamed Helene Curtis, after the first names of partner Louis Stein's wife and son. Suave Hairdressing and Lanolin Creme Shampoo were soon introduced for general retail sale, and quickly began outselling the competition. In March 1948 Kraft Foods purchased property owned by the company to use for its offices and warehouses, and Helene Curtis relocated to a new corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility.

In 1950 Helene Curtis developed the generic term "hairspray" for its new aerosol product, Spray Net. Other successful and effective products introduced during the 1950s included the spray-on deodorant Stopette (acquired in 1958 from its founder, Chicago-based chemist and inventor Jules Montenier) and a nonprescription dandruff shampoo called Enden. These two products were advertised on television during such shows as What's My Line? and The Gale Storm Show, helping to make Stopette the best selling deodorant on the market, a position it maintained for several years.

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