4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In 1969, a new sound began to dominate the airwaves in the UK, reggae.
This was terrible news for two Jamaican men, Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden who were making their money selling 'slices of home' records on market stalls in London.
They had been pushed out by big labels but being true businessmen, they established themselves in an area with little-to-no commercial competition - black women’s haircare.
Little did they know they were entering the market when black beauty was about to get a whole new look that would make them millions.
It was the dawn of the Jerry Curl. This was a new product that could chemically change the texture of afro hair making it straighter and shinier.
Rudi Page, Dyke and Dryden's former marketing manager tells Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty how the business became so successful that they started supplying products in Ghana and Nigeria as well as the whole of the UK.
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(Photo: Rudi Page. Credit: Rudi Page)
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0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to tell you why I love |
0:03.7 | podcasting I'm Natasha Aronson I'm an assistant commissioner for the BBC and I work on |
0:09.4 | making podcasts my real passion is discovering unbelievable unheard stories and working with the biggest |
0:16.9 | stars who can really bring those stories to life. |
0:20.0 | I love the whole process of making podcasts from the spark of an idea to hearing the final edit. |
0:26.0 | There's nothing like it. |
0:28.0 | What makes BBC podcast special is that we're working for you. |
0:31.0 | So whatever we commission has to reflect the things that you care about |
0:34.4 | and love wherever you are in the UK. So if you like this BBC podcast, there's so much more to |
0:39.5 | discover. Have a listen on BBC sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service. |
0:52.0 | This program contains outdated racist language. |
0:56.0 | Today we're going back to July 1982 and to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. |
1:06.2 | Forty black British businessmen and women are making their way into the conference room of |
1:09.7 | the Hyatt Regency Hotel. |
1:11.8 | They're there to attend a product showcase and forge new trading partnerships |
1:15.3 | with U.S. companies. But forget electronics, fuel and pharmaceuticals. These exports |
1:20.7 | were far more precious. I'm talking about Afro hair care and cosmetics. |
1:27.0 | Really that was the first trade mission coming out of the UK specifically led by Caribbean community. |
1:35.0 | For me it was a fantastic experience just to see how the Americans sold. |
1:41.0 | It's the music, it's the color, it's the designs, it's the swagger, the American swagger, |
1:47.0 | particularly African American. |
1:49.0 | At this exhibition you have a lot of other associated products, so not just the wigs, the earrings, the nails, |
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