Phelena Jean's Madam Indigo: Empowering to own Black hair and beauty industry

With the Black hair and beauty industry’s commercial and social influence continuing to grow, entrepreneur Phelena Jean and owner of luxury hair company Madam Indigo is on a mission to empower women of colour to take ownership of the industry they uphold.

Madam Indigo provides luxurious multi-textured hair extensions for women.

Founded in March 2016 by 32-year-old Phelena Jean, the South Central, Los Angeles born entrepreneur has spent the last five years travelling to nearly 40 countries across 5 continents, while simultaneously formulating the idea for the Madam Indigo business model: "We are out to impact the financial destinies of women in Africa and the Diaspora, and social media is going to play an important tool within that journey. Black Hair is a $500 billion industry. There is no reason we should not have a large stake in it," said Phelena.

The luxury hair retailer is inviting ambitious London based women to work in partnership with them by joining their work force of Hair Extension Specialist. With the 50% commission on sales far more generous than standard commissions, Madam Indigo is a commercial business with a social heart. With the official UK launch taking place at Vanilla London on October 21st, Phelena is bringing together a panel of women who have left their mark on business, beauty and social media to start the much needed conversation.

The Business of Beauty event will play host to a panel of influential women which includes Founder of the National Black Women’s Network - Sonia Brown MBE; Owner of London’s first black owned hair shop - Sandra Brown-Pinnock; and Precious Award Founder - Foluke Akinlose; Founder of popular UK-based hair and lifestyle platform Curlvolution - Bukky Fatusin and hair and beauty blogger/vlogger - Breeny Lee.

Now living at The Pearl, in Doha, Qatar, an exclusive private island in the Middle East (where her neighbours include superstar Janet Jackson,) Phelena will officially launch Madam Indigo in London as part of the capital's Black History Month celebrations, before moving on to Ghana and Nigeria in February, to build a global workforce of financially empowered women of colour.

"My vision is to impact the esteem and livelihoods of millions of Black women in Africa and the Diaspora, by equipping them with the tools to become financially independent. When Black women are authentically empowered, it impacts the trajectory of our families; which impacts the condition of our communities; which impacts the function of whole societies.” Phelena adds.

With £7 billion spent by women of colour globally on their hair, Instagram has become a key driver in the prevalence of this ever burgeoning industry. According to a report by HM Revenue and Customs, the UK is the third biggest importer of human hair in the world, with upwards of £38 million worth of hair having entered the United Kingdom. The commercial weight of the hair industry has paved the way for a new generation of social media influencers within this sector, who have become a leading voice on trends and styles across the world.

Individuals such as the aptly named LA based Glamtwins have 557,716 YouTube subscribers, Nigerian born Peakmill has over 397K Instagram followers and New York based hair stylist Tiarra Monet has a loyal following of 495,301 YouTube subscribers and a further 100K Instagram followers under her business account ‘The Crowned Collection’. 

London based Breeny Lee whose hair and beauty tutorial YouTube vlogs have demanded over 1.9M YouTube views says, “Instagram has definitely created a platform for women of colour who used to be consumers of the hair industry to now also benefit commercially from it. It’s an exciting and empowering space in which women like myself have a voice and can prosper.”

* To attend the recruitment drive on 21st October at Vanilla London, please visit www.Madamindigo.com. For more information on how to join the Madam Indigo sales force see https://vimeo.com/183335283.