Whether your hair is kinky, curly or wavy, Titi and Miko Branch have crafted products for you to tame your mane. The almond-eyed beauties are the founders of Miss Jessie’s natural hair care products for curly hair.
“Embracing your natural hair is definitely a way to get close to your natural self. We’re excited and we can’t wait to assist women who are transitioning,” says Miko.
The siblings opened a hair salon in 1997 and later founded Miss Jessie’s and introduced the product line to their customers in 2004. Today, their products can be found in 422 Target stores around the country.
While growing up in Queens, N.Y., the ladies’ paternal grandmother was very influential in their lives. “We thought so highly of her that we named our product after her.”
When she had her son, Miko’s life changed. She found that she didn’t have the time to have her hair blown out before providing services to her customers at the salon. “Sometimes I showed up on the floor with my hair ‘wet and go.’ When it dried, it had a nice wave formation. A lot of women responded to that and I realized they wanted to do something similar. We shared information and the women responded that they want to start wearing their hair in natural styles. We started getting into more highly textured hair; it kinda took off and we had maybe one relaxer client left. Our client base is 99 percent curly, kinky or wavy hair,” says Miko.
Titi encourages women who are transitioning from relaxed to natural hair to be “patient.” She also advises women to visit their website, missjessies.com, and Facebook page for advice. “Miss Jessie’s will give you the informational support that you are going to need on this journey. This is a scary time and you are not used to seeing yourself looking the way you may look when you transition from relaxed to natural hair. From a technical perspective, Miss Jessie’s offers the product that really help you to make the transition gracefully — deep conditioning treatments, moisturizers, and styling products that really help to moisturize the hair, keep it soft and keep it from breaking.”
“I want to make sure women know that they are loved and they get support from Miss Jessie’s. We love to share information to help these individuals maximize their natural beauty knowledge. We are sharing every single thing we know from the salon base with the general consumer and also we want them to think of beauty. Miss Jessie’s wants these women to capture their best self and that’s all about beauty,” offers Miko when asked why they decided to bring their products to the marketplace.
The Branch sisters were on the front lines when black women really started banishing perms and opted to embrace their chemical-free hair, favoring healthy hair over toxins. In addition to cosmetics-grade mineral oil and petrolatum, their products contain natural oils such as sweet almond oil, avocado oil, macadamia seed oil, shea butter which are proven moisturizers.
Having been in the beauty industry for nearly 15 years, Titi believes that “honesty, integrity and a great product” has helped them to succeed. –yvette caslin
For more information, photos and videos, please visit missjessies.com.
