R.I.P. Titi Cree Branch

Titi Branch, one of the co-founders of the wildly successful natural hair care line, Miss Jessie’s, died Dec. 4 All over the internet we can read that it was an apparent suicide but there was no independent confirmation of that. A graduate of the University of Maryland, she was 45. With her sister Miko, Branch ran a New York salon. Tweets from Miko and the Miss Jessie’s Twitter account appeared to be small tributes to the fallen entrepreneur.

Miss Jessie’s was one of the first major hair care lines to grace the shelves of Target in the new wave of natural hair enthusiasm. In the mid-aughts, when the company was following the success of Carol’s Daughter, the long-time stalwart of natural hair products, it was still difficult to find many options for natural hair in mainstream stores.

But Miss Jessie’s success was explosive, and the company’s presence soon expanded to Wal-Mart and several drug store chains. The success of lines such as Miss Jessie’s and Mixed Chicks helped spearhead substantial expansions of real estate dedicated not just to black hair care, but natural hair. Titi, instantly recognizable by her crown of fluffy blonde curls, was credited with creating Miss Jessie’s Curly Pudding, one of the brand’s signature products. The sisters opened their Brooklyn salon dedicated to curly hair in 1997 and launched their product line, named for their grandmother, in 2004. Their pricey but effective products became a hit with many natural-hair celebrities like Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry.

A beautiful lady that I looked up to, is no longer with us. My heart goes out the the family!

Love,

Sprottje