Titi and Miko Branch pose with Anu Prestonia, center, of Brooklyn’s Khamit Kinks Salon, which carries Miss Jessie’s products.
The opening of Miss Jessie’s new salon in SoHo was a celebration—a celebration of the amazing journey traveled by sisters Titi and Miko Branch and a celebration of the growing acceptance of waves, curls and kinks.
Family, friends, clients and media gathered Tuesday night to get a peek at the luxurious new salon overlooking Broadway in the heart of bustling SoHo. Those in attendance included A’leila Bundles, Madame CJ Walker’s great-great granddaughter. Walker was an African-American businesswoman, hair-care entrepreneur and philanthropist who pioneered the development of beauty and hair products for black women.
The new salon is an evolution of the salon the sisters first opened 13 years ago in Brooklyn with one thing in mind: to respond to the need for experts in texture in all of its forms. Originally named Curve Salon, they used their savings and did the renovation themselves, right down to stripping the floors.
The salon quickly got people’s attention, with customers flocking from around the country for expertise from Miko, the head stylist.
With the new SoHo salon, the sisters recreated the feel of their original salon in a brownstone Brooklyn, with its high ceilings, chandeliers and wood floors. The focus is on elegant comfort. Even the bathrooms feature chandeliers.
Born to a Japanese mother and African-American father, Titi and Miko spent their early years fighting full heads of textured hair. With the help of their grandmother “Miss Jessie”— a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners woman who created homemade concoctions to help her granddaughters control their crazy curls. Titi and Miko would watch their grandmother create mixtures using ingredients found in the kitchen, such as eggs and castor oil. Those nourishing treatments evolved into the Miss Jessie’s product line for wavy, curly and kinky hair—Holy Grail products such as Curly Pudding and Baby Buttercreme.
The Branch sisters were proud to show off their new salon
“We would have to go to stores, buy up a bunch of different products and make up our own cocktails using them in ways that they weren’t intended to be used in order to get an end product that would work on a particular client’s hair,” explains Titi “There wasn’t a lot to work with, and we finally realized that we wouldn’t get that perfect solution unless we created it ourselves.”
In 2004, after a year of testing and tweaking, the sisters proudly launched the Miss Jessie’s collection. The first product to hit the shelves was Miss Jessie’s Curly Pudding. Six months later, they launched Curly Meringue, followed by Curly Buttercreme and Baby Butttercreme. Today, the Miss Jessie’s line, which includes a full range of shampoos, conditioners, treatments and styling products, is available at a wide range of locations, including CurlMart and Target.
The window-lined front of the salon is dedicated to sales of Miss Jessie’s products, and customers will be able to purchase products seven days a week at the new location.
Services at the salon include the ones that have made it famous, including silkeners, coiling, twistouts and the Balance Cutting Method.
“Wherever we are, we want women to leave the salon feeling beautiful, naturally!,” says Titi Branch.
As Titi and Miko led a champagne toast Wednesday, they acknowledged that their success has been hard fought, which made the night all the sweeter. In 2006, with growth straining the sisters’ relationship, the Brooklyn salon closed and Miko worked out of a salon in Washington, D.C.
“It was very difficult but turned out to be a very necessary experience for us both,” says Miko of her time away. “I cannot pretend like I always knew I was going to come back; for a while, I thought my days working in New York with Titi were over.”
The sisterly bond conquered their conflicts. And in August 2008, Miko returned to New York to reunite with Titi, where they repaired their relationship and rededicated themselves to Miss Jessie’s. The first step was to quietly reopen the long-missed salon on Hancock Street where Curve was founded. The name was changed to the Miss Jessie’s Salon.
“Having the salon is so important to us,” says Miko. “It is where we initially drew our inspiration.”
