Dr. Willie Morrow, Black hair care pioneer who invented The Afro Pick, dies at 82

Dr. Willie Morrow, a well known San Diego publisher and Black hair care pioneer who invented the Afro Pick, passed away at his home surrounded by family on Wednesday, June 22. He was 82.

Willie Morrow was a pioneer

Born Oct. 9, 1939, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Morrow relocated across to California, seeking better opportunities. He would eventually settle in San Diego where he would make a name for himself.

Morrow found his niche after becoming a barber and then found a need for Black hair care. During the 1960s and 1970s, Morrow became a pioneer, inventing the famous Afro Pick and also created “California Curl,” a once-popular hair texturizer which pioneered the Jheri Curl.

He was all about community empowerment.

After becoming successful in the hair care product business, Morrow used that money to start the San Diego Monitor newspaper and a radio station.

The media Morrow provided helped to create affordable advertising opportunities for small-business owners and he was able to increase community engagement, according to the San Diego Tribune.

“He just believed in community being the source of the economy,” his daughter Cheryl Morrow told the San Diego Tribune. “That you should not have to go out of your own community for the resources and wealth that you needed. It should be in your community. And it just so happened that because of the cultural iconography of Black hair, it was such an industrial powerhouse that it funded other things.”

In 2016, Morrow was honored with an exhibit featuring his extraordinary work at the Museum at California Center for the Arts in Escondido. The exhibit featured over 250 objects, “from paintings to vintage hair styling equipment as well as a diorama of Morrow’s Market Street barbershop.”

Throughout his life, Morrow was a stalwart in the community of San Diego and a model of Black economic success.

A memorial service will be held on July 15, 2022 at Bayview Baptist Church in San Diego.

Dr. Willie Morrow is survived by his wife, Gloria; their daughters, Cheryl and Angela; as well as many members of his extended family.