Joe Louis Dudley and his wife, Eunice, began their business, Dudley Products, by mixing shampoo and hair care formula in their kitchen.
Born on May 9, 1937, in Aurora, a town near Beaufort, North Carolina, Joe Dudley, with his mother’s help, overcame a speech impairment. Dudley later attended North Carolina A&T State University, where he majored in business administration. During the summer of 1957, he traveled to Brooklyn, New York, to find employment. While there, he met a salesman selling Fuller Products, a hair care line owned by Samuel B. Fuller, an African American entrepreneur. In a few months, he earned enough money to continue his studies in the fall. After returning to A&T, he continued selling Fuller products on campus.
While working in Brooklyn in 1960, he met Eunice Mosley, who was also selling products for the S. B. Fuller Company to help pay her tuition at Talledega College in Alabama. The two were married in 1961. The next year, Joe Dudley graduated from A&T with a B.S. in Business Administration. He and his wife moved to New York City and became full-time employees of Fuller Products. As a troubleshooter for the company, Dudley traveled to cities with poor sales to determine how to improve sales.
Soon, however, they returned to North Carolina and continued to work for Fuller Products.
By the end of the 1960s, sales were low, and Fuller Products was struggling overall; so they decided to make their own products at home. Local regulations prevented this, however, and they were forced to stop home production of hair products. To continue producing hair care products, they bought space in a strip mall for the new business, Dudley’s Beauty Center and Salon.
From day one, the Dudleys’ business experienced success. By 1975, they had started Dudley Products Company and employed approximately 400 sales people. Their initial success also enabled them to start a beauty school, and a chain of beauty supply stores throughout southeastern United States.
At Fuller’s request and to aid his former employer’s struggling business, Dudley moved to Chicago and ran both Dudley Products and Fuller Products. In 1984, Dudley bought the rights to Fuller Products and moved back to Greensboro. In 1988, the Dudleys opened Dudley Cosmetology University in Kernersville, North Carolina, and the following year opened Dudley Beauty School with eight locations.
Joe Dudley died in 2024. Both he and Eunice Dudley are known for their charitable giving. Mr. Dudley set up a foundation that provides scholarships for young people to attend college. Mrs. Dudley gives money to the United Negro College Fund, which supports historically black colleges and universities.