Jheri Redding; Beauty Products Pioneer

Jheri Redding, the Depression-era “kitchen chemist” who became one of the first men in the country to be licensed as a cosmetologist and who then founded the international beauty products business that bore his name, died Sunday.

A son, Stephen J. Redding, said the onetime hair stylist who turned to the world of beauty because “it was one of the best paying jobs” during the 1930s, was 91 and died at his Santa Barbara home.

As a young man in Illinois, Jheri Redding was teaching chemistry and styling hair using beauty products that didn’t perform to his expectations, his son said.

“He began to experiment with the staples he found in his own kitchen to improve hair in his clients . . . such things as mayonnaise and vinegar. . . . He believed that nature really provides everything you need. . . .”

From that grew the innovative treatments and styling creams and gels that became known as Jheri Redding Products, which later evolved into such separate companies as Redken, Jhirmack and Nexxus (which he said stood for Nature and Earth United With Science) that continue to this day, although some have different owners.

As he succeeded, the recognized authority on hair color put his ideas into print, writing “The Anatomy of a Permanent Wave.” He also assumed a leadership position in the cosmetics industry and founded the Hollywood Design Council. In 1990 Redding was inducted into the National Cosmetology Foundation’s Hall of Fame and in 1997 into the North American Hairstyling Assn.’s Hall of Leaders.

But he remained critical of the cosmetics industry that he helped change years earlier. He said American women wasted a lot of money on what he called “practically useless products” to make themselves look younger.

“I just read that nearly every woman in America owns about $37 worth of cosmetics that she doesn’t use any more,” Redding told The Times in 1975. “They’ve tried them, found they don’t work so they don’t use them,” he added in boosting his own “beauty from within” line.

Services for Redding, who was divorced, are scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in Santa Barbara. Besides Stephen, Redding is survived by two other sons, six grandchildren and two great-grand-children.