Cincinnati’s hair salon empress: Sarah Fossett’s inspiring legacy

By Sean E. Andres  research support& from Queens of Queen City Born enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina, to Rufus and Judith Mayrant on June 26, 1826, Sarah was a “noble, lovable character.” As a young girl, Sarah was sent to New Orleans. There, she studied under a French hair specialist the art of hair and scalp treatment and hair goods manufacturing and application. In the 1840s, Cincinnatian Abraham Evan Gwynne brought Sarah to Cincinnati around the time of his daughter Alice Claypool Gwynne’s birth. Alice, Gloria Vanderbilt’s grandmother and Anderson Cooper’s great-grandmother, would later build her own dynasty. This is Sarah’s story. Through the Gwynne family’s influence and connections (including the Storers), Sarah networked to build her own hair salon empire for the rich as the best hair stylist in Cincinnati. Reverend Ronnie D. DuPuy and First Lady Rosalind Dupuy of First Baptist Church of Cumminsville with Rose Adotei from the Ohio History Connection reveal the Peter and Sarah Fossett Historical Marker. Photo provided A Legacy of Abolitionism On Sept. 28. 1854, Sarah, 28, married a 39-year old White washer and caterer by the name of Peter Farley Fossett, who had been born into enslavement at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, along...