Herbex Hair Tonic was one of a multitude of hair products sold in the United States under the name “Herbex” that were popular for the first 60 or so years of the 20th Century. Herbex was the brainchild of a man named William Frank Parker who typically went by his middle name of Frank. According to this brief bio included in a 1928 Herbex advertisement:
Frank Parker, originator of the famous Parker Method of Hair and Scalp Treatment is the last of a distinguished English family who have been hair specialists for four generations. By virtue of his heritage, plus his own perfected scientific method, he is today the acknowledged, foremost specialist in hair and scalp treatment in America and England.
His sales pitch can be found in 1920’s Herbex advertisements.
Dr. Frank Parker, eminent British hair authority and originator of the Parker Herbex Method, discovered that baldness is the result of starved, strangled, abused hair – hair which has become dry, broken and shriveled, often by the use of so-called tonics and pomades.
He also found that extracts of certain herbs can be fed to the hair, just as foods can be fed to the body, bringing new strength, beauty and vigorous health. His counsel is: Never give up hope as long as there is life in the hair roots – look to Herbex to revive, foster and promote the growth and final health of a really beautiful head of hair.
While he may or may not have been a legacy hair specialist, I have to think his success had more to do with his approach to marketing than the efficacy of his products.
To promote the Herbex line of products he established an “institute” that offered a course of instruction aimed at professional hair dressers and beauty parlor operators teaching them how to implement what he called “The Parker Herbex Methods.” Highly successful, by the mid to late 1920’s his graduates were promoting his preparations and implementing his methods while operating beauty parlors all over the country.
So, with that as background, here’s what I found on the history of Parker and his Herbex products.
Census records indicate that William Frank Parker was born in England in 1863 and arrived in the United States sometime in the early 1890’s (1890 according to 1900 census records and 1893 in the 1910 records). Although his marketing materials over the years suggested his products dated back to as early as the 1880’s, as late as 1900 census records as well as the New York City directory listed his occupation as “chiropodist.”
It wasn’t until 1902 that Parker was listed in the New York City Business Directory with the occupation “toilet preparations, and on November 1st of that year, according to his Patent Application (No.39,517), he began using the “Herbex” name.
The business was originally located at 164 West 128th Street until sometime in early 1904 when Parker moved the operation downtown to 53 West 24th Street. This early advertisement that appeared in the 1905 edition of a publication entitled “Club Women of New York,” featured his new address along with an acrostic promoting his Herbex Tonics.
The advertisement also referenced his free booklet which he described as:”
a complete treatise on the care of the hair and all diseases which the hair is subject to.
Two years later, on November 29, 1907, Parker incorporated “The Frank Parker Trichological Institute, Inc.” The Incorporation Notice, found in the November 30th edition of the “New York Times,” named Parker, along with his wife, Lucy, as directors. It was around this time that Parker, in addition to his “free booklet,” began to conduct in-person classes, teaching his hair care methods to outside hair practitioners.
Shortly afterward this November 7, 1908 item in the “Pharmaceutical Era” announced that the business was moving again, this time to 61 West 37th Street.
The Frank Parker Trichological Institute, Inc., manufacturer of the Herbex remedies and which in addition conducts an institute in which the Frank Parker method of treating the hair and scalp is taught, has removed from 53 West Twenty-fourth Street to 61 West Thirty-seventh Street, New York City. Mr. Parker, president and instructor in the Institute informs us that the sales of Herbex through the drug trade are constantly increasing. The remedies are extensively advertised in the daily papers and on billboards…
A feature on the Trichological Institute found in the May 9, 1908 edition of the “Atlantic City Gazette – Review” described the Trichological Institute’s overall approach in more detail.
Frank Parker Institute
Unique among New York Schools, in both purpose and method, is the Frank Parker Trichological Institute , at 61 West 37th Street, of which W. Frank Parker is president, and wherein instruction is given in the treatment of the hair and scalp with the “Herbex” preparations, and in hair dressing, facial massage, manicuring and chiropody. Each student receives a quantity of “Herbex” preparations, sufficient when sold to make the tuition absolutely free, and, in addition, is given one share of the institute’s stock. The school’s thorough instruction fits its pupils for an honorable and profitable vocation, and after graduation they are permitted at any time to submit sample combings for free examination and advice, proper directions for treatment being sent promptly without expense. Graduates being stockholders , they and the institute cooperate at all times to their mutual benefit. The idea is novel, generous and profitable.
The “Herbex” hair preparations, favorably known to careful hairdressers and scalp specialists as well as to many prominent and wealthy families here and abroad, number six in all, no pretense being made that a single remedy can correct the varied unhealthy or unnatural conditions of the hair and scalp. In brief, purchasers of the preparations, like the students of the institute, receive a “square deal.”
The above article mentioned a total of six Herbex hair preparations, five of which were described in this February, 1912 “Pharmaceutical Era” advertisement.
As early as 1909 Parker was attempting to attract students to the Institute from areas outside New York City, as evidenced by this October 31, 1909 classified ad published in the “”Boston Globe.”
Around the same time similar advertisements appeared in Louisville, Kentucky and San Francisco, California.
It wasn’t long before his graduates were spreading out across the country. Mrs.G. L Aslett was one such graduate whose advertisement appeared in the May 11, 1916 edition of the Ridgewood (N. J.) Herald.”
Another, Miss Mae Saunders of Scranton, Pennsylvania, bragged that her entire staff had graduated from the Parker Trichological Institute in New York.
Parker even went so far as to visit some of the hair parlors where his students had presumably set up shop. One such visit to Dayton Ohio’s Imperial Hair Parlor was announced in the October 5, 1918 edition of the “Dayton Daily News.”
One such visit extended as far north as Canada where, according to this December 4, 1918 advertisement in the “Montreal Gazette,” Parker was slated to visit the SALON DE COIFFURE.
In 1922 the company apparently reorganized, this time under the name of the Parker Herbex Manufacturing Corporation. The incorporation notice, published in the February 13th edition of the “Oil and Paint Review” named both Frank and Lucy Parker along with K. H. Krichell as directors. By that time the business had moved to 47 West 49th Street.
An April, 1927 price list found in the “Druggist Circular” demonstarates that by the late 1920’s the company had significantly expanded their product line, more than doubling the number of hair preparations while at the same time adding toilet preparations and manicure items to the Herbex menu.
Sometime around 1930 it was announced that Parker Herbex treatments could be performed at home. A January 10, 1931 advertisement disguised as a news story in Wilmington, Delaware’s “Morning News” led with the following headline.
The advertisement went on to say, in part:
The Parker Herbex Method of restoring hair is now available for use in the privacy of your own home!
There in one sentence is the greatest news to be found in this paper for thousands who are bald or whose hair is withering and falling from the ravages of conditions with which they are powerless to cope… People by hundreds of thousands have gladly paid huge sums to enjoy the benefits of the Herbex treatments. But now, thanks to Dr. Parker, you can have the Parker Herbex treatment to use in the privacy of your home at an amazingly low price – a mere fraction of the cost others have paid for a single professional sitting.
That’s not to say this put the professionals out of business. In fact beauty shop newspaper advertisements promoting Herbex treatments were plentiful for years to come. That being said, by the mid-1930’s the tone of those ads had softened considerably, now focused primarily on beauty as opposed to cures.
A 1936 advertisement for a beauty salon in Montgomery, Alabama illustrates this change. Published in the January 5th edition of the “Montgomery Advertiser” it starts out like most early advertisements announcing that the salon was introducing the Parker Herbex system.
Nachman and Meertief’s Beauty Salon is introducing the Parker Herbex hair and scalp treatment, a system in use for over 50 years at the Parker establishment in Fifth Avenue, New York. Mrs. Frances Burkes, authorized practitioner in charge of the local salon, stated that the method and treatment is exclusive with Nachman and Meertief, and that the operator giving the treatment was authorized by the Parker people.
The ad then followed up with the toned down expectations.
“We are giving the Parker Herbex treatment to men and women,” said Mrs. Burks. “It’s a scientific method in use over half a century and is positive in results. Women find that permanent waves look better and last longer when the hair is first treated by this method, and men and women find a decided improvement in scalp conditions and general appearance of the hair by this system. We give special attention to white, dyed and bleached hair, all of which are successfully treated,”
Similarly, this March 25, 1936 advertisement found in the “San Bernardino County Sun” replaced previously used phrases like “grow hair” and “eliminate falling hair” with “revitalize your hair back to loveliness.”.
After Frank Parker passed away in September, 1946, his treatments continued to be touted in beauty parlor advertisements from coast to coast up through the 1960’s. This ad found in New Mexico’s “Alamogordo Daily News.” on June 19, 1964 suggests that the company’s approach and message had changed little between the mid-1930’s and the mid-1960’s.
Available to Professional Hairdressers to Help Correct Damaged Hair. Remember, Only a Healthy Head of Hair can take a good Permanent Wave, a Perfect Color, and Always Looks Better After Styling.
During this time the company changed New York City addresses several times, listing Manhattan addresses of 306 East 61st St. (1920’s and 1930’s) and 607 Fifth Ave. (1930’s and 1940’s) before moving across the East River in the late 1940’s to 29-50 Northern Blvd. in Long Island City, Queens. Around this time their advertisements also mention a Stamford, Connecticut location so it’s possible they located their manufacturing facilities there for a while.
In 1981 a May 18th item in New York’s “Newsday” announced the Parker Herbex Corporation had moved east to Long Island at 1001 Franklin Avenue in Garden City. Around the same time, newspaper advertisements promoting the Herbex methods drop off dramatically.
Fast forward to the 1990’s and Herbex newspaper advertisements are sparse and limited to the east coast states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. That being said, as late as 1991 an August 25th “Atlantic City Press” ad announced that a Parker Herbex scalp treatment could still be had at Biscov’s Beauty Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
A year later the company was still in business when, on May 6th this advertisement appeared in Long Island’s “Newsday.”
Thousand’s of people use Parker Herbex prescriptive to keep hair and scalp young, vigorous and beautiful. Dr. W. Frank Parker’s century old blend of rare botanicals, natural herbs and exotic tinctures may help your problem hair and scalp. Dr. Parker’s works even after other treatments have failed. Used successfully by professionals all across the country. Shampoo, conditioner and scalp treatments for all common hair problems. Just call:
This was the last newspaper advertisement mentioning Herbex that I can find. What finally became of the company is not clear, at least to me.
The bottle I found is machine made with a threaded finish and contains 6 ounces. It’s embossed HERBEX HAIR TONIC” along with the company name “Parker Herbex Corp., a name they began using after incorporating in 1922. The base of the bottle is embossed with the Illinois Glass makers mark of an “I'” inside a diamond, a mark that was used between 1915 and 1929.
This certainly dates the bottle’s manufacture to the seven year period between the company’s incorporation date of 1922 and the 1929 end date of the maker’s mark.
It likely contained one of three Herbex Tonics (No. 1, 2 or 3). According to their 1927 price list, pictured earlier in this post, each could be purchased retail that year for $1.
This earlier (1915) labeled version of a Herbex Hair Tonic No. 1 bottle is similar in shape but exhibits a prescription type finish in lieu of threads.It was pictured in an August, 1915 advertisement found in “The Druggists Circular.”
