Who is Sheikh Dean Mahomet
He introduced Britain to shampoo
Entrepreneur
He introduced Britain to shampoo
He was the inventor of the modern day shampoo, as he introduced shampooing to Britain in 1814. The global shampoo industry will be about $30bn by 2024.
Sheikh Dean Mahomet was from Pana, Bihar. He left India for Britain at the age of 25. He became the first Indian to publish a book in English. He also opened the first Indian restaurant in England; Hindostanee Coffee House. It went bankrupt. His next business was a seaside bath house in Brighton. He popularised the technique of head-message or shampooing in England’s bath house. His clients included King George IV (who ruled between 1820–30) and King William IV (who ruled between 1830–37).
Anuradha Kumar, the author of Seven Seas: Indian Travellers’ Tales from the Past, writes: The word “shampoo” came from the Hindi word champo, which meant “to smear, or massage”. Champo itself is said to come from the champa flower used to make fragrant hair oil. After Dean Mahomet offered the “shampoo” in Cochrane’s vapour bath, it was soon in huge demand. Many commercial bathhouses, aiming to copy Cochrane, came up soon after and began to include shampooing among the therapies they offered.
As a small business owner, he advertised by positioning himself as a ‘shampooing surgeon’. The ads declared him a decade older than he was. He published books about shampooing, which gave him an edge over other ‘me too’ bath houses