Alix Moore is founder and CEO of M.A.D. Hair Inc.(Making A Difference) and Indian Hair Direct Inc based in Atlanta, GA.

Described by industry experts, co-workers and employees as one of the first human hair manufacturers’, Alix Moore has been breaking new ground in the hair industry for over 24 years. Upon graduation from Suzanne’s College of Beauty in Inglewood, CA. in 1987, she landed a position as a Cosmetologist at a salon in Inglewood, CA, where she worked for 1 year. During that time Moore pioneered new weave techniques, many of which are still in use today.

Moore spent all her precious free time developing a business strategy and arranging finance for her own business, and in 1990, she opened her first salon, “Tiera’s Hair Show,” in Los Angeles, CA.  Launching with just 50 clients, within 5 months, Moore’s salon was servicing a loyal clientele of over 150 predominantly black women, every month. With ‘weaves’ (sewn-in hair extension wefts) contributing for 90% of services delivered, Moore’s role expanded quickly to the recruitment, training and management of six stylists / weave-technicians. By offering the most stylish and undetectable weave services in LA in 1990, Tiera’s Hair Show marked the beginning of Moore’s long, varied and extremely successful career in the hair industry.

Moore’s passion for creating the most attractive weaves evolved into a determination to use only premium quality human hair that offered durability, and she found herself constantly searching for the best human hair available.  Not content with limiting her choices only to the human hair readily available in the US, Moore dedicated a great deal of time and resources into tracing the sources of the human hair used in the industry, and searching for contacts at the points of origin.  Her search soon involved extensive travel throughout Asia and Europe, which allowed her to gain first-hand, a broad understanding of the global human hair industry, and detailed knowledge of the variety of hair types, structures and quality available.  Moore identified a growing demand for ‘re-useable not throw-away’ premium human hair from US-based stylists, especially among the female African American hair industry. In 1995 she opened her own human hair distribution company, “Exclusive Hair Importers” in Los Angeles, establishing herself as the first and only female African American human hair manufacturer in the US at that time.

Moore is credited with setting the standard for the acceptable look, feel and durability of “quality human hair”, and this attracted the and custom of celebrity stylists such as Tonya Cryer, Kim Kimball, Sherese Slate, Edward Morrison, Nicola Augustine, and Angie Nash of Chicago. It also attracted the direct custom of many celebrities such as Golden Brookes of “Girlfriends”; actress Gabriel Union of “Two Can Play that Game and Deliver Us From Eva”; comedienne Kalita Smith of “The Bernie Mac Show”; singers Shanice Wilson and Ashanti. By the year 2000, Moore’s Exclusive Hair Importers had over 3000 satisfied, regular clients buying and using a variety of products including Malaysian, Indian, and Italian human hair, available in the US exclusively from Moore’s company. A constant best seller was the Malaysian hair in 24-30” in length, made popular by the Farrah Faucet style / cut created by Moore and her new strap line “Stop Buying Throw-Away Hair, Invest in Quality.”

In 2004, Moore relocated to Atlanta, Georgia and in 2009 founded M.A.D Hair Inc., (www.MADHairInc.com) and  (www.IndianHairDirect.com)   Located on Auburn Avenue, in the historic Martin Luther King Jr. district of downtown Atlanta, the company is the first US Black owned human hair manufacturing company in Atlanta to offer superior human hair in larger quantities, to professional stylists and salon owner.

Despite the fact that African American women are the leading consumers of the products and services of the multi-billion dollar US black hair industry, they are almost completely unrepresented behind the scenes at the decision-making and product development levels: the industry is controlled by non-female, non-black individuals and companies who strategically and systematically do not allow the profits to recycle through the industry, to benefit the consumers and community. Moore finds herself as one of a very small number of African American women working in the pivotal manufacturing and research and development sectors of the black hair industry, and therefore in a position to Make A Difference.  Determined to equip like-minded African American women and men with the tools and knowledge to successfully enter and participate in the black human hair industry, and therefore begin to regain the industry, therefore M.A.D. (Making A Difference) Hair Inc’s, Existing and budding entrepreneurs can now sign up for unique training courses, like machine and hand wefting, perming, coloring, and texturizing designed specifically to allow Moore to share her incredible industry knowledge and experiences.

Often outspoken about the changes that are required within the black human hair industry, Moore is certainly leading by example and showing the way that African American women can take control of the market, invest wisely in it, purchase from each other and recycle ‘the black hair dollars.’ She is advocating an end to the purchasing of cheap and inferior human hair imports from the local beauty supply or companies, and instead an investment in premium products that can be used again and again.  2010 plans are to form BHH Association and open beauty colleges specifically designed to not only teach the basics of the field, but to also teach the import and manufacturing side of the industry.