Back to the Root: Cheryl Morrow’s Revival of a Family Empire

Former Publisher of the San Diego Monitor News Cheryl Morrow sitting in her home.

By Staff Writer, San Diego Monitor News

San Diego — When Cheryl Morrow enters a room, Legacy arrives first. The former publisher of San Diego Monitor News and daughter of pioneering beauty entrepreneurs Willie and Gloria Morrow, she embodies a lineage that shaped both Black media and the Black haircare industry from the barbershop floor to the global stage. Now, as 2026 approaches, Morrow is preparing for her second act — one that circles back to the very foundation of her family’s empire: California Curl, the company that financed, nourished, and empowered generations of Morrow ventures.

“I was taught how to properly succeed,” Morrow says. “Succession is a process our community doesn’t always get right. I want to teach people how to pass on generational wealth through a baton that holds real generational value — a name, a brand, a standard that endures.”

For Morrow, success has never been about titles. It’s about transmission — ensuring that legacy continues, evolves, and multiplies.

The Handoff: A New Era for San Diego Monitor News & Business Journal

In a moment marked by both courage and clarity, Morrow officially passed the publisher’s torch of San Diego Monitor News to community activist and media professional Shane Harris — a move that signals a generational evolution for one of San Diego’s oldest Black-owned institutions.

“He’s the perfect 400-meter anchor,” Morrow says with a grin. “Smart, feisty, sharp instincts — and I like his edge. We don’t always agree, and that’s the point. He stepped up, and I saw the perfect opportunity to transition into a new level of my own work.” Under her leadership since 2012, Morrow transformed the San Diego Monitor News from a street-distribution paper into a sophisticated digital media outlet. “I focused on the direct-customer side of Black media,” she recalls. “The street market had too many variables. This transition is divine timing — Shane’s takeover lets me return to my core inheritance.”

Returning to the Source: California Curl

At that core stands California Curl, the company founded by her father, the late Willie L. Morrow — the scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur who redefined the science and art of Afro-textured hair. From the world-famous California Curl system to the Afro comb, hot comb innovations, and hair education manuals adopted by the Department of Defense, Willie Morrow’s genius powered an entire industry.

“The Morrow name is the gold standard for innovation and entrepreneurship in the Black hair space,” Cheryl says. “California Curl financed everything — books, magazines, radio, even film. So now, I’m going back to where it all began.”

This return is not nostalgia; it’s strategy. Morrow plans to relaunch California Curl and its sister legacy brands as anchors of a new textured-hair economy — one that fuses heritage with technology, design, and intellectual property.

Heirloom: Story as Strategy

At the heart of her new journey is Heirloom, a hybrid project — part memoir, part manifesto — that she describes as both personal and collective.

“Stories teach differently,” she says. “Logic can’t reach what story can. Heirloom is about re-tuning the emotional and familial frequencies that power wealth-building and asset creation in Black communities.”

The project explores how emotional intelligence, family alignment, and economic empowerment intertwine — offering both spiritual and practical blueprints for generational continuity.

MYCBO: My Comb Black Owned

If Heirloom represents mindset, MYCBO (My Comb Black Owned) represents muscle. The initiative revives Willie L. Morrow’s original Afro comb designs from the 1960s — reintroducing the Afro-Tease Collection as heirloom tools that symbolize craftsmanship, identity, and cultural power. “Yes, I’m going back to the basics,” Morrow says. “I want to share what I was given — the creativity, the mentorship, the pride. These combs represent that magic.” Through MYCBO, Morrow will merge design, history, and commerce — offering collectible combs, educational programs, and fundraising campaigns that celebrate 60 years of Afro comb commerce in North America. The first relaunch is slated for December 2025, marking the milestone anniversary.

The C. Morrow Inheritance: The Creative Continuum

With the newspaper baton officially passed, Morrow is entering what she calls her most creative phase yet. She has redesigned her childhood home, embraced AI-assisted music production, and is preparing to launch two new media titles — Chair, a professional salon magazine, and Groomed, a men’s grooming journal.

“I hope Shane’s ready,” she laughs. “He doesn’t know it yet, but his communications company is going to be publishing them too.”

These projects fall under The C. Morrow Inheritance, the parent company that houses the family’s intellectual property — formulations, patents, designs, and archives — while serving as an incubator for new cultural innovation. “I’m having butterflies,” she admits. “This creative energy feels like home. I remember the magic of working beside my father — and now, I get to continue that magic in my own way.”

Legacy as Momentum

For Cheryl Morrow, inheritance is no longer just preservation. It’s activation — a living, breathing movement toward the future.

“2026 is going to be pivotal,” she says. “It’s about blending my legacy with my father’s and positioning it for the 21st century.”

As she prepares to reintroduce California Curl to a new generation, her mission remains steady: to teach, to build, and to pass forward what she calls “the energy of wealth.” Because in Cheryl Morrow’s world, legacy is not a monument — it’s momentum. And once again, the baton is in capable hands.