| History of the curling iron. Is there such a thing or is | | | | shaved their heads. On ceremonial occasions, for |
| the curling iron just a modern invention? Each | | | | protection from the sun, they wore wigs. The wigs |
| generation is the same. We think we have invented | | | | would be short and curly or long and full of curls or |
| something new when perhaps all we have done is to | | | | braids. The Science Museum has an example of |
| modify "old inventions" by applying modern | | | | curling tongs used by rich Egyptians to prepare their |
| technology. Let us begin to investigate the history of | | | | wigs.In classical Greece it is known that the upper |
| the curling iron or, as it is also known, the curling | | | | classes used curling irons.Through time there have |
| tong.Let us begin with the definition of a curling iron. | | | | been many methods devised to curl hair and to keep |
| It is a tool, a cylindrical metal appliance, used to | | | | the curl in place. For example, in 1906 Charles L. |
| change the structure of the hair by applying heat to | | | | Nessler, a German hairdresser working in London, |
| a lock of hair that has been curled around it. It is | | | | applied a borax paste and curled hair with an iron to |
| natural to think with a modern mind and assume that | | | | produce the first permanent waves. This costly |
| the heat is generated by electricity. However, the | | | | process took twelve hours. Eight years later, Eugene |
| curling iron goes way back before the introduction of | | | | Sutter adapted the method by creating a dryer |
| electricity.We only have to look at carvings from the | | | | containing twenty heaters to do the job of waving |
| ancient world to see that people cared about the | | | | more efficiently. Sutter was followed by Gaston |
| style of their hair and that a popular style involved | | | | Boudou, who modified Sutter's dryer and invented an |
| creating curls. Babylonian and Assyrian men dyed their | | | | automatic roller. By 1920, Rambaud, a Paris beautician, |
| hair and square beards black and crimped and curled | | | | had perfected a system of curling and drying permed |
| them with curling irons. Persian nobles also curled their | | | | hair for softer, looser curls by using an electric hot-air |
| hair and beards, quite often staining them.Egyptian | | | | dryer, an innovation of the period made by the |
| nobles, men and women, cropped their hair close but | | | | Racine Universal Motor Company of Racine, |
| later, for coolness and cleanliness in their hot climate, | | | | Wisconsin. |