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For centuries, women have used various methods to create curls or waves in their hair. Ancient Egyptians used wooden sticks to wrap the hair around and then let the hot sun set the curls in place. And lest you think it has been only a woman’s fashion, consider the curly wigs worn by royals and men of wealth in the 1500s and 1600s. Those wigs were styled with plenty of curls and waves.
Those favored, opulent curls took time. Hair was wrapped around bilboquets (wooden curling sticks) that were first boiled or warmed in an oven. Each section of hair had to be separated and curled, then wait to dry before the next section was curled. Those who could afford them, wore wigs that could be curled more easily and then dried in an oven.
In the early 19th century, metal hair rollers came into use. The rollers were covered with leather or fabric to make them more comfortable. The woman’s hair was wrapped around the roller and the rollers were left in overnight. As the hair dried, the curls set.
In 1872, metal hair rollers were replaced by the quickly popular invention of a curling iron. French hairstylist, Marcel Grateau (1852–1936) was already famous for the fashionable hairstyle the “Marcel wave,” when he invented the curling iron. The curling iron consisted of scissor-like heavy iron tongs with cylindrical tips. The tongs were heated in a fire or in an oil burner. It was difficult to control the heating temperature. Burns and singed hair were hazards; but the method was an improvement over the previous methods.
Improvements followed. In 1905, Karl Nessler, a German inventor, designed a hair curling machine that hung from the ceiling with 12 heavy, 2 lb brass rollers connected to it. A woman sat below and had her hair treated first with sodium chloride and then wrapped around the metal rollers. The rollers were heated to 200̊ F and the woman endured 6 hours to set the curls.
In 1928, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, a hairstylist in Chicago, became one of the first African-American women to receive a US patent, for her invention of a permanent wave machine. Born in 1896, she was the granddaughter of an enslaved black woman and a white enslaver. She graduated from beauty school in 1916 and went on to open her own salon in Chicago. Her permanent wave machine was inspired by the metal pins that Joyner used when cooking pot roast. The metal pins cooked the meat from the inside out. The wave machine applied the same principle with 16 rods attached to an electric cord inside a hood. The hair would be attached in one-inch sections and the woman would be left to wait while her curls set.
In 1930, Solomon Harper, an African American inventor and electric engineer, designed the first electrically heated rollers. He made improvements to the design over the next 25 years and finally received a patent for Thermostatic Controlled Hair Curlers, Comb and Iron on June 11, 1955. It wasn’t until 1960, that heated rollers became popular.
In the 1960’s women’s hair styles changed dramatically to the “beehive” and “bombshell” waves. Women looked for easy, inexpensive ways to achieve the big hair effect. In 1950, Julian Rizutto, an Italian immigrant living in Brooklyn, and his son, Leandro, invented mesh, bristle brush hair rollers. They made the hair rollers by hand from mesh, steel springs and hairbrush bristles. The rollers could be secured to the hair with plastic picks. The mesh spring design made the rollers more comfortable for sleeping.
Door-to-door salesmen sold the hair rollers to beauty salons and local businesses. To say that the design took off is an understatement. By 1975, the mesh roller sales topped $24.5 million for the Rizutto owned company they had named Conair.
Thanks for reading! What hair rollers do you remember?
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Resources:
Andover Center for History and Culture Collection
Blackpast.org - Marjorie Joyner
Howard University, Digital at Howard
During the 1960s my sisters & I used the rollers with the brush inside the metal coil. It was so painful to sleep with them in our hair, but we did it just about every school night! We had more fights over those darn curlers -- there were only so many & it was first-come-first-serve!
I remember an electric curling iron my grandmother had. She would touch up curls around her face in the wave style. I also remember the novelty of rag curls and bobby-pin curls.