How haircare has changed over time

Among the many business displays at the Dover Museum in New London is the BEAUTY PARLOR with a ‘client’ sitting under the hair dryer, beside the electric permanent wave machine. The latter type of this machine was invented in 1905 by a German hairdresser, Karl Nessler, who used a combination of cow urine and water for the curling process. This machine resembles a chandelier with cloth-wrapped wires with a roller at each end, hanging from a rounded dome. The customer would sit beneath the dome while the operator would roll sections of hair around each roller. When all the hair had been wound on the rollers, the electricity would be turned on. There was always the chance of burned hair or scalp! Then came permanents with at least two steps. Home perms were popular in the 1940s — 1960s and are still sold today.

Curlers have changed from ‘rags’ to rollers made from leather, two-piece metal and plastic ones, to a brush-like variety with plastic sticks to hold them in place, to the Velcro type. Now most beauty shops mainly use curling irons to achieve the desired results.

Curling irons are nothing new, but they were not electric in their infancy. Instead, the two metal prongs of the iron were closed and carefully inserted in the chimney of a lighted kerosene lamp to heat the curling iron. Again, there was no temperature control. One early electric curling iron consisted of a flat metal box with a metal cylinder on top into which the curling iron was inserted to heat — no temperature controls!

Home hair dryers became popular in the 1950s and 1960s. They consisted of a plastic bonnet that covered the hair which was connected to a hose running to a small motor contained in a box that sat on a table when in use. The hose and bonnet folded into the box which had a clip-on or attached lid. Dryers used today are mainly the hand-held type with heat settings.

Hair pins are another hair accessory that has changed through the years in shape and type of material. Some are decorative or held bows on the head, but most were utilitarian.

Most all of the above mentioned items can be seen in the handicap accessible Dover Museum which is open 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, or by appt. 319-367-2573