The History of Hair Styling Tools: From Hot Tongs to Ionic Dryers

On October 8, 1906, in a hair salon on Oxford Street in London, German-born hairdresser Karl Ludwig Nessler unveiled his new invention. It was a machine that ran electric current through metal cylinders suspended above the head, permanently curling hair. London’s most prominent hairdressers were invited, but the demonstration ended in disaster. The model’s hair was burned, and her scalp was left with burns.^[1] Nessler did not back down. His wife volunteered as a model and endured repeated experiments, and three years later, in 1909, he finally obtained a patent for his improved permanent wave machine.^[1] The history of risks people have endured in pursuit of beauty is nearly summed up in this single scene.

Yet the attempt to reshape hair using heated tools began thousands of years before Nessler. The underlying principle is simple. Human hair is composed of keratin protein, and the disulfide bonds within it determine hair’s natural shape.^[2] Heat can temporarily break these bonds, allowing hair to be rearranged into new forms. Chemical agents go further, severing the bonds entirely and reforming them. The history of hair styling tools has ultimately been a continuous effort to implement this simple chemical principle in ways that are safer, longer-lasting, and accessible to more people.

Tongs Over Fire: Hair Styling in the Ancient World

Using heat to reshape hair dates back at least to 1500 BCE in Egypt. Egyptians wrapped hair around wooden rods and dried it in the sun, and they also heated bronze tong-like tools over fire to curl hair.^[3] The Science Museum in London holds a pair of ancient Egyptian bronze curling tongs — a tool that combines a hair-dressing knife with curling implements in a single piece.^[3]

However, it was ancient Rome where heat-based hair styling was most systematically documented. Romans used a hollow, cylindrical iron tool called a “calamistrum.” This tool was heated over wood ash, and hair was wrapped around it to create curls, which were then set with beeswax.^[4] According to Smith’s Dictionary (1875) at the University of Chicago, Roman youths and noblewomen of Cicero’s era frequently curled their hair using this method.^[4]

What makes these tools particularly interesting is that they carried social significance far beyond their function as grooming implements. Wealthy Roman women employed specialized hairdressing slaves called “ornatrices,” and elaborate hairstyles served as markers of social status.^[4] Roman writers such as Pliny and Ovid made contemptuous references to men who curled their hair with the calamistrum, revealing how hair styling was already deeply entangled with gender norms.^[4]

The limitations of this era were clear. Temperature control was impossible. Too hot, and the hair burned; too cool, and nothing happened. This fundamental problem remained unsolved for over 2,000 years, until the late 19th century.

Marcel’s Revolution: The Birth of the Modern Curling Iron

In 1872, Parisian hairdresser Marcel Grateau achieved a decisive breakthrough in the history of heat styling. He invented a curling iron that combined a heated metal rod with a lever-operated clamp.^[5] Unlike earlier tongs, Grateau’s tool allowed for precise control by opening and closing the clamp around the hair. The deep, natural S-shaped wave it produced — the “Marcel Wave” — became the standard for women’s hairstyles worldwide in the early 20th century.^[5]

Grateau was originally a lower-class hairdresser from a poor neighborhood. His invention added mechanical precision to the existing heated tongs — more of a practical improvement than a technically complex innovation. Yet its impact was overwhelming. The Marcel Wave remained in fashion for over 50 years and brought Grateau enormous wealth.^[5] Marcel irons manufactured by L. Pellerey in Paris were exported around the world.

What deserves attention here is the question of patents. The earliest known patent for a curling iron was actually granted in 1866 to American Hiram Maxim — a figure who would later become far more famous as the inventor of the machine gun.^[6] However, Maxim’s design never achieved commercial success, and it was Grateau’s name that endured in the history of hair styling. As is often the case in the history of invention, a gap frequently exists between the first patent holder and the person who actually transformed the industry.

The Straighteners: The Emergence of Hair Straightening Tools

If the curling iron was a tool for turning straight hair curly, demand existed in the opposite direction as well. In 1893, Indianapolis teacher Ada Harris filed the first patent for a hair straightener.^[7] It consisted of two heated, flat metal plates connected by a hinge that pressed hair straight, with a built-in comb to separate strands. In 1909, Isaac K. Shero patented a clamp-style heated straightener, which became the direct precursor to the modern flat iron.^[7]

It is worth noting that Harris’s patent was buried in history for a long time. Her 1893 patent (US536802A) preceded Shero’s 1909 patent by 16 years, yet Shero was long credited first as the inventor of the hair straightener.^[7] This is a case study in how women’s and minorities’ contributions can be erased from the history of invention.

Meanwhile, the hot comb — a metal comb heated to straighten hair — carries an even more complex cultural context. The hot comb was popularized in Europe by Marcel Grateau in the 1870s and appeared in Sears and Bloomingdale’s catalogs by the 1880s.^[8] Madam C.J. Walker did not invent the hot comb; rather, she created an improved version with wider teeth and integrated it into a comprehensive hair care system.^[8]

Walker emphasized that her products were not for “straightening” hair but for “growing healthy hair.” Her statement — “I am a hair culturist, not a hair straightener” — was itself a political declaration.^[8] The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) documents how the hot comb was the subject of a dual debate within the African American community — one of both conformity to and resistance against Eurocentric beauty standards.^[8]

The Perm Machine: Dangerous Experiments in Pursuit of Permanent Waves

The drawback of the Marcel Wave was that it was temporary. Rain or a hair wash would undo the waves. Creating a “permanent” wave required altering the chemical structure of the hair itself.

After Karl Nessler’s failed demonstration in 1906, mentioned earlier, he steadily improved his machine. His permanent wave machine, patented in London in 1909, worked by applying a borax solution to the hair, wrapping it around heated cylindrical rollers, and treating it with electric heat. The entire process took approximately 10 hours and was costly.^[1] To modern eyes, the machine’s appearance was closer to a torture device — countless wires and metal cylinders dangling from the ceiling, attached to the client’s head.

In the late 1920s, as perms became mainstream, the technology rapidly diversified. Eugene Sutter and Isidoro Calvete developed improved chandelier-style perm machines in Europe, and in 1928, African American hairdresser Marjorie Joyner patented a dome-shaped perm machine.^[9] Joyner’s machine was more compact and efficient than its predecessors and could be used on both straight and curly hair.

The true revolution, however, came in 1938, when British chemist Arnold F. Willatt invented the “cold wave.”^[10] Instead of electric heat, it used an ammonium thioglycolate solution to chemically break the hair’s disulfide bonds, set the shape with rollers, and then reform the bonds using hydrogen peroxide (an oxidizer). No machines, no heat were needed — the process took just 6 to 8 hours at room temperature.^[10]

The advent of the cold wave meant the democratization of the perm. Without the need for large, expensive electrical machines, perms became possible not only in salons but also at home. The subsequent shift from ammonium thioglycolate to sodium thioglycolate dramatically reduced processing time from 6–8 hours to just 15–30 minutes.^[10] Today’s perms are fundamentally built on the cold wave principle that Willatt pioneered.

The Birth of Hot Air: A History of Hair Dryers

The mechanization of hair drying began with a patent by French hairdresser Alexandre-Ferdinand Godefroy in 1890 (some records cite 1888).^[11] Godefroy’s device bore no resemblance to today’s handheld dryers. It consisted of a hose connected to the chimney pipe of a gas stove that channeled hot air into a dome-shaped hood, under which customers sat. An exhaust valve prevented excessive steam buildup, but fundamentally it was nothing more than “a device for drying hair with waste heat from a gas stove.”^[11]

Portable hair dryers appeared around 1920. However, early handheld dryers weighed about 900 grams, could barely produce air warmer than room temperature, and — most critically — had a tendency to electrocute their users.^[11] In 1911, Armenian-American inventor Gabriel Kazanjian obtained the first U.S. patent for a hair dryer, but mass adoption was still a long way off.^[11]

In 1951, the bonnet dryer entered the consumer market. A dryer housed in a portable box sent hot air through a tube to a perforated bonnet worn on the head.^[11] It was an attempt to bring the salon’s dome dryer into the home, but it remained bulky and inconvenient.

The Price of Safety: Hair Dryers and Electrocution

One aspect of hair dryer history that cannot be overlooked is the safety issue. The bathroom — an environment where electrical appliances and water coexist — was a lethal combination. Between 1980 and 1986, the United States alone averaged 15.7 electrocution deaths per year caused by hair dryers coming into contact with water.^[12]

The solution came through two avenues. The first was at the building electrical system level. In the early 1960s, American electrical engineer Charles Dalziel invented the Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI), and starting in 1975, the U.S. National Electrical Code (NEC) mandated GFCI installation in bathroom outlets.^[12]

The second was safety design within the appliances themselves. In 1987, UL (Underwriters Laboratories) introduced a standard (UL 859) requiring immersion protection in hair dryers. Initially, protection was only active when the power switch was off, but a 1991 revision strengthened the requirement to automatically shut off the dryer even when it was on and submerged.^[12] The results were dramatic. Electrocution deaths, which averaged 13 per year between 1984 and 1990, plummeted to an average of 1.71 per year between 1991 and 1997, and only a single death was reported between 1998 and 2004.^[12]

This case is widely cited as a prime example of the effectiveness of consumer product safety regulation. Yet paradoxically, it is also worth remembering that hundreds of people had to die before such regulations were adopted.

From Ceramic to Ionic: Modern Hair Styling Technology

From the late 20th century onward, the core competition in hair styling tools shifted to two axes: “efficiency of heat transfer” and “minimizing hair damage.”

Ceramic: Ceramic-coated plates, which emerged in the late 20th century, distributed heat more evenly than metal plates, reduced friction, and decreased hair damage.^[13] The adoption of ceramic technology helped lower prices for curling irons and flat irons, expanding the home-use market.

Tourmaline: This technology involves grinding the semi-precious stone tourmaline into fine powder and infusing it into plates. When heated, it emits negative ions that neutralize the positive ions in hair — the cause of static and frizz.^[13] Tourmaline technology enabled salon-quality results at home while minimizing heat exposure.

Ionic technology: Negative ion technology was also applied to dryers. Ionic dryers emit negative ions that break water molecules into smaller particles, reducing drying time and suppressing frizz while retaining moisture.^[14] This was a qualitatively different approach from the dryers of the past, which simply blew hot air.

In 2016, Dyson launched the Supersonic dryer, marking yet another turning point. With $71 million in development costs, 103 engineers, and 600 prototypes, the product featured a V9 digital motor spinning at 110,000 RPM.^[15] This BLDC (Brushless DC) motor, measuring just 27mm in diameter, moved 13 liters of air per second while pushing the sound frequency generated by its 13 impeller blades beyond the range of human hearing.^[15] Its “intelligent heat control” system — in which glass bead thermistors measure outlet temperature over 40 times per second and a microprocessor adjusts the heating element in real time — represented an entirely different paradigm from 1872, when Marcel Grateau gauged tong temperature by feel alone.^[15]

From Chemistry to Electronics: The Meaning of Technological Change

The central thread running through the history of hair styling tools is a shift from “permanent alteration of chemical structure” to “precise control of physical forces.” The ancient calamistrum applied the physical force of heat without any control. Nessler’s perm machine added chemical transformation but lacked finesse. The cold wave was a triumph of chemistry, but it demanded the price of hair damage. Modern ionic technology and intelligent sensors are evolving toward “achieving the desired shape without altering the hair’s structure.”

What makes this technological history especially compelling is that it cannot be separated from beauty standards themselves. The popularity of the Marcel Wave was fueled by the bob cuts and flapper culture of the 1920s. The democratization of the perm coincided with the expansion of women’s participation in society during World War II. The history of the hot comb and hair straightener is intertwined with the politics of race and identity. These tools were never neutral instruments — they were physical embodiments of the aesthetic norms of their time.

From the scalp burns that Nessler’s wife endured to the Dyson Supersonic’s 40-times-per-second temperature readings — the 120 years between them represent a refinement of the answer to the same question: when applying the forces of heat and chemistry to the human body, how much can the cost be reduced? The history of hair styling tools is a record of an era when beauty was never free, and at the same time, a record of the relentless effort to lower that price.