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Gas-heated curling irons were commonplace at the turn of the twentieth century. German-born Karl Ludwig Nessler (1872–1951, pictured) patented the first electric permanent wave machine, which hung like a chandelier with rods attached to it, in London in 1909, before emigrating to the United States in 1915. The apparatus required a combination of heat and chemicals. The process was time consuming and costly. It also posed dangers from burns and hair damage in the hands of inexperienced operators. Millions of women across the country had permanent waves during the 1930s. By the 1940s, manufacturers began to offer far less cumbersome cold-wave perms. Miss America, Norma Smallwood, receives a permanent wave, 1926
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
LC-DIG-ppmsca-51089
R2020.0411.001 on display: permanent wave machine, c. 1940
Courtesy of Jeff Hafler, Beauty Bubble Salon and Museum L2020.0401.008
This image was posted on January 21, 2021.
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