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The History of Hair
Antique heated waving tongs with turned wooden handles on linen.

The cabinet · 5 objects

Tools that shaped the head

Irons, combs, jars and wax: the material culture of hair, catalogued like a museum drawer.

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Antique heated waving tongs with turned wooden handles on linen.
AI-generated still life for The History of Hair — not a museum object.

Paris · 1872

Marcel iron

François Marcel Grateau's heated tongs, used to set a soft, rippled wave that defined the 1920s.

An antique metal pressing comb with a wooden handle on dark slate.
AI-generated still life for The History of Hair — not a museum object.

United States · c. 1900

Pressing comb

A heated metal comb for straightening textured hair, popularised by Madam C. J. Walker's agents.

A hand-painted porcelain hair receiver with a hole in its lid on a lace doily.
AI-generated still life for The History of Hair — not a museum object.

England · c. 1880

Hair receiver

A lidded jar with a hole in the top for saving combings to make pads, 'rats' and switches.

A mourning brooch with woven brown hair under glass, framed in jet and gold.
AI-generated still life for The History of Hair — not a museum object.

England · c. 1860

Mourning jewellery

Brooches and rings woven from a loved one's hair under glass. Queen Victoria wore them for decades.

A paper-wrapped block of hair wax beside a boxwood comb on dark wood.
AI-generated still life for The History of Hair — not a museum object.

Japan · Edo period

Bintsuke wax

A firm wax of vegetable oils used to sculpt Japanese mage — still used by sumo wrestlers.

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Profession · Middle Ages to today

The History of the Barber Pole

The spinning stripes outside a barbershop are an advertisement for a medical service most barbers stopped offering centuries ago.

Inventions · Antiquity to today

The History of the Bobby Pin

A pin so small it disappears into the hair, named after the haircut that changed women's lives.

Inventions · 1880s to today

Who Invented the Hair Dryer? A History from Salon Hoods to Handhelds

The first hair dryer was not something you held. You sat under it, and it was connected to a stove.