Inventions
The tools and techniques that changed how people wash, dry, curl and pin their hair, from ancient soapnuts to the electric hair dryer.
Much of hair history is really the history of objects. Shampoo began as a Hindi word for massage and reached Britain through a Brighton bathhouse. The first hair dryer was a seated salon hood connected to a stove. The permanent wave took hours under an electric machine. The bobby pin took its name from the bob haircut of the 1920s.
These stories trace who made each invention, when, and how it changed what people could do with their hair, citing patents, museum objects and reference works wherever we can. For the styles these tools created, see Styles; for the trade that used them, from barber-surgeons to trichologists, see Profession.
The History of Shampoo
The word once meant a massage, not a wash. It reached English through India, and Europe learned it in a seaside bathhouse in Brighton.
The History of the Bobby Pin
A pin so small it disappears into the hair, named after the haircut that changed women's lives.
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.
The History of the Perm
The first permanent waves took hours, used electric machines and caustic chemicals, and occasionally blistered the scalp. People queued for them anyway.
Daily hair history, one image at a time, on Instagram @the_history_of_hair
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