So I was getting a perm from a friend. We were talking about cosmotology school and stuff when they boyfriends/spouses came up from the dark recesses of the basement where the new power tools were complaining about the smell.
Rachel was like, yeah well....its better this way than it was a long time ago...so my curiosity piqued I asked her what she meant. She goes to her book case and pulls out her great grandmothers cosmotology text book. It seems that "back in the day" perming was done pretty much by electrical shock. Hair was wound around metal rods and shocked to provide enuff to steam to permantely curl the hair.
There was even a whole section on how to treat your "client" when they suffered from electrocution and scalp burns.
In 1906, a German, Karl Ludwig Nessler, demonstrated the first "permanent wave" for hair, in his beauty salon in Oxford Street, London, to an invited audience of hair stylists. The hair was soaked with an alkaline solution and rolled on metal rods which were then heated strongly (IE with electrical charge to cause high temperature steam). However, this method had the disadvantages of being very lengthy (about 5 hours) and expensive for each application. Also the machine was large and cumbersome, and the client was obliged to wear a dozen brass curlers, each weighing 1-3/4 lb and there was always a chance that the ladies would end up being shocked or burned!
can you imagine sitting for 5 hours with these on your head?
