Early hair dryers looked like terrifying sci-fi experiments

1928

A woman sits under a chrome-plated hair dryer.

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Before the invention of hair dryers, women and men would often attach hoses to the exhaust ends of vacuum cleaners to blow-dry their hair

In 1890, French stylist Alexandre-Ferdinand Godefroy devised a contraption combining a seat with a hood connected to a gas stove. A client would sit underneath the hood while a hand crank blew hot air from the stove over her hair.

Godefroy’s hair hood dryer was widely copied and iterated upon, and became a staple of hair salons. Variants included features such as articulable nozzles and heated coils in lieu of a single helmet. Read more...