How a hair dryer forms a hairstyle

The first devices for drying hair worked without air flow or electrical energy. The hair is placed on a kind of slatted frame to dry like on a grill. There is a construction that looks like a small oven for the head. They are burned with gas or coal to produce great heat. It is not easy to control and is not safe for hair and scalp.

It’s just a small, handy device; it is permanently installed, large and massive. The large device resembled a large helmet. Hairdresser Alexandre Goderfroy from France developed this first hair dryer. Hot air comes from the gas oven chimney through a metal cover. In 1890 he introduced this first hair dryer in his salon in Paris.

At first, hot air for drying and shaping hair was not suitable for home use, but more and more hairdressing salons are offering services and new technical miracle devices. Harald Gloning of the German Hairdressing Academy described hair dryers as a revolution in the market at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1898, the German company AEG produced electric hair dryers. Now also for home. A handy hairdryer, although the motor for the fan is still in the handle. It weighs almost two kilograms and gets very hot. Up to 90 degrees.

However, you can now style your hair quickly at home. It was expensive at first and is still a luxury product that not everyone can afford. Marketed under the name hot air shower.

The Sanitas Company patented the brand name FOEN in 1908. Without the letter “h” due to weather phenomena, strong downward winds, it could not be patented. After the AEG company took over Sanitas in 1957, their hair dryers were the only ones that could officially be called Foen today.

Following a spelling reform in 1996, Duden now accepts both spellings as synonyms for the device category. In Germany, “Föhn” has become a common term for a hair dryer, similar to “Tempo” for a paper handkerchief.

In 1928 the first hair dryer came in a plastic case. Phenol-formaldehyde resin stays cool and protects against burns. This was replaced by the use of a new, completely synthetic and, most importantly, heat-resistant plastic, Bakelite.

The first “bulk plastic”, patented in 1907, allowed devices no longer to be made of heavy metal, but with much lighter housings. The downside: It is impossible to color Bakelite. Hair dryers are all black or dark brown.

With the electrification of households in the thirties and forties, more and more hair dryers were used in German bathrooms. Hair dryers are slowly becoming affordable. Fashionable hairstyles are hard to imagine without him.

It is also advertised, among other things, for drying bath sheets, for caring for animals, for warming beds or for relieving rheumatic diseases.

New plastics made hair dryers cheaper, lighter, quieter and more colorful. The gun shape became popular among designers from the 1950s onwards. In fact, the drill is today’s classic hair dryer model.

Today they come in many forms, from mini foldable hair dryers for travel to elegant, high-tech products with ionic technology to reduce static charge, ceramic coatings for even heat distribution, or cool air functions for installation.

Nowadays, a hair dryer is important not only for drying but also for styling your hair. And some trendy hairstyles like blow-dry waves or rockabilly quiffs wouldn’t be possible without her.