Manufacturer
Eugene Limited
Permanent Wave Machine
Date1930s
DimensionsOverall: 176 × 47.5 × 57 cm (1.76 × 0.48 × 0.57 m)
Credit LineGift of Miss. Simpson, London, Ontario, 1970
Object number1970.002.001
Label TextThis is a 1930s Duplex, Model X, permanent wave machine. Inventor Charles Nessler introduced the first permanent wave machine around 1906. Harnessing electricity, the device heated hair that had been coated in a borax solution, which broke the bonds of the hair, and then wound onto rollers. When the hair cooled, the stylist applied an oxidizing agent to set the new wave. The process could take up to 10 hours. The technology evolved in the 1920s, including the introduction of chandelier-style permanent wave machines, like the one pictured here. Stylists again coated clients’ hair in chemicals, wound that hair onto rollers, and then attached the rollers to metal cylinders hanging from the cables. When the machine was turned on, the cylinders heated the rollers. After a maximum of 10 minutes, the wave was set. By the mid-1930s, the permanent wave machine was being replaced by a cold-waving permanent wave process. As well, home permanent wave kits had entered the market.
NameMachine, Permanent Wave
