Women’s and Girls’ Hair A cultural history
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Object

The hair dryer

From a stoneware bottle of boiling water to the row of humming salon hoods — how drying, the slowest part of every set, was turned into a machine.

Four hair dryers in a row: a pale stoneware bottle-shaped dryer on a stand, an early metal pedestal dryer, a chrome salon hood dryer on wheels, and a folding domestic dryer with a soft pink hood and hose.

Every temporary set depends on drying. Before machines, that meant time — hours by a fire, in the sun, or overnight. The history of the hair dryer is the history of turning that time into a service that could be bought, scheduled and speeded up.

A dated British sequence

The Science Museum Group holds a run of dated dryers, mostly British, that shows the technology changing:[5] Verified

  • 1880–1900: the stoneware “Thermicon”, made by Hincks & Co. of London, was filled with boiling water and brushed through the hair; its makers claimed it could dry hair “in a few minutes”. The museum notes that from the 1920s such dryers were gradually replaced by electrical devices.[1]
  • c. 1920: a pedestal dryer heated by gas.[2]
  • c. 1938: the “Airlux” salon electric dryer, catalogued as 1,400 × 400 × 680 millimetres and 33 kilograms, made by Osborne, Garrett & Co. of London.[3]
  • 1958: a Pifco dryer with its own stand and hood.[4]

Research Surviving objects date a technology’s existence, not its spread. When hood dryers became ordinary in British high-street salons, and when home hoods became common, still needs checking against trade journals, catalogues, price lists and memories — and against the spread of mains electricity, which varied greatly by region and class.

The salon as a social space

Interpretation Sitting under a dryer created a pause: time to read magazines, talk or simply wait. Salon histories describe these spaces as places of community and conversation — for Black women in the United States, even of organising.[6] (See Black hair and identity.)

Time, work and age

Interpretation The hood made the weekly roller set possible on a working woman’s lunch hour or a Saturday morning, and it kept the weekly salon visit central to many older women’s routines long after younger clients had moved to hand-held blow-drying.

Object story

What is it made of, and how does it work?
Every version solves the same problem — getting warm, moving air (or heat) to damp hair without scorching the scalp. Early devices used stored heat; later ones gas or electric elements, with a fan and, for sets, a hood surrounding the head.
Who made and sold it?
British makers in the Science Museum Group collection include Hincks & Co. (stoneware, 1880–1900), Osborne, Garrett & Co. (salon, c. 1938), Pifco (1958) and Morphy Richards (c. 1960–1974).
Who used it — at home, in the salon, at work?
Salon clients waiting for a set to dry; later, women at home with hand-held dryers and portable hoods.
What signs of use should we look for?
Scorch marks, replaced flexes and plugs, and repairs to hoods can show long use — and changing electrical safety standards.
Where can dated examples be seen?
The Science Museum Group object listing for “hair dryer” gives dates, makers and object numbers for each example cited here.

Used for

  • Technique · Temporary setting

    Roller setting

    Winding damp hair on rollers and drying it in place — the engine of the weekly "shampoo and set" and of mid-century volume.

  • Technique · Temporary setting

    Finger waving

    Shaping wet hair with fingers and a comb into rippling S-shaped ridges — the signature set of the late 1920s and 1930s, and a test of skill.

Sources

  1. Science Museum Group, “Stoneware hair dryer, ‘Thermicon’, London, England, 1880–1900 (A650887/2)”. Accessed 25 September 2026. What it shows: Made by Hincks & Co., London. Filled with boiling water and brushed through the hair; from the 1920s such dryers were gradually replaced by electrical devices.
  2. Science Museum Group, “Pedestal gas-heated hair dryer, c. 1920 (1976-25)”. Accessed 25 September 2026.
  3. Science Museum Group, “Salon electric hair dryer, ‘Airlux’, c. 1938 (1999-1142)”. Accessed 25 September 2026. What it shows: A salon dryer made by Osborne, Garrett & Co. Ltd, London; catalogued as overall 1400 × 400 × 680 mm and 33 kg.
  4. Science Museum Group, “Pifco hair dryer with stand and hood, 1958 (1995-316)”. Accessed 25 September 2026.
  5. Science Museum Group, “Hair dryer (object type listing)”. Accessed 25 September 2026. What it shows: Dated dryers, mostly British, from stoneware (1880–1900) to electric hand, hood and salon models (1920–1999).
  6. Jay Driskell, “Making Waves: Beauty Salons and the Black Freedom Struggle”, Smithsonian Institution, 3 November 2016. Accessed 19 September 2026. What it shows: Museum interpretation connecting beauty salons to economic independence and civil-rights organising in the United States. Says Marjorie Stewart Joyner was a founding member of the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 and founded the United Beauty School Owners and Teachers Association in 1945; that Highlander Folk School ran workshops training beauticians in civil disobedience and voter registration; and that parlours “provided shelter for civil rights organizing”.

Further reading

  • Caroline Cox, Good Hair Days: A History of British Hairstyling, Quartet Books, 1999. details to check A general history of British hairdressing and styles.