Women’s and Girls’ Hair A cultural history
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Object

The home permanent kit

A box of lotions, rods and papers that brought the permanent wave out of the salon and into the kitchen — and, in some kits, onto children’s heads.

An open home-perm kit box with pink and grey rods, end papers and two bottles on a kitchen table, while a woman winds a teenage girl’s hair onto rods behind it.

Until the 1940s, a permanent wave usually meant a salon visit — and for most of that time a heated machine. Home versions came earlier than is often said. In 1920 the Nestle company advertised a “Nestle Home Outfit” for permanent waving in Photoplay, sold by post,[4] and The Henry Ford holds a “Lady Carole” home permanent wave set of about 1940, sold by Montgomery Ward and marked “MACHINELESS OIL METHODS - Self Applied”.[5] Verified

What changed in the 1940s was the cheap, lotion-only cold-wave kit. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History dates home permanent-wave kits to the late 1940s,[1] Verified though its own collection includes a cold-wave home kit catalogued as about 1945.[3] Research Exactly when the first cold-wave home kits went on sale still needs checking against dated advertising.

How it worked, in general terms

Home kits used a cold waveA permanent wave made with chemical lotions rather than heating equipment. Developed from the late 1930s, it made cheap home permanent kits common from the mid-to-late 1940s; heated home outfits had been sold earlier.: lotions instead of a heated machine. This page describes historical products and does not give instructions. See the safety section below.

Made for children

Among the Smithsonian’s objects is a Tonette Children’s Home Permanent, made by the Toni Company; the museum gives no date for it.[2] Verified It also holds a children’s home permanent by Richard Hudnut. These objects show that chemical waving was marketed for use on children. Research They do not tell us how often children’s kits were used, or at what ages; that still needs checking against advertising, sales figures and memories.

Interpretation Children’s kits are evidence of how adults — usually mothers — shaped girls’ appearance, and of the pressure on families to produce a fashionable, photographable child. Today this site does not demonstrate chemical processes on children, and describes such products only as history.

Money, time and the salon

Interpretation Whatever its price, a home kit moved the labour of perming from the salon into the home, where it was usually done by women for women. The same shift — from the paid salon to unpaid help from family and friends — recurs throughout hair history.

Research When home kits reached British shops, which brands were sold, and what they cost relative to a salon perm, still need checking.

Safety

This site is historical and educational, not chemical or hairdressing advice. Perm lotions are strong chemicals: anyone considering a chemical treatment today should follow current professional guidance, not historical practice. See Safety and health.

Object story

What is it made of, and how does it work?
A cold-wave kit contained a waving lotion that broke some of the disulphide bonds inside the hair while it was wound on rods, and a neutraliser (an oxidising agent) that re-formed them in the new shape.
Who made and sold it?
Not yet researched.
Who used it — at home, in the salon, at work?
Women at home, often helped by a relative or friend — and parents who used children’s kits on their daughters.
What signs of use should we look for?
Not yet researched.
Where can dated examples be seen?
The Smithsonian’s hair-care collections include home permanents by several brands, including a children’s kit.

Used for

  • Technique · Chemical texture change

    Permanent waving

    Changing the shape of hair until it grows out — from hours attached to a heated machine to a cold-wave kit on the kitchen table.

Sources

  1. Smithsonian National Museum of American History, “Hair Care”, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 25 September 2026. What it shows: Object group of tools, products and packaging. States that home permanent-wave kits were introduced in the late 1940s.
  2. Smithsonian National Museum of American History, “Tonette Children’s Home Permanent”, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 25 September 2026. What it shows: Collection object 1984.0351.320, made by the Toni Company (Reid Drugstore collection, gift of Blanche E. Reid); undated. Evidence that chemical waving was sold for use on children; not evidence of how often it was used.
  3. Smithsonian National Museum of American History, “Charm-Kurl Supreme Cold Wave Home Permanent Kit (2010.0213.022)”, catalogued as ca. 1945. Accessed 12 November 2026. What it shows: A cold-wave home permanent kit by Fraser Hair Fashions, catalogued as about 1945.
  4. Nestle Co. (advertisement), “Nestle Home Outfit for permanent waving”, Photoplay, July–December 1920, Photoplay Magazine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1920. Accessed 12 November 2026. What it shows: Magazine advertisement, read through the Media History Digital Library, offering the “Nestle Home Outfit” for permanent waving by post, with a refund if returned within seven days.
  5. The Henry Ford, ““Lady Carole” Home Permanent Wave Set, circa 1940”, The Henry Ford, object ID 2024.166.48, catalogued as circa 1940. Accessed 12 November 2026. What it shows: Home permanent set made by Halgar Incorporated of Chicago and sold by Montgomery Ward & Co.; marked “MACHINELESS OIL METHODS - Self Applied” and “24 HEAT UNITS AND SOLUTION” — a heated home kit that needed no salon machine.

Further reading

  • Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture, Metropolitan Books, 1998. details to check
  • Caroline Cox, Good Hair Days: A History of British Hairstyling, Quartet Books, 1999. details to check A general history of British hairdressing and styles.