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.
How was it made?
Techniques
Cutting, setting, dressing, braiding, colouring, chemical processing, heat styling and wig making — explained as skilled labour, with a clear safety boundary.
Technique pages explain how styles were made and who made them: the tools, the order of work, the time it took and the skill involved. They are history, not tutorials. We never reproduce recipes containing lead, mercury or unknown historical ingredients, and we never show chemical processes on children.
Cleansing and conditioning
Being researched.
Cutting
Being researched.
Dressing, pinning and braiding
Being researched.
Temporary setting
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Technique · Temporary setting
Marcel waving
A deep, regular wave made with heated irons — a salon skill that shaped late-Victorian, Edwardian and 1920s hair, and a staple of Black beauty culture.
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Technique · Temporary setting
Pressing and straightening
Straightening curly and coily hair with a heated comb, and later with chemical relaxers and smoothing treatments — skilled work with a long, contested history.
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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.
Chemical texture change
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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.
Colour
Being researched.
Additions and wig making
Being researched.
Protective practice
Being researched.