When and where did the first hair dryer appear?

Can you imagine how hard it was for fashionistas of past centuries? Women traditionally wore their hair long, and drying it after washing was not an easy task, especially in the cold season. Today we, without hesitation, take a compact hair dryer and put our hair in order in a few minutes. And the very first device was quite large.

History of appearance, who invented

The author of the first hairdryer was a hairdresser from St. Louis, Missouri, Alexandre Godefroy, a Frenchman by birth. It was he who, on September 18, 1888, patented a new invention - a hair dryer, which he began to use in his hairdressing salon.

Godefroy's brainchild was powered by a gas heater. Pipes extended from the main chimney, directing hot air into a dome that was placed on the top of the seated lady's head. The system made it possible not only to dry hair, but also to preserve a new hairstyle. But Godefroy's device was too stationary, cumbersome and inconvenient, and therefore did not receive proper distribution. The first hair dryer also lacked directional air flow.

The first samples of what they were

In 1911, Chicago inventor Gabriel Kazanjian received the first patent for a hand-held hair dryer. This device was launched into mass production only in the early 20s. It was not the most comfortable model, weighing up to 2 kilograms.Imagine a large round jar with a wooden handle and an iron tube attached to the side. The device was powered by a small motor. The temperature of the air supplied through the tube reached 90 °C. Therefore, it was difficult to hold such a unit and dry hair with it. It was possible to overheat or even burn your hair, and also get an electric shock. In the middle of the last century, many deaths were reported in the United States as a result of using a hair dryer.

The twentieth century brought us another invention. Housewives received a vacuum cleaner that helps them quickly clean the house. In the 30s, some vacuum cleaner models were sold with a special nozzle into which air was blown, and it could be used to dry hair. But this miracle of engineering did not take root due to the insufficient temperature of the air stream and the inconvenience of the drying process itself. Hair dryers in hair salons still looked like futuristic inventions. They were large in size and were not entirely comfortable, but they coped with their functions.

Developers of hair dryers gave their products different names. Among them there were models “Lorelei”, “Breeze” and others. The term “hairdryer” took root later. In Germany, this word meant a warm and dry wind blowing from the mountains. In 1941, the Foen trademark appeared, and all household appliances intended for drying began to be called that.

The inventors of hair dryers worked in three directions. In addition to hand-held models, which became more and more compact over the years, portable hair dryers were invented in a box with a hose. A head hood was put on it. Large stationary hoods, shaped like helmets, were installed in hairdressing salons and were intended for drying and fixing the finished hairstyle.Time has shown that the hand-held hair dryer remains the most popular and popular, so its analogues have slowly fallen out of use.

Hand-held hair dryers have improved more and more. In the 30s and 40s they had the ability to change the temperature and increase the speed of the air flow. The invention of plastic housings reduced the weight of home hair dryers, which also played into the hands of users. In the 70s, conditions were developed for the production of safe hair dryers.