"Hair brings one's self-image into focus; it is vanity's proving ground"
Shana Alexander, Journalist
Hair salons were exclusively for rich women of the 1890s, and it was in that decade that French hairdresser Alexandre Godefroy introduced the first blow-drying hair dryers to put in his salon. His makeshift dryer was simply a bonnet attached to a flexible chimney stuck onto a gas stove.
It is hydrogen bonds that determine whether your hair looks like you have been dragged through a hedge backward or just walked out of a shampoo ad. Blow-dried hair generally looks better because it accelerates the temporary hydrogen bonds that reside in each strand of hair, allowing better control of shape and style. Curlers, straighteners, and all other hair appliances that work by heating the hair to change its shape are simply controlling the hydrogen bonding. Strong, hydrogen bonds are susceptible to humidity and completely disappear when the hair becomes damporwet.
Hair dryers quickly evolved from Godefroy's design, and instead of having to sit under the hood of a heating device, today's hair dryers are handheld and boast a dizzying array of special features, the latest fad being "deionizing" hair dryers that reduce frizziness.
