THE DEVELOPMENT OF MACHINELESS PERMANENT WAVING* By E.G. McDoNouGH Evans Chemetics, Inc., New York, N.Y. I• THe. evolution of the per- manent waving of hair on the human head, there have existed two dis- tinct periods--one given to the .development of the mechanical phase, the other to the chemical phase. The mechanical phase started, as has been many times repeated, with the invention of Charles Nessler about 1905, who was the first to permanently wave hair successfully on the human head. While chemi- cals were involved in this process, the primary problem here was the safe production of satisfactory heat close to the human scalp. Developments from this initial start were directed toward mechani- cal and electrical contrivances for safe and satisfactory waving of hair. Thermostatic controls, split heaters, different types of mandrels, etc., were the object of innumerable patents during the period up to and through the twenties. The revolu- tionary rrmndrel and winding proc- ess of Robert Bishinger (Patent No. * Presented at the December 3, 1947 s Meeting, New York City. 1,710,929) which led to the now almost universally used croquignole method climaxed these mechanical- electrical advances in the art of permanent waving. During this time practically no advance had occurred in the chemi- cal phase of the permanent waving of hair. Borax, originally used by Nessler, had given way largely to ammonia or ammonia and borax or other alkaline salts such as carbo- nates and phosphates, but ammonia in combination with heat had been used in the wig-producing days. Thus the commercial competition in the field during the twenties was the competition of mechanical and electrical ingenuity, and all of the great American permanent waving organizations of that time, including Frederick, Eugene, and Nestle, em- ployed mechanical and electrical engineers to improve their products. So far had the art progressed in the use of electrical heat, that the introduction of a new system im- ported from England produced not any more than a faint ripple of acceptance. This system or process was the 183

184 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS basic invention of an Englishman, Peter Sartory (U.S. Patent No. 1,565,509). The process involved the first use of an exothermic chemi- cal reaction for the generation of the heat sufficient to permanent wave hair. However, as with many original ideas, Sartory was influenced by the predominant factor in the art, which was the electrical machine, and Sartory's utilization of his idea of using chemical heat instead of elec- trical heat resulted in a mechanical set-up which in appearance as well as in operation was very much like the electrical machine. Actually the chandelier contrap- tion was a necessity in the Sattory concept, because by selecting the hydration of lime as his exothermic chemical reaction, and in applying his concept of how it should be used, that is, as a functional dt/plicate of the electrical machines, Sartory generated temperatures similar in range and duration to those of the electrical heaters, and this required a very large amount of lime to wave each strand of hair. These lime heaters also required some means of support, and in order to have a steam-retaining unit, a rigid casing was used around the porous lime container. In order to introduce the water, a bulb-syringe was inserted into an inlet on this ex- ternal casing. The water, starting at the outer side of the layer of lime, generated heat according to the reaction CaO + H•O -,- Ca(OH)• + A This raised the excess water to steam which reacted with the next layer of CaO to generate further heat and thus steam at a higher tem- perature until the steam coming from the internal (next to the hair) section of the calcium oxide was in. many instances around 500øF. and sufficient to char paper--typical of the electrical units. It is little wonder that this crude invention did not receive a ready acceptance in competition with the highly developed electrical units and that the organization offering it in America soon went into bankruptcy. However, this unit may be looked upon as the forerunner of the active chemical phase in the American permanent wave art. Dr. R. L. Evans (who purchased the bankrupt organization) and co- workers investigated this process thoroughly but soon came to the conclusion that it could not com- pete with the highly developed electrical heating systems. But as so often happens, where logic and science acknowledge a blind alley, a less scientific and more ingenious mind will find a way out. This was the case here. Not a chemist or an electrical engineer, but a very ingenious hairdresser named Fred Winkel from the Penn- sylvania mountains, without knowl- edge of chemistry and without knowledge that commercially ex- othermic chemical heat lind bowed to electrical heat, was able to re- awaken the interest in exothermic chemical heat and actually produce and successfully operate the first