Women have been using metallic tools to curl or straighten hair for the last two hundred years or thereabouts. Specifically designed curling irons were used to create waves or curliness to women’s tresses, and straightening irons, known in earlier days as flat irons, hair irons or hair tongs were used to straighten hair.
To straighten hair, the hairs hydrogen bonds which influence hair curliness or straightness, must be broken through the use of chemicals or heat. Noting the desire of many women for straight hair, one Ian Gutgold created a concoction of various chemicals in lotion form for this purpose, in 1906.
Gutgold’s preparation, the first-known chemical hair straightener, when not used judiciously, as it turned out, caused damage to the hair and often resulted in scalp burns. In 1909, an inventor named Simon E. Monroe developed a safer method of straightening hair by means of a device with metallic teeth that could be drawn through the hair like an ordinary comb.
With the desire for softer, straightened hair, still highly popular among women, another turn-of-the-century inventor, Issac K. Shero, applied for a patent for a metallic hair straightening device – simply a pair of flat irons- heated and pulled through the hair like “tongs.” These inventions were the forerunners of the so-called “hot combs” that later came into popular use. These devices slid more smoothly through the hair with less effort, and were less likely when properly used, to cause burning or dryness.
Modernization brought electrical hair straighteners, such as the Sedu ceramic Ionic professional flat iron, that uses ceramic or tourmaline heating elements that are temperature adjustable and conduct heat more evenly, thus lessening the chance for hair damage. Salons favor these models. Less expensive hair straighteners are not equipped with ceramic or tourmaline heating elements and are less likely to give satisfactory results.
Although hair straighteners have been primarily used on dry hair, the availability of so-called “wet/dry” straighteners equipped with vents to allow moisture to escape during the straightening process have gained in popularity.
Women who straighten their hair at home should be aware that low-cost hair straightening devices can often cause hair damage. To avoid this problem, only the highest quality straighteners such as Sedu Flat Irons, and those from quality manufacturers such as Boots (United Kingdom), Braun, Conair, Philips, Remington, Revlon, Tresemme, Toni & Guy and Wigo among others. should be used, or else the process should be left to hair care professionals.
As of 2007, as it has been for the past few years, straight hair is the hottest trend in women’s hairstyles. Fueling the craze are a host of celebrities favoring the “straight look,” such as; Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett-Smith.
Of course, according to leading hair stylists, the “look” is not just having straight hair. Straight hair should not look limp, flat and dry, but should be soft, shimmering, moving, not stiff, and with lots of body. The Sedu Flat Iron is particularly suited for this purpose.
