Dryers and Processors

The Hairdryer - A Brief History of a Salon Furniture Icon

Salon furniture fashions come and go almost as quickly as the hairstyles, but the humble hairdryer is one piece of salon furniture no hair salon will be seen without. They've been around for 120 years and they're going to be around for plenty more.

Ask anyone to picture a hair salon, and it's likely that they'll conjure up an image of women sitting under hairdryers. Never mind the mirrors and the sinks, the comfy sofa and the latest coffee machine, the helmet-style hairdryer is the piece of salon furniture that has become synonymous with the hairdressing industry.

Alexandre Godefoy - The Godfather of Salon Furniture

In 1890 the salon furniture available to Alexandre Godefoy was limited. But the French salon owner was to revolutionise hairdressing for ever, all thanks, bizarrely, to the recently invented vacuum cleaner. Godefoy worked out that if he took one of the recently invented vacuums and used the exhaust to blow air, rather than using the nozzle to suck air, it would dry his customers' hair quicker. Like all inventions in their earliest incarnations, Godefoy's hairdryer was large and cumbersome. But within a few decades his idea was to become perhaps the most ubiquitous piece of salon furniture in the world.

Salon Furniture Comes Of Age

Godefoy's hairdryer was powered by gas, as were all salon dryers for the next 50 years. This wasn't ideal: gas dryers tended to overheat, damaging a customer's hair in the process. With the introduction of the electric version in the 1940s, the instantly recognisable, dome-shaped dryer was born, and has remained a staple of salon furniture ever since. Perhaps helped by the switch to electric, it was during the 1940s that helmet-style hairdryers became the most popular piece of salon furniture. They also got a welcome boost with the popularity of the new "permanent wave" hairstyles favoured by Hollywood stars in the later 1930s. Perms reached British shores during and after the Second World War, where they found a willing market as women flocked to the cinema in record numbers looking for a little escapist glamour.

The Future Of Salon Furniture

The hairdryer's shape may not have changed much in the last fifty years, but modern technology continues to redesign dryers, like all salon furniture, even today. Negative Ion dryers dry faster with less heat, causing less damage to the hair; ceramic dryers are gentler on frizzy or treated hair, and far-infrared dryers can even dry hair from the inside out. If you would like to find out more information, contact the team on 0151 230 0380 or email us on sales@salonfurniture.co.uk for more information