Updated at: 28-11-2022 - By: Sienna Lewis

Are you curious about the history of the hair dryer? Alexander F. Godefroy himself is pictured here in the salon he created in France around the year 1890.

He built a huge, sitting bonnet that was connected to the flue of the gas burner. He developed it for use in his salon, but it lacked portability at the time.

As he or she relaxes under it, a user can put it to good use.

After that, it persisted on the market as a portable version. Several manufacturers expressed interest in marketing this breakthrough under different names. Even as it grew in size and popularity, it was first used as a portable hand dryer. As this is merely a summary, you should keep reading.

Who Invented Your Hair Dryer?

French inventor Alexandra Godefroy came up with the idea for the blow dryer in 1890, when the public was in desperate need of a device to speedily dry their hair.
Before the invention of the hairdryer, humans had been utilizing a variety of techniques, such as the vacuum cleaner hose, for centuries. Salon owner Alexandra Godefroy invented the blow dryer after realizing her customers needed one.
It was a large machine, and in order to use it, one had to sit with one’s head tucked underneath the dryer’s nozzle, which is still the case in certain salons today. It wasn’t portable, but rather permanently installed on the chimney of a gas stove with a bonnet.

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Earlier Versions

Two to three decades later, consumers started asking for safer, more convenient handheld hairdryers. Although several businesses had introduced a handheld hairdryer by 1915, it was still too heavy for convenient use. However, these portable hair dryers’ limited capacity of only 100 watts meant that they took an excessive amount of time to dry a person’s hair. The average power consumption of a modern hair dryer is roughly 2000 watts.
About five years later, in response to the need for a more portable and user-friendly hair dryer, the plastic hairdryer was created. Power consumption was remained the primary target for hairdryer efficiency improvements. The hairdryer, first introduced by Alexandra Godefroy in 1890, underwent a few more modifications throughout this time, including changes to its material and superficial surface.

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1950s – Light Weight Hairdryers

In the early 1950s, after much research and development, businesses began releasing significantly improved hairdryers. These hair dryers were handheld and relatively lightweight; a tube connected them to a bonnet placed atop the head. While the technique was similar in that air was blown in through tubes and holes in the bonnet to distribute heat, the highest power consumption of these devices was just 300 watts, making them insufficient for a rapid procedure.

1960s – More Power

In 1960, a new generation of lightweight hair dryers with more efficient electrical motors and lower power consumption was released. The motor was moved inside the hairdryer’s body, a significant improvement that contributed to the device’s portability and ease of use. The electric motors in modern hair dryers may generate up to 500 watts of heat, making possible all the technological advances we’ve seen in the appliance over the years.

1990s – Invention Of Modern Hairdryers

The Consumer Products Safety Commission issued a warning to hairdryer producers, citing the risks involved with using the product, prompting them to implement additional safety measures. This caution led to further events in the 1990s. During this time period, temperature cutoff switches and Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters began appearing on modern hair dryers. These units may generate up to 2000 watts of power while remaining remarkably portable. These improvements not only made hairdryers faster and more effective at drying hair, but also safer to use.

The Function Of Hair Dryer

The universal motor in a hair drier powers both the fan and the electric heating coil. The mica insulator is wrapped in a coil of nichrome that serves as the heating element. As an electrical conductor, nichrome achieves its function. While heated, it never oxidizes, which is a crucial factor to think about when using a hair dryer. As a result of technological advancements, current hair dryers provide a plethora of settings, features, and tools that make them both versatile and effective.

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Brief History Of The Hair Dryer

It’s unquestionably one of those things that’s always been a part of our daily lives. While it’s not crucial to have on hand, we appreciate having it nonetheless.

It’s current form is quite useful, but that wasn’t always the case. Over time, the hair dryer went through many iterations before becoming the modern, portable one that we all know and love.

Inspired by the vacuum cleaner

In the late 19th century, French hairdresser and inventor Alexandre-Ferdinand Godefroy created a device whose principal function is to blow hot (or cold) air to expedite the water evaporation process and effectively dry hair. The “séchoir” (dryer) was a sort of long cap connected to a flexible hose that projected hot air from a gas stove into the wearer’s hair. It was something between a vacuum cleaner and a hair dryer. For obvious reasons, it was exclusively utilized in high-end hair salons catering to affluent city dwellers, and its bulk prevented it from being transported easily.

Birth of the “hot and cold air shower”

Following Godefroy’s lead, several tinkerers created drying machines, each one stranger and more alarming than the last. Hand dryers with a heating element and a fan were originally introduced in the 1920s. Invented in 1926 by Léon Thouillet, an engineer at the Calor business, the first manual electric model was a huge success. The “hot and cold air shower” had its medical debut in the treatment of wounds and other forms of discomfort, earning its name from its dual purpose of heating and cooling the surrounding region. The same method was also used to warm up kids, defrost food, heat up shoes, and defrost water.

Portable but so heavy…

The earliest handheld “dryers” were crafted from metal and featured a hardwood handle, which was subsequently replaced with Bakelite. They weighed nearly 1 kg each and were awkward to operate. Overheating and electrocution were among the many accidents brought on by their shaky electrical connections. Because of their low power (100 watts), the original models’ airflow was quite weak, leaving test subjects fatigued before their hair was even dry.

However, the mechanics of a hair dryer, which consists of a motor driving a blower device and an electrical resistance to heat the air coming into one side and push it out the other side, remained largely unchanged until the late 1950s. Its handgun form, designed for comfort in the hand, has remained mostly unchanged.

Lightweight, safe and cheerful

After metal was replaced with plastic—mostly ABS—the hair dryer became a commercial success in the 1960s.

The product has been made cheaper, more widely accessible, and customizable in terms of weight, safety features, shape, and color. In a nutshell, it was democratized and eventually found its way into every home.

Like the Moulinex model introduced in 1968, which looks like an electric drill and whose “Clémentine” variant was created in orange, the trendiest Pop color of the time, and has since become a collector’s item.

It’s A Wrap!

Alexander F. Godefroy is revealed to be the man behind the invention of the hair dryer. Imagine the hair dryer’s long journey, starting in 1890. In addition, current problems have been resolved, making it a safer, more effective, and quicker hair dryer than ever before. Learn the ins and outs of hair dryers and which models work best with black hair by reading up on the topic.