5 shocking beauty tools from the early 1900s that actually existed

The late 1800s and early 1900s were a strange and experimental period for the beauty industry. With industrial innovation booming around the world, beauty standards became more rigid over time, leading inventors to create different devices that promised everything. From the perfect curls to sharp jawlines, these beauty tools barely came with safety measures, revolving around unexpected electrical stimulation, pressure, and heat, making them bizarre.

This has to be one of the strangest inventions; the device was usually strapped around the head and chin to ‘reshape’ the face. It made the jawline slimmer, reduced the double chin, and improved the overall facial structure. Constant pressure and compression usually changed the shape of the chin, followed by contouring with tape. Well, this did not permanently reduce the fat and treated the face like clay, making it a bizarre creation.

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Imagine sitting under a chandelier-like machine with heated metal rods hanging from your head for hours. This created long-lasting perms or curls by using excess heat with chemicals, which restructured the locks. The sessions usually lasted for more than 6 hours, where the risk of burning and high hair damage was extremely high. It mostly looked like a mediaeval torture device.

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Before electricity was invented, curling irons were literally heated over flames. It required manual heating on stoves or gas burners, where the hair lock was wrapped around without any temperature control. This led to frequent burns on the scalp and hands, along with hair damage and sometimes even fire hazards.

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In the early 1900s, people used vacuum cleaners attached to hoses to dry their hair. This pulled air through a hose to dry wet hair, requiring the user to sit under the large machine. It led to uneven drying, was not portable, and was obviously unsafe. It didn’t style the hair but made it more frizzy.
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American inventor Isabella Gilbert created a spring-loaded cheek press for women who wished for permanent dimples. It tapped into the desire for getting these adorable facial features but proved to be highly ineffective. Well, several other similar pressure devices were created in the following years, but almost all of them resulted in great health risks.
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