Curling tongs – from vintage to today
Electric curling tongs are well-known for curling hair today but this page explores the early Victorian and Edwardian versions which women used in search of beauty but were risky to use on the hair.
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By the webmaster based on the memoirs of FEC (1906-2002), discussions with older people and additional research
Structure of early curling tongs, also known as curling irons
Early curling tongs were all metal with two prongs. The lower prong was a solid cylinder and the other was an open shell such that the two fitted together when the tongs were closed. These show in the following image. The metal was steel, but not the stainless sort. The beginnings of rust are just visible.
Early metal curling tongs from my mother's effects.
She
inherited them from her mother which makes them probably Victorian.
All the curling tongs that I knew as a child in the 1940s were old and very basic. As the handles were metal, so had to be held through a cloth while hot and in use. Some of the pictures on the internet show wooden or bakelite handles.
How to heat the curling tongs
The tongs had to be heated but were not thermostically controlled like today's. They were heated on the kitchen range and in later years on a gas ring. Being metal, they could get very hot very quickly and there was a skill to lifting them away from the heat at a suitable temperature. You can imagine how tricky this was.
How to use the curling tongs
These curling tongs could be used in two main ways.
To make a tight curl or ringlet, the end of a length of hair was gripped between the prongs of the hot tongs. Then then the tongs were rotated over and over so that the hair wound round them. After a few seconds, the tongs were opened and hey presto!
To make home-made Marcel Waves, hair was pinched into waves using fingers and a comb and the peak of each wave was crimped between the prongs of the hot tongs. This set the peaks and hence also set the waves.
Advantages and disadvantages of old curling tongs
The only advantage of these curling tongs was that there was little else at the time for anyone who wanted a quick fix for curly or wavy hair. There were rag curlers and metal curlers but they were for overnight, which rather distracted from looking attractive in bed for menfolk.
The disadvantages of curling tongs could be catastrophic, because the temperature could easily be misjudged: Too cool and the hair didn't curl and too hot and the hair burnt. Burnt hair could not be unburnt and had to grow out or be cut off.
The length of time that the tongs were in contact with the hair could also be misjudged. Even if there was no misjudgement, heat nevertheless did damage hair. So it was a risky business to use curling tongs. There was no way that their could be thermostatically controlled like today's curling tongs.
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