Roller sets, perm rods, gas-heated irons and hot combs – all well known implements once used to create much-loved and traditional hair trends. But can you imagine rollers replacing your volumising mist or texturising spray? Or perm rods creeping into your hair routine? Seems unfathomable in this day and age, but with the recent rise in use of hot combs, it’d be stupid to rule them all out.
Ask any Black woman about a stovetop hot comb and they might well wince as memories of the grease, the flames and the sound of singeing come flooding back. The last time a hot comb was used on my own afro hair was nearly two decades ago. My mother pressed (the common name for straightening textured hair) my afro on the morning of my parents’ wedding in our little kitchen in south east London. As she reached the back, the burning hot tip accidentally caught the nape of my neck, which was coated in Blue Magic grease, and I flinched, causing her to burn her arm. The mark reddened throughout the rest of her big day.
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Hairdresser and salon co-owner Lorraine Dublin has similar memories of the tool: “When I was a little girl, my mum used to have a hot comb that she used on her own hair but she’d never use it on me. One day she treated me and straightened the front of my hair with it – I remember being so happy.” Stories like this are common amongst Black women. Hot combing was always a rite of passage for Black girls, a way to try something different and see hair in a new light before likely succumbing to irreversible and often damaging chemical straighteners.
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“Annie Malone really pioneered the use of the pressing comb in the States,” says Sandra Gittens, an educator and author who specialises in hair history, “and hot pressing arrived around the 1940s in the UK, with the arrival of the Windrush generation.” The technique was a popular, less permanent way of assimilating to European hair trends at a time when the natural texture of afro hair was far less accepted than it is today. Despite being non-permanent, the dangers of the hot comb were ever present. Without a temperature gauge, you couldn’t monitor whether you were burning the hair beyond repair, and there was also the problem of how close the comb came to the scalp, a huge risk which could affect hair growth.
Luckily, when electric straighteners hit the market and became more commonly used in the ’90s and early ’00s, the way we pressed our hair changed. Advanced technology and a controlled temperature meant that there was less damage to the hair, plus the finish was just as smooth and infinitely less greasy – and it took less time. “I stopped using the hot comb about 10 to 15 years ago because it took a lot longer to use them in the salon,” notes Dublin. “You’d have to wait for it to warm up before you could even put it on the client’s hair. It was a slow process and extended the appointment.”
Source: https://t-tees.com
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