The Evolution of Tools

            With today's innovative technology, it seems like anything is possible when it comes to new hair styling tools. Sometimes I wonder how would I style my hair without our modern day flat irons or how would I curl my hair without a curling iron. This stirred up some curiosity on how women used to style their hair before our time and so I decided to do a little bit of research.

            Since my mom went to school for hair and make-up I decided to ask her about hair styling back in the early 20^th century. She told me I could read about it in these really cool books she used for school. The book was called 
From Flappers to Flivvers... and it was about all about the 20's decade. It shared personal stories from individuals who lived through the 20's and certain events that happened. As I was reading I found a section that had to do with hair and fashion, which was exactly what I was looking for! Reading through personal stories, it seemed like bobs were the "cool" thing to have during this era of flappers. Many women were cutting off their long locks for boyish looks. For the women who kept their hair longer they used to "rag curl" their hair. Here is a quote that I thought was interesting from a woman who shared her daily experience with rag curls. "Starting at our scalp, we'd wind a section of hair neatly around a long rag, then wind the rag up over the wound hair and tie the ends in a not. It wasn't too comfortable sleeping on all those knots."

            Another style that was common during this year was the "finger wave." This was a very common hair style for women who had shorter hair or bobs. I remember my mom telling me how it was challenging to finger wave in beauty school because it took a lot of time and skill, so I wasn't surprised when I read that women in the 20's wanted "permanents." permanents are what we call a “perm” now-a-days, which is when you use chemicals to permanently curl your hair. "In those days, women getting permanents had their hair wrapped around little metal rollers. The electric machine that did the "magic" was a huge monstrosity with larger tubes into which the rollers fit. The tubes and rollers were so heavy that customers put bath towels behind their necks to keep their heads from falling backward!"

            As you can see from the two passages, styling hair was a lot tougher and probably more painful than it is now!  One thing that I asked myself while reading through the book was why did most women cut off their hair? I remember learning about flappers in school, but my memory was a little foggy so I went and looked it up on the internet. After some reading, the information came flowing back. The roaring twenties, of course, were all about women and their new-found freedom! This was the era where women got the right to vote, work, and have some fun on their own. In a way they felt like they now had this new freedom to make their own choices and this was shown through their fashion sense. Before this time, women were to be covered up with long dresses and their curves were to be accentuated. In addition their hair was kept long and pinned up. Then after the war, women began wearing loosely fitted short dresses that showed off their legs and hid their curves. They cut off their hair and wore dramatic make-up. Their style in a way greatly corresponded with political events that taking place at the time. With all this freedom, it seemed like women rebelled and society saw this through there drastic changes in fashion and appearances.

             The cool thing about the beauty industry is that there are so many new products that are out on the market. Whether it's hair, make-up, or clothes there is always something new! This weekend I went back home from spring break and I was talking to my mom and she told me about this new way of curling your hair with the twiddle stic. It's something I have never seen before so I thought I would share this video on how it works.

            Nearing the end of my spring break it turns out that my stepdad surprised me with these hair styling tools. I tried this out for the first time and my curl lasted all night! Like everything else, beauty products and hair styling tools have evolved over the decades. But one thing I have noticed about fashion as well as hair styles back in the 20's and now, is that back then people made fashion statements that seemed to be influenced by politics and events that were currently happening. Whereas today we don't see much of that influence on fashion. The way I see it, the trends that are out there today are just a modernized version of the past. For a while the 80's came back and bright colored tops and leggings were on the runway, and now 50's inspired hair styles are making its way back.

            In my opinion, I feel like our younger generation isn't really effected or influenced by political issues. I read a few articles on my generation which is referred to as "Generation Y" and compared to the older generations it seems like we don’t show that we care much about government affairs.  Of course there are still people out there who are passionate about politics and are willing to spread their opinions, however, a lot of people I know do not have much of strong opinion on political issues today. Personally, I do not follow politics nor do I know much about it. I feel like because people don’t show that they care as much as they used to there isn’t a political influence on our fashion trends these days.