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The Work of Marjorie Joyner
In the early 1920s, African American women straightened their hair by heating it with curling irons. The iron’s larger curl relaxed tightly curled hair.
But only one fire-heated iron could be used at a time. Joyner disliked the slow and uncomfortable process.
She thought it would be more efficient if a group of curling irons could be hung above a woman’s head.
“It all came to me in the kitchen when I was making a pot roast one day, looking at these long, thin rods that held the pot roast together and heated it up from the inside.
I figured you could use them like hair rollers, then heat them up to cook a permanent curl into the hair.”
So the 30-year-old beautician began to experiment. Joyner hooked 16 pencil-shaped pot roast rods to an old-fashioned hair dryer hood, then joined them together with a single electrical cord.
Patented in 1928, her invention made it possible to set an entire head of curls or waves at once.
“If I can take pot roast rods and have a one-of-a-kind invention, believe me, people can do what they set their minds to.”
The Permanent Waving Machine found an unexpected
market. Developed for black women who wanted to
change their hair’s tight curl to a wave, the
machine also helped many white women who wanted
to add curl to their straighter hair.
Despite the machine’s success, the process was still uncomfortable. The irons were hot and often pinched the customer’s scalp.
So in 1929, Joyner patented a scalp protector that made the procedure less painful.
Because her patents legally belonged to Madame C. J. Walker’s company, Joyner never received profits from her invention.
Next: Marjorie Joyner in Her Youth ›
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Email this to a friend!
This sailboarder ripples anything it crosses! Send it to your friends
so they can learn about Newman Darby, the inventor of the sailboard.
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