A wave meant to last, and a 1906 iron

Interest in appearance, the writer says, has run a long way; by the teenage years some people lean on looks for self-worth, and dissatisfaction can bring shame, anxiety, and trouble around eating. From the twenties, appearance is thought important for work and for finding a job, and people take an interest in hair, body care, and makeup, and copy what they see of performers on television, the internet, and film. Copying Korean hairstyles, the notes add, is now a worldwide turn. Many people use permanents, irons, dye, bleach, and blow-drying to shape an image; the permanent, in this reading, is the most representative of those treatments, and the one women most prefer, because it touches complexion, the shape of the head, and the image as a whole.

A permanent wave, the notes say, is a physical and chemical change to hair in its natural state, so that the form is lastingly altered and a sense of volume and direction becomes possible. It can hide a fault in the shape of the head, make daily care easier, and let a person change a look. The start is dated to 1906, when Charles Nestle—as the notes spell the name—wound hair keratin protein with ammonia and borax on a round iron. In 1932 Zottes developed a chemical heating pad, but hair care was difficult, and the method gave way to a cold wave that used thioglycolic acid. From the mid-1950s, the notes say, a mix of thioglycolate and bisulfite carried the work forward. Those names and years stay as the notes write them.

The cortex, cystine, and a reduction that must be reversed

The treatment, the writer says, acts in the cortex. The cortex is made of elastic fibrous hard protein, and among its amino acids the share of cystine, which holds a sulfur atom, is high. Through reduction and oxidation, the notes say, a new permanent form is made. The writer does not rush that chemistry into a later official account; it is left as the notes describe it.

From liberation in 1945, the notes say, permanent waves, setting, and irons became popular in Korea as wave styles. A claim that the permanent wave already makes up seventy-five percent of beauty services, and keeps rising regardless of age or sex, is the writer’s, and is not recast as a later official share.

A 1990 paper, a 1996 temperature, and damage the notes will not hide

Feughelman, in 1990, is cited on the mechanical and structural damage to hair, and on how that damage compares with the deformation caused by thiols. Kim Soon-hee, in 1996, is cited as finding that the higher the treatment temperature, the worse the harm to the hair. Those papers stay in their years.

A wave meant to last, then, is also a chemical event in the cortex, and the notes do not pretend it leaves the hair untouched. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. A student note on the permanent wave, from Charles Nestle in 1906 as the notes spell the name, and from a 1932 pad to a mid-1950s lotion.
2. The cortex, cystine, and reduction and oxidation, as the notes describe them.
3. Korea after 1945, a claimed seventy-five percent share of beauty services left as the writer’s figure, and papers by Feughelman (1990) and Kim Soon-hee (1996).

Last updated: 14 November 2026