The perm is 100, but no more making waves

The problem with the perm 100 years on is still the same as the day it was born in a salon on London8217;s Oxford Street in late 1906: it will give you curls but at considerable cost to the health of your hair.

Nobody paid more dearly than the wife of Karl Nessler. The hairdresser from Todtnau twice scorched his spouse8217;s hair and burned her scalp in a process of trial and error.

Once Nessler had perfected and patented the perm, it still involved vast amounts of sodium hydroxide and metal rods heated to 100 degrees C.

But it meant an end to going to bed in uncomfortable curlers and took the world by storm.

Nessler left London in 1915 and emigrated again, this time to the US. He died in relative poverty in 1951, never having recovered from the stock market crash in 1929 that swallowed the fortune he made.