# Big machine in beauty salons. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342 "2015-02-22T14:55:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Plumpudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Plumpudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumpudding)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/1 "2015-02-22T14:55:12Z")
Hi. I have a question regarding beauty salons, and specifically the big machine with a helmet-like thing placed on womens heads while they sit and read magazines or something. First, what is the name of such a machine? Second, what does such a thing do? Third, where could one aquire one? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/2 "2015-02-22T14:57:42Z")
hair dryer. dries hair. hair drier or beauty salon supply store. ---
**Author:** ![Plumpudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Plumpudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumpudding)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/3 "2015-02-22T15:03:55Z")
Is that it? Allright. Thanks, ignorance fought! ---
**Author:** ![HotDogWater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/35a633/32.png) [@HotDogWater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HotDogWater)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/4 "2015-02-22T15:11:20Z")
Obligatory xkcd with hair dryer reference [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/702:\_Snow\_Tracking](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/702:_Snow_Tracking) ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/5 "2015-02-22T15:19:31Z")
i’ve seen some smaller shorter plastic ones, sits on a table, in those buy-everything-housewares type catalogs. when home hair driers got smaller there were plastic bonnet type driers that did similar. the heating unit was the size of a smaller cookie tin, had a flexible plastic hose and a bonnet that you placed on your head. you sat in place and dried your hair (hair was bigger then). some had shoulder straps so you could move within the electrical cord length. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/6 "2015-02-22T15:45:22Z")
> [@HotDogWater](#): > > Obligatory xkcd with hair dryer reference [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/702:\_Snow\_Tracking](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/702:_Snow_Tracking) What has the world come to when there’s a site dedicated to explaining xkcd?? Color me horrified. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/7 "2015-02-23T05:54:27Z")
Futuristic intelligence-imparting machine. The customers go in for a hair-do and come out with Ph.D. degrees. [The Great Teacher](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Great_Teacher), with photo of it being used. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/8 "2015-02-23T07:22:43Z")
Now the real question is, what changes in hairstyles led to the decline in use of these machines? I vaguely remember seeing them when I was a child, in the salon that belonged to a friend’s parents, but do they even use them anymore? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/9 "2015-02-23T14:09:35Z")
It’s a Mind-Control Helmet. Its use was pioneered in Stepford, Connecticut, and it is used in lieu of more drastic methods of domestic control. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/10 "2015-02-23T14:26:09Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > What has the world come to when there’s a site dedicated to explaining xkcd?? Color me horrified. :eek: Really? There are occasional xkcd’s that go over my head due to my lack of specific knowledge. It’s easier to go to explainxkcd than to purchase an advanced physics text. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/11 "2015-02-23T15:57:05Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Now the real question is, what changes in hairstyles led to the decline in use of these machines? I vaguely remember seeing them when I was a child, in the salon that belonged to a friend’s parents, but do they even use them anymore? They’re still [sold](http://www.agssalonequipment.com/all-salon-equipment/albert-dryer-chair.html), so I guess somebody must be using them. Since most styles these days are achieved with heat tools like blow-dryers, curling irons and flat irons, the dryer chair isn’t used as much. Also, permanent waves are less popular, and I think they were used in that process. That’s just for white folk salons, though. They might still be popular in salons with a largely black clientele. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/12 "2015-02-23T17:43:27Z")
Agreeing with perms. They helped activate the chemical reactions. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-machine-in-beauty-salons/713342/13 "2015-02-23T18:24:51Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > i’ve seen some smaller shorter plastic ones, sits on a table, in those buy-everything-housewares type catalogs. > > when home hair driers got smaller there were plastic bonnet type driers that did similar. the heating unit was the size of a smaller cookie tin, had a flexible plastic hose and a bonnet that you placed on your head. you sat in place and dried your hair (hair was bigger then). some had shoulder straps so you could move within the electrical cord length. Yes, portable ones for home use were very common when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s. We had one ourselves. They’ve been almost entirely supplanted by blow driers.