blow dryers

[vanilla]

My son wants to know when they were invented.
I didn’t have them when I was little, so they must be fairly recent.
Yes?

[Kamandi]

This website says, in part:

The electric hair dryer was a brand new electrical gadget designed for both salon and home use. Developed during the early-1920s in Germany, it combined the technology of the electric heater (current-resisting nichrome wire on a mica or asbestos board), with a compact version of the universal electric motor used in the vacuum cleaner. Early models were very large, commonly of nickel or chrome-plated steel or polished aluminium, with a wooden handle, making them heavy and therefore unwieldy in use. There was little attempt to blend or disguise the various elements of each design and the necessary high-power, cooker-type switches were another ungainly feature. In this respect they were indistinguishable from many other household appliances, rather than being products associated with fashion and beauty.

The link also has some pictures of early-model hair dryers.

[AskNott]

On a very windy, very hot day, long, long ago.