The Jump To Hairspray.

 I remember an aunt who always teased her hair so it stood out around her hair.  She'd apply so much hairspray to it that it would not budge an inch should she ride in a convertable.  Even when she hit her 80's, she'd still whip it into shape while finishing the look with hairspray.

The only thing I ever used hairspray for was and is to remove permanent marker from clothing.  White Rain hairspray always did a good job of that but I never got around to using it in my hair.

I've often wondered when it came into use.  Did it come around at the beginning of the 20th century? Or was it earlier? Or later.  Hairspray is made up of a fine mist of chemicals that came out of a can with a propellent or a pump.

You can thank the people who created spray insecticide in 1943 for use by the military to keep bugs away.  The beauty industry decided the ability to spray chemicals would do well to propel hairspray but it didn't hit the market until after the war was over.  Three years after the war ended, someone developed a resin like substance similar to shellac that held hair together because it coated the hair strands with a sticky film.

 It wasn't until 1950 that Helene Curtis created the generic term "Hairspray" for the newly released product "Spray Net" designed to hold hair in place so the hairstyles looked good.  By 1955, Spray net was selling all over the world. At this time, aerosol cans were powered by fluorocarbons or pressurized gas.

At about the same time as Helene Curtis began selling hairspray, the company Alberto-Culver who provided hair products to the movie industry in California began selling their own hair spray and offered some serious competition.  Women began wearing styles that required hairspray to keep it in place and the amount sold increased accordingly.  As a result, companies began creating a variety of weights and strengths to meet the needs of women.

By 1964, hairspray was the number one selling item beauty product.  Unfortunately, the use of hairsprays declined in the 1960's and 70's due to a change in societal views so hair became freer and less styled. In the 1970's chlorofluorocarbons were outlawed so hairspray manufacturers had to rely on other ways to power hairspray.  Alberto V-O5 company released the first CFC hairspray in 1977 while other countries phased out this chemical.

Then in the 1980's grunge hit the scene and those styles required lots of hairspray to hold it in place and it caused an increase in its use.  Now it tends to be used by women who want their hair to hold in place through special events but many women no longer fix their hair the way they did in past times.

The creation of the aerosol spray lead to more than just hairspray.  It lead to spray paint, spray deodorant, and anything else that came out of can propelled by an aerosol.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day and I'll see you on Friday.