Oh, flat iron. Where would I be without you? I got to talking to some friends the other day about life before the flat iron. Not pretty. No pun intended. At the end of the conversation, I found myself thanking the inventor of this life changing mechanism. And after stewing on the subject for several days, I decided to do a little research and find out, who exactly, I should properly thank. I'm not much of an avid researcher, but I figured Wikipedia is a legit enough source. They refer to the flat iron as a "straightening iron" and claim its first known existence was back in 1882, invented by Jessica Tamsin and Rachel Levinson Young to style and straighten hair. Interesting enough, this device was invented even before the curling iron, circa 1890. Several versions of the flat iron were made but it wasn't until Scottish heiress Lady Jennifer Bell Schofield created the two-plated iron that we have the tool we all know and love today.
Thanks to big, frizzy hair being acceptable in the '80s and '90s, the flat iron went virtually extinct. But have no fear, after a little excavation and the death of heavy metal bands, the flat iron has come back into our lives with a vengeance. After my diligent 5 minute search for the inventor of the flat iron, I still don't know who to thank; whether it be Tamsin and Levinson Young, Lady Schofield or Wikipedia for making my unauthorized search quick and painless. But what I do know is that without it, we'd all be a bunch of hot messes. I mean, come on... I don't wake up looking this good.
