Beauty procedures in the 1930s-40s

What was it about inventors in the 20th century that made some of their inventions so weird? Take just about anything you can think of, and someone probably invented a really weird version of it at some point in the 20th century. There have been tons of weird inventions in the past, but they even managed to make something like beauty products look weird and terrifying.

Today, women curl their hair by putting it up into plastic spools or using a curling iron. Back then, they wound their hair up into a mess of thick, heated wires. They also wore all manner of strange and terrifying masks in an attempt to perfect their skin. Today, women simply need some cream or, in the worst case, a face mask cream and some cucumbers.

On the other hand, a few of these look awesome – who hasn’t had the sort of morning where they’d kill for a Hangover Heaven mask fresh out of the freezer?

A chorus of large blow-driers attends to a customer in the 1920s

A permanent hair procedure (presumably hair waving) being performed in Germany in 1929

‘Freezing’ freckles off with carbon dioxide was a popular treatment in the thirties.
Patients’ eyes were covered with airtight plugs, their nostrils were filled in for protection, and they had to breathe through a tube. (Image credits: Time and Life pictures / Getty Images)

Pre-war women would spend hours with their hair bundled up into creepy heating machines like these to achieve a fashionable curled look
Image credits: courtesy Everett collection / Re

This terrifying mask from the 1940s could be plugged in to heat the face and head in an attempt to stimulate circulation and make the skin look fresh

This device from 1930, invented by Max Factor, helps correct the application of make-up

A fruit mask from the 1930s

These two 1920s women are getting rid of wrinkles and imperfections by wearing rubber “beauty masks”

A 1940s beauty treatment at Helena Rubinstein’s salon

Before the invention of sun-screen in the mid 1940s, bathers wore garments like this Freckleproof Cape to protect themselves from the sun. The cape also features built-in sunglasses.

The ‘Hangover Heaven’ face pack, also invented by Max Factor, featured plastic cubes that could be filled with water and frozen. The mask was popular with party-going Hollywood stars in the forties
Image credits: London Media

This ‘Glamour Bonnet’ from the forties promised to give users a rosy complexion by lowering atmospheric pressure around their head to simulate alpine conditions.
Image credits: London Media

This Thirties suction machine consisted of tiny glass nozzles, a rubber hose and  a vacuum pump. It promised smooth, spot-free skin
Image credits: London Media

‘Slenderising salons’ in the forties devised all sorts of weight-loss treatments, one of which was massage chairs like these, which massaged clients’ legs with metal rollers.
Image credits: Alfred Eisenstaedt /Time & Life pictures /Getty Images

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