Scribd
Upload
100 views4 pages

Karl_Nessler

Karl Ludwig Nessler, born on May 2, 1872, was the inventor of the permanent wave hairstyle. He developed his technique in Paris and later patented his electric permanent wave machine in London, achieving significant success in the hairdressing industry. Nessler faced various challenges throughout his life, including internment during World War I and financial losses in the stock market, ultimately passing away on January 22, 1951.

Uploaded by

kripfen.julius.garner
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
100 views4 pages

Karl_Nessler

Karl Ludwig Nessler, born on May 2, 1872, was the inventor of the permanent wave hairstyle. He developed his technique in Paris and later patented his electric permanent wave machine in London, achieving significant success in the hairdressing industry. Nessler faced various challenges throughout his life, including internment during World War I and financial losses in the stock market, ultimately passing away on January 22, 1951.

Uploaded by

kripfen.julius.garner
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Karl Nessler

Charles Nessler (born Karl Ludwig Neßler; 2 May


1872 – 22 January 1951) was the inventor of the
permanent wave.

Life
Karl Ludwig Nessler was born on 2 May 1872 in 1908 advertisement from The Ladies Field
Todtnau. He was the son of Rosina (née Laitner) and
Bartholomäus Nessler, a cobbler in Todtnau, a small
town located high in the Black Forest, just beneath the Feldberg. He reportedly conceived the idea of a
permanent wave early on. As a youngster, he occasionally worked as a shepherd and observed that wool,
in contrast to human hair, is constantly crimped. He also noticed that plant tendrils would naturally curl in
advance of rainstorms. He began an apprenticeship with a village barber in nearby Schopfheim-Fahrnau,
but he dropped out after just a few months. He worked in Basel and Milan in different jobs, learned
Italian and French, and finally moved to Geneva. There he worked again as a barber and hairdresser and
finished his apprenticeship at an elegant beauty salon. Adapting to the French-speaking environment, he
called himself Charles Nessler, and often spelled his surname Nestle. Later, he moved to Paris, where he
tested his first perm on Katharina Laible from Ulm.

To do this, Nessler first divided Laible's hair into three plaits, tying each close to her scalp, moistening
the hair with a secret mixture, and winding the hair into spirals around metal rods that projected from the
head like horns. With self-constructed, electrically heated tongs, similar to a waffle iron, he heated the
plait-covered rods. The tongs had to be held constantly, and initially blisters rose on Laible's scalp. The
curling effect was finally successful on Nessler's third attempt, when he washed out the hair rollers for a
long time. The curl remained and was dubbed a "permanent wave".

In 1902, Nessler patented another invention, artificial


eyebrows, in the United Kingdom.[1] He moved to
London, married Katharina Laible in her home-town
of Langenau and took her with him.[2] Though the
perm was an immediate success in London, it was not
well received at a demonstration for leading
hairdressers held on October 8, 1906, perhaps because
Nessler's English colleagues resented his competition
for their regular customers. His electric permanent
wave machine was patented in London in 1909.[3][4]
In 1912, some improvements of his apparatus were
patented again.[5] In 1914, he patented a last
improvement before the outbreak of the war.[6] German-language advertisement for Nessler's
hair salon in London's exclusive Oxford Street
When World War I broke out, Nessler was interned and his assets were confiscated as alien property. In
1915, he emigrated to the United States, where he learned that counterfeited copies of his invention were
already being sold. In April 1919, his improved Hair Curler was filed at the United States Patent and
Trademark Office. He was already an American citizen. The holder of the patent was his Nestle Patent
Holding Co., Inc.[7] He developed a do-it-yourself kit for perms and opened a chain of hair salons. His
base of operations was the salon at 8-14 East 49th Street in Manhattan. In 1927, his chain had 500
employees, with branches in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Palm Beach, and Philadelphia. The annual
advertising budget was $300,000.[8]

Nessler amassed considerable wealth, but he never


forgot his humble origins. During the German
hyperinflation of the early 1920s, he donated the
respectable sum of 20,000 Marks to the impoverished
people of his birthplace. In 1928, he sold his hair
salon chain, production facilities, and distribution
network to the Nestlé-Le Mur Company, investing the
proceeds in the stock market. In the same year, he put
his name on a volume, The Story of Hair (New York:
Boni and Liveright, 1928), which is believed to have
been ghost-written by Zelda Popkin, a journalist and
novelist of the period. He lost almost everything in
the stock market crash of 1929. In the following An advertisement for Nestle's Circuline Wave can
years, he worked on methods of skin regeneration, be seen in the background of this painting by
wrinkle prevention, and hair regrowth. In 1935, his Tavík František Šimon
wife Katharina died. His attempts to regain his losses
were hindered by the breakout of World War II and
never really succeeded.[8]

On 22 January 1951, Karl Nessler died at the age of 78 of a heart attack at his home in Harrington Park,
New Jersey.[8][9]

Honors
Since 1996, the Nessler Prize has been awarded in Todtnau, the birthplace of Karl Ludwig Nessler. The
award was launched to mark the invention of the permanent wave 90 years earlier. At 2,500 Euros, it is
the most highly endowed craft prize in Germany. Financed by the Nessler Committee, it is awarded to a
particularly deserving and dedicated person in the hairdressing trade. Previous winners have been Alfred
Preussner of Gevelsberg (1996), Erwin Schmidt of Bretten (1999), Manfred Schmock of Darmstadt
(2002), Siegfried Helias of Berlin (2006), Franz Josef Küveler of Mendig/Palatinate (2011), and Günter
Amann of Wehr/Baden (2016).
In October 2006, on the 100th anniversary of the invention of the
permanent wave, a Nessler Museum opened its doors in Todtnau.
It is furnished as a hairdressing salon in the Art Nouveau style.

See also
German inventors and discoverers

References
1. A New or Improved Method of and Means for the
Manufacture of Artificial Eyebrows, Eyelashes and the
Like. British patent GB000190218723A, submitted
August 26, 1902, approved November 6, 1902. US- Turn-of-the-century German
Patent US000001450259A 1921. advertisement for the permanent
wave
2. Protestant marriage record in Langenau via: Ancestry:
"Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher
1500-1971", citing Affiliate Name: Evangelisches
Landeskirchenamt, Stuttgart, Deutschland; Digital film/folder number:
102089436_001_M9FC-LHM; FHL microfilm: 001189918; Image number: 457, scan (https://
www.ancestry.com/sharing/24798795?h=a5aa7d)
3. A New or Improved Process of Waving Natural Hair on the Head. British patent
GB000190902931A, submitted February 6, 1909, approved February 2, 1910.
4. Improvements in Apparatus for Use in Waving Natural Hair on the Head. British patent
GB000190920597A, submitted February 6, 1909, approved February 3, 1910.
5. Improvements in Hair Curlers. British patent GB000191223357A, submitted October 12,
1912, approved June 26, 1913.
6. Improvements in or Connected with the Waving of Natural Hair on the Head. British patent
GB000191408117A , submitted March 31, 1914, approved June 24, 1915.
7. US-Patent US000001400370A: Hair-Waving Apparatus, submitted April 16, 1918, approved
December 13, 1921.
8. "A Revolutionist Dies" (https://books.google.com/books?id=50sEAAAAMBAJ&q=nestler).
LIFE Magazine. Vol. 30, no. 6. Time Inc. Feb 5, 1951. p. 37. ISSN 0024-3019 (https://searc
h.worldcat.org/issn/0024-3019).
9. Staff. "Nessler, Invented Permanent Wave. Originator of Process Dies – Charged
Customers $120 in His Own Shop Here" (https://www.nytimes.com/1951/01/24/archives/nes
sler-invented-permanent-wave-originator-of-process-dies-charged.html), The New York
Times, January 24, 1951. Accessed July 29, 2011. "Charles Nessler, originator of the
permanent wave process, died Monday of a heart attack at his home in Harrington Park,
N.J. His age was 78. He also invented false eyelashes."
Charles Nessler [sic], The Story of Hair (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1928).

External links
Nessler Committee (http://www.badische-zeitung.de/todtnau/eine-welle-der-dankbarkeit--138368995.htm
l) members in 2017, with photo of Nessler
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karl_Nessler&oldid=1266673199"

You might also like