Old Time Curling Irons

It is no wonder that Fletcher advised against the use of the curling iron, for the electrical devices which we now know and love were only just beginning to come to the market during this time. Most women curled their tresses with the old time metal irons that had to be heated manually in the fireplace or over an open flame. There was no temperature control -- one simply had to hope it wasn't overheated to the point where it would scorch one's hair off. Telltale singe marks were apparently not uncommon to find in a fashionable 'do, as referenced in the Love Sonnets of an Office Boy:

Yesterday I stood behind your chair

When you was kind of bendin' down to write,

And I could see your neck, so soft and white,

And notice where the poker singed your hair,

The idea of heating up the iron from an outside source seemed to initially be preserved in the new electrical editions: instead of making the electricity heat the actual ironing device, early versions often came instead with a little electric oven to be heated in.