I love classic 1960s and 70s hairstyles and hairdressing, particularly classic wetsets. I collect vintage curlers, dryers and other items, and find they are much better for vintage hairdressing techniques than modern variants. You can email me at incurlers^gmail-com by replacing ^ with @ and - with a period.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Braun Floating Bonnet Dryer
This dryer was originally from Germany (Braun is a German company). This ad from the 60s (translated) says you can hardly feel the dryer as is floats on a cushion of air, and is so quite you can even make a phone call. Not in my experience, at least with the North American version. The fan isnt that strong, and the top of the dryer dyer which holds the fan sits on your rollers. The fan is also quite loud, being almost right on you're head. Its too bad - it sounds so to have a hood blow up and float nice an securely on your curlers while you go about your business. Maybe those dryers worked better when they were new. Has anyone else any experiences with them? The lady in the ad certainly looks happy with her dryer. Maybe its the first dryer she had and the luxury of a home dryer more than compensated for any shortcomings it had.
What a great photo! I can remember mum using something similar - she loved it as she could smoke while her hair dried! Ah...the 60s!
ReplyDeleteThe smoking part of the the 60s is one part of that era that I don't like. Must have been awful with almost everyone smoking, and doing that inside buildings etc!
ReplyDeleteI have a Krups bonnet dryer from the 70s with a motor that hangs down from the hood (exactly like this one). To answer your question, it is insanely loud, to the point where I have to wear ear plugs to protect my hearing. But otherwise it is a nice product.
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed that model would be loud given the the motor is far from your head. Have you ever used typical German drahtwickler? Much better made that North American wire brush rollers.
ReplyDeleteThe motor on my Krups model is probably twice as far from the ears as the one illustrated in your advertisement, but the distance is still not enough to mitigate the noise that little machine emits. And to answer your question, I've never actually used the Drahtwickler here. I either stick to pin curls, my sponge curlers, or (more rarely) rag curls. Next time I'm at the store I'll take a look at them to see how they're constructed. Usually the products made in Germany are high quality, so I completely believe what you are saying.
ReplyDeleteInteresting - take a look at them - and your right - German things are really well made. You must be in Germany - for some reason I thought you were in the US with a particular interest in Germany. How do you find you find your sponge rollers? I find they tend to deform and pull if used overnight.
ReplyDelete