Crimped Hair

The modern crimping iron was invented in 1972 by Geri Cusenza, the founder of the haircare company Sebastian — who created it, according to styling lore she herself anchors, to give Barbra Streisand's hair its texture. The tool was simple and slightly menacing: a pair of heated plates with S-shaped grooves that pressed straight hair into a tight sawtooth zigzag, one clamped section at a time. There was also the free version every kid figured out — braid wet hair into a dozen tiny plaits, sleep on it, and unravel the next morning into a full head of crinkles.

Crimping hit its mainstream peak in the mid-1980s and rode that momentum through the 90s as a special-occasion power move. It was the hairstyle you deployed — for school pictures, dance recitals, birthday parties, and mall trips of great personal significance. Often it came in half-measures: a few crimped sections framing otherwise straight hair, or crimped pieces gathered up with butterfly clips and scrunchies for maximum era density. The iron itself was a sleepover fixture, passed between friends over a bathroom counter while it filled the room with the unmistakable smell of hot styled hair.

Like most great hair fads, crimping never really died — it cycles. Fashion runways revived the look around 2007–08, and it resurfaces every time the 80s and 90s come back around, which is always. But the crimper's true era ended when flat irons conquered the 2000s and stick-straight hair became the goal; the same girls who once zigzagged every strand spent the next decade ironing them flat. Somewhere in a bathroom drawer, though, the crimping iron waits — grooves intact, ready for one more picture day.