What Barbie and Barbra Streisand have to do with the crimping irons? Well a lot ...
Although there were already electric devices invented for the hair Geri Cusenza, Hollywood stylist and co-founder of Sebastian with her husband John Sebastian, is credited for inventing the crimper in '72 when she was designing the image of Barbra Streisand for her new album Butterfly.
Apparently, after spending a whole day doing braids, she saw that wasn't something feasible to do every time Barbra had a public appearance so, inspired by the textile pleaters and with the help of his brother-in-law Tony, who was an engineer, they invented the crimper iron for the use and enjoyment of the world and Barbra was able to wear waves of various sizes from the launchment of Butterfly in 1973 through the album Classical Barbra in 1974 to 1975 approximately, although on many occasions throughout her life she has winked at that #seventies image.
But then, in the mid to late 80s, the real crimped hair craze was unleashed when in 1987 Taylor Dayne released her single Tell it to My Heart and in her video clip she appeared with frizzy and voluminous hair. Gone was that seventies boho look of having gone to sleep with four braids to give way to leonine manes and a lot of fantasy that would last well into the 90s to wear matching your All Stars.
And there we have Barbie who, following the trend as a good compass of society and fashion, left us several models with crimped hair in various sizes from the largest waves of Barbie Benetton Shopping to the microwaves of Barbie Butterfly Art and of course the best-selling Barbie to date, Barbie Totally Hair.
And as for those of us who were children at that time ... we had quite affordable crimpers available to make waves in our hair to match those of Barbie and to end with fried hair to the chagrin of our moms.
by The Barbiest