News Articles for GlideHair

The idea of coin-operated hair stylers is not new.

Back in the 1920’s a man called Wally Kalumenos came up with the idea of coin-operated electric hair stylers. That was a pretty novel idea back in those days – so much so that Wally applied for a patent for his idea, and this was duly granted on 7^th July 1926 – more than 80 years ago.

We guess Wally’s idea was just a little bit ahead of it’s time, because we can’t find any evidence that Wally died a rich man!

In fact it wasn’t until more than 50 years after Wally’s patent had expired that ceramic hair straighteners become a ‘must-have’ for girls.

Cutting from “Popular Science Monthly” Oct 1927

Whilst it’s a bit late for Wally to benefit from this fashion, we at GlideHair think that at least we should recognise that the original idea was Wally’s, and not try to lay claim to the original idea ourselves.

To claim to have invented coin-operated hair stylers and, worse still, to try to apply for a patent* on the idea will have poor old Wally turning in his grave!

* the patent authorities have indicated that such a patent application will be disallowed due to prior art (Wally’s patent).