1940s Humania Brass Hot Comb-New York, NY

Made by Humania Hair and Specialty Manufacturing Company during the late 1940s…Great Condition!

Humania Hair Goods & Specialty Mfg. Co.
303 4th Ave. New York 10-12, NY
East Brooklyn-Black Beautician Supplies
Catalog No. 182 Pressing Comb
7” Small Weight (1.8 ounces)
Solid Forged Brass 2” Head/Teeth
Oak 3.25” Handle
Original Cost $.99 cents
(Non-electric or traditional)
Company slogan-“Leading Hair Stylists Since 1910”
Started selling brass traditional hot combs in 1915 and continued until late 1950s along with electric variations of hot combs.
In the early 1920s, Humania’s hot comb line called “Eureka” was the best-selling hot comb in New York and abroad. Humania is still a beautician company in New York today!

A hot comb is a metal comb with a wooden or heat-resistant handle that is used to straighten curls in hair. The “teeth “of the comb could be heated on a stove at temperatures between 300- and 500-degrees Fahrenheit in just a matter of seconds. The idea of the hot comb was originated in 19th-century France by hairdresser François Marcel Grateau, the inventor of the “Marcel Wave” in hairstyling. Grateau’s wave inspiration came from the hairstyles of ancient Egyptian women and the beauty it captured.
There are typically two designs of hot combs for different styles…the pressing and the straightening.
The hot comb would come to revolutionize the African American beautician industry
when inventor Elroy J. Duncan patented a comb that you could heat and groom a mustache. Duncan’s tool was quickly adopted by African American women to create the latest styles for natural curly hair.
From 1912 to 1922 in America, dozens of hair products companies and independent hairdressers patented and sold inexpensive versions of hot pressing and straightening combs. Traditional hot combs would eventually be replaced with electric and modern hot irons or hot curling techniques to provide the latest hair fashions. Traditional hot combs were eradicated from beauty product companies almost completely by the late “Fifties” to the early “Sixties”. Some modern barbers still use traditional hot combs for patrons who want the “classic” treatment…but it’s expensive now.

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