I don’t know if I can write 400 words about a hairdryer and I’m not quite sure where this is going anyway, but I thought I’d mark the day.
My hair dryer is more than 30 years old. It’s never given up – never burnt out – never stopped working.
I arrived in South Africa from Zimbabwe at the end of 1982 and it was some time after that that I went into Clicks and bought this Clairol 1400 Travel hair dryer.
The manufacture of hand-held electric hair dryers first began in about the 1920s. Before that, vacuum cleaners had already been invented. If there was a vacuum cleaner in the house, it doubled up as a useful device to dry the family hair. That gave one hairdresser the idea to use a similar system in his hair salon and so the hood hair dryer came to pass. That was in about 1890 and the hairdressers name was Alexander Godefroy.
AEG made early versions of the hand-held blow dryer between 1920 and 1925. My Clairol one and its counterparts were popular in the early 80s. I’m sure lots of people had similar ones.
The one thing I remember about my hair dryer that often strikes a cord with me when I use it is something that happened when Mike & I first started dating. Before I tell the story, you need to understand that my Dad was not a practical man. He never changed a plug and was not handy with anything around the house. Not long after I got to know Mike, I complained that my hair dryer cord was too short to reach from the plug to the mirror in my room at the nurse’s home. Mike said, ‘no problem – bring it to me.’ So I did and the next time I saw him, said hair dryer sported a chord about 3m long. It easily extended from the plug to the mirror now. I was in awe! When I was growing up, we paid people to do those kind of things and here Mike was seeing it as a simple job. My respect for him grew!
After we married, that long hair dryer cord got in the way, so it is now short again, but regularly when I blow dry my hair, my mind goes back over the many years the hair dryer has been with me. It’s my longest surviving electrical appliance. They made them good in those days! Good hair dryer – good husband!
While I appreciate the hair dryer, I view Mike as a gift…
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Appreciation.
Gratitude.
Good strong words.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂