Rose Evansky was already a successful Mayfair hairdresser when she introduced the blow-drying technique that is now used in salons around the world. She had seen a barber in Brook Street using a hand dryer and brush to dry-style men’s hair and wondered if it would work on the wet hair of her female clients.
One Friday lunchtime a Mrs Hay came in for her regular appointment and, as Evansky recalled: “I picked up a spiky plastic hairbrush and a hand dryer and started rolling a wet section of her hair around the brush, followed by warm air from the hand dryer held in my left hand . . . The more sections of wet hair I rolled over the brush, the easier it became,