the.com/curling iron
A wand that bets your hair will forgive you for the heat.
means A heated cylindrical tool you wrap strands of hair around to temporarily reshape them into curls.
from Straightforward compound: 'curling' (to curl, from Middle English/Dutch 'krul,' meaning to twist or coil) plus 'iron,' because early versions, dating back centuries, were literally metal rods heated in a fire before being pressed into service on hair. Ancient civilizations used heated rods for this purpose long before electricity, so the device kept its blunt, honest name even after it went electric — it's still an iron, it still curls, nothing fancier going on.
- irony
- makes straight hair curly, curling iron sometimes does reverse
- temperature
- ceramic models hit 450°F, hotter than some ovens
- origin
- invented 1872, originally heated directly over flame
- risk
- barrel-to-scalp distance is the only real skill tested