who invented the pressing comb
The pressing comb (hot comb) does not have a single, clear inventor; it evolved over time from European heated irons and was later adapted and patented by several people, including Elroy J. Duncan and Walter Sammons, while entrepreneurs like Annie Turnbo Malone and Madam C.J. Walker popularized it in Black hair care.
Quick Scoop
Did Madam C.J. Walker invent the pressing comb?
Many people casually say Madam C.J. Walker invented the pressing comb, but that’s a myth.
- Madam C.J. Walker never claimed to have invented the hot/pressing comb.
- She bought combs from suppliers and incorporated them into her broader hair‑care system.
- Her genius was in marketing, distribution, and training sales agents, which made the hot comb iconic in African American beauty culture.
So she was the powerhouse who helped make pressing combs mainstream in Black communities, not the original inventor.
Where did the pressing comb come from?
The pressing comb grew out of heated hair‑styling tools in 19th‑century Europe.
- In the 1870s–1880s, French stylist Marcel Grateau developed heated irons that revolutionized hair curling and waving; these tools later influenced straightening comb designs.
- Britain’s Science and Society Library credits a Parisian manufacturer, L. Pelleray, with making heated irons in the 1870s.
- A white French inventor is often cited as the origin of the “hot comb” concept, though early patents are specifically for curling and waving irons rather than the exact pressing comb used later in Black hair care.
In other words, the technology started in European salons, then was adapted and transformed in the U.S. context.
Key names linked to the pressing comb
Because there isn’t one single universally accepted inventor, historians mention several figures when people ask “who invented the pressing comb?”
- Marcel Grateau (France, late 1800s) – Developed heated hair irons used for curling and waving, often cited as the ancestor of the hot comb.
- Elroy J. Duncan (U.S.) – Believed to have invented and manufactured one of the first heated metal straightening combs in America, sometimes called a pressing comb.
- Walter Sammons (U.S.) – Received a U.S. patent for a hot comb design in 1920 (Patent No. 1,362,823), refining the tool rather than creating the first one from scratch.
- Other patent holders – Inventors such as J.E. Laing, Bernia Austin (Indol Laboratories), Clara Grant, and Louisa B. Cason also created and patented versions or improvements of hot combs in the 1910s–1920s.
Some sources also suggest Annie Turnbo Malone may have been first to patent a pressing iron/comb, but official patent records for a 1920 or 1925 hot comb patent in her name are disputed.
Table: Major figures tied to the pressing comb
| Name | Role in pressing comb history | Region / era |
|---|---|---|
| Marcel Grateau | Created heated hair irons that inspired later hot/pressing combs. | [4][1][2]France, late 19th century. | [2][4]
| L. Pelleray | Manufactured heated irons that are part of early heated-tool history. | [2]Paris, 1870s. | [2]
| Elroy J. Duncan | Believed to have made one of the first American hot/pressing combs. | [7][3][2]United States, late 19th–early 20th century. | [3][2]
| Walter Sammons | Patented a hot comb design in 1920, refining the tool. | [4][2]United States, early 20th century. | [4][2]
| Annie Turnbo Malone | Major Black beauty entrepreneur; some sources credit her with a pressing comb patent, though patent records are unclear. | [9][8][4]United States, early 20th century. | [8][9]
| Madam C.J. Walker | Popularized hot comb use among Black women, integrated it into a full hair-care system but did not invent it. | [5][6][1][2]United States, early 20th century. | [5][1]
| Louisa B. Cason and others | Filed later hot-comb-related patents and manufactured combs. | [4][2]United States, 1910s–1920s. | [2][4]
Why is there confusion about “who invented” it?
A lot of the confusion comes from how history, marketing, and community memory overlap.
- Early European tools blurred the line between curling irons and straightening combs, making it hard to pin a single first “pressing comb.”
- Patent records show multiple people refining and patenting versions of the comb over several decades.
- Madam C.J. Walker became such a powerful symbol of Black hair entrepreneurship that many people assumed she invented every tool she used or sold.
So when people ask “who invented the pressing comb,” the historically careful answer is: it was developed through a series of innovations by European and American inventors, then transformed and popularized in Black hair culture by entrepreneurs like Annie Turnbo Malone and Madam C.J. Walker.
Mini story: A Saturday with the pressing comb
Picture a 1920s Saturday morning in a Midwestern Black neighborhood. A girl sits on a wooden chair in the kitchen, a towel around her shoulders, the smell of hair grease in the air.
On the stove, a metal comb heats up until it’s just right—hot enough to smooth tight coils, not so hot it burns. Her mother or a local hairdresser carefully pulls each section of hair through the comb, transforming texture strand by strand, while sharing news, advice, and neighborhood gossip.
That routine—equal parts beauty ritual, business opportunity, and community space—is exactly the world Annie Turnbo Malone and Madam C.J. Walker built around tools like the pressing comb.
TL;DR: No single person can be definitively crowned as the sole inventor of the pressing comb, though European inventors such as Marcel Grateau and American makers like Elroy J. Duncan and Walter Sammons played key roles in its development, and Black beauty entrepreneurs Annie Turnbo Malone and Madam C.J. Walker made it central to 20th‑century Black hair care.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.