The first patented curling iron was invented by Sir Hiram Maxim in 1866, but many stylists credit Marcel Grateau with creating and popularizing the classic heated curling iron a few years later.

Quick Scoop: Who invented the curling iron?

You’ll see two main names come up in the story of who invented the curling iron:

  • Hiram Maxim (1860s)
    • Filed a patent for a “hair‑curling iron” in 1865, granted in 1866.
* His design used metal pieces forming a heated barrel, plus features like a clamp to hold hair and a heat‑resistant handle.

* Because of this formal patent, he’s often cited as the inventor of the _first patented curling iron_.
  • Marcel Grateau (1870s–1890s)
    • French hairdresser who created heated curling irons used over an open flame in the 1870s.
* Widely credited in the hairdressing world with inventing the classic salon-style heated curling iron and the “Marcel wave” technique.

* Many beauty history sources say he “invented the curling iron” because his tools and methods became the trend and defined the look of the era.

So, if you’re answering “who invented the curling iron?” you can fairly say:

  • Technically/patent-wise: Hiram Maxim, with the first known patent in 1866.
  • Practically/salon culture: Marcel Grateau, who popularized and refined the heated curling iron and wave style in the late 19th century.

A quick timeline

  • Ancient and pre‑industrial eras: Various heated metal tongs used to shape hair long before modern patents, but not well documented by a single inventor.
  • 1866: Hiram Maxim receives a U.S. patent for a hair‑curling iron design.
  • 1870s–1890s: Marcel Grateau’s heated irons and “Marcel wave” become a huge fashion trend and lock his name into curling‑iron history.
  • 1959: French inventors RenĂŠ Lelièvre and Roger Lemoine create one of the first electric curling irons with automatic heating.

In everyday beauty history talk, you’ll often hear that Hiram Maxim invented the curling iron, and Marcel Grateau made it famous.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.