Over its 100-year history in China, the often-maligned hairstyle has gone in and out of fashion amid warfare, gender politics, and cultural shifts.
By Office of Shanghai Chronicles
Editor’s note: German inventor Karl Nessler patented the first permanent wave machine, which used borax solutions and electric heated rollers to curl the hair, in 1909. About a decade later, this hairstyling technology reached Shanghai, with a Shun Pao newspaper advertisement for Xinyuan Barbershop in 1922 boasting “the latest steam perming services.” Here, we trace the history of the perm in China over the past century.
Modern hairdressing in Shanghai emerged in the late 19th century. Records show that in 1876, the Shengfa Barbershop opened on the central Wuchang Road, and in 1887, three French expatriates established the Paris Salon on Nanjing Road. After the 1911 Revolution, when men began to cut off their queues — long, often braided hair grown at the top of the scalp — barber shops adapted by shifting from hair shaving to styling.
Women’s hairstyles began to profoundly change after the May Fourth Movement of 1919, influenced by growing ideals of gender equality. Young females in urban areas also started cutting their hair short, prompting barbers to extend their services to women. The prevalent style then was to have straight-cut bangs and ear-length sides.
Left: An “investigation” into Shanghai hair salons featuring an illustration of the newest hairstyles published by Shun Pao, March 21, 1926; Right: A photo published in “The Eastern Times Photo Supplement” shows a perming machine, 1928. Courtesy of Shanghai Chronicles
The market for women’s hairstyling exploded with the introduction of perming technology in the early 20th century, attracting eager entrepreneurs. Early perming involved the use of heated tongs to turn straight hair into waves or curls — a technique quickly mastered by Chinese barbers. Soon after, electric perming technology became widespread.
In the late 1920s, Shanghai magazines showcased the latest European perming machines, which set the fashion trend. It was said that “modern ladies find beauty in curled hair.” By the early 1930s, women with permed hair frequently appeared in Shanghai publications such as the weekly magazine Ling Long and the newspaper The China Times Photo Supplement. The popularity of perming also created high demand for skilled technicians. In November 1928, the Min Kuo Jih Pao newspaper published a column introducing Zhao Cheng’en, who had recently graduated from a professional beauty school in Paris and been recruited by a new salon on Nanjing Road.
Left: An androgynous new hairstyle is introduced in the magazine Ling Long, 1933; Right: A woman called Liu Lianli shows off her fashionable hairstyle in the pages of the “The China Times Photo Supplement,” 1930. Courtesy of Shanghai Chronicles
The rise of the movie industry in the 1920s and ’30s saw the perm become the gold standard of glamour. Newspapers and magazines often featured gossip about young starlets who had gotten the style. In 1932, the Chinese film magazine Camera published a review that mentioned Shanghai actress Wang Hanlun had spent 120 yuan on a perm in the Philippines around 1925. (Editor’s note: At that time, 10 kilograms of rice cost only 1.3 yuan.)
By 1930, Shanghai had more than 2,000 barbershops, including 200 high-end salons, with 25 in the central Huangpu District alone. A year later, a group of Italian expatriates established a hairdressing school on Nanjing Road, where foreign technicians taught perming, styling, and massage techniques. This is one of the earliest recorded instances of public instruction in perming and beauty techniques in Shanghai. Around this time, barbershop owner Zhu Boqun crafted China’s first domestic perming solution after studying under a Greek merchant, breaking the foreign monopoly on the market.
Despite this breakthrough, records show that a perm at high-end shops still cost 15 yuan. To accommodate the mainstream demand, ordinary barbers began offering cheaper styling and perming services, intensifying the competition. In the early 1930s, the trend was said to be no longer the reserve of “high-income women who did not adhere to traditional Chinese values,” but rather for women of all backgrounds, such as “the secondary wives of rich men, schoolgirls, or housemaids,” who could have their hair permed into various styles for as little as 0.4 yuan, according to the magazine Forward Monthly.
The growing demand drove rapid development, leading to the establishment of the Shanghai Barber Association, which categorized businesses into four tiers and implemented standardized pricing.
Ads for Shanghai hair salons in Shun Pao, June 1929 (left) and January 1930. The price of a perm nearly doubled in a year. Courtesy of Shanghai Chronicles
Changing fortunes
As China’s economic center, Shanghai saw a rapid increase in social wealth throughout the 1930s. However, the Chinese people were also plagued by domestic turmoil and foreign aggression, and society entered a phase of cultural conflict.
After first taking root in Shanghai, the perm soon spread to other parts of the country, but it was met with controversy. Primary concerns focused on safety, with reports of accidents frequently appearing in the press. The death of celebrated performer Pu Kunying in a perming-related fire on Aug. 13, 1931, sent shockwaves through Shanghai society. Meanwhile, critiques of the trend toward Westernization, as well as accusations of extravagance and violations of aesthetic values, deepened opposition.
In 1934, the Nationalist government in Nanjing, which served as the capital of the Republic of China, launched its New Life Movement, which included lifestyle regulations prohibiting smoking while walking and banning women’s perms, among other measures. Scholars have suggested that the policy’s focus was “frugality” and “tradition” — as perming was an imported practice, it was viewed by conservatives as a tool for foreigners to profit from the Chinese people.
Indeed, the government’s criticism of perming largely centered on its prohibitive cost. Women’s Monthly in 1935 stated, “We must ensure our nation’s women return to simplicity and maintain their inherent virtues; this is the true meaning behind the so-called reform of perming.” In other social commentaries, perming was associated with luxury.
Traditional thinking also still held considerable sway, with many Chinese people believing that a woman’s beauty was in her naturalness, not adornment. Pictorial Weekly in 1934 commented that the permed hair commonly seen in Shanghai was “truly unsightly.”
Women with curly hair, Beijing, 1940. VCG
After the prohibitions issued in Nanjing, regions including Beijing, the southwestern Sichuan province and the eastern Jiangxi province followed suit. However, Shanghai’s attempt to ban perms sparked fierce resistance from women and media alike, ultimately forcing authorities to abandon the policy.
Yet, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it became a patriotic gesture not to get a perm. North China Daily News, the most influential English-language newspaper at the time, published a bilingual article that said the permanent wave was rare among the women involved in wartime medical support.
Hence, many beauty salons packed away their perming tools. It wasn’t until the war ended in 1945 that the hairdressing and perming industry enjoyed a revival.
Zhou Xuan, a famous singer and actress, is shown with curls on a magazine cover from 1943. Courtesy of Shanghai Chronicles
Styling in the streets
During the 1950s and ’60s, shifts in social attitudes toward simplicity and frugality once again led to a decline in the popularity of perms and beauty services. This remained the case until the late 1970s, when hairstyles became a symbol of change.
Fashion-conscious young women rushed to get perms en masse, but unlike before, they bought hair rollers to style their own curls. Women wearing hair rollers became a common sight on the streets and lanes of Shanghai.
Left: A portrait taken by the C. H. Wong photo studio in the 1950s; right: A piece introducing a chemical process for perming hair that promised to save power, published by the Xinmin Evening News, 1958. Courtesy of Shanghai Chronicles
Left: A news photo from Jiefang Daily shows a hair-perming demonstration held in Shanghai, 1978; Right: A 1989 textbook introducing hair-styling techniques. Courtesy of Shanghai Chronicles
Meanwhile, salons began offering perms and other modern styles. Under government guidance, businesses added new services and enhanced their technical and management standards. In the 1980s, when women’s perming reached a peak, hairdressers began importing the latest equipment from Japan and Germany. According to some Shanghai residents, getting a perm at a salon became “ceremonial” — the process took a full day.
From the late 1980s to early ’90s, as China’s reform and opening-up deepened, women in eastern coastal regions became the forerunners of the fashion trend, inventing a variety of curled styles. In addition, hair coloring and other techniques grew in popularity.
A woman gets a perm at a Shanghai barbershop, 1982. Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via VCG
Popular hairstyles in 1980s Shanghai. Courtesy of Shanghai Chronicles
In the 21st century, with changing trends and advancements in technology, hairstyles have become increasingly diverse. The pursuit of beauty never ends, but will the perm remain a permanent fixture in the future?
This article, translated by Chen Yue, is an excerpt from “Echoes of Time and Space” by the Office of Shanghai Chronicles. It is republished here with permission.
Editors: Wang Juyi and Hao Qibao.
(Header image: Women at a beauty salon read magazines while having their hair done, Shanghai, 1994. Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis/VCG)