Before handheld hair dryers, which common appliance was used to dry hair?

Before the invention of the handheld blow dryer, women and men had to get creative when it came to drying their hair at home. One of the first devices used as a hair dryer was actually the vacuum cleaner. Turn of the century vacuum cleaners sucked in air through the front and blew it out through the back. Vacuum cleaners came with a hose that could be connected to either the front or back end. Women would often connect the vacuum hose to the back end of the vacuum, turn it on and use the air from the vacuum to dry their hair.

The first handheld hairdryer was put on the market in the 1920s. Unlike modern hairdryers, the first handheld version was big, heavy (weighing about 2 lbs/1kg) and frequently overheated. They were not able to dry hair very quickly and women's arms often got tired from holding the heavy gadget. There were also many instances of overheating and electrocution due to contact with water.

In 1901 powered vacuum cleaners using suction were invented independently by British engineer Hubert Cecil Booth and American inventor David T. Kenney. The first vacuum-cleaning device to be portable and marketed on the domestic market was built in 1905 by Walter Griffiths, a manufacturer in Birmingham, England. His Griffith's Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets resembled modern-day cleaners; – it was portable, easy to store, and powered by "any one person (such as the ordinary domestic servant)".