IT IS quite possibly the only thing that the singer Madonna and the Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona ever had in common: the perm.

Now, when it seemed that the world had waved goodbye to the preferred hairstyle of Seventies footballers and Brian May, the perm is making a comeback in the year of its 100th anniversary.

Since the start of the millennium women have been asking their salons to straighten their hair for a “Rachel”. Now Madonna sports a brand-new perm and the diminutive Seventies pop singer Leo Sayer and his mass of curls have been resurrected.

Fortunately women asking their stylists for a “Sienna Miller” or a Madonna-style flick are unlikely to have to endure the tortures inflicted in the name of beauty when the permanent wave was invented by an émigré German hairdresser in 1906.

Karl Nessler gave the first public demonstration of his perm machine at his salon in Oxford Street, London. He had experimented on his wife, Katharina, whose devotion was such that he was able inadvertently to burn off all her hair and scald her scalp not once, but twice.

The guinea pig had her hair wrapped tightly around 12in-long, heated brass rods connected to an electric chandelier. A system of weights and pulleys kept the 2lb bars from coming into contact with her scalp. The hair was saturated with sodium hydroxide and the rods heated to 100C for five hours. At the end of her ordeal Katharina possessed a head of brand-new curls.

Nessler, who had moved to London in 1901, was interned as an enemy alien on the outbreak of the First World War. In 1915 he escaped to New York, taking his invention with him. He discovered that copies of the device were already in use but few worked properly. He set up shop and soon owned a chain of salons in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia.

It was not until 1938 that the first “cold wave” chemical perm, requiring neither heat nor a machine, was invented. It was a vast improvement on the electric perm, which caused the hair to become dry and brittle. Nessler died in 1951, more than 20 years before the fashion he had started took the world by storm.

On the football pitch Kevin Keegan epitomised the style adopted by 1970s footballers. Since then, though they may not wish to be reminded of it, stars such as David Bowie, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Meg Ryan, Martin Shaw and Jon Bon Jovi have worn perms.

In the 1980s the “bubble perm”, a head of tight curls, was all the rage and was adopted by the group Bananarama and Kylie Minogue. The end of the century appeared to herald the demise of the perm as women opted for a more natural look or tried to emulate style made famous by the actress Jennifer Aniston as Rachel in Friends.

Jo O’Neil, the international technical education director for the Toni & Guy chain of salons, predicts a renaissance for the perm. “It has been in and out of fashion over the years, and has taken a lot of criticism, but it’s a legendary look,” he said. “It was originally developed to give support and hold to a blow dry — the curly effect was just a side-effect, but this developed into an iconic style statement.

“Over the years it has relaxed and is now all about creating movement and texture. New technology allows you to put movement into the hair that will fade away rather than being cut away. The perm has, at last, come of age.”

www.timesonline.co.uk/beauty

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