Why the Hair Straightener? Rachel...

Why the Hair Straightener? Rachel the hairy trend setter

Why the Fork: Everyday design for curious minds by D2M Product Design
S1 · E2
Jul 30, 2025
46:06

Episode notes

Our hair, and how it looks, plays a huge part in our identity.

From beehives to bobs and from quiffs to comb-overs, your hair-do says a lot about who you are.

And the hair straightener has played a bigger role in that than you may think, for longer than you might have realised.

Long before GHD was a thing, people were getting rid of their curls to fit in, and conform to social standards and norms - but those designs were far from what we use today.

As Creative Innovator and inventor of consumer goods, Ben Diamant, finds out, the hair straightener's story includes racism, phantom inventors, burning hair and (possibly most importantly) Rachel from Friends.

Ben talks to product design expert Phil Staunton, founder of D2M, about how he used the hair straightener design to create something completely different, and how you take new products to market.

They also speak to an expert in hair straightener design - Sam Fordlay from Original Catapult Developments.

FOLLOW THE SHOW:

https://www.instagram.com/whytfpod/

LINKS

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bendiamant/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/philstaunton/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/s%CE%B1m-fordlay-26024458/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://www.instagram.com/original_catapult_developments/?hl=en

https://www.linkedin.com/company/original-catapult-developments/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://www.design2market.co.uk/

Podcast production by: https://www.gingerwizard.co.uk/

86b4d4d095c23ce6901cd4189d98c0ce7dbd7b06

Keywords

design podcast
history of everyday objects
History
Design
Social history
Why the Fork
innovation
consumer products
engineering
Design to Market
D2M
Ben Diamant
Phil Staunton
sustainability
Ginger Wizard Productions
hair straighteners
styling
beauty
marketing
culture
GHD
Ada Harris