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Jarrett Rainsford & Laughton Wave Grip Makers

rowan

rowan

Born a Brummie
I have been sorting out things in the loft & have come across some old fashion wave grips from the war years, they may have been my Mothers or even Grandmothers.
I can just make out the makers name J.R.L BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND.

Can anyone tell me about the makers please. Thank you.
 
Thank you mikejee for your time & answer. I can just make out the word MANNEQUIN above the J.R.L BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND, would there be such a firm with that name?

As our city was famous for being a place of many trades I think they were made there :)) They were the sought of thing that would have styled hair in the 20s 30s & 40s
 
Hi Rowan
The grips were made by Jarrett, Rainsford & Laughton. You may know them as Laughton and Sons my mother worked for them in the 50s & 60s by then the grips were sold as Lady Jane
 
Rowan, I found a box of these when nan died, my girls appropriated them rapidly to style their hair with.
I think there is a thread about Laughtons on here somewhere.
Sue
 
Thank you both very much for your replies. Now i can be content in putting them safely away for anotheer generation to peruse over but this time I will put a little note with them to say who manufactured them in the "olden days"

Thanks again for your help xx
 
In a recent episode of "Wartime Farm" Ruth had her hair done with these clamps, and sugar-water! I've got some which were Nan's.
 
I saw that episode too I think that,s what amde me ferret them out & then I saw the name. I remember my Mother using the sugar-water & the wave grips.

By the way is 'wave grips' the correct name for these 'evil' looking things .
 
rowan, I've never tried the sugar-water, I would have been afraid of bees and wasps! I've also got some of those flat metal curlers that have a clip in the middle to hold the hair before you roll them up, I don't know the proper name for them.
rosie.
 
Rosie, l have used sugar and water to dampen my hair before l rolled my hair up in curlers l think the curlers you are discribing were dinky curlers....l used them to rolled up my hair before l went to bed ....they were hell to sleep on....oh! what we did for beauty....Brenda
 
An interesting development of JRL was their acquisition in 1920 of Stratton
and Co, which the Laughtons diversified into radio components in the middle 1920s.
This became the well known Eddystone Radio Company which continued for another
70+years. The radios continued to carry the company name Stratton & Co.

Kind regards

Dave
 
My mother used to work for a company called Carola Products which used to make Dinky hairgrips and curlers. The factory was in Rabone Lane Smethwick.
 
Rosie led me to this post JRL, as my nan had some too, She called them Marcel wavers which made Marcel waves. I beleive he was a hairdesser. Mum used to say there was a Mr Teasie Weasie too. He was on TV.
I used to play with the wavers but they were lethal. YEs I put them in my hair. It looks like they are still in it! They were all different sizes and would withstand any amount of heat on them. My Aunty had the fire irons which she put in the open fire then the dipped them in water then curles round a paper then on to the hair. made nice curls. One arm of the tong was round and the other arm wrapped around it,, Nan also spoke about hair crimpers.
 
Goodness I still have some of my Nan's wave crimpers. When I started in hairdressing in 1968 waving was part of an exam. We had a sort of gel the waves were formed by hand and flat clips used to hold the wave. I remember Teasy Weasy, Raymond and of course Vidal Sassoon. My mother used hot irons on my hair heated on the gas stove and tested on paper before being used on my hair still scary though. One of the first to invent a hair grip was Newey of Newey and Ayre when he made money he changed to electrical components.
I remember my brother worked for a company called John Church who supplied all sorts including pins and needles. I will have to ask him where they were located.
 
Wendy said:
Goodness I still have some of my Nan's wave crimpers. When I started in hairdressing in 1968 waving was part of an exam. We had a sort of gel the waves were formed by hand and flat clips used to hold the wave. I remember Teasy Weasy, Raymond and of course Vidal Sassoon. My mother used hot irons on my hair heated on the gas stove and tested on paper before being used on my hair still scary though. One of the first to invent a hair grip was Newey of Newey and Ayre when he made money he changed to electrical components.
I remember my brother worked for a company called John Church who supplied all sorts including pins and needles. I will have to ask him where they were located.
Click to expand...
I used to work for Newy and Ayre my first full time job. Mates used to say, where do you work, I would tell them, and they would say, what? Newey ane 'oo eie?
 
Vivienne14 said:
Jarretts made a lot of products including double chin reducers! https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Jarrett,_Rainsford_and_Laughton

Here are the grips (top left side of image) mentioned in original post. Viv.

View attachment 107249
Click to expand...
We found some old french curlers of my partner's mum's. With the bobble on elastic at the end. Some were covered in soft spines? Like furry caterpillars. I like their French name of bigoudis. Bee goody. I remember mum using curler papers too she said to stop them burning her head.
 
Dave89 said:
An interesting development of JRL was their acquisition in 1920 of Stratton &Co

Dave
Click to expand...

In the mid-50s, most of the girls I knew were "Comptometer Operators", (whatever THAT was !), and most of my mates were apprentice toolmakers at Twinco Stratton, as we called it then.
It was a local firm for us and employed a lot of local people.
 
I remember Stratton powder compacts for ladies. They were regarded as quality items. Sold by the likes of Rackhams. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
I remember Stratton powder compacts for ladies. They were regarded as quality items. Sold by the likes of Rackhams. Viv.
Click to expand...

I've just been up to check and sure enough, I have a pair of my late Dad's cufflinks, (Laughing Cavalier), made by Stratton, England.
He thought they were posh !
 
Thanks Rosie. On the advert thread Lady P described the clips as "vicious" and that isn't an exaggeration. They had very sharp spikes along the inner edges and if you trapped your fingers in them it really hurt and could pierce the skin. No wonder they're no longer available. Although, maybe some 1950s revivalists would probably still use them for authentic 50s waves. Good luck to them ! Viv.
 
maypolebaz said:
In the mid-50s, most of the girls I knew were "Comptometer Operators", (whatever THAT was !), and most of my mates were apprentice toolmakers at Twinco Stratton, as we called it then.
It was a local firm for us and employed a lot of local people.
Click to expand...
On reading back on this thread I notice I failed to make my point.
Jarret, Rainsford & Lawton were known as Twinco and their factory was in Warstock Road B14.
(Soz !).
 
rosie said:
#16, These wave grip makers were mentioned on the Advertisement thread.
rosie.
Click to expand...
I used to hear advertisement pronounced as advert tisement. Did you? Where I worked we would get hauled over the coals if we answered the phone, saying Advertising!, as the department was the Advertisement Department. Now they gve you War and Peace before you can be put through.
 
This is a photograph of Laughtons on Warstock Road, also known as Twinco , who made Stratton products, as of last week. My Mom, Nan and various Aunts and Uncles all worked there at one time or another. Yet another, End of an Era. (Apologies for blurry picture)
 

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lansor said:
This is a photograph of Laughtons on Warstock Road, also known as Twinco , who made Stratton products, as of last week. My Mom, Nan and various Aunts and Uncles all worked there at one time or another. Yet another, End of an Era. (Apologies for blurry picture)
Click to expand...
That's a sad sight.
I wonder how many houses the developers will squeeze into that space ?
 
I don't know what will be built in it's place. Sometime last year there was talk of a hotel.
But at the top of the road, Alcester Road end, on the corner of Limekiln Lane and Warstock Road, plans have been submitted for a Lidl supermarket.
 
Photo on 04-11-2017 at 15.26.jpg Photo on 04-11-2017 at 15.09.jpg Photo on 04-11-2017 at 15.26.jpg Photo on 04-11-2017 at 15.09.jpg For your delight, A Laughtons pill box and a Compact. Does anyone use either any more?Are they still even made by anyone?
 
[QUOTE="lansor,
But at the top of the road, Alcester Road end, on the corner of Limekiln Lane and Warstock Road, plans have been submitted for a Lidl supermarket.[/QUOTE]
Last time I was up that way it was a petrol station.
I can't imagine a hotel on the Twinco site.
 
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