The year is 2001. Destiny's Child, Robbie Williams, Alicia Keys, Dido and Travis dominate the airways.
We're watching The Weakest Link, Friends, Buffy, Sex and The City and The Sopranos. Meanwhile, Pearl Harbor, A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge fill our cinemas.
Wikipedia has launched online. Apple releases the iPod and Napster shuts down. A lot is going on.2001 also marks the year the beauty landscape changed forever: GHDs entered the market.
From the Ancient Egyptians who used iron plates to flatten their curls to hot combs being heated by the flame of a stove - and the use of clothing irons in the 50s - people have been straightening their hair for as long as we can remember.
But with the hair’s physical structure formed of some of the strongest naturally occurring bonds in the world, the changes can often be short-lived and require daily manipulation.
It was in 1910 when Garrett Augustus Morgan was trying to find a solution to relieve the friction in his sewing machine, that the first-ever form of hair relaxer was discovered.
After trialling this novel mix, he soon launched a successful company based on his chemical hair straightening invention.
This process - which works by breaking down the hair’s disulphide bonds - requires a period of ‘cooking’ on the head in order to ensure the permanent collapse of the hair’s natural texture.