3. Lyda Newman’s Hairbrush

Change the everyday, and you change life itself.

The most commonplace objects can profoundly impact the way people carry themselves through the world. Consider the hairbrush. This intimate, everyday object touches the body, brush against scalp, affecting one’s appearance, one’s whole sense of self, influencing how the day begins.

In the late 19th century, the New York-based hairdresser and suffrage activist Lyda Newman was frustrated with traditional hairbrush design. Hairbrushes had existed for thousands of years with very little change: animal bristles attached to wooden, ivory, or metal bases were used to clean and style hair. But the traditional design didn’t work well for the thick, textured hair of Black women who were Newman’s clients. So she designed a better hairbrush, with an innovative bristle plate that detached from the back of the brush. This allowed the entire bristle assembly to be removed, rinsed, and shaken free of accumulated matter, an improvement over brushes with close-packed or solid bristle beds.

In 1898, Newman received U.S. Patent #614,335 for her hairbrush design. She filed the application independently, without co-inventors or assignees, and was only the third Black woman ever to receive a patent. Her brush is a precursor to the “self-cleaning” brushes with retractable bristles that are common today.

That she received a patent matters not because the object was revolutionary, but because the gesture was. It was an act of expansive and enterprising imagination, a solution to a problem that need no longer be tolerated. Life operates through the everyday. Change the everyday, and you change life itself.

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This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.

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