A comb is a toothed device used in hair care for straightening and cleaning hair or other fibres. Combs are among the oldest tool

Tool

A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such...

s found by archaeologists
, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating back to 5000 years ago in Persia

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

.

Description

Combs can be made out of a number of materials, most commonly plastic, metal, cotton material or wood. Combs made from ivory and tortoiseshell were once common but concerns for the animals that produce them have reduced their usage. When made from wood, combs are largely made of boxwood, cherry wood or other fine-grained wood. Good quality wooden combs are usually handmade and polished.

Combs can vary in shape according to function. Hairdressing combs may have a thin, tapered handle for parting hair and close teeth. Common hair combs usually have wider teeth half way and finer teeth for the rest of the comb.

A hairbrush

Hairbrush

A hairbrush is a stick brush with rigid or soft bristles used in hair care for smoothing, styling, and detangling human hair, or for grooming an animal's fur.-Human use:...

, which is larger than a comb, is also commonly used for shaping, styling and cleaning the hair.

Uses

Combs can be used for many purposes including: securing long hair in place; decorating the hair; matting sections of hair for dreadlocking; or keeping a kippah

Kippah

A kippah or kipa , also known as a yarmulke , kapele , is a hemispherical or platter-shaped head cover, usually made of cloth, often worn by Orthodox Jewish men to fulfill the customary requirement that their head be covered at all times, and sometimes worn by both men and, less frequently, women...

 or skullcap in place. In Spain, a Peineta

Peineta (comb)

In Spain, a peineta is a large decorative comb usually worn under a mantilla, or lace head covering.The hair ornament, worn by women, consists of a convex body and a set of teeth that affix it to hair worn in a bun...

 is a large decorative comb to keep a mantilla

Mantilla

A mantilla is a lace or silk veil or shawl worn over the head and shoulders, often over a high comb, popular with women in Spain. It is particularly associated with traditional devotional practices among women in Catholicism.-History:...

 in place.

In industry and craft, combs are used in separating cotton fibres from seeds and other debris (the cotton gin

Cotton gin

A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed painstakingly by hand...

, a mechanized version of the comb, is one of the machines that ushered the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

). A comb is used to distribute colours in paper marbling

Paper marbling

Paper marbling is a method of aqueous surface design, which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other stone. The patterns are the result of color floated on either plain water or a viscous solution known as size, and then carefully transferred to an absorbent surface, such as paper or...

 to make the swirling colour patterns in comb-marbled paper.

Combs are also a favorite spot for police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 investigators to collect hair and dandruff samples that can be used in ascertaining dead or living people's identities, as well as their state of health, toxicological profiles, and so forth.

Making music

Stringing a plant's leaf or a piece of paper over one side of the comb and humming with cropped lips on the opposite side dramatically increases the high-frequency harmonic content of the hum produced by the human voice box, and the resulting spread sound spectrum can be modulated by changing the resonating frequency of the oral cavity.

This was the inspiration for the kazoo

Kazoo

The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...

. Moreover, the comb is also a lamellophone. Comb teeth have harmonic

Harmonic

A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...

 qualities of their own, determined by their shape, length, and material. A comb with teeth of unequal length, capable of producing different notes when picked, eventually evolved into the thumb piano

Thumb piano

The thumb piano is an African musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone common throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.-Description:Each note of a kalimba, mbira, etc. is a separate idiophone, and in orchestral terms, the instrument as a whole belongs in the bar percussion family...

 and musical box

Musical box

A music box is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century and called carillons à musique...

.

Afro pick

This type of comb has loose teeth and is primarily used on kinky, coil hair. In the 1970s, it was sometimes worn in the hair.

Nit comb

Specialized combs such as "flea

Flea

Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood...

 combs" or "nit

Head louse

The head louse is an obligate ectoparasite of humans. Head lice are wingless insects spending their entire life on human scalp and feeding exclusively on human blood...

 combs" can be used to remove macroscopic

Macroscopic

The macroscopic scale is the length scale on which objects or processes are of a size which is measurable and observable by the naked eye.When applied to phenomena and abstract objects, the macroscopic scale describes existence in the world as we perceive it, often in contrast to experiences or...

 parasites and cause them damage by combing. A comb with teeth fine enough to remove nits is sometimes called a "fine-toothed comb", as in the metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

ic usage "go over [something] with a fine-toothed comb", meaning 'search [something] closely and in detail'. Sometimes in this meaning, "fine-toothed comb" has been reanalysed as "fine toothcomb" and then shortened to "toothcomb".

Hygiene

Sharing combs is a common cause of parasitic infections, as one user can leave a comb with plenty of eggs or even live parasites, facilitating the transmission of lice, flea

Flea

Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood...

s, mite

Mite

Mites, along with ticks, are small arthropods belonging to the subclass Acari and the class Arachnida. The scientific discipline devoted to the study of ticks and mites is called acarology.-Diversity and systematics:...

s, fungi, and other undesirables.

External links

• H Morewitz (2008), "A Brief History of Lice Combs", Nuvoforheadlice.com
• TheOriginOf.com, (n.d.), "The Origin of Combs"