Rommy Hunt Revson, the Woman Who Invented the Scrunchie, Dies at 78

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Rommy Hunt Revson, the creator of the scrunchie, the iconic hair accessory of the '80s and '90s, has died. She was 78.

Revson's estate lawyer, Alan Rothfeld, told The New York Times that her cause of death was a ruptured ascending aorta. She was also seeking treatment for Cushing's disease and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Revson, who had worked as a nightclub singer in New York City, first came up with the idea of a hair band that could hold a ponytail and not damage hair in 1986 when she was renting a house in Southampton, NY following her divorce, according to the Times.

She then decided to purchase a used sewing machine and taught herself to sew. Her first prototype, which was a combination of fabric and elastic, was called a scunci — named after her poodle.

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Within the year, she had obtained a design patent which protected how the product looked but not how it was made, according to the Times. She then obtained a license.

The Washington Post reported in 1995 that within the first month, Revson brought in $20 million in orders.

Her license, though, was unable to manage the large amounts of orders as the product surged in popularity causing it to go out of business. The product, once known as the scunci, morphed into "scrunchie" as people copied the design and began manufacturing it.

Shareif Ziyadat/WireImage Lizzo wearing a scrunchie

Walmart, Kmart, Target, CVS and Walgreens, who were among the companies manufacturing the copied design, agreed to become licensees and follow the patent, Lewis Hendler, a top executive and lawyer at New L&N Marketing and Sales — Revson's licensee from 1989 until the license expired in 2001 — told the Times. New L&N Marketing and Sales would then pay Revson $1 million each year over 12 years, he said.

The Times noted that Revson might not have been the first one to come up with the design as some say Philips Meyers developed something similar in 1963 that did not catch on.

"Rommy was a smart woman who managed to take a hair accessory item that in any other person's hands would have been a flea market item," Hendler told the Times.  "Her woman's fashion sense saw the potential in it going from a utilitarian hair holder to a fashion item."