on the hand held portion of the appliance and is positioned to allow single handed operation application_number US 83459804 A description the hair shaping appliance shown in the figures is a so called straightening appliance by means of which curly or frizzy hair can be smoothed out but also shaped in any other desired way the appliance is designed as gas operated steam styling tongs in which an evaporator is heated and generates steam by means of a gas burner referring to fig1 and 2 the appliance has an essentially cylindrical hand held part 1 by which the appliance can be gripped a shaping element 2 by means of which the hair can be shaped and styled is attached to the end side of the hand held part 1 a clamping mouth 3 is located in the form of a half shell on a lateral surface side of the heated shaping element 2 and can be pivoted away from the shaping element 2 by means of a rocker button 4 arranged in the interior of the shaping element 2 as a heating device for heating the shaping element 2 is a burner 5 by means of which a suitable combustible gas.