The time period is thought to be originated from Military aviators, who used the word in hair-rising pressing scenarios within the army, which may also be traced again to the Seventies and Eighties.
Even prior to the Military aviators picked up the word and made it commonplace, it might be present in historical teachings of Buddhists who mentioned, an individual will have to search enlightenment as keen as any person whose hair is on fire would search water.
Later, in 1939 Irish novelist Marcel Joyce used the time period in his novel Finnegan’s Wake.