1) $185. I think expecting perfection is justified at that price tag.
2) No heat settings. Getting really annoying that my old straightener had 100 of them and I can’t even do hair maybe that is 5% wet with this one.
3) It’s not that special. Does it straighten faster than my oldie? Yes, by a couple swipes. Does it straighten faster than nice new irons for less than half the price? Doubtful. And does it do anything impressive besides heat up lightning-fast? Well…not really.
4) Oh, and did I say $185?
Went from 3 stars to 2, and for that, went back home. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great iron and cheers if cost isn’t an issue to you, but to me it is definitely not worth the extra dollars–I prefer to think of it as $185 off a new bag instead.
Well, as my 6-or-something-year-old Remington Wet-2-Straight (though still going strong!) is just not cutting it for my recent efforts to up the quality of my beauty/fashion collection, I decided to finally cave and test out this little starlet (ordered from Sephora–hello free holiday samples!):
ghd Classic 1″ Styler
Upon opening the glitzy box, I was a little underwhelmed by the small, regular-looking tool. It only has a on-off switch and a LED light to flash that it is on, so no heat settings or anything fancy (to me, -1). By the reviews all over the web, you would think this thing is a gift from the heavens, but yeah, pretty basic in terms of looks and function.
I plugged in the hairdryer-like plug, pressed “RESET,” and switched it on. To my surprise, it beeped eagerly within seconds. Impressive point +1.
I then straightened a couple sections of my abused, wavy hair (using a protection spray first). It took about two sweeps per section, but it did do the job rather quickly and smoothly. Overall, better than even the tourmaline flat irons that I have used, so +2 for that.
Then, I tried out the second most important function for me: curling. I love my curls but I’m lazy, so I do not want to deal with both a straightener AND a curler every time I want to look optimal. Well, I tried a couple methods to see how many different shapes I could get, and I have to say not all of them worked out equally well. This thing is pretty hot/unprotected (my bulky Remington must have spoiled me), so I did suffer a mini-burn on my index finger. Therefore, I think I will abstain my rating for the curling ability for now, at least until I get a fair grasp of the thing.
And finally, the most dramatic part: as my wonderful luck would have it, it was raining–actually raining, with fat raindrops and everything–in the middle of the record-breaking drought of good ol’ California today, so of course I could already hear my hair frizzing as soon as I cracked my window in the morning. BUT–here is the amazing part–my hair somehow went the whole day, i.e. about 6 hours including multiple 15-minute periods of walking under the rainfall, without frizzing. Yep, you read that right. I’m entirely not sure if it’s my new leave-in spray or the effects of the ghd, but still, we gotta give it a +1 for that.
Thus, the final count: lack of functions (-1) + superfast heat-up (+1) + impressive straightening (+2) + frizz-defying magic (+1) = +3 stars as of yet. Not too shabby, but it will have the chance to redeem itself as I continue to test out the (1) curling skills and (2) durability.
Vogue, M.D. 