As good as GHDs but without the price tag (BaByliss 2085U Pro 230 Straighteners)

Member Name: k8eh

Product:	BaByliss 2085U Pro 230 Straighteners
Date:	21/07/09 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good results, cheap alternative to better brands

Disadvantages: I can't fault them

Unless you're a female naturally blessed with poker straight, sleek and silky hair, you probably own a pair of straighteners. Even men are straightening their hair nowadays so the market for straighteners is pretty broad. With the recession affecting everyone we're all looking for cheaper alternatives to the brands that we know are good.
As most straightener users will know, GHD is THE straightener to own... but with a whopping £100+ price tag, we're not so keen to invest.

On my quest to find a purse friendly straightener with excellent results I came across the Babyliss Pro 230. I'd read a few reviews and felt there were mixed opinions about it. Generally, the reviews were good proclaiming the Pro 230 to be as good as the GHD, but there were also a few bugbears that people had with them.

Anyway, I decided to go for it. At £65 they still weren't cheap, but they were a whole lot cheaper than GHD. I bought mine about 6 months ago and the contents were as shown in the photo about. Hair clips, a heat protection mat and the irons themselves.

As I've mentioned in previous reviews, my hair is a nightmare. It's the awkward wave you can do nothing with and it's also very thick, dry and prone to frizz. Unfortunately as my hair is wavy, I have to straighten it everyday with doesn't help with the dryness and I hate to think how much damage the heat is doing.

My old straighteners were dreadful, but at £15 what do you expect?
It was about time I'd invested in a new daily hair tool.

So after visiting my local Argos and picking up my new straighteners, I took them home to test them out.
As my hair is thick I need to straighten layer by layer by layer...
This is where the clips came in very handy, I usually tied up layers of hair in a bobble which left me with a nasty kink which took longer to straighten out, but with these clips, this problem is avoided.

The straightener's themselves heat up very quickly and depending on the amount of straightening needed you can change the heat setting. This is useful as it means thin, light hair won't be damaged as it needs less heat to straighten than thicker hair.

Another useful tool is the protective mat. I burnt marks into all sorts with my previous set of straighteners so this prevents that happening as the heat is absorbed into the mat when you rest your straighteners during use.

A problem I came across repeatedly in other reviews was the position of the on/off button and lots of people said they accidently turned the straighteners off during use. Personally I don't have this problem, perhaps I'm holding them differently but they stay on until I've finished and until I switch them off.

Straightening my hair was much easier with these irons, they glide through your hair smoothly and and leave each strand of hair straight and sleek. This means you don't have to repeatedly straighten a section of your hair as much as you usually would, hence less heat damage.

I was very impressed with the results, it used to take me 30-45 minutes to straighten my hair, repeatedly redoing sections. But now it takes me less than 20 minutes, which isn't that long considering the thickness and length of my hair. My hair stays straight all day long and even fairly straight the following day, it just takes a minor 5 minute touch up.

I wouldn't say they're better than GHDs but for the price they do just as good a job. I've even recently seen them in Wilkinsons for a bargain £34.99.

As a cheap yet effective alternative to GHDs, these straighteners are definately recommended.

Summary: A great buy