Swivel and straighten your hair (Babyliss Pro 1½ inch Pivot Straightener)

Member Name: Nickycool

Product:	Babyliss Pro 1½ inch Pivot Straightener
Date:	30/01/08 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bargain, straighten your hair lovely

Disadvantages: watch out when using the highest temperature

I've always loved Babyliss products so I was really happy when I won these straighteners in a competition with UK Hairdresser.com about 3 months ago.
I've never seen Babyliss Pro 1½ inch Pivot Straighteners in the shops. Only online. You can now buy them for £25 on Ukhairdresser.com, which is an absolute bargain.

* The look and features *

Babyliss Pro 1½ inch Pivot Straighteners are red with black trims and buttons. There's the on and off button and an up and a down buttons for controlling the temperature. The ceramic plates are 1 ½ inch and black. They do look smaller than my other straighteners but they are actually the same size. There are 6 different temperatures that you can set it on. 150°, 170°, 185°, 200°, 215° and 230°. It takes about 5 - 10 seconds to warm up, depends on what temperature you want it on. You can see on what temperature you're on by the digital display. It has swivel cord and the cord is quite long so you don't actually have to sit on top of the plug to straighten your hair. It comes with a heat protection mat, which you really need with these straighteners. It also has a pivot feature, which I've dedicated a whole section too as this is what makes them special.

* The Pivot feature *

They look like just an ordinary straightener but take a closer look. There's a circle on each side of the plate with 2 pull up rings that you can turn either way. Unlock them both and the 1½ inch plates swivel in both directions. If you want to lock in a certain direction just lock them in place by putting the rings back down. The angles you can pivot them at are 15° and 30°.

* Using the straighteners *

I always blow-dry my hair straight with TRESemme's heat defence styling spray. Then I plug in my straighteners. The first thing I noticed about these straighteners that it heats up really fast compared to my old ones. This magic instrument glides through my hair, really easily. It makes my hair straight, shiny but it still manages to keep some of the volume in my hair. As I don't like it, stock straight as it looks like you have nearly no hair at all. I use the pivot feature to do that bit at the back that I never seem to be able to do with asking someone. Well, not anymore. They aren't heavy so your arm doesn't start to ache in the middle of straightening. When I finish straightening, I feel proud. My hair is bouncy, shiny and straight with volume.

* Warning *

My hair is really thick and hard to straighten. Yet, I use these on the maximum temperature, my hair starts to frizz a bit. I use them on 200° - 215°. So if you have nearly straight hair or thin hair, use it on a normal temperature first and if it doesn't straight gradually move it up.

* Why I think these straighteners are better than GHDs *

No, I'm not kidding. These straighteners are better than GHDs. GHDs make my hair very straight but it never gives me any body or style plus after using my mate's pair for a month, I seemed to have more split ends than ever. When I started using the Babyliss Pro 1½ inch Pivot Straighteners, it gets my hair lovely, straight and smooth. After a month of usage not as many split ends as with the GHDs. Also if I'm doing my hair and not my friends, I had a very hard time doing the back of my head. No problem with the Pivots as they pivot in 5 different angle making it easier to do these problem areas.

* Overall opinion *

Absolutely love 'em. I can't live without these. I straighten my hair more than ever now (not really good thing for my hair I guess). These straighteners cut down the time to straighten my hair from around an hour and half - two hours down to 45 minutes - an hour. As these didn't cost me anything, it's even better but if I know about these straighteners, I would have bought them at £59.95 label that they had before they went in the sales.

For more information or to buy these straighteners, go to http://www.ukhairdressers.com/

Summary: Brilliant bargain straighteners