I've got some kinkiness left in me... (Babyliss Professional Metal Straighteners)

Member Name: saucy_molecule

Product:	Babyliss Professional Metal Straighteners
Date:	21/09/03 (757 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: few and far between!, worked ok for a while

Disadvantages: bulky, heavy, slow, take ages to heat up, the cord

Ladies and Gentlemen: I am on a quest. It?s a never-ending search for smooth, glossy, silky, shiny, and straight as a poker hair. Yesterday, I bought another pair of straighteners. But this isn?t an op about them ? it?s all about the ones I had before them. I?m building up to the new ones, but for a good comparison, and to explain why I felt it necessary to purchase some new ones, I thought it would be a wise idea to review the old ones first.

Firstly, a little bit about my hair. I am a natural strawberry blonde, even though I look ginger on my Ciao photo! My hair tends to be quite fluffy and soft, which may sound good, but on a bad day I walk around looking like a dandelion. I knew it was time for some new straighteners when I walked into work the other day and my friend Jenna went, ?Woah, frizzball!? Yeah, cheers mate!

Up until about a year and a half ago, I struggled along with my hair until one day my friend Bethan used her Toni & Guy straighteners on it before we went out one night. The results were amazing. However, not being able to afford Toni & Guy, I bought the cheaper alternative of the Babyliss Professional Straighteners. These cost me about £39.99 at the time, but I think they retail for a much lower price now.

The straighteners are the old style with metal plates. Obviously, now the majority of straighteners use ceramic plates, or at least ceramic-coated ones, which supposedly are better for your hair than the metal ones. Aesthetically, I actually think the metal ones look better. Ceramic plates tend to look a bit plastic and unattractive, but this isn?t a major concern of mine really. However, it might be for other people who wish to have swish-looking appliances on their dressing table (which for me, is usually a magazine on the floor!). The case is made of black plastic, which is fairly non-descript but it does do a pretty good job of letting you gauge how hot the straighteners are, i.e., you can feel the heat through it,
but it doesn't ever get too hot to hold or to burn you. I can also say I don't think I've ever burnt anything with these straighteners, not even when I've accidentally left them on over night.

The straighteners are fairly bulky. The plates are quite wide and the metal extends to the very edge of the plates, so it?s quite easy to start straightening, as close to the roots of your hair as possible and in theory, they should cover large areas of hair quickly. Unfortunately, in practice, the straighteners are just a little bit too big and clumsy to manoeuvre around your hair quickly. I found that by clipping up my hair and doing layers at a time was the easiest way to straighten my hair using these, and this is by no means a quick method. With my experience of newer, thinner plates, I think that the wide plates are unnecessary. Theoretically, it should be quicker to use, but in practise this doesn?t work out. Possibly, if you have very, very long hair then they might have the same effect as a paddle brush, but for shorter hair wider plates really aren?t needed. Also, I?ve only had these for about a year and although they come with a three year guarentee from the manufacturers, they are already beginning to look a little bit scuffed round the edges, and the plates themselves actually look a tiny bit rusty along the edges. I don?t think they should be in this condition after only a year so this is a little disappointing.

There is a comb that can be detached, and this is supposed to hold the hair taut and separate it out for better straightening. Initially, I thought that this was a really good part of the appliance, as it seemed to really help the process. But, after trying out my new ones, I?ve found that again, it?s unnecessary because if the straighteners get hot enough the comb isn?t needed to separate out the hair. I think now that all the comb will do on some hair types is roughen it up a bit. My sisters both remove the comb when th
ey use my straighteners as they say it pulls their hair. They both have thinner hair than me, so I think the comb would only really be useful if you have extremely thick hair that needs a bit more help in taming it. The other problem I have found with the comb is that if you use any products on your hair, this all gets gunked up in the comb. It seems to collect any residue of your hair and actually looks quite disgusting and makes me think twice about running the irons through my hair.

Another minor gripe I had was with the length of the cord. It is really short, and I have been known to be on my knees trying to see into a tiny mirror on the floor because I can't reach to see into the big mirror on the wall. I think if the length of the cord was increased it would also help with manoeuvring the appliance as well. When I'm standing up, it can be difficult to do the back of my head because of the angle you have to go at it (!) and the short cord doesn't make this any easier.

There is no range of temperature settings, which I don?t think I really need for my hair. The only problem I have with this is that if you want the straighteners to be really, really hot you have to leave them on for about half an hour. I?ve found that the longer you leave them to heat up, the better they perform, so if you?re pushed for time in the mornings, these are no good at all. I started washing my hair the night before and then straightening it the morning after. Unfortunately, this doesn?t give as good results for me as doing it immediately after washing it. As a plus point, there is an on/off button, which means you can turn them off without having to unplug them. This drives me mad when you have to remember to take the plug out of things to turn them off (like the iron) because I never remember to do it. Half the time, I struggle to remember to switch them off with the button anyway. I would like to see straighteners come with some kind of timed cut-off poi
nt, because I have left mine on overnight before now and woken up to find a big ball of blue-tack melted to them. If they could turn themselves off automatically somehow, this would be a great idea for me.

I?ve found that these straighteners are just no use at all for quick styling, and unfortunately the effects of them don?t seem to last very long. I need to straighten my hair every single day, though recently I haven?t been bothering as the effort involved is sometimes a little too much. I have heard all the warning stories about metal plates damaging your hair, but I hardly ever get any split ends, even though I rarely get my hair cut! So, I must be doing something right, or at least this could be the one good thing about them.

The only tip I can really give for using these is to go through all the layers of your hair, bit by bit. This is fairly time-consuming, but it?s the only way to get the best results from them. Especially with my thick hair, trying to do large sections at once just doesn?t work and is more likely to leave you with some kind of kink or flick.

I've struggled to decide whether to recommend these or not. They will do the trick if you've got fairly thin hair that is also quite straight already. However, I don't think they would work on people with really wavy or curly hair. I'll put yes in the little box below, but it's a conditional yes dependant on the state of your hair!

My final verdict is that for the time being, these did the job. To be fair, my hair couldn?t possibly have looked any worse, and these do work quite well as long as I patiently go through every last strand of hair. However, the results don?t last long and this is far too time-consuming. When I have to be at work for 8am, the last thing I want to be doing is faffing around with my hair for ages. They are too big, bulky, and slow - so, this is why the Babyliss Professional Straighteners just had to go.

Summary: