I've Turned Straight! (Well, kinda...) (GHD Mk4 Straighteners)

Member Name: plipplop

Product:	GHD Mk4 Straighteners
Date:	29/10/08 (254 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The best that money can buy

Disadvantages: Pricey, if you're poor. But then you'd probably eat your hair then, anyway.

For years, I've struggled with my hair. It just doesn't do what I want it to do. It's neither straight nor curly, it has this kind of kinky wave running through it and my GOD, it's thick. You could have your eye out. Indeed, many people have. But enough of that.

To say that GHD straighteners (or styling irons for the posh people) have saved my life would be something of an exaggeration. That bacon roll on Saturday morning at about 6 a.m. That probably saved my life. But it's a close call because now, you see, I can style my hair and everything.

For anyone who gives a fig about hair styling, the GHD brand is rather revered when it comes to straightening and it's easy to see why. I first started with a cheap pair (about £25 online) because I couldn't get hold of the GHD variety (and also because I wasn't sure I'd take to the whole thing.) They were OK. I could see where they would help but they just weren't up to the job. And then GHD came into my life.

They're not the easiest thing to get hold of. You can order them online but if you need a quick fix of straight from the high street, you'll need to go into a professional salon. Toni and Guy sell them, but the hardest one to find is the Mini Styler and as if by chance, that's the one I needed. The Mini has, not surprisingly, smaller, thinner plates that are more suited to short hair. Not surprisingly, this makes them popular with the lads as we're more likely to have shorter styles. Don't be surprised, therefore, to find them listed on web sites as men's straighteners.

I paid £109 for mine. It seems like quite a lot of money when you compare it to your average hair dryer, but you're investing in something that does a bit more than dry you hair here and if you don't want your hair to drop out, you need to invest in quality. It's quite useful having used cheap, nasty straighteners to start with if only because I can now see why the GHDs are so good.

The plates are different for a start. (For the non-technical out there, these are two small, flat strips between which you essentially sandwich your hair, run heat through and hold until straight.) On the GHDs, the plates are ceramic and are much more capable of conducting the heat. As such, when you first plug them in they take literally a couple of seconds to heat up. The plates are also unbelievably more efficient than the cheaper varieties. My coarse, thick wiry horrible hair suddenly goes all spiky and (crucially) straight. It's like a revelation; a transformation from Mr Messy to Mr Poker Straight. Woohoo! (I'm also reliably informed that the barrel makes it easier to do curls, flicks and waves. How odd. But that's for the girls, I guess.)

The GHD technology is also renowned for looking after your hair by locking in the nutrients and good stuff, as opposed to burning the life out of it. I can vouch for this. After a month of use with the cheap ones, my hair was dry and brittle and seemed to just snap and/or fall off. A month of GHD usage has transformed my hair. It's healthy, shiny and looks like hair as opposed to wire wool. There are a lot of products that you can use to help with this and this is something that I'd recommend. Balms, creams and lotions applied before or after straightening are of enormous benefit.

Another advantage of the Mini straighteners is the ability to avoid third-degree burns to the scalp. The larger ones are designed for longer hair, where it isn't crucial to get right down to the root. If your hair is only three inches long, you need to get all three inches through the plates otherwise you'll end up with slightly crooked hair. Anyone who has attempted to do this with full-sized straighteners will almost certainly have the scars to prove it (yes - these things can burn.) With the Mini straighteners you can get pretty much right to the root without incinerating the scalp. They're very easy to handle, which enables you to do those groovy things that footballers and X-Factor contestants pay someone else to do with their hair. You know the ones, right?

If you're safety conscious, GHDs are better too. If they're plugged in but inactive for a certain period of time, they automatically turn off, minimising the risk of burning the house down if you go to work and leave them on your bed (note I said minimising not eliminating - be careful guys!) The flex is also made of a material that seems to be able to withstand the heat from the straighteners if the plates come in contact, although this is only something I've tested by accident and for a short period of time. The "straighten and go" theory works well with GHD too. If you turn them off, they're cool enough to shove in a bag or rucksack within a couple of minutes. I have, however, invested in a little thermal mat that can be wrapped round them in case the residual heat damages anything else in the bag. (There's a story here about a man running for a train with his rucksack smouldering away from a melting carrier bag, but I'll let you work that one out.)

A common complaint with GHDs seems to be that the wiring fails, but I'm reliably informed that GHD are pretty good at honouring the guarantee. I have to say that for anything under £200, this never really worries me; if they last two years that's less than £10 a month, after all.

So, the summary is:

* They're really, really effective at straightening wiry, wavy hair.
* They look after your hair (as much as a device that applies extreme heat through two ceramic plates can look after something.)
* They are as safe as they can be.

All in I'd say they're enormous value and an essential part of any vain/image-conscious man's tool kit. 'Nuff said!

Summary: The only thing that ever made me straighter....