All Curling Tongs Are Not Created Equal... (Philips Tresemmé HP4696/07 Salon Multi Stylist)

Member Name: louiseypees

Product:	Philips Tresemmé HP4696/07 Salon Multi Stylist
Date:	13/10/08 (927 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Crimper kind of works if you put a lot of effort in

Disadvantages: It's rubbish!

I'm getting on a bit now, but I do like to try and follow some trends now and again. You won't catch me in a puffball skirt or multicoloured tights, but when I see that curls are coming back in in hairstyle circles, I'm happy to follow. You see, I have naturally got wavy hair. It can be talked into being properly curly with strategic use of boots' own brand curling creme, but generally it's waves, straighteners or nothing in the hair stakes.

Being keen to experiment a little with tonged curls, as even if they fall out I'd still have some movement to my hair with the natural wave, I invested £19.99 in this little box of tricks.

The Tresemmé Multi Stylist contains one styling wand with several attachments - two curling tongs (one tiny and one larger, but pretty much just standard size) and a crimper and straightener in one. There is also a brush attachment and a ringlet attachment to put over the tongs. It looked to be a complete package for me - I didn't want to invest too much in a styling set, and I'd heard crimping was coming back in, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.

Trying it out for the first time, I was hugely disappointed. I plugged it in and left it to heat up. Maybe I'm spoilt by my GHD straighteners, but I was horrified to find that this styler seems to take about five minutes to heat up! This is not suitable at all for a quick restyle - it is a mission to even get started.

I decided to try the crimper first. Now, while it did do the job, the tiny size of the crimping plates meant it took me about two hours to do my full head of hair, and also meant that it was not uniformly crimped - it took about five goes on each length to reach the bottom of my just-below-shoulder-length hair. Once the crimping was done, though, it didn't drop out easily and did stay put nicely.

Not wanting my £20 to have been badly spent, I soon decided the time had come for tong curling. This was an area that let the product down even more than the crimping. After waiting the required five minutes for the damn thing to heat up, I was still left with a lukewarm curling tong which was incapable of imparting any curl on my hair whatsoever. This was on the maximum heat setting - I was deeply unimpressed.

It being my only curling tong, and with my complete inadequacy when it comes to making curls with my GHDs, I persevered with it for a while, but it was completely useless. No matter what I do, this styler will not style my hair.

It's not a faulty one - it does heat up. It just doesn't heat up to the kind of heat that is needed to actually style hair.

It's not my hair. I know this because I have subsequently got myself a good curling tong, and it works a charm, giving me beautiful curls quickly (heating up in about 30 seconds) and easily. This is just a really terrible product. It is worse than the curling tong I had back in about 1995 - and that was pretty bad. Technology has moved on in the rest of the hair care market - there is no excuse for this kind of rubbish being churned out by reputable hair care companies.

If you're looking for a curling tong or even a multi-styler, I would highly recommend looking elsewhere. Spend a little bit more and your money won't be wasted. I, for one, am gutted that I scrimped on this product.

Summary: A really rubbish multistyler from tresemme.