Gamble on these for poker straight hair. (Remington S9000)

Member Name: Darkstar101

Product:	Remington S9000
Date:	11/08/09 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively inexpensive, produce silky straight hair & minimize hair breakage.

Disadvantages: A bit heavy and bulky, slightly fiddly to use.

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Introduction
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Last week I was mortified to discover that my beloved hair straighteners had packed in and because I couldn't justify spending a fortune on a direct replacement for them I set off in search of something cheap but not necessarily cheerful. After trawling around Boots and many other High Street stores, where most hair styling appliances were ridiculously overpriced, I eventually came across the Remington Professional Damage Defence straighteners in my local Home Bargains store, priced at just £9.99 so I bought them to see if they lived up to their claims.

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Manufacturers claims
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Ideal for dry/damaged hair, the Remington professional S9000 includes a hydration system to re-balance moisture levels for healthy shiny looking hair. Healthy hair contains approximately 10% moisture but dry damaged hair contains moisture levels as low as 3-4% causing hair to break. The Remington damage defence straightener replenishes this moisture as you style allowing you to straighten more often for healthy looking shiny results.

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Packaging
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The straigteners come packaged in a stylish shiny black and turquoise box with the Remington brand logo and "damage defence 210°C" in clear bold lettering alongside a photograph of the staighteners themselves and a model with poker straight shiny blonde hair. The reverse of the box lists what I deem to be the essential need to know product feature information.

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Features
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The plates are exclusive to Remington - Ceramic, Diamond with Teflon coating and come with a lifetime guarantee on the coating. These plates promote high even heat with reduced hot spots for better protection and are 75% smoother than standard Remington plates for easy glide and reduced snagging

Digital display
Variable temperature 130°C-210°C
Use with or without steam
Hydration system
Water tank infused with Nano Silver (antibacterial coating)
60 seconds heat up
Ultra fast heat recovery
Automatic 60 minute shut-off
3m swivel cord
Includes heat proof pouch
3-year product guarantee

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My experience and opinion
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Beyond the outer box and inner protective cardboard packaging, I found two sealed plastic bags; one containing the straighteners and several hair magazine/warranty leaflets and the other containing the heatproof pouch. The main leaflet contains the instructions for use. It is a short easy to understand quick start type of leaflet which is great because I'm one of those people who hates sifting through multilingual tomes in order to discover how to use a new product.

The straighteners themselves are about 8 inches in length and approximately 1½ inches wide, with the actual plates measuring 1inch wide and 3½ inches in length. These robust looking straighteners are black in colour with metallic champagne coloured plates, the upper plate contains 10 small holes through which the steam is expelled. The first thing I noticed was they felt quite heavy compared to appliances I have used in the past, which could be an issue with prolonged use. That said, they do feel quite comfortable to handle (even with small hands like mine) and the ridged underside on the handle helps with grip. Personally, I would have preferred some sort of rubberised coating to this ridged area because I found them more difficult to hold when simultaneously depressing the steam button on top.


Before use, it is necessary to fill the Nano silver infused water tank which can be found adjacent to the top steam plate. The tank is easily filled by sliding the capsule off the main body of the appliance, removing a plastic plug and pouring in the water. Once filled and resealed, it simply slides back onto the straightener and clicks into place. It is easy to tell how much water is in the reservoir via the incorporated viewing level indicator (which is techno-speak for a floating ball in a window!). The only thing to cross my mind with regard to the water/ steam iron feature is the potential for scaling and blockage of the steam jet holes. It is recommended that after each use any residual water is tipped out of the reservoir, but we all know with experience from steam irons that scaling does still tend to occur because no matter how much you shake the reservoir you can never get all the water out- only prolonged use of this unit will highlight any problems in this area.

The straighteners are activated by briefly holding down a small silver push button switch on the side of the appliance. This is a sensible place to locate the switch because my last pair of straighteners had the on/off button right where you need to grip so I kept inadvertently switching the damn things on and off by accident.

Once activated, the stylish blue backlit led displays temperature level 1. This can be altered using the silver + and - buttons located just underneath it. There are a total of 10 settings to choose from; settings 1-5 cover the temperature range 130°C to 170°C and can be used without steam, settings 6-10 cover the 180°C to 210°C range for use with steam.

Before use with steam, it is necessary to hold the straighteners upright and press the steam button several times to effectively prime the system. I prefer to use the higher range of temperatures to straighten my hair as these tend to deliver the best results. Whilst straightening each section of my hair, I depressed the large silver steam button located on the top of the appliance. This issues a gentle burst of steam, not unlike a steam iron, which moisturises the hair as it is being straightened. I found it a little tricky to straighten the shorter layers of hair nearest my scalp because the additional water tank makes the unit a little bulkier than ordinary straighteners making styling a bit fiddly.

The plates do move through the hair quite smoothly, but you do have to ensure the whole 2" wide section of hair to be straightened is contained entirely within the plated area because any hair near the periphery snags quite badly.

The 3m swivel cord is sufficiently long enough to allow the user to enjoy unrestricted movement during styling.

After use, the plates can be safely locked together by turning the locking dial located near the hinge and the straighteners can then be popped into the slimline velcro fastening heatproof case, which also contains a pouch for storage of combs and small hairbrushes.

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Verdict
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I like this product quite a lot. It isn't perfect and I feel that its designers could have made it a much better product with a bit more road testing and tweaking. It would be ideal if the unit was a bit lighter, not quite as chunky and an incorporated rubberised grip would greatly improve its handling.
That said, it does produce soft, silky straight hair, even without additional styling products and it does help to prevent hair becoming brittle and straw-like in appearance. I have yet to achieve the super-duper poker straight hair depicted on the box, but overall the results are quite good - perhaps my technique is letting me down.

The RRP for this product is £59.99, which I feel is ridiculous given the number of minor design flaws I have highlighted and the abundance of hair styling products on the market within this price band. I have seen these straighteners on Amazon priced at £24.99 and I must admit, this would be about the top price I would be prepared to pay. If you can get them for under a tenner like I did and can adapt to their minor flaws then they are definitely worth a try.

Summary: They do produce silky straight hair, but take a bit of getting used to.