==Overview==

Despite having curly hair, I always want gorgeous curls like you see in magazines rather than the "just put my finger in a plug socket" look which is what I tend to get upon getting out of the bath or shower. Typically I straighten my hair in an attempt to avoid looking like Gene Wilder and have tried many, MANY curling tongs over the years in an attempt to get that sleek curly look. These Pro Curl 210 from Babyliss looked quite promising due to the ceramic barrel (- ceramic straighteners are revolutionary!) and the fact that they were less than £20 when I bought them. I think I paid around £15 for them on offer a while back and you can get them for around £18-£20 now.

==My Opinion==

OK there are quite a few features packed into these curling tongs. Firstly the ceramic barrel means that they will heat up to a maximum of 210 degrees, 20 degrees cooler than my ceramic straighteners and unfortunately it seems to me that those extra 20 degrees make all the difference. Whilst the straighteners really warm the hair up and flatten them in a matter of seconds, these curling tongs just don't quite get there so without holding your hair against the curling barrel for literally about 30-40 seconds (cue hot hands), the curl just doesn't hold. The bonus for people with brittle or thinner hair is that the curling tong has five heat settings on it so you don't need to frazzle your hair if your hair is quite sensitive to heat. As mentioned, mine seems to be able to live through an inferno of styling devices so I don't ever use any of the lower temperature settings because there isn't a chance they would do anything for my hair but it is good that such a reasonably priced device has more than one temperature setting. As the curling tongs are ceramic they do heat up fairly quickly and are ready to be used within less than 30 seconds at full temperature which is a great feature but equally one I have come to expect after the revolution we've seen in the hair straightening world in the last 15 years. The other good feature is that it has a mini stand on it so that when you put it down on a table or mat, the barrel does not touch the surface at all and therefore does not burn the surface. The curling tongs are 25mm in diameter so you can create quite big chunky curls with them rather than tiny tendrils so bear that in mind if you are trying to create thin ringlet curls, they won't be created so easily with these curling tongs due to the size of the barrel. My biggest bug bear with all curling tongs (as opposed to curling wands) is when you clip the hair down, unless you are very careful (risking burnt fingers in the process), you tend to get a bit of hair that hasn't been part of the curl at the very end which sticks out at a strange angle. Unfortunately these curling tongs are no different - this may just be my technique of course but I find it really difficult to clamp the end piece of hair in and make it curl like the rest of the hair and these don't go any way to making that easier.

So do the curls stay in? Well again, this is definitely something subjective and would differ between different people as hair types vary so much. I have fine hair but a lot of it so it can look quite thick. I take a piece of hair curl it up, hold it for about 20-30 seconds, release it, hairspray it and then let it drop naturally. Unfortunately for me, the curls look too thick for the amount of hair I have so I tend to look like a poodle (rather than Gene Wilder) at first, then when the curls drop, they just drop out, no amount of hair spray will keep them in. Again, I think this is more down to my hair than the curling tongs but I think that unless you have fine hair that likes to take a curl then these curling tongs are probably not going to work for you either.

==Overall==

I'm finding it hard to give a rating to the curling tongs basically because they might work for someone else but aren't any good for my hair. The 210 degrees (rather than 230) definitely has to lose a star as I personally think that might make all the difference to how well the curl holds. For the price, they could be a good set of curling tongs for someone and at that price it probably makes sense to try them out. However, I don't think I can give them more than 2 stars. I don't like how they curl my hair even when the curl is still in as I think they are a bit thick (my fault for buying them that thick). They are also really easy to get burnt from (as with all curling tongs I guess) but having to keep the curl against the barrel for so long really increased the chances of being burnt. Overall, just 2 stars from me....but they may be better for someone else?