InStyler: The Magic Hair Styling Tool
InStyler
So… Hi. I’m not Britt. I’m Donna. I love to give unsolicited opinions, so the idea of reviewing products really appeals to me. When Britt asked for volunteers to do reviews, I jumped at the chance. I write at phatDonna and you can follow me on Twitter.
As many of you out there know, pregnancy does some weird stuff to your body. Your vision can change, your feet can grow, you start to love/hate foods you used to hate/love. I actually lost the feeling in the top of my right thigh. That’s a true story. It came back eventually, in case you were curious.
For me, the most annoying and lasting remnant of pregnancy is wavy hair. I used to have stick-straight hair that I went to heroic measures to curl in the 80s and 90s. Spiral perms, hot rollers, curling irons… I’m surprised my hair is still speaking to me after my junior high years. But in spring of 2007, I discovered that my hair now has this weird little wave to it. Not enough that it would be cute if I let it air dry, either. Just enough to look like I maybe had gotten a bit too friendly with an electrical socket. And so I found myself in the novel position of needing a flat iron in order to keep my hair straight.
I tried a couple of flat irons and I guess they worked OK, but I could never achieve the results I wanted, or to get it to look the way my hairdresser could. One day, I saw the TV commercial for the InStyler Rotating Hot Iron. I was immediately intrigued because I love to try things that fall into that “As Seen on TV!” category. It promised an awful lot, but I wasn’t convinced it would be worth the price and they only sold them in twos. Then a friend mentioned that she had one and loved it. She always looks amazing and that was enough to convince me. I bought mine from HauteLook, but it’s also available on Amazon and other places that don’t require you to buy two, because I can’t for the life of me figure out why any one person would need two of them.
The InStyler is different from a flat iron in that on one side, it has a barrel that resembles a curling iron that rotates. The other side has bristles like a brush. So when you use it to straighten, you are smoothing and straightening at the same time, not just pressing the hair together. I notice this advantage the most at the ends. With a regular flat iron, no matter how hard I tried to keep the motion going all the way to the ends, I ended up with wonky ends, especially on my right side. I don’t have that issue at all with the InStyler.
With the InStyler, you can straighten, flip your hair up, flip it under, and even curl your hair. I am finally able to create those awesome Tina Fey waves that I love so much. Even if you already have beautifully straight hair (I hate you, by the way) you can use the InStyler as a curling iron to create body and volume at the roots. I’m telling you, this thing is magical.
My one complaint is that the barrel is hot (duh!) which can make it hard to wrap your hair around it to get curls. My InStyler came with a detachable plastic guard that you can use to hold onto, and that works great for me when I straighten, but kind of gets in the way when I want to use it as a curling iron. I took it off when I tried using it to curl, and burned my fingers a tiny bit. I am sure that is just because I haven’t worked out the right curling technique. As I said, I mainly use it straighten.
Now comes the best part! I bought my own InStyler, but when I emailed them to let them know I was doing a review, they very kindly offered up an InStyler for one lucky reader! How awesome is that? To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment and answer this:
What is the meanest thing you ever did to your hair in the name of fashion?
Submit your comment by Monday, September 20th. We’ll draw a random number on Tuesday, September 21 and the winner will be contacted by email.
How To Manage Curly Hair: The Wet Look
April 28, 2009 by Miss Britt
Filed under Beauty
In the interest of full disclosure:
That is not my wet curly hair in that picture.
Nor are those my eyelashes. Good Lord, I wish.
Ahem. Anyway. I do, however, have naturally curly hair that I adore. I have learned how to manage curly hair using product and a diffuser with my blow dryer.
But I have a confession to make:
Sometimes I am far too lazy or busy to spend the extra five minutes necessary to blow dry my hair.
Unfortunately, I have short curly hair so making use of a cute pony tail when I’m in a hurry is out of the question. Recently, I’ve stumbled on some great new products that allow me to very quickly tame my curls and get predictable results that I’m willing to go out in public with.
