InStyler Giveaway: Part Deux

Hi there, me again with the InStyler. I can’t help it, I want the world to have good hair. What can I say? I’m a giver.

I wrote a review of the InStyler back in September. You can click on the link to read the original review, but let me recap how I love my InStyler. It straightens without giving me wonky ends like my flat iron does. It creates great soft Tina Fey-like waves. And it smooths and polishes my hair. I truly can’t say enough good things about it. My hair has a natural wave to it, but not enough to be cute, so I have to encourage my hair to be straight. The InStyler does this for me quickly and easily.

My one recommendation is to not buy it from the InStyler website. For some reason, they want to make you buy two of them at a time, and for the life of me I can’t figure out how one person needs two of them. I would buy mine from Amazon or somewhere else where you can buy only one.

Although I bought my own InStyler, when I told the folks at Tre Milano how I loved mine and was going to write a review, they agreed to provide one to give away to a lucky reader. But they actually sent me an extra one! So I am giving you all another chance to enter to win one. And just in time for the holidays!

To enter to win the InStyler, leave me a comment and tell me what you are doing this holiday season that you need good hair for. Could be a family portrait for your Christmas cards, could be a New Year’s Eve party on Diddy’s yacht, could be a trip to Target for tape and a box of wine while you wrap presents. We don’t judge here at Buy-Her.

Deadline to enter is November 22. A winner will be chosen at random from the comments received. Good luck and good hair!

InStyler: The Magic Hair Styling Tool

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 Straighten Curly Hair – A Video

While I am an advocate of embracing your natural hair texture, especially if you’ve been blessed with naturally curly hair, I am also a fan of the infamous Spice of Life: variety.

And that, my friends, is why I did a little happy dance when I figured out how to straighten my curly hair in less than 30 minutes.

If you can’t see this video, click here to watch it on YouTube.

Products listed after the jump.

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