Babyliss Curling Wand

Typically, it seems that anyone born with curly hair wants it straight, and anyone blessed with straight hair would give anything to have bouncy curls. I was blessed with something in-between that requires heated help to achieve either look! I was a bit fed up of constantly opting for the easy option of straight hair (or the natural ‘mess’) so decided to invest in a pair of curling tongs to see what a head full of real curls would look like...

Ease of use

The tongs come with an instruction booklet describing how to use them. The guidelines need to be well adhered to in order to achieve the required results. You need to take a small, combed section of hair, wrap it round the wand and hold for 5 seconds, then release to leave the strand of hair curled. Obviously, to do this to a full head of hair is rather time consuming and quite taxing on the arm to keep it up in the air for so long. The good thing about the tongs is that they are slim and lightweight, so it makes it easier to use them one-handed. The tongs also come with a heat proof glove to help prevent burning when wrapping the hair round the tongs, though I must say I didn’t find this effective – after 5 minutes it didn’t feel heat resistant!It also meant I wasn’t as nimble fingered – personally, Ifound it easier to be gloveless and be careful. It does take a while to get the technique right, as with many things practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, perhaps due to my own clumsiness, I ended up burning my finger, neck and ear!!

The Results

Provided you have the patience to persevere with curling your hair in 2cm sections, the resulting curls did look fantastic. I set aside a good hour to curl my hair and on completion I was very pleased. The curls are lovely, bouncy and perfectly formed, but it really is a long, arduous job! I guess it depends on an individual’s hair type as to how long the curls last. I found they started to drop out after a few hours, and by evening time (after a lunch-time curling session) I was left with a bit of a knotted mess. I have fairly fine hair which is probably the reason why, but with a bit of trial and error of different hair product, this problem could probably be rectified somewhat. In many ways, at least with straightened hair, it generally remains that way until bedtime, and can at least be thoroughly brushed rather than be left rather knotty as mine was.

Value for money

These curling tongs cost me about £30 from Argos which I thought was quite reasonable. However, after using and realising that I will only use them on the odd occasion due to the length of time it takes, I realised that perhaps they were not a great investment.

All in all, I would recommend this product for the results that they give, which is probably the main factor- just be sure you have enough time.