GHD HOT PINK Styler IV

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Excellent
Straightening	poker straight
Ease of Use	Very Easy

Advantages:	Loads
Disadvantages:	Not loads !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I started straightening my hair a lot later than the majority of my friends, the real reason being that I have always had very thick, but very fragile and easily broken hair.
My mum always told me that straightening my hair would make it fall out. It really got my down in my early teens that a lot of the girls started coming into school with very straight and shiny hair, and not me (straightening started coming back into fashion when I was about 13 or 14).

So I was a late starter, it wasn’t until I was 16 and my mum left my family home that my dad treated me and bought me a pair of baby pink GHD’s. As you can imagine I was over the moon, not only did I finally have my own set of straightening irons (no need to try using the actual iron anymore (have a scar from a bad accident with trying this!)) I also had the most popular and ‘best’ straighteners on the market....and they were baby pink!

Unfortunately 4 years down the line, they stopped working, without warning. I think 4 years is a good amount of time, nevertheless I was upset and my dad treated me to the newer versions of the GHD and this time in hot pink!

The Hype

The big thing about GHD’s is they are used in most salons by the hair stylists and therefore are recommended and advertised without us even knowing it.
Before i’d even seen a pair of GHD’s I wanted them, I had never seen them advertised I just knew they were good and I didn’t even know why they were the best, or what made them different from every other pair of straighteners.
GHD’s (normal black ones) cost over £80, and you can pick a pair of straighteners up in boots for around £10, so what makes them so special?

The Look

All straighteners look the same really, a corded barrel with ceramic plates inside which heat up (mine bleep when they’re fully heated!) These starighteners are all hot pink, even the cord, they are very girly and they come in a bright pink box which opens up to display a handy heat proof carry case, a set of hair clips and a DVD for guidance on different styles that you can create.

The DVD

The DVD for me is pointless, using straighteners is pretty straight forward, but the DVD goes through it in dummy steps.

The only advantage of this DVD is that it does explain to those who don’t know, how to use the straighteners to create different styles.

The Heat Proof Case

This is a priceless part of the set, you will no doubt have to take the straighteners away from your bedroom sooner or later (I protect mine like a child when I do) and when you do it is nice to have a carry case for them (which matches their colour!) If they are hot, or even slightly warm, they will melt or burn anything they touch, I have had this happen to my prom dress, on prom night, I packed my dress underneath my straighteners when I thought they were cool and when I arrived at the hotel to get ready for prom, there was a melted hole in my dress.

Not good, so insted of having to wait for them to be stone cold you can put them in this case!

GHD – Good Hair Day - Advantages

• With GHD straighteners the barrel of the irons are so thin and slick that not only can you straighten your hair, but you can create waves, tight curls, ringlets, flicks and high volume styles, this means that all your hair products (tongs etc) are rolled into one!

I love this function, my hair is naturally curly, unfortunately it’s an awkward curly, it’s uneven and more wavy, but sometimes there are a few curls! I use this function to add extra waves and curls to even up my do,

The narrow barrel also means that you can get right up to the root instead of kinking the hair at the root; you can straighten from start to finish of your hair.

• The temperature can’t be adjusted, it will always be at the recommended heat – if the straighteners are too cool they will not glide through the hair and will rip and damage your hair. If the straighteners go too hot they will damage and frizz your hair.

I have had it happen before, I used a friends straighteners, they were an unbranded pair (I was desperate) and it left a section of my hair hard and frizzy and permanently damaged, after trying hot oils, I eventually had to cut it out (not happy.)

• GHD are also good for people with all styles of hair, you may find that with a lot of brands of striaghtener the barrels are not small enough to get to short bits etc.

• The new ones (being reviewed now) are called mark 4 GHD’S and they have a new function called sleep mode – the straightener will sense if they have not been used for 30 mins and will go into a sleep mode. This is a brilliant idea, as you can imagine it’s so easy to accidently leave your straighteners on and then come home from work 9 hours later and think ‘poo!’

• The GHD’s are most popular for the surfaces of the blades , they are so smooth which provides a perfect base to straighten and smooth hair and they also have a non static affect which makes it easier to just quickly straighten your hair – many a time I have been grateful for my GHD’s when the weather has made my hair look like I’ve been rolling in a balloon pit, they stop the static and I understand that the cheaper and less quality straighteners do not have this which means that they leave your hair static and easier to damage.

• Another great advantage of these GHD’s is that the plug uses universal voltage. The mains plug can be easily switched to a two pin plug by pulling the plug off, and the plug can be easily attached back to the two pin version (not sure if you get me here.)

Any Bad Hair Days?

In general, all straighteners are bad for your hair, you will get split ends and your hair will be dry. This is the biggest disadvantage of all straighteners.
GHD’s counteract this disadvantage in a way because they are proven to be one of the least damaging brands of straightener available; however, they will inevitably damage your hair eventually.

The trick is, to straighten your hair as little as you can. For instance, do you need to straighten it every day? Serious answer....NO.
I do not straighten my hair for work, why would I ? I go there every day, this would be silly. Twice a week is my average amount of times that I straighten the whole of my head.
Then once a day sometimes I will go over my awkward bits if they are particularly annoying, fringe is mainly all I will go over.

Another trick is to not wash your hair every day. Three times a week will mean that your hairs natural oils get a chance to release themselves.

Lastly, a good conditioner always helps!!

The only other disadvantage is the price, these straighteners can cost anywhere between £120 and £150 if you want them in pink, however, an amount of these is used to donate to breast cancer research which is well worth while.

Are they worth it?

Yes, I love mine and I recommend them whole heartedly, I think that my straighteners are worth every penny and more just for the facts that they are everything I want, last at least a few years and they are one of the highest quality brands on the market.

Get straightening girls (and boys?) and take care of your hair.

xxx