GHD Limited Edition Patterned Purple GH

For many years now my GHD straightening irons have been a good friend to me - I first bought a black pair back in 2004 which sadly died three years later, my boyfriend then bought me the pink breast cancer limited edition ones which began recently to show signs of not being as effective as they'd always been, and this Christmas I received the fantastic Purple Limited Edition set, containing a pair of MK IV purple straighteners, a travel hairdryer, ...
...woman look. Before I discovered GHD I had been using a pair of Babyliss Professional irons which I had thought were pretty good, but the GHD's simply blew these out of the water!

The MK IV GHD's heat up to 210 degrees in just 6 seconds - this is far and away the quickest heating up I have ever seen and an unexpected improvement on the previous MKIII/Salon Styler edition which I had thought were pretty speedy - this is highlighted by ... more

For many years now my GHD straightening irons have been a good friend to me - I first bought a black pair back in 2004 which sadly died three years later, my boyfriend then bought me the pink breast cancer limited edition ones which began recently to show signs of not being as effective as they'd always been, and this Christmas I received the fantastic Purple Limited Edition set, containing a pair of MK IV purple straighteners, a travel hairdryer, two hair separating clips, and all contained in a heat proof travel bag. The fact that I am now on my third pair of GHD's at over £100 a pair, should tell you what an indispensible beauty tool these are.

I have the kind of hair which frustrates about 70% of the country's women - neither straight, nor curly, but somewhere in between. It is also very long and very thick and has what I would kindly call a 'gentle wave' at the back, and if I was being more unkind I would say it's downright unruly and can take on something of a wild woman look. Before I discovered GHD I had been using a pair of Babyliss Professional irons which I had thought were pretty good, but the GHD's simply blew these out of the water!

The MK IV GHD's heat up to 210 degrees in just 6 seconds - this is far and away the quickest heating up I have ever seen and an unexpected improvement on the previous MKIII/Salon Styler edition which I had thought were pretty speedy - this is highlighted by the fact that on turning them on there is a beep sounded as well as the LED light coming on, and then another beep when the straighteners are ready to use - literally seconds later, but I love the fact that it beeps at you, as well as the LED light now flashing, to remind you so that you don't end up leaving them on the side kicking out heat. They use ceramic plates which conduct the heat far better than other materials and ensure that the temperature is regulated, leaving your hair the sleekest it can be. I find it amazing that even though the plates get as hot as they do, the outside of the iron barrel manages to keep relatively cool - it's still warm, but it's not going to burn you if you touch it. But the MK IV model's biggest advantage for me is the automatic shut off mode - I've lost count of the times that I've rushed back home thinking I've left my straighteners on and worrying that I'm going to return back to a pile of ash and rubble after a horrific house fire! But the shut off mode on these mean that after 30 minutes of no use, they simply shut themselves off. There is also a 'shiver mode' - apparently temperatures below -8 degrees can apparently cause damage to the ceramic plates meaning that they don't heat up to the full temperature anymore. This wasn't something I'd ever been aware of, but it's good to know that GHD are constantly trying to improve the product and ensure that they last as long as they can.

You need to use these on dry hair - don't attempt to use if your hair isn't completely dry as it will damage it far more, as well as damaging the straighteners! Using the separating clips, separate your hair into sections (these can be fairly large) and after running a comb through to remove any snaggles, simply clamp the plates together at the top of your hair and run them down. The irons are really light and slim and what I love about GHD's is that as you run them through your hair it feels really smooth - many cheaper straighteners seem to scratch and pull at the hair, breaking it along the way, but these glide through effortlessly, simply smoothing the hair follicles to give you a really sleek effect. You can run the straighteners down the hair fairly quickly as the temperature is so high - if you run them down slowly as you might have had to with cheaper straighteners, you will end up with very flat looking hair! Seriously, if you're worried about the high price tag of GHD's, I would recommend trying some (everyone must know someone who has a pair!) and judging whether you think they're worth it after. Even though obviously these use such high heat, because they glide thorugh my hair so smoothly, they leave it in far better condition than other straightening irons (obviously I still recommend using a heat protection spray!) The MK IV also has far rounder plates than older editions, apparently making it easier to do flicks and curls - I do admit to being a hairstyling moron, but I've never managed to get my GHD's to create curls in my hair, and the MK IV ones did not make this any easier for me - I'll be sticking to my curling tongs for that! My only criticism of the straighteners is that I would love for the cable to be a bit longer - particularly when travelling, it's often difficult to find a power point near a mirror and a longer cable would mean that this wasn't a problem.

The Purple edition is really beautiful - a deep shiny purple colour with a pale paisly pattern covering it. The set is packaged in a purple shoe size box with a gorgeous velvet effect lid - definitely one I'll be keeping! The purple heat proof bag is a definite winner for me - when travelling, it's such a pain when you're packing to leave and you need to wait for the irons to cool down sufficiently to pack them. The bag means that you can simply throw them in without worrying. You can also put your GHD's down on the bag while you are separating your hair without worrying they're going to leave a burn mark on your dressing table! There is also a section to separate the cable from the irons to ensure you don't damage it, although the cable does seem to have been thickened and seems more than capable of resisting heat damage. What this does do though is prevent the damage that I did to my first pair of GHD's through wrapping the cable around the irons - this is a big no-no apparently and sure enough the cabling on my first pair began to come apart and was the reason why they eventually failed. I've seen lots of complaints about the wiring failing on GHD's - everyone who I've spoken to with this problem has admitted to wrapping the cable around them - don't do it!

The travel hairdryer is much as I expected - I've never been impressed with a travel hairdryer yet and this was no exception! It's small, compact, purple and very cute but quick simply lacks the power to really tackle drying my long and very thick hair. For travelling though, when hotels often don't have a hairdryer, or if they do, it's an antique from 1970, it's a good backup. Not too much of a disappointment for me - this was a bonus in the set, and not the reason why I wanted it!

The set also includes a DVD, showing you useful tips on how to use the GHD's, and is especially helpful on showing how to create curls (still not idiot proof enough for me to work out creating curls, but as I said before, I am a hairstyling moron!)

The Purple Limited Edition set is £152.00 and comes with a 2 year warranty. It's available direct from the GHD website: http://www.ghdhair.com/uk/ghd-iv-purple-styler. I would advise being careful when buying GHD's online - as with any expensive and popular product, there are lots of fakes around being sold as genuine GHD's which really don't match up and are often sold at high prices despite being fakes. I've known of a couple of people who've sent what they thought were genuine GHD's back to the manufacturer to be repaired, only to be told that they are not genuine, so I would definitely recommend buying direct from the manufacturer. 

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