I must admit I am a big fan of GHD hair straighteners. Ever since my Mum bought me a pair of them last Christmas I would never go back to any other brand. However I am a member of the Amazon Vine programme and I received a pair of these Remington Genius straighteners for free.

Genius Straighteners?

Remington state that if you want cutting edge technology that’s usually found in hair salons, then these are the straighteners for you. In fact, Celebrity Hairdresser of the Year, Steven Goldsworthy, goes as far as saying these are the Ferrari of all hair straighteners! After reading this I was certainly intrigued, could they really be as good as they sound?

The plates on these straighteners have the most advanced Ceramic coating, vital if you want a smooth finish with your straighteners, rather than a static look. They also have longer length plates meaning it’s quicker to straighten your hair. Remington also state that these have ‘floating plate technology’ which apparently means they glide through your hair easily, without snagging.

The straighteners themselves are a gold colour, although Remington likes to call this a ‘Champagne/brushed gold metallic offset with black gloss’ to make them sound a bit more ‘posh!’ The packaging of the straighteners was nice, it gave off the impression that these straighteners are of a high quality, but nothing on the box made them really stand out from the many other straighteners already on the market.

With these Genius Straighteners you can choose to set the temperature, between 130’C and 230’c. A handy feature as many people don’t require them to be as hot as 230’C, and many other brands out there boast about their 230’C temperatures, but you can’t turn them down! For example, on my GHD’s I have to stick with the one temperature with no option to change this. That being said, it’s never been a problem for me and my hair hasn’t been damaged, despite me having rather fine hair. In the past I have owned straighteners where I’ve found it very easy to accidentally knock the buttons on the outside, such as turning them off completely or changing the temperature. With the Genius straighteners however, there is a temperature ‘lock’ setting, which means you won’t find yourself accidentally hitting any buttons. The temperature is displayed digitally on a cool blue display, making these straighteners look very technological!

There’s also a Turbo Boost, at one press of a button the straighteners will reach the high desired temperature within 15 seconds. There is also an auto shut off, where the straighteners will turn themselves off after 60 minutes. This is a god send, how many women have left the house wondering whether they have turned off their straighteners? I know I certainly have!

What are they actually like to use?

So after reading what these straighteners were all about I was certainly setting a high milestone for my expectations, but who could blame me? These ‘Genius’ straighteners are supposedly the ‘Ferrari’ of straighteners!

Getting these out of the box I was immediately struck by how light they are. This lightness is useful as your arms ache less when styling your hair... but the lightness of these just makes them feel rather cheap. Straight away I noticed a rattle sound when I shook these straighteners, and so I was rather dismayed before I’d even turned them on. The rattling appears to come from the flimsy buttons, and it gives off a horribly cheap image. You don’t pay £60 for hair straighteners to have them feel cheap and have them rattle every time you pick them up!

The straighteners didn’t come with instructions, fair enough they aren’t exactly rocket science to use, but it would have been nice. To turn these on you have to hold on the rather flimsy power button. A few seconds later the digital display lights up, and you use the + or – minus to change the temperature, clearly displayed on the digital display. Admittedly they didn’t take long to heat up, but they don’t tell you when they have reached the set temperature. My GHD’s beep at me once it’s ready to use, but this one you just have to guess.

Using the straighteners I did find them to be a struggle. As they don’t feel of good quality, it felt quite hard to press down the plates to glide through my hair. In fact my hands began to ache after only a minute or so of using these, as I felt I really had to grip the plates closed onto my hair. Alarmingly I also noticed they are snagging my hair. All straighteners do this to some degree, but this was quite significantly more than I experience with other straighteners. Even my boyfriend agrees with this one, he has longish hair and I often find him trying to sneakily use my GHD’s, so when I told him he was free to use these ones, he stated that they damaged his hair much more, he could tell they weren’t doing his hair any good! This result in a less than perfect smooth finish, I have bad enough split ends anyway so I am very reluctant to use these straighteners, as snapping my hair is hardly going to help my problem.
The temperature of the straighteners was good, nice and hot, and it was nice that I could turn them down had I wanted, however I prefer to stick to the high temperatures for a quicker process. I care for my hair and use a heat protection spray so this isn’t a problem for me, but if you do suffer from very dry hair I would be careful about using these on their full temperature setting.

When looking at the end result my hair just doesn’t look as good as it usually does after straightening. It doesn’t look or even feel as smooth and sleek, and worryingly it felt as if it were ripping out my hair as I was using them so that really isn’t a good sign for these.

Accessories

With the straighteners you get a black storage bag to keep the straighteners in, and it also acts as a heat mat. The bag part is attached by Velcro so you can remove this at ease if you wish. The bag itself isn’t of high quality too, and whilst it does the job it’s made for, the £60 price tag rings in my mind, and I would be expecting a lot more than what is given for my money. The straighteners lose even more points on this front.

It is a handy thing is use to pack up the straighteners though, no more wrapping the wire round your straighteners to clamp them shut and shove them away in a drawer! In fact these straighteners have a small 'lock' so you can lock the plates together, making storage even easier.

Value for Money?

I must scream ‘NO!’ at this point. I was gobsmacked to find these were priced at £60, so much so I went into my local Boots to see if they were there, sure enough they were and priced at £59.99. To think that paying £40 more can get you a pair of GHD’s, which are the best straighteners I ever owned, is amazing. In fact my second most favourite straighteners are those Remington 230’C ones which you can usually find priced around £35-£50 and they are FAR better than these ‘Genius’ straighteners. The £60 price tag is a rip off and I hope no one buys these at that price, as they’re in for a shock.

Summary

I do not recommend these straighteners at all. If they were priced at around £20 I may have been more positive and suggested they were average and an alright price, however at £60 and I really do not recommend these at all. They don’t feel as if they’re of a high quality, and certainly not the ‘Ferrari of all hair straighteners!’ and they also snag hair, resulting in a less then smooth and sleek finish you might hope for.

Advantages:

• Digital display showing the temperature
• Option to change the temperature
• The 230’C it can reach

Disadvantages:

• They rattle when you shake them
• They snag your hair when you use them
• A hefty price tag for a less than average pair of hair straighteners
• A rather cheap bag/heat mat is supplied with it

I would look else there, and recommend the Babyliss 230’C straighteners, or the GHD’s if you feel like splashing out on yourself.