Plastic.
First of all, the barrel on this curling iron is a cheap plastic. It doesn’t heat up as much as any other curling iron I own. Additionally, the bristles are very short and the space between each set of bristles is farther than a typical bristled curling iron, so they do not catch and hold my hair at all, which is annoying. It isn’t really necessary for them to retract because my hair won’t get stuck in this curling iron. My hair doesn’t get stuck in any of my curling irons, but they all get very dirty from hair products and they are difficult -if not impossible- to clean properly. What I like about the retractable bristles, is that you can clean the barrel of the curling iron very easily, prolonging the life of the styling tool. But I do prefer the metal barrel curling irons substantially more than this one. I do like the length of the cord on this one, but that’s about the only positive. I doubt I will get much use out of this, so it was a waste of money.
Rating: 2 stars