Review (5/5): Get it!
I have been using the Helen of Troy Brush Iron for twenty years. Recently, the one I owned for 10+ years finally died. I tried to see if there was something better out there thinking something newfangled would be better. I hunted online for hrs and finally found a more expensive tourmaline model by Conair. Hated it. It's going back. Unlike my trusty Helen of Troy, it was scorching to the touch and easy to burn myself. Unlike my Helen of Troy, it was hard to get my hair to hold to it so I had to wear expensive protective gloves to try to hold my hair to the hot tool. Wearing those gloves made it impossible to section my hair with my fingernail to curl my thick hair all over. The tourmaline model was complicated, painful, more time-consuming and less effective.
Helen of Troy has three settings: High, Low, Off. I set mine on high and it is just right. It gives a very natural full-bodied polished look to hair. I have a lot of fine, straight hair in addition to some curly thick grays. This tool tames and styles them all for a very cohesive polished look. It gently curls the ends under or over with no unsightly crimp on them like a regular curling iron. One of the only shortcomings of the H of T model is that it takes about 5 minutes for it to fully heat up. I heat mine up before I go in shower. When I come out I use mousse in my hair, dry it with my negative Ion hairdryer and give a gentle curl with my trusty Helen of Troy afterwards. It only takes me about 6 minutes to curl my thick straight shoulder length hair. While looking for an alternative tool from my trusty Troy I read that some styling tools take 30-60 minutes to style hair. Personally, I have better things to do than spend that much time in front of a mirror each day. I have had many compliments on my hair over the years. THE EFFECT IS MUCH LIKE AN EXPENSIVE BLOW OUT. The bonus is you don't have to go to the salon to get it. Sometimes I look at Kate Middleton and think I could do a better job on her hair with this trusty inexpensive tool.
Look no further. Just get it.