Another year, another hair tool released to rival GHD.

This time, it’s the turn of the Bullet Hair Straighteners from Diva Professional Styling, who have kindly sent over a pair to test out on my unruly, thick hair.

This hair tool claims to bring “curling and straightening together in a way never seen before”

Let’s put that to the test, shall we?

Compared to my GHDs, the Bullet Straightener has thicker plates, a more curved tip and an adjustable temperature dial. These features allow you to create curls and waves  in your hair, or to straighten it whilst giving it a bit of body at the roots.

So, basically, the muse for this product is Cheryl Cole.

Quite rightly too. After 40 minutes with these babies, my hair had bounce, loose waves at the bottom, and a glossy sheen.  More miraculously, the waves stayed in overnight. I woke up this morning, and my hair was still bouncy and wavy.

*flicks hair*

Anyway, on to the pros and cons

Wins points for

• Curved tip ensures curls form nicely and stay in place. Also gives lots of volume at the roots.
• Adjustable temperature means you can adjust how much you want to fry your hair.
• Product comes with a heatproof carry case

Loses points for:

• The plates are thicker than GHDs, but they’re shorter too, so you’ll need to work on small sections.
• For some reason, they’ve included diamanté hairslides, the 90s type that you have to twirl into your hair.  Which makes me think the product is aimed at a younger market than me.
• No automatic sleep mode, so it’s a little more dangerous for those of us who regularly experience the “did I leave it on?” thought on the bus to work.

Conclusion

Sitting just under the £100 price tag, you’d expect these to be a decent rival to GHD. Whilst the GHDs are still much quicker to use, I’d happily turn to this styling tool when it comes to waves and curls.

Additionally, to get around the lack of sleep mode, you can use the Energenie Energy Saver Plug (£8.99) This plug acts as an adaptor for the appliance you’re using, and turns the product off after 30 minutes.

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I’m not a particularly high-maintenance girl (I work at home, I live in the countryside, the only person I see all day is my dog – and yes, I realise she’s not technically a person either) but when I go out (infrequently) I like to make an effort with my hair and do possess a pair of GHDs.

The thing is, I can’t get them to work that well when it comes to creating curls that stay in place without using gallons of fixing products, so when I heard about the new YOGI curling wand (RRP £59.95) I thought I’d give it a try.

It’s basically a ceramic wand that plugs into the mains, heats up and is ready to use in an instant. It comes with a pair of heat-proof mitts so you don’t burn your fingers as you wind the hair around the wand. Since you have to hold the strands of hair in place yourself while the heat does its thing – there’s no ‘clip’ mechanism like you used to get on hair tongs of old – these are a very good idea.

Now I have very unremarkable hair. Long, flat-ish, a bit dry at the ends, neither thick nor thin, some highlights and that’s about it. After my lack of success with GHDs I wasn’t that optimistic to be honest. I wound up, counted to ten (give or take), let go of the end of the hair and slid the wand out. And there, indeed, was a curl.

So far, so good, but did it last? Depending on the thickness of the strand of hair you wind you can create anything from ringlets to waves. Although on my hair they did drop a bit throughout the day, I still ended up with curls at bedtime without me having to put any kind of product in my hair at all. As a low-maintenance girl, I call that a result.

Gains points for

• Super-long flex cord so you’ve got plenty of room for manoeuvre
• Heats up very quickly and cools down fast as well
• Curls that last all day without extra product in the hair

Loses points for

Heat-proof mitt is a great idea but fiddly until you’ve got used to it
If you want a heat-proof mat to rest them on you have to buy it separately

Conclusion

A good buy. I used them this morning and have taken the dog crashing through the woods, done a day’s work, watched a bit of Jeremy Kyle (although that’s enough to make your hair curl in itself) and the curls are still there, and will still be in place when I get to gad about on the town tonight (OK, my local up the road).

by Sasa Jankovic

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It’s probably quite clear by now from our recent post that Dork Adore is firmly a collection of GHD devotees. Personally I’ve tried out a few other types of hair straighteners, including the wet-to-dry ones and the cheaper ones, but I always come back to GHD.

However, if the beauty buzz in the blogging world is to believed, they may have a strong competitor in new brand Cloud Nine. The lovely people at Kiss and Makeup have got their hands on one of their straighteners to test out on their tresses.

Cloud Nine hair straighteners come from some of the same designers of the original GHDs, so already you know you’re on the right track. Zara tested out the slimmer plates, although there are three different designs, and noted the variable heat setting.

From the photograph Zara has taken after going through the hair just once, there already looks to be a major difference in the texture of the hair.

So what were the pros and cons?

Wins points for:

• Handy heat guard
• 3 sizes
• Adjustable heat
• Quick, shiny and glossy results!
• Easy to use for curling

Loses points for:

No pearl effect as suggested

erm…the price?

Conclusion

Could this actually be the first straighteners to knock GHD off its pedestal?

You can buy them from Cloudnine for £129.99

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The day I spent £90 on a haircare product was a big day for me. I was brought up in a household that still embraced the glory days of 1950s Austerity Britain and the very idea that you could spend that much on something that did your hair secretly appalled me.

Still, once you’ve broken the seal on these things, so to speak, it’s impossibly to go back. And since I still use my beloved GHDs all the time (though less zealously than the Zoe Lucker heyday of hair straightening), I think it’s safe to say that the “cost per use” has now reduced the expense to a barest minimum. Or that’s what I tell myself anyway.

But if the thought of spending all that money on straighteners makes you want to tear your hair out (possibly self-defeating), you may be tempted by the many sites out there promising cheap GHDs. Thing is, a lot of those cheap GHDs are fakes.

And if you don’t want to invite dangerous fire hazard into your haircare regime, it’s worth finding out how to spot a fake before you get burned.

Kiss and Makeup has a handy guide to how to spot a fake. You can read the full article here, but the basic advice is:

1. Limited Editions. Be wary of anyone selling the “limited edition” baby pink versions. They haven’t been made since 2005, so they’re unlikely to be real GHDs. You can see there are loads of these on eBay. Selling for around £60. The same goes for purple, gold, white, dark and Radiance gift sets. They are all sold out.
2. Cost. Spend £90+ on them. They really don’t come any cheaper. These are potentially very dangerous objects to have in your house. They use 240volts to heat up to over 200 degrees and if they’re not properly made and tested, they pose a serious fire risk.
3. Pay by credit card. If you do get sucked in by a fraud, it’s going to be hard to get your money back. If you’ve paid by credit card, you are covered by the Consumer Credit Act, which means your card company will give you your money back. Read our article on buying online for more advice.
4. Check the contact info. If you visit a site that has no UK landline number (answered by a real human), UK address that can be checked on Royal Mail website, and both a VAT and Company Registration number, it’s not a genuine GHD reseller.
5. Avoid dodgy packaging and websites. If the website is poorly written, with strange english and ropey-looking product packaging, it’s not a genuine GHD reseller.
6. Ask GHD. GHD has a useful website checker for you to verify that the reseller site you want to use is genuine. And if you’ve already bought GHDs and think you might have fakes, enter the hologram code here and you can find out.
7. Use CompareGHD. If you want the cheapest prices, but don’t want to end up with fakes, CompareGHD is an approved GHD comparison site, and only includes approved GHD resellers.

There’s even more advice on how to spot fakes on the CompareGHD site.

Beware of bargain GHDs [Kiss and Makeup]

Image: GHD Precious, Limited Edition 2009 Christmas set.

• More Consumer Rights advice on Dork Adore.

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