for those of you who are regular readers of this here blog, you'll know of my past failures when it comes to 'styling' my 'hair' in any sort of 'style' that isn't a 'top knot' or 'straight' or 'milk braids'. i have successfully tried and subsequently failed to master the curling tong, the soft wave styling tong and all other tongs in between. the only tong i have been able to master appears to be culinary in nature. so. when the hair care folks over at argos suggested i try something from their hair care range - like the babylis curl secret thingy*, i was hesitant.
but then i researched it. this thing basically does all the hard work; it sucks in bits of your hair, curls it, and spits it back out all glamourous like. it's what i needed in my life. so i said "yes, yes please!".
attempt one was... dire. i brushed my hair within an inch of it's life, preparing for the ultimate groom fest that was about to be unleashed on it. i used the recommended hot hair pre treatment gunk that everybody recommends you use before bashing your brittle hairs with heat, and i sorrrta read the instructions to make sure i was doing it right...
turns out, i wasn't. let me tell you this; the thing makes a lot of beeping noises. at first i thought the beeps were good news (the instructions said it would beep when the hair was sucked in). then i re-read the instructions and realised the beeps i was hearing were of the warning variety - as in "stop what you're doing, cos you're doing it all wrong!"
ok, so i started again, on the other side. it was... just as bad! how hard could it be?! feed it in, it does all the work, it spits it back out!? i soon realised that it was making the bad beeps at me because the amount of hair i was putting in was too much. i reassessed the quantity, and tried again - this time, hearing the right kind of beeps! four slow beeps in succession means "yes, well done champ!" while a hundred short, sharp beeps mean "noooooooo!". aim for the four. it's better for your hair.
so, with this in mind, i did have more luck. the whole mechanics of the...machine were really smooth - providing you brush your hair first, otherwise the tangle does get a bit ouchy. i did worry a bit about how it would know when to stop curling, or if it would actually shut off or whatever, but it was easy!
the thing though...? it takes a lot of damn time. this wee photo shoot here took about half an hour. that is too much time to be spent on hair alone. too much. nobody wants curls that bad, do they? this guy doesn't, that's for sure (me, i mean). i'm a no-fuss kind of girl (as proven by my three go-to styles), and unless it was for a special reason, this is extravagant.
i was easily fed up of the whole thing, and had other, more important things to do, so what did i do in the end? i gave up and whacked a clip in it and called it a sorta-wavy, almost-done day.
have you ever tried the babylis curl secret styler? how were your results?
*post written in collaboration with brand*
