Naked Truth - The InStyler

So, I'm sure most of you with curly hair have heard of this contraption they call the InStyler. It is pretty much a rolling flatiron with a brush on the other side. Well, I was pretty curious about this thing when it was first advertised on TV. I have a kind of wavy hair that isn't quite wavy, but not straight and certainly not spiral curly. It is very thick and kind of annoying to deal with. So, most times I am either styling it natural and pinning the front back or I am straightening my hair.

Now straightening, this is something I am not great at unless I have my flatiron. I am completely unskilled with the use of a flat or round brush and I always end up frizzy when I blow dry making the flatiron essential. My issue with this is that I always lose volume. Now for some people this may not be an issue; however, I kind of like my hair to be voluminous. I guess I have to admit I like big hair, not teased hair, but definitely fuller hair.

To get back to my point, when I first saw the InStyler I was very reluctant to try it. This was mainly because a year or so prior I purchased a Conair Hair Designer. I guarantee that name will mean nothing to any of you, but this was essentially a blow dryer with three combs attached and you pretty much put your hair into the combs and the blow dryer was supposed to straighten and dry at the same time. I was able to get the thing to work, but it was only effective when my hair was long, which is generally never, and on top of that it took longer to style than the two steps of blow drying and then straightening.

To make an already long story short, I was drawn in by the power of "as seen on tv" and brought it home for close to $100.

The Skinny - Not my cup of tea. Not only have I burnt myself multiple times using it, but it is loud, doesn't provide the volume they claim, and I just feel this sense of fear that my hair is going to burn when using it. It did get my hair straight, but I didn't feel the same control I have when I blow my hair dry and then straighten. I feel it leaves you with a one dimensional look and if you have a cute style to your hair, this thing will not help you achieve it. So, all in all, just leave it on TV.

Oh, and to add a bit of excitement to the story, I actually broke it a couple of weeks ago. It is making me laugh right now. Since I bought over a year ago and hadn't used it in almost six months, I decided to try it again. It didn't give me the look I was going for that day, so I remember putting my hair up, but it was hot when I was done so I left it sitting on a table to cool. My husband didn't know this and moved it to my make-up room/his office/work-out room and it must have rolled off of the vanity table. Later that evening I went into that room with no glasses on. For those of you who don't know, I am pretty much blind without my glasses, I have terrible eyes. Well, I ended up tripping over it and stepping on it. It cracked in half and I can't fix it, so buh bye InStyler.