Hair Appliance Arsenal

It’s no secret that I’m fairly inept when it comes to hairstyling. Fairly might be generous, even. Sometimes, I get the idea that I can do things to my hair. Sometimes it comes out alright. Here’s what comprises my Hair Appliance Arsenal. Don’t worry – I’m not going to tell you that you need a $400 NuMe set.

This 1875 watt Conair dryer has been mentioned on the blog before – and although it’s an inexpensive model, it gets the job done for me. My hair is somewhere between medium and fine in texture, there’s a lot of it, and it’s long. It is lightweight, so I don’t find my arms tired before the work is done. This is the MVP of my hair appliance arsenal; even though I don’t particularly enjoy blow drying my hair, I hate having wet hair in the winter more…so it sees the most use.

I love my Hot Tools 1.25″ iron. It’s sturdy and reliable – heats quickly, works well, hasn’t ruined my hair. It’s fairly easy for me to use despite my embarrassingly low dexterity and whatnot. No buttons or internet in this guy, and that’s just fine – fewer components to get angry with you.

For my birthday, my husband got me this ISO 5P curling wand set with interchangeable barrels. It’s really cool, I’m just still a bit clumsy with it (but I’m getting better!). I wish the tips of the barrels were inert/cool-touch/not heated because I keep thinking to grab it like a classic iron (I’ve avoided injury so far, but I’m not confident I’ll remain so lucky). You ought to wear a heatproof glove with using this unless you’re really experienced with these – because even if you aren’t inclined to steady the wand by grabbing the end, you might brush your knuckles or something while twirling your hair around the barrel. Also, it takes a little while to heat up, so you do need to give yourself some extra time.

Afraid of 375+ degree metal appliances? Just need to be able to autopilot in the morning without being fully awake? These jumbo hot rollers from Conair are pretty foolproof. I bought them after reading Capitol Hill Style‘s endorsement of hot rollers a few years ago as someone who had never touched rollers in her life ever – and I’m pleased to say that, as usual, Belle does not disappoint. If you practice, you can get them all in within 15 minutes (or less, if you don’t have long hair!), go about the rest of your morning ritual, and win. Remove, hairspray, done. The one I own is an older model, though, and came with metal pins to hold them in place. I bought clips like this comes with now and hated them, so if you can pick up pins that fit, I recommend it.

I have a cheap old Revlon flat iron from 6+ years ago that I bought from Ulta on Cyber Monday for like $10; I can’t find a decent picture of it. I’ve never owned a, “nice,” iron, so I don’t have a basis for comparison, but it’s just alright. It makes my hair straighter than it was before using it, but it doesn’t get it pin straight. $10 irons aren’t worth it :P It is being retired.

Enough about what I already have. Here’s the new stuff:

So, thanks to Ulta’s Cyber Monday sale this year + the $10 off $50 promotion + a gift card I had + Ulta points + eBates, I was able to order this titanium Hot Tools flat iron with $0 out of pocket (in fact, thanks to eBates I actually made about $2.50 on the transaction!) I haven’t received them yet, but they should be on my doorstep this week or so. Hopefully it is as awesome as the reviews suggest; otherwise, I’ll be trying this HSI iron.

And there was a GWP promotion, so this Hot Tools Digital Flat Iron became it and a Deep Waver. To me, this thing looks like a crimper on steroids. I’ve never used a deep waver, so this ought to be an interesting learning experience/hilarious disaster. I fully intend to do a write up on this because I feel only marginally more comfortable with the idea of using this than I do about using a band saw, so hopefully we’ll both get some laughs out of it.