Chi® > Herstyler® (or any other flat iron)

Whatever you do – don’t believe those kiosks in the mall!

 Chi® > Herstyler® 

We’ve all been there. You’re walking through the mall and those obnoxious kiosk workers try virtually everything they can to get you to stop and talk with them. (Don’t worry, they know they’re obnoxious – it’s their job – so it’s okay that I refer to them accordingly.) They bark at you until you feel so uncomfortable, you either consciously ignore them and walk faster or look at them with a pleading expression. Almost begging them to stop calling you out on your frizzy hair or oily complexion in front of the entire mall.

Occasionally though, you may choose to stop and talk with them. You soon find out that this was, in no way, a good idea. Because you find yourself being manipulated into a “good deal” on a “great product.” But is it really a good deal or product?

No.

Probably not.

One day I was looking for a new flat iron. My Chi® had run it’s course and I was looking for a similar 1” flat iron of good quality. I wasn’t planning on looking anywhere else but a reliable store such as Ulta®. But here I was, coerced into sitting in a chair getting a Herstyler® flat iron ran through my hair while a man explained why this flat iron is the absolute best. He gave me various reasons as to why my hair was utterly ruined because of the Chi® flat iron I had been using years before.

He claimed that Chi flat irons®:

 Get too hot

Burn hair

Are terrible at curling

Do not leave hair soft

Would set a paper on fire if clamped on

and so forth.

Now, let me just make this perfectly clear. None if this is true about Chi®. At all. And I knew this because I loved my Chi® and it had served me well for over two years. In fact, I found out later that all of this is true about Herstyler® flat irons:

They get too hot

Burn hair

Are terrible at curling

Do not leave hair soft

Would set a paper on fire if clamped on

Seriously.

Everything the man had claimed against my favorite product was true about his own product. 

As you can probably guess, I ended up purchasing a Zebra stripped Herstyler 1” flat iron for about $250. He promised me the plates were to be ceramic. They weren’t. They were tourmaline plates (which is not as ideal as ceramic plates which guarantee no pulling or tugging of hair). It took longer to straighten my hair and nearly impossible to curl as I could with my Chi®. If you've ever curled your hair with a flat iron, you know that the key is to gently (and quickly) glide through your hair. But, in fact, my Herstyler® stuck to my hair as I inched it through. It made my hair feel like rubber and my curls became uneven. Overall, it did not provide me with the silky, smooth hair I was used to with my Chi®.

This is what my Herstyler® looks like now, after about a year and a half of owning (granted, it hasn't stopped working in that long. But my hair has suffered):

Now, there are pros to buying at kiosks. Most of the time the prices they approach you with are outrageously over-price but you can talk them down. Always. So please, if you aren’t comfortable with negotiating, bring a friend who is comfortable or invite me! 

A few tips for buying a flat iron:

1. If you have a lot of hair, I would suggest a 2" plate as apposed to a 1" plate. This provides faster straightening but eliminates the ability to curl.

2. Never ever ever ever ever get a designed or colored flat iron - from anywhere. Black is always the best because it is made with the strongest material so that curling will be easier, it doesn't get as hot on the outside, and it is all around tougher when you drop it.

3. Ceramic plates are golden. Look and make sure it says "ceramic" on the box. and make sure what is inside has golden plates.

4. Go to a reliable store such as Ulta® or a salon. They may even hook you up with some discounts that they receive as hairstylists! 

5. As reliable a source as I am, make sure to do your research! Ask your friends what they like best - that is why blogs are so popular. Real people are answering real questions about real products and they provide real (and painfully honest) answers. 

So please hear me out. Invest in a Chi® flat iron (or any product of theirs). Ever since owning a Herstyler®, I use my friends Chi® as much as possible. The ceramic plates are great for my hair. They provide smooth, straight, and healthy hair all day and into the next day. Unlike the Herstyler®, once you straighten (or curl or wave or whatever you do), it is silky smooth and done for the rest of the day.