A number of months ago, I searched Dublin high and low for what was considered to be the must have tool in hair styling. The Instyler was everywhere. Everyone seemed to have one, and everyone seemed to be raving about it. I had to have it. I didn’t want to be missing out on fabulous hair. When Boots had a half price offer on, I thought to myself, it must be a sign and spent the day driving around all the Boots in Dublin looking for one. I was delighted with myself when I tracked down what I was told, was the last Instyler in Dublin and quickly set off home to sort my hair out.
The Instyler has a rotating cylinder with a brush on one side, it is said to straighten, curl, volumes and add lift and shine, while all the time not burning your hair. It heats up really fast and can be used on both dry and slightly damp hair. There are 3 different heat setting, for different hair types. It comes with a bag to store in, as well as a comb, a protection cage and a DVD to show you how to use it.
When using the Instyler I dried my hair full and section it off use hair grips. The first time I used it, I used it to straighten my hair and add volume. You need to take small section at a time, or you won’t see any difference. While it did straighten the hair, it was nowhere near as straight as I like it. To me you just can’t beat the GHD for straightening your hair. It did lift the hair and give it good volume, but it could have been smoother.
When it came to curling my hair, myself and the Instyler, just didn’t get on. My hair just wouldn’t take the curl. My hair normally curls very easily, but with the Instyler, I was getting more of a kink then a curl. Not only that, but I burnt myself a number of times. Like really badly burnt myself, to the point that the burn on my ear ached all day and scabbed over after a day or too. You can only use the protection cage when straightening your hair, so even when I hit the barrel off my ear, it would burn.
Hair straight after curling
when I got my Great Lengths, I decided to give the Instyler another shot. Again, it added good volume, but it didn’t straighten the hair well, and the ends of my hair were not smooth. The extensions took a curl much better than my natural hair and I was actually delighted with myself, as I thought my hair looked fab. Fast forward two hours and my hair was as flat as a pancake again. This does not happen when I put in GHD curls, or curl my hair with the wand.I found this very frustrating. Even with loads of hair spray, the curl just does not hold.
Hair straight after curling and then 2 hours later
I have held off writing this review for the last few months as I really wanted to give the Insyler a chance, but no matter what way I used it , I came to the same conclusion, the Instyler is just not for me. I can managed my hair and I am good at putting in styles, curling, blow drying etc, but I just could not get the Insytler to work for me. At €134.99 this is not a cheap hair tool at all. I paid €67.5o and even that is too much in my opinion. I have since bought a Diva pro Jumbo wand and this to me is a million times better than the Instyler and a fraction of the cost. ( you can buy it cheaper in salon services) I will do a full review on the Divo pro want next week.
Hair straight after curling and then 1 hour later
Overall, I would not recommend the Instyler. There are much better options out there, that don’t cost anywhere near as much.
Pros
- heats up fast
- adds good volume
- smooths out the hair
- doesn’t damage your hair
Cons
- takes a long time to work through the hair
- doesn’t give pin straight hair
- curls dont last
- very very hot and far to easy to burn yourself
- expensive
- noisy
- works better with hair extensions than natural hair
