Monday, 12 January 2015

Babyliss Boutique Salon Soft Waves

If the long bob is the 'trend' hair cut of the moment the soft wave long bob is the ultimate and now it is really easy to create this look at home and it won't take five hours to do it. If you have longer hair and struggle to find a curling product that suits the length then the Babyliss Boutique Soft Salon Waves may well be for you.

I have terrible hair at the moment. I haven't had anything done to it for a year, it's dry, it's damaged, it needs a good cut and it's not at all the full, glossy mane you are supposed to have when you are pregnant. I am at a loss to know what to do with it so I jumped at the chance to try out the Babyliss Boutique Salon Soft Waves curling wand. I have actually wanted to try this out for some time but my hair will never successfully curl when I try to do it myself so I was reluctant to spend the money on something that may not work.

Now, having been a blogger for nearly a decade (what!) I thought I knew quite a lot about hair care and styling. So the first time I tried this I made sure it wasn't on newly washed hair, spritzed in some heat defence spray, glanced at the instructions and got going. Not a success. The curls just didn't really happen. How awkward, I thought, the lovely PR is going to want to know what I think and I'm going to have to explain about my crap hair and say it didn't work. But then I checked out the Babyliss YouTube channel and realised that, as could have been predicted, I was doing it wrong. So I tried again and it worked and I loved the result and I love the curling wand.

First things first, in the (rather lovely) box you get the curling wand itself, a heat wrap and a protective glove. The heat wrap is to protect whatever surface you are using to rest the wand on (though it does have a very nice integrated heat rest but this gets hot so if you did knock it over you want it to land on something heat resistant) and to wrap the wand in when you have finished and store it in, it will take a little while to cool down. The glove is to protect the hand that is wrapping the hair around the barrel.

Now to the wand itself. Unlike a lot of curling wands that have a clamp this is just a barrel but it is long enough to curl all long hair so that every part of the hair touches the heat and creates an even curl and it is wide to create a big soft curl which is the point of this product. There are five digital heat settings, going up to 210C, and it heats up and is ready to use in 30 seconds. If you have coloured, fine or delicate hair you will need to use a lower heat setting and it's always best to start with the lowest setting first and heat it up as you find it necessary.

There are so many different tricks to getting the perfect curl that I really recommend watching some of the videos in the link below, I've embedded two that I think are the most useful, but for basic, easy, natural looking waves then you need to section the hair, brush it through and starting about an inch away from the root with the tip of the barrel pointing diagonally down, start wrapping your hair away from you, around the barrel making sure the hair is touching the heat and not wrapping around more hair (otherwise you won't get an even curl). Hold for about 5 seconds then if your hair is in good condition, remove the wand and let the curl gently drop down. This is where I was going wrong, my hair is not in great condition and if this is the case with you then catch the curl in your hand as it drops of the wand and cup it there until it has cooled a bit, I can't believe it was that simple to fix a problem I've had with most curling products I've tried.

If you want to look just-stepped-out-of-the-salon then you can leave them as they are when you've finished but if you want a more natural, tousled look then run your fingers loosley through them without pulling too much on the curl. For more red carpet curls the wrap the curls towards your face - this will look more put together and glamorous. Have hair spray and heat defense spray to hand - for best results with this you want products that make your hair more textured rather than serums and smoothing products.

I am finding it hard to find fault with this product. It's reasonably priced at £40, looks great, has a five year gurarantee and does exactly what it is supposed to do. And if, like me your hair tends to frizz at the slightest sign of rain, you can curl it with this and avoid the only other option - straightening it flat. The best curling wand I've tried - check out the videos.