Top: Luxx
Skirt: Asos
Shoes: Chie Mihara
You know how people always want what they don’t have? Pale skinned girls want tans, short girls wish they were tall, busty girls wish they had b-cups. I want curls.
I’ve always had a thing for curly hair. I don’t know if it was instilled in me from watching my Mum emerge from the bathroom on special occasions smelling of Guy De Laroche’s Fidji perfume and hair still warm from the hot curlers that she used; but I just think soft curls epitomise beauty and glamour.
My mum had super soft, golden blonde hair, and it always seemed to hold a curl remarkably well.
Mine, not so much.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my hair. It’s strong and shiny, and pretty luxurious even if there’s an increasing number of what my hairdresser charitably refers to as “sparklies” (AKA, grey hairs) in it. I’ve learnt how to manage it without needing torturous hours with hairdryers and teasing combs. But it doesn’t hold a curl to save itself.
For my 30th birthday I “gifted” myself a perm. Worst. Decision. Ever. My hair overnight became brittle and lacklustre. I didn’t have the waves and barrel curls I’d imagined, I just seemed to have frizz that felt crunchy and fell out in handfuls. To add insult to injury the second the perm started growing out great chunks of my hair would regularly snap off where the healthy met the chemically destroyed.
Never again.
It didn’t do much to diminish my love of curly hair, but it turned me off trying to do it to myself.
Enter the ghd.
Friends more adept than I with salon equipment would speak about the ghd in hushed tones, but as far as I was concerned it was just another straightener and, a) why would you want to straighten your naturally curly hair, for God’s sake? and b) no device I’d ever used had any kind of lasting effect on my stubborn locks anyway.
Newsflash: Apparently you can use a straightener to curl your hair.
When ghd offered to send me a straightener for review, I wasn’t quite sure whether or not I should say yes. On the one hand, I’m not at all familiar with using a straightener, and I wasn’t sure whether or not it would be a waste of their resources to give me a device that I wasn’t capable of using, which would probably have little to no effect anyway. On the other hand…. I was kind of curious to know what the hype was about.
Curiosity won out, and a few days later this beautifully packaged piece of machinery arrived on my doorstep.
Let me preface this by saying: an amazing product in the hands of a complete amateur is not going to result automatically in perfect style. You just have to check out my first attempt at curls on my Facebook page to see what a dog’s breakfast I made of styling my hair. But the good thing about the internet is that there’s lots of very helpful videos that show you how to do things… and if you have an amazing friend who knows how to drive one of these things, then so much the better.
My first impression of the ghd is that it’s a beautifully designed item, aesthetically and mechanically. It’s comfortable in the hand, not too heavy, cool to touch, and heats up astoundingly quickly. Even as a complete newbie I didn’t manage to burn myself once. And my second (post-tutorial) attempt looked like this:
CURLS! THE CURLS OF MY DREAMS!
I used no product, no hairspray, nothing but the ghd, then I took myself out for an evening on the town, staggered home at about 11PM, put myself to bed and guess what?
The next day I still had curls.
I got up, had some breakfast, wandered around the shops went home, cooked dinner and put myself to bed again. And the next morning?
Curls. A little less buoyant than before, but indisputably curls.
The ghd is officially a miracle device, and well-deserved of its reputation as the very best hair straightener (curler) on the market, and I’m looking forward to developing my repertoire of hairstyles (the ghd website’s got a few on-trend tutorials that provide a good starting point for experimentation)
oh yes, we have similar experience with perm it seems (and similar desires, although my hair is everything but luxurious :-P).
you look gorgeous! 🙂
I have naturally curly hair, and don’t me wrong – I DO love it, but it is not easy to handle. No two days are the same, the weather affects it, some days it looks like fairy loss, but on good days, it is my crowning glory! Oh how I wish those good days coincided with big nights and important days…..
I can GHD my hair straight (although not very well so not very often), now I must check out how to make lovely curls with it…..YouTube here I come!
You are right, we do always want what we haven’t got. You hair looks lovely.
As a naturally curly haired person, I love and celebrate your love of curls!
I never straighten mine because I have such thick hair it would take too long! Your hair looks great!
Ooh! Ooh! I want one. Those hot rollers went to the tip a long time ago.
hee hee, I want to see photos of you with the ill fated and controversial perm!
I love my hair straightener sick. I have dead-straight hair. I used to question the role of a hair straightener in somebody with dead straight hair, but I have now seen the light.
It gives me a blow-dried look, all bouncy and glossy with minimal skill and not much time. And I can do curls. I have a VS jobby which is less expensive than the GHD.
Congrats Lillli, these curls look just beautiful!
Lilli, those curls are so purdy…makes you even more girly than usual. Well done with the GHD – I have tried so hard, but cannot do the curly thing with it. I’ll stick to straight.
I call my non-brown hairs “sparklies,” too! And my hair won’t curl. I have tried with a straightener, but it is an inexpensive one that barely even straightens my hair, so I’m going to say the fault lies there.
My frustrating hair (also strong and shiny, at least) is somewhere between wavy and straight, depending on what part of my head it’s on, frizzes when it’s humid (and ohmigod, I live in Oklahoma, the land of perpetual humidity), tangles when you look at it funny, and is incredibly thick and heavy. I’ve always been jealous of those women who can do things with their hair, while mine is just…there. Meh.
They look great!
I also have hair that is useless at saving a curl. And as my hair is twice as long as yous, the GHD curling thing takes too long as I often have to do the same piece of hair multiple times.
But the best tool i have found is the remington stylist easy curl – 30 or so bucks at priceline! Faultless! Its pink and black and has this spiral section where the hair just folds into and curls up, no burning yourself either! Check them out at http://www.perfectcurls.com.au/
It looks quite ringletly when you first curl them, but brush them out a bit and awesomely soft curls appear. Found it lasts the next day too!
Well done for mastering the GHD hair. I could never do it.
Looks good on you. And I have straigth hair, always wanted curls, but love it now.
(I do own a hair straigthener thou, – to curls ever now and then)
I’d love a GHD but they are just so expensive! 🙁
I looooove GHD’s! I bought one last year and its seriously the best investment, even though its expensive! Its awesome that you can curl/straighten with it!
Lucky you getting one for free!!
Yep, as a curly haired girl I always wanted smooth sleek straight locks! Have now accepted my crazy curls! You’re lucky your hair looks gorgeous any way (except possibly post perm damage!) great curling! I find it funny when the hairdresser straightens my hair then curls it to make it curly- more Nicole Kidman 2013 than her BMX bandit natural curl days!