The secret to smooth, shiny hair...
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free skin care · Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:40 pm

I posted this quasi-review (quoted in blue below) of the BabyLiss Pro 5000 Blowdryer in another thread that I momentarily hijacked Embarassed

so I wanted to post it as a separate thread because I have an update to add for those that struggle with straightening or smoothing their hair every morning:

carekate wrote:

ginnielizz wrote:

2) Carrie, I think we have similar hair texture, so I'd be really curious to know what specific differences you notice with a special hair dryer. I never even really owned one, haha, I inherited my mom's crappy travel one so I used that for a while (since I only blow-dried my hair once in a blue moon), and then my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend had left her really nice Sharper Image ionic one at his place after they broke up, and I kept it once I became a regular fixture. Bad Grin

But I don't know if it's a "special" one.

I was skeptical at first about spending that kind of money on a hair dryer -- I truly thought it was some Hollywood gimmick to separate gullible women from their hard-earned money like most of the other beauty “wonders” that movie stars, models and celebu-tards swear by, but now I’m a believer! It wasn’t until I tested my pricey new dryer in a head-to-head test with my good old-fashioned hair dryer that I was truly able to appreciate the difference.

If you use a traditional hair dryer to dry one side of your head and a ionic hair dryer to dry the other side, you’ll immediately see the difference. The ionic-side dried much quicker and the hair is softer, shinier and smoother while the other side is dry, frizzy and frazzled looking. Until you’ve used one of these dryers for yourself, you can’t truly appreciate the difference it will make in the health of your hair.

Here’s a little bit about the technical mumbo-jumbo that explains how these dryers work:

Tourmaline is a natural source of negative ions and far-infrared heat. Negative ions are able to break apart water molecules on the hair, which results in faster drying time with less damage which helps eliminate frizz and close the hair cuticle to create smooth, shiny hair while far-infrared heat penetrates the hair cuticle to dry the hair shaft from within, resulting in faster drying time with less damage. In addition, negative ions collide with the positive ions on the hair to reduce static electricity and flyaways.

This is the seller (SavingWizCom) from which I ordered my Conair BabyLiss Pro TT Tourmaline Ionic 5000 hair dryer: http://stores.ebay.com/savingwizcom_Beauty-Tools_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ4893443QQftidZ2QQtZkm I used the “buy it now” option and paid about $70USD plus S&H for mine -- I ordered it on a Friday night and it was here on Monday morning!

Not only is the price great, but the hair dryer comes with a great little travel/train-carrying case to store it in. The BabyLiss Pro TT 5000 dryer is extremely light-weight and has three heat settings (hot, warm, cool) and two speeds (high, low) and a cool-shot button, along with a long power cord that has (so far) remained blissfully tangle-free.

I know you can find cheaper ionic hair dryers at Walmart or beauty supply stores and such from brands like Vidal Sasson or Conair (plain Conair, “BabyLiss“ is their professional line), but I don’t know if they are as effective so I’d check out the product reviews on MUA, Folica or Drugstore.com before I bought one.

Bottom line: if you usually rough-dry and let your hair dry naturally, then an ionic hair dryer isn’t a necessity, but if you have to heat-style your hair on a daily basis and you’ve got thick hair that is coarse and/or dense in texture and prone to frizziness, you need to invest in one of these tools!

Okay, now on to the second part of my secret:

I usually wear my hair in a very short, cropped Halle Berry style but I started to let my hair grow out after I resigned from my “day job” because I couldn’t afford to get it trimmed every month after that. Right now, I’m rocking a jaw-length, heavily razored bob that I can wear “piecy” or blow dry it smooth. Unfortunately, when I try to wear it smooth, I have this one little section of hair that INSISTS on misbehaving and flicking up and out. Usually, I have to flat-iron that section into submission after blowdrying my hair and then shellacking it with hairspray if I want to wear it smooth that day and -- even though I used a thermal protectant/shine enhancer, that section of hair always looked “parched” after I flat-ironed it. It just looked dry and crunchy. Confused

Things got a little better once I started using my BabyLiss hair dryer, but that one section of hair still gave me trouble…

That is until, on a whim -- so I could qualify for free S&H -- I ordered a brush from Drugstore.com that allegedly had the same ionic/tourmaline technology as my BabyLiss dryer. Of course, I was skeptical that this new round brush would be any better than my crappy old Goody round vent brush that I’d been using for years but now I’m a believer!

Holy crap!!! With this brush, I can quickly and EASILY dry my hair into a pin-straight, Vidal Sasson circa 1960s edgy, geometric-style bob USING ABSOLUTELY NO STYLING PRODUCTS WHATSOEVER and my hair stayed that way all day and was so shiny that I could almost see my reflection in the gloss of my hair! Shock

I recommend this brush to everyone that struggles to straighten their hair each morning. All you have to do is wrap a section of hair LOOSELY around the brush and direct your dryer onto that area while simultaneously slowly “twirling” the brush thru that section of hair (like that scary hair styling tool from those “Revo-styler” infomercials that were all the rage a few years back -- those scared that crap out of me because I was always afraid it would get tangled in the hair like what happened to me as a little girl using a round brush for the 1st time!). Once it’s dry, go on to the next section and repeat. After you’re done drying all your hair, you’ll be SHOCKED by the results.

For those that would rather use a flat styling brush instead of a round one, I think they also have flat tourmaline brush as well.

Here’s the link to my new HG styling brush: http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=159671&catid=83750 and here’s the other varieties that they offer from the same brand: http://www.drugstore.com/search/search_results.asp?srchtree=8&N=0&Ntt=iTech+brush&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial

If you just bought one of the BabyLiss dryers, you’ve GOT to get one of these brushes to go with it!!

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