One of the most talked about, purchased, YT reviewed and cult favourite beauty tools for 2015/16 would have to be straightening brushes. I’ve been seeing lots of mixed reviews and opinions on these brushes so obviously my curious self wanted to try it out for myself. These straightening brushes are all over the internet priced differently but I decided to go with the most cost effective one which was just a little under R600 because I didn’t want to splurge on something if I didn’t know how it would work on my hair.Currently my hair is at a very awkward length and stage that I just have to deal with for next 2-3 weeks without the temptation of colouring it because I’m letting my current shade grow out before I do a drastic change. With that being said, I needed something that would give me a little bit more motivation to do my hair while I wait out the next few weeks and also make styling easier.

As stated in the instructions manual on the box, your hair should be squeaky clean, detangled and dried thoroughly. To prevent myself from rambling on even more, I’m going to give you the pros and cons of the brush.Pros

• Perfect for quick hair touch ups.
• It has a swivel cord.
• It does straighten hair to a certain extent.
• Cost effective.
• Auto power off after 1 hour.
• Doesn’t break your hair off.

Cons

• The back heats up a lot.
• It smokes when you use a heat protectant.
• Can’t get to the roots of your hair.

To touch on some of the points in the pros and cons that I’ve mentioned above, obviously with heat styling one needs to apply a hair protectant to your hair but when using this brush there is no way that you can do that or else it smokes A-L-O-T. When I say smoke a lot I mean bordering your freaking out stage thinking your hair will catch fire or bomb. With that being said, your hair also can’t be 3+ days dirty or else the same thing will happen.

When it comes to hair straightening FOR ME, I like it sleek or nothing. I don’t like volume on my mane unless it’s in my curls. This brush does however do a better job than blow drying alone. As you can tell from my pictures, my roots aren’t as straight but that’s understandable as the brush can’t get as close to it as a flat iron would. My hair stylist friend tried this brush on finer and coarser hair as well and he found that the thinner hair strand didn’t hold up as well as my hair did because it frizzed almost instantly. In my opinion depending on the degree of straightness that you like, this brush won’t work on coarser hair. I have watched some YT tutorials on girls with coarser and thicker hair loving the results of this brush so it’s definitely according to personal preference.The brush reaches an adjustable setting of a temperature of 60 – 230 degrees. I went for the highest setting as it is the same as my flat iron. I’ve received countless compliments when using this brush but I’m still undecided about it and I have no idea if I’m being too critical about it. I can however say that this brush is perfect for pre hair curling as I find that blow drying my hair before curling is not enough and using a flat iron is just “too much” as it makes the hair too straight and it doesn’t hold the curl as well. Perhaps the more expensive brushes like these works better, I guess the results aren’t as bad if you take into consideration the price I paid. I have taken before and after pictures of what my brush looked like after a few uses and I have to say though that I’m not a fan of it. The little red beads are popping off, why? I have no clue! It’s definitely not a train smash but I don’t like it either way.Sorry if I sound whiny and overly critical in this post but I like doing honest reviews especially if my readers are considering buying something.  My final thoughts are that I don’t completely hate the brush and I think my opinion is mainly clouded by the fact that I had unrealistic expectations of the brush. I thought that it would give the same results as my flat iron and when choosing on a particular day which one I wanted use it would be an either/or situation.

Ending off this post, what are your thoughts on the straightening brush? Have you tried it before?