Women struggle with it everyday, curly, frizzy hair. Some women turn to permanent straightening products, sprays, gels, or other concoctions to try to achieve that straight hairdo they long for. Other women use heated hair straighteners also known as flat irons to gain their smooth silky look. The trouble is, it can be so confusing searching through the masses of straightening irons to find the iron that works the best. I have used both the CHI Ceramic Straightening Iron and the Vidal Sassoon Gold Series 1″ Slim Line Straightener on my tresses to find out which iron works the best to tame your mane.
The Vidal Sassoon Gold Series Straightener heats up in approximately five minutes but works at its best when it is allowed to heat for a longer period of time, about ten to fifteen minutes. The straightener is equipped with an easy grip handle which allows your fingers to avoid being burned on the heated plastic surrounding the metal plates. The only problem with this type of handle is that the actual grip the iron gets on your hair tends to be a little loose, making the user have to iron over the same section of hair multiple times. This can cause the hair to be more damaged in a shorter period of time. In addition, the straightener has a tendency to cool a bit when the user is straightening section after section of hair continuously. The easiest way to avoid this cooling is to use the straightener in conjunction with a curling iron to initially heat the hair. If you do not want to use multiple heated products on your hair, you can allow the iron some time to reheat after approximately half of your hair has been straightened. Of course you always have the option to just suck it up and use the straightener while it is a little cooler than it should be, it is a little more work but it will still get the job done. The initial results of the Vidal Sassoon Gold Series Straightener are great, soft, smooth hair, with a bit of body, in other words the hair gets straight but not lifeless. Unfortunately the results only last if there is no humidity in the air. When it is foggy, cloudy, or rainy you can say “goodbye” to all your hard work. The hair curls back up and gets extremely frizzy, what a mess!
Which brings me to the second product: the CHI Ceramic Straightening Iron. This iron heats up almost instantaneously and works to the best of its ability after approximately five to seven minutes. The CHI iron has the typical straightener handles, the amount of pressure you use to push the handles together is the amount of pressure the CHI places on the section of hair the user is straightening. This is a nice feature because it allows the user to only have to repeat the process on the same section of hair once as opposed to the many times in the Vidal Sassoon Gold Series Straightener reducing the damage from heat and pulling. The CHI iron does not loose heat throughout the straightening process so it is important to remember to watch your fingers when touching the hair you just straightened, it can get to be very hot. The results of the CHI Ceramic Straightener are wonderful, I believe the best in the business. While the iron does have a tendency to flatten the hair so well that it may lack the body that the Vidal Sassoon leaves in, the results are long term. Unlike the other straightener, the CHI iron makes hair more resistant to moisture in the air. You do not need to avoid those foggy, cloudy, days anymore, aside from actually getting you hair wet, the hair will remain straight.
Both straighteners have their strong points, and I do recommend both irons depending on your needs. However, I had the best results with the CHI Ceramic Straightening Iron and it is the iron that I have chosen to continue to use.
