There are many styling tools on the market and hair straighteners are probably the most popular of the bunch. Women worldwide yearn to get sleek shiny hair with minimum of strain, but it's hard to know which model to choose. GHD indisputably rules the roost in the hair straightener world, but that doesn't mean that you should forget about other companies entirely.
EGO haircare is such a brand, promoting high end straighteners which promise salon like results. In fact they even say that the EGO hair straighteners are used exclusively in some salons, with Urban Retreat in Harrods being a fan.
I was sent the BIG Ego straighteners to try out, and to see how they'd fare against other similarly placed brands.
First impressions were relatively impressive as they arrived in an large dusky red box, which opened to display them nestling gently within. The straighteners themselves have a rather unusual ribbed design on the outside of the plates, which fade ombre style from red to black. I wasn't really sure how this would aid the straightening process, but stylistically it looks quite pretty. Apparently the ribbed design is meant to help you curl your hair, but as I've always been pretty awful at using straighteners for this, I can't really comment.
The cord is also seriously long ( short ones are a personal bugbear with me) which meant I could plug it in at one side of the room and still reach my mirror on the other wall. You have 10 feet to play with, which is ideal for people like me with annoyingly placed wall sockets.
They heated up really quickly and I liked how the temperature adjuster was easily displayed- no just turning a dial and hoping for the right temp, here it was clearly labeled and laid out so you turned the dial to the right setting. To turn them on there's a large recessed button which glows red when on, so you'll never accidentally leave them burning (hopefully).
There's a whole lot of science talk surrounding them- that they use HW2 technology to condition, and Cool Heat Boost for faster straightening. I was told that HW2 uses negative ions and infrared rays to reduce static in the hair, but a quick Google of the term only brought up info related to EGO, so I'll have to get back to you on those particular claims,
I was impressed at the fast heat up time, and really liked the styling of the straighteners, as the ombre tones were a pleasant relief from the multitude of black designs on offer. The EGO straighteners worked very well on my hair, smoothing out he kinks and leaving me with a satiny finish afterwards. However I did find that I needed to run them through the hair at least three times, as my hair needed that amount of heat to go from scraggly to smooth. I also found the straighteners caught slightly in my hair when I used them, slightly tugging the follicles as they went down.
This could be in part because I have hair extensions which are tougher on tools than ordinary hair, but I still didn't enjoy that sensation.
The results though were very impressive, and they left the hair looking incredibly sleek and shiny. Will I be throwing away my GHD's? No, but I certainly will be keeping these and using them again!
