- For years, I had coarse, brittle, and thinning hair from over-styling it with heat products, and dying it.
- In an effort to rebalance my locks, I stayed away from heat products and made a conscious decision to only use ones that didn't further damage my hair.
- Recently, I began to see all my favorite influencers (and friends!) using the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer to totally transform their hair on Instagram, and when I found out that it doesn't apply heat directly to the hair, I tried it as an alternative to traditional curlers and straighteners and found the results to be just as good as when I get a pricey blowout at a salon.
Till about age 12, I had the shiniest, softest, thickest straight hair. Even as a kid, I remember adults complimenting it. I couldn't have cared less, and usually returned to sticking my nose in a book (or legos), so the second I started frying and dying my hair with styling products, my mom watched from afar, basically in tears. As a rebellious teenager navigating independence, I could have cared less.
As much as I hate to admit it, mother was (and always is) right. I'd do pretty much anything to go back and tell my 13-year-old self to throw away the heat tools and spend the boxed dye money on nail polish in lieu of her natural, envy-inducing locks. Over the next decade, my beautiful hair turned coarse, dry, and brittle till I did eventually break up with my colorist and put my heat tools in storage.
As an Indian woman, our culture takes pride in women with thick, healthy locks that are often used for wigs sold around the world. So, partially in fear of being abandoned by my people, the next several years were spent frantically attempting to find clean, quality products to restore my hair to what it used to be, or at least something remotely close. For years, I stayed away from heat products except for the A-list events and would douse my tresses in thermal protectant.
When I first purchased this just to see what all the hype was about, I figured it was another one of those "two-for-one" gimmicks. I'd try it for a couple of months, maybe even a year, and then store it till its inevitable trip to the donation bin. Straight out of the shower, I applied some smoothing balm to my wet locks and then waited till it was about half dry to add some heat protectant and start using the tool. I never recommend applying heat to totally damp hair, because that's when it's most susceptible to breakage, even if you are using a protecting spray.
I sectioned my hair out into one top and bottom layer, and then three sections within each, wrapping my hair around the brush, and away from my face for bouncy Victoria Secret runway-esque waves. Moving the tool through my hair, it feels just like any round brush but sounds like a hairdryer. The heat comes from the inside of the tool, so there's no heat directly on your hair, which I appreciate.
Honestly, I was amazed. The result of using this on my straight, limp hair was better than anything I'd ever done myself before, and I'm not alone — the tool has over 30,000 five-star reviews on Amazon from a wide range of hair types.
"The silkier-than-silk style was accomplished by this miracle of a brush in 8 minutes (several more minutes were lost to running my hands through my hair and flicking it over my shoulder while smiling coquettishly in the mirror). If you struggle with an overabundance of hair like I do, seriously consider giving this amazing contraption a try."
"I have curly hair and I've seen professional mess up when blow-drying my hair, but with this product I was shocked! I wish I took a before picture but I added one with my curly hair for comparison."
I liked it so much, my aunts, cousins, and sisters (all with totally different hair types) asked me to style their hair with it over the holidays. They fell so in love, I left mine at home with them and bought a new one for myself.
