lab88's Full Review: Chi 1" True Ceramic Hair Straightener
I have owned or used several flat irons. My hair is medium to fine textured, but very thick. It has a mind of its own.
My hairstylist always uses the Chi, and I always loved how she got my hair to look with that flat iron. I was determined to replicate the look at home.
Here is my hair journey, comparing the Chi to each:
Stage One: The Cheapy
I started out with a $15-$20 flat iron. I tried and tried for months, but it just didn't make much of a difference. I thought I must be doing something wrong. It just didn't give the results I wanted. So I asked me stylist, who told me that I should just make sure the next flat iron is ceramic.
Stage Two: The Not-So-Cheapy - Conair Infiniti
I got a Conair Infiniti 2" for around $50 at Walgreen's. It promised me that it had ceramic plates. The plates are coated ceramic. The coating has not flaked off, but it does not get as hot as a full ceramic plate. It gave much better results than The Cheapy. Now, you can get a nicer iron at discount webstore for the same price. OR, you can take that price quote and see if a salon in your area will do a price-match. Anyway, even though it was better than The Cheapy, it still was not as good as the Chi. I could get better results with this while using a spray solution from Herbal Essences called "Dangerously Straight."
Stage Three: The Low-End Salon - FHI
After about a year and a half of using the Conair, I finally decided to get the Chi, so over to the salon I skipped. I wanted to do a little comparison shopping. I had heard that the Chi was prone to repair problems (and I still can't speak to that). The manager talked me into trying the FHI, which retails at $99 and I got on sale for $79 (but you can get online for ~$50). I tried it out, but the results were really comparable to the Conair Infiniti. It did glide more smoothly through my hair than the FHI. I think about $50 is a decent price for this flat iron. You may hear that it's a Chi for a Conair price, but it's not. The FHI has full ceramic plates, but I couldn't tell.
Stage Four: So far so good - Chi
The Chi heats up very fast and makes my hair sleek, shiny, straight, and healthy-looking. It takes one or two passes to do what many, many passes with the cheaper irons could not do. The great thing was, even though my local overpriced salon had this puppy marked up to $149, they price-matched online sources that had it at $79! I used the costco website as my source for price matching, but others sell it for the same price now.
It hasn't broken yet, but from what I hear, it may. If it does, I will probably get a Sedu or Solia from an online discount place. My local salons did not sell Sedu or Solia, so I could not buy those in person. The reason to buy flat irons in person is that if you buy from an online source, it is much harder to get your flat iron repaired under warranty should something go wrong. Plus, you may not like what you buy, and it's difficult and costly to return things online. I would pay a little bit more to buy in person, but when I can buy online for $79 there's no way I'm going to pay $149 locally!
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