Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Oh how I wanted to love this iron. I don’t have “good” hair so when an appliance comes along that looks like it might really provide a solid answer to a ongoing issue, then I will fork out the the extra dough to get the superior results. That’s saying a lot because even when a product provides those results, my hair still looks mediocre at best, relatively speaking. My hair is baby fine, and has different textures, It tends to be flat and thinner towards the top, and has a bit of a natural wave and I have more (but still fine) hair from about the ears down. This means I MUST do something to my hair (or look like a homeless person) after every wash… there’s no letting it dry naturally, not if I’m leaving the house anyway. This was NOT an impulse purchase. I gave it a lot of thought. It looks “gimmicky” and I am always leery of that. It’s not sold in brick and mortar stores, at least that I am aware of. I am leery of that. (I think of the “as seen on TV” products and in my experience those are usually products that just wouldn’t make it when selling to the masses….but, everyone has to start somewhere, right? I watched video after video after video (not kidding, hours worth!), I read reviews (so mixed!) and many tutorials. I felt as though I knew so much about the product and how to use it that I would be a master straight out of the box. The owner/creator seems honest and sincere. She spends a lot of time teaching and promoting her product and it’s a family owned business. Everyone seemed to say they had great customer service and a 30 day money back guarantee. I really liked what I was seeing. I was also lucky that they just introduced the “pro” model that included different heat settings, the “regular” model has one heat, 400 degrees, which is WAY too hot for this fine AND color treated hair! The Pro adds an auto shut off, also missing from the original Tyme Iron. (I am notorious for walking out the door with my hair appliances still on) With these new features on board, and a fancy new design, which I will admit is really, really pretty….. a gorgeous color and beautiful embellishments that make it look like a high end hair appliance, not to mention some Black Friday incentives (not a discount on the iron, but some added goodies for very little added cost) I was ready to pull the trigger. By this time I could NOT wait to get my iron! My iron arrived on time, neatly packaged and as expected. I started experimenting that same evening. Again, I thought after hours of watching videos and tutorials I had this thing DOWN. My first try, I ended up with a straight piece of frizzed hair and a burnt finger. Several unsuccessful attempts later I was consulting the box (very little info there) and eventually getting my laptop out and going over the videos again. After about 2 hours, I ended up getting some inconsistent waves. Progress? Eventually, late that evening after MUCH frustration I was finally starting to get some frizzy waves. I understood, based on the videos, WHY I would be getting the frizz, but if I didn’t clamp the iron closed at least initially my hair would just slip out, I guess it’s just at that “not quite long enough” length to flip over and easily grab and glide. Non the less, I was getting the concept, and thought I just needed to practice and perfect. After many hours, I finally finished up and had some semi- wavy hair (I could have done this in 10 minutes with another device- however I hoped this device would eventually be fast and create smooth, long lasting curls). I went down to show my husband my masterpiece and roughly 15 min later when I passed the mirror, there was barely any wave left in my hair. To be fair, there was a little more volume to my hair than normal, but seriously, no more curl/wave after 15 minutes!! I blamed myself and inexperience and decided to try again on fresh hair the next day. Long story short, The next day is Thanksgiving, I washed and prepped my hair completely for a perfect canvas to create my masterpiece. As I began to create the “curls” it was as if all had come back and I was creating “relatively” awesome curls right from the start. They was a little frizz, and I’m sure they could have been better had I had more practice, but the point is, I was getting nice, consistent curls. It still took about 40 min to complete my whole head, (remember I have fine hair) touch up the missed pieces, mess with it to give the top some volume, etc. This time instead of semi waves, I started out with some actual curls. I did not brush them out, I did run my fingers through them to blend everything together, etc. I sprayed it with a light hair spray for hold without a sticky, crunchy feel and went to meet with my guests. Most of the females knew I was testing this device so I was getting feedback. Within 20 min or so I was told that the curls has pretty much all fallen out to waves. I checked, and went back and re-curled, numerous pieces. This happened 3x. The curls would NOT hold in my hair, even with hair spray, indoors. After dinner, I got the iron out and curled a teens hair, with semi-thick long hair, and she got very nice beachy curls, which also loosened quite a bit over the evening, with hair spray, but it still looked very nice on her. Then I did my daughter’s medium length thick hair, this took over an hour, and looked gorgeous, although several pieces were very frizzy, which could have been my inexperience, but her results were certainly the best of the bunch. By the end of the night, and 3 curls, I had some volume, but that’s about it. The other 2 looked nice, sans a little frizz. I had them send me a picture from when they got up the next day. The teen had nice waves, my daughter had solid curls (just needed brushed/fixed) and I had straight hair, except a tiny bit of volume in my bangs. Does this mean it may just best on hair that is thick? Maybe, I don’t know. I think if I had my daughter’s hair I would have given it more time, and practice, but I got longer lasting curls (although not the SAME kind of curls from a wand that cost under 20 bucks) on my hair. I did try again today and again, I can see I am getting better and prettier curls, but they fall out FAST. It’s crazy! If this is the case on fine fair, just don’t sell to this segment of the market. So disappointing! Oh, one more thing to note…. while I was working on my daughter’s hair there was 2 different times I looked down and the appliance had turned off on it’s own. I was sure I saw on one of the videos they had made sure in production that this would not happen, that the curling iron could detect when it was being used and stay on, but I wondered why it had stopped producing a curl on her hair, and that seemed to be the issue. Simple fix, but a 200 dollar iron should not shut off while you’re using it…. I’m back on the hunt….