As a child of the 90s, I've always yearned for the bouncy blowouts worn by the supermodels and sitcom stars of that era.
These days, that trend is well and truly back thanks to Hairtok, and there are a whole lot of ladies like me out there trying and failing to achieve it.
The original blowout method, using a hair dryer and a round brush? No chance. I don't have the upper body strength or the patience. Curling with a straightener? Great for waves, but not so much for volume and bounce. Hot rollers? Nightmare. Trust me.
Tools like the Shark Flexstyle are awesome, but can be time-consuming. Washing and drying my hair is such an ordeal in the first place; I don't always have the energy to start a whole new process afterwards.
Having tried so many different hair tools, the one that always scared me was a curling tong with a clamp. For some reason, I just couldn't wrap my head (or hair) around it. Then I saw a bunch of tutorials on how to use one to fake a blow wave, and I knew it was time to face my fears.
This year, GHD dropped a whole new 'chronos curve' range, including the revamped 'classic tong' tool, which they kindly sent me to try. I also saw people doing this hack with a larger tool like the chronos curve 'grand tong', but I wanted my curls super defined and hopefully long-lasting, so I went a little smaller.
The whole process is incredibly easy and quick - you only need to curl the bottom part of your hair, so you start at the mid-lengths. You can alternate whether you curl up or down with each section, which will give you even more volume.
Curl your front section forward, and make sure you don't even think about touching your hair until everything has cooled completely. The whole thing took me about 10 minutes, as you can use quite big sections each time.
To make the style even longer-lasting, you can pin the curls as they cool or pop them in velcro rollers while you do your makeup.
GHD's chronos technology monitors the temperature to keep it at a high-definition-curl-defining 185 degrees - any hotter and you'll damage your hair, cooler and the style won't hold. It also only takes 25 seconds to heat up, and turns itself off after 20 minutes of inactivity, so it's ideal for someone like me who's always rushing in the mornings and frequently has the panic thought of having left an appliance on.
The other upshot of using a hot tool rather than a blow dryer to create curls is the lack of frizz and the increase in shine - my results were super smooth and glossy, which is always a bonus and requires less product to tame.
Did my curls last 24 hours like GHD says they can? No. And if I'm looking for a style that will hold for a few days while I'm travelling or not able to refresh it, I probably wouldn't choose this option. But to be able to finally rock the iconic '90s blowout after decades of frustration not being able to achieve it? That's a total game-changer.
