Babyliss Curl Secret Review

Review | Is the Babyliss Curl Secret worth the money?

So, after almost a year’s worth of thinking about it, talking about it, and, let’s be honest, whining about it, I finally got a Babyliss Curl Secret. Well, hallelujah.

 

As I’m sure many of you know, the Babyliss Curl Secret (BUY IT HERE) is a super-duper magical curling device, which basically sucks your hair into its mystical curling chamber, performs some jiggery-pokery upon it, then spits it back out again, curly. It’s like magic! And also like an incredibly expensive hair curling… device. (Um, yeah, I think I’m just going to go with “device”. It’s not a tong, you see, or a curling iron, or any of the more usual tools used to curl. So it’s a device. Yes.)

I’ve wanted a Curl Secret ever since I found out it existed, which just so happened to be on Boxing Day last year. In fact, I seem to remember forcing my entire family to watch endless You Tube videos demonstrating the thing. They thought they were gathered together to celebrate the joys of the festive season: instead, they watched some random vloggers attempt to curl their hair. Ain’t modern life grand?

The Babyliss Curl Secret

Anyway! Being somewhat challenged in the hair curling department, I really, really wanted one of these, but it took me almost a year to bring Terry up to speed, and convince him that we just could not go on living without a better way to curl our hair. Finally, my sister-in-law came to the rescue: she’d succumbed to the lure of the Curl Secret herself, and let me borrow it, so I could decide for myself whether I really, genuinely needed one. My own Curl Secret arrived three days later: so that answered THAT question, didn’t it?

As I said, this is unlike most other curling devices you might have used. First, you take a strand of hair, about a couple of inches wide, then you feed it into the barrel of your gun – I mean your Babyliss Curl Secret – placing the device about halfway up the shaft of hair. As soon as you close the jaws of the beast – I mean the Babyliss Curler – it will start to suck in the rest of the lock of hair. It will make a slightly ominous-sounding mechanical sound while it does this. Do not be alarmed…

 
 
 

No, seriously: don’t be alarmed. When I was reading reviews of this before buying it, I noticed that a lot of people mentioned being scared to use it in case something went wrong, and their hair got stuck in it, or it just continued all the way up the shaft of hair and ate their head or something. Now, as regular readers know, I’m fairly accident-prone, so Id be lying if I said I was completely unconcerned about any of this. Actually, though, the thing is fairy foolproof (And I speak as a ‘fool’, so I should know…): it’s specifically designed NOT to eat your head (Phew!), so if you happen to put too much hair in it, or if the hair becomes tangled, or otherwise “compromised” (I’ve been watching Homeland again, can you tell?), the device emits a frantic-sounding “BEEPBEEPBEEP!” to warm you, and releases its hold on your hair.

This has happened to me a few times, but the hair has always just come straight out – I’ve never had to yank at it, or cut it, or anything like that. I’m not saying that CAN’T happen, obviously – I guess accidents of the “hair tangling” sort can happen at any time – but this isn’t quite as “scary” as it looks/sounds, so I don’t think there’s a particular cause for concern, is what I’m saying.

Once the hair has been pulled into the device, all you have to do is wait a few seconds for it to perform its curling magic. There are three different heat and time settings which you can select, depending on your type of hair, but you’re all big girls and boys, so I’m sure you can read the instructions for yourself if you do decide to buy one of these (Definitely do that, by the way. I mean, don’t just do what some blogger showed you, without reading the instructions first…), so I won’t go into a long explanation of them all, but suffice to say, my hair is long, and resists curl with all its might, so I use the maximum setting for both.

When the device is finished curling, it emits a series of beeps, to let you know its done. You then simply release the hair, and you’re left with a loose, ringlet-style curl:

...

And that’s it!

 

So, is it worth it? Well, it really depends on what you’re after, but here are my thoughts, after using it for a couple of weeks…

Babyliss Curl Secret Review

  • It’s foolproof. No, really: if I can use it, anyone can. I’ve never been particularly skilled at curling my hair, and can mess up the simplest of styles, but this is really easy to use, and basically guarantees you perfect curls, even if you’re not great at styling your hair.
  • It’s reliable. I have a ton of different hair-curling tools, and while I can use all of them, the results are often a bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes it’ll work out great, other times it’ll be a hot mess, and I’ve really no clue why. With this, however, the curls will ALWAYS work – or they always have so far, anyway.
  • It’s quick. It took me about five minutes to create the curls shown above. With any other method, it would take much, much longer than that (and my arms would be aching by the time I was done), and the speed of this is one of the main things that attracted me to it.
  • The curls are long-lasting. As I mentioned, my hair resists curl, and a lot of the time I’ll curl it, only for it to be poker-straight again an hour later. These curls, however, last all day. I normally put my hair into a topknot to sleep in, and there’ll still be some curl left when I take it down in the morning, which is another big plus-point for me.
 

BABYLISS CURL SECRET: THE BAD

  • It’s expensive. Like, really, really expensive: hence the reason I waited a year, and then tried someone else’s before taking the plunge. If it’s at all possible (and I realise it might not be), I’d recommend you do that before you buy it, just to be sure it’s going to work for you.
  • It’s not designed for very long hair. The instructions say that it shouldn’t be used on hair longer than “bust length”. As you can see, my hair is pretty much at the maximum length you can use it at, and because of that, it hasn’t curled all the way to the root, so only the bottom of my hair is curly/wavy. If you have shorter hair, you’ll get much more of a curl: if your hair is longer than mine, though, you’ll have even more of a “root”, which might look a bit odd.
  • It only creates one kind of curl. With most of the curling tools I use, you can create various different styles and curls. With the Babyliss hair curler, however… well, I hope you like loose waves/ringlets, because that’s all you’ll be getting. The curler DOES alternate the direction of the curl (so the first one you do will curl towards the face, the next one away from the face, and so on), but it’s still basically the same style of curl, every time. The good news is that if that’s what you’re after, you probably won’t find an easier way to achieve the look. If you’re looking for more of a multi-purpose tool, however, this isn’t it.

THE VERDICT?

I think the bottom line with this is that if you’re the type of person who likes to experiment with your hair, and who’s already quite good at creating various different types of curls, this probably won’t give you anything you can’t do already, with tongs/flat irons or whatever. If, however, you’re like me, and are just looking for a quick and easy way to get no-fuss waves, every time, then I think you might just like it: just don’t expect it to be cheap…

OMG, A VIDEO!

Because this is very much an “I could tell you, but it would be easier to show you,” kinda contraption, after writing 1,500 words about it, I decided I should just have made a video demonstrating it instead. So I did! I don’t speak in this (I don’t DO speaking: think of me as the Charlie Chaplin of the Internet. Or… actually, maybe don’t.), and I also filmed it while chock full of the lurgy last week, so I look even rougher than usual, and will doubtless regret this the second I hit “publish”, but here’s a quick video of me using the Babyliss Curl Secret: if you like it, please thumb it up, or subscribe to the channel, or do whatever it is people do on You Tube videos…

 

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books by Amber Eve
COMMENTS
  • Oh Amber I wanted to hear your voice!!! Lovely video nonetheless, and great review. I’m always interested in anything that curls hair fast, but I’m really, REALLY, REAAAAALLY clumsy and messy. I know you say it’s fool-proof, but I wonder if it’s Jess-proof 😉 This “device” 😉 looks like a great investment, but it still seems scary to me, my fat fingers and my crazy hair.

    November 17, 2014
    • I know this sounds a little creepy but I wanted to hear your voice too! hahaha
      I’ve been contemplating getting this for a while too, but the PRICETAGG.

      November 17, 2014
  • Love it! I need a “simple” curling tool! You look super cute and LOVE the video!

    Tatyana
    Secret little Stars
    http://www.secretlittlestars.com

    November 17, 2014
  • Oh man, now I really miss my long hair. This looks like so much fun. Also, the video was excellent. More videos please!

    November 17, 2014
  • Oh no! I have also been thinking about this, I think I might need one now! Need to find the cash first.

    November 17, 2014
  • Love that video!

    November 17, 2014
  • Alison

    REPLY

    I got one last year and love it. I could never do consistent curls before and even then it would take me hours. This really is foolproof and so fast. So another endorsement here.
    And Amber, you’d never know you were lurgy ridden. You look fab.

    November 17, 2014
  • I’m absolutely hopeless at curling my hair – the only luck I’ve ever had is with hot rollers, but the curls drop so quickly from these… and every time I do it I get completely different results! So this sounds like it could be the answer to all my problems… if I ever have £100 to spare that is! My hair’s not quite as long as yours so I reckon I could almost do the whole length which would be cool… BUT I would also like the option to curl them all in the same direction for more vintage looks, so that does put me off a bit…

    November 17, 2014
  • Cristina

    REPLY

    I’ not sure about buying £100 curler but I do know that I loved that video! I always try to imagine how your articles would sound with a Scottish accent though so I wouldn’t mind a “speaking” video either. Good job on the review anyway ^_^

    November 17, 2014
  • I’ve been lusting for one of these since last Christmas too! My hair though is just about shoulder length so another year of growing for before I invest I think.

    The video was great – I am so disappointed not to hear your voice though! More! More!

    November 17, 2014
  • I saw the advert for this the other day and thought ‘perfect!’ I’m pretty bad at curling my hair and if I get it looking right, it falls out in about an hour. I’m definitely intrigued by this but I need to encourage someone else to buy it, I mean find someone whose got one, and try it out first.

    November 17, 2014
  • I have tried this but personally prefer heated rollers. Perhaps I should vlog about them! (Yours was great by the way)

    November 17, 2014
  • Ooh I’ve been looking for a decent review of this, thanks. My hair is fine and falls flat as soon as I leave my house. Great advise to try before you buy- especially on an item like this that is non-returnable! really want to give it a go now 🙂

    Kimberley x

    November 18, 2014
  • Your hair looks great! Seems to have worked really well, although it seems a little scary putting your hair in. May be the perfect christmas present for my younger sister. xx

    November 18, 2014
  • Alison S

    REPLY

    Have always fancied trying this since I first saw it but my hair isn’t long enough yet to justify it. Wish hair would grow quicker!

    November 18, 2014
  • I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wonder how this would work on someone with my length hair (just above the shoulder) hmmm. It looks really good on hair your length! I pincurl my hair but there are days when I am too tired the night before to do it and then the next day I’m really kicking myself because I have to go out and it all becomes a bad hair day. I will be linking this to all of my relatives and being really subtle like CHRISTMAS PRESENT PLZ HINT! HINT!

    November 18, 2014
  • Thanks so much! This review was just what I had been looking for to find out the type of curls this device really creates! I found you by accident today while looking for other people who had written about Aldi’s Syn-ake cream, (as I have JUST found it in an Aldi in the German town I am living in) and then ended up on your popular posts page! I really love your blog, thanks again xx

    February 17, 2015
  • Amanda

    REPLY

    I tried this at a friends house and my hair got stuck!
    My friend said she was going to have to cut my hair off to get it out as all we could smell was burning! Thankfully we eventually managed to get my now slightly dry but otherwise un damaged hair out, thank goodness!

    July 4, 2015
  • Jenny

    REPLY

    I had hair down to my ass, and I had no problem using this, just as long as you don’t take big sections of your hair it’s fine 🙂

    August 15, 2015
  • anna

    REPLY

    HI,

    I am very concerned about this device causing possible damage or split ends? Did you noticed any?

    May 25, 2016
  • Hey! Nice review with a full details. Love the babyliss curling iron. Great Blog 🙂

    September 16, 2016
  • Sophia

    REPLY

    Thank you so much for this review!! I was thinking about getting the Babyliss for Christmas, but you finally answered my question, if my hair was too long.. it sadly is, but thanks to you i know now and i can search for an alternative curling device. 🙂

    December 10, 2016
  • Donna Hetherington

    REPLY

    My hair frazzlec in this seems to have burnt it and i followed all instructions

    December 27, 2017
  • Milu Zambrano

    REPLY

    Good review, but I personally love my Karmin curler

    April 4, 2019
  • Teeheehee, love the video! You seem so cute and innocent in it :)) (“What’s that supposed to mean?”, she wonders.) Thank you for your thoughts on this device – I had borrowed it from a friend as well to try it. My hair is unfortunately way too unruly and sorta-kinda has waves/curls already (which no, are not as pretty as the ones you can make… le sigh). So the process of separating a strand of hair alone can be a challenge ?
    My hairdresser recently used an oval curling iron (GHD, I believe) and the results were amazing! Have you heard of that? Are you intrigued like me? 🙂
    Best wishes!
    Nina

    November 4, 2019
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