When it comes to beauty, I take a rather laissez-faire approach: the more quickly I can get in and out of the boudoir, the better.
Which is why I am always intrigued by a good beauty shortcut, such as the Conair InfinitiPro Curl Secret curler, dubbed the world’s first fully automated curl machine.
I like to try different hairstyles, but find myself reaching for my straightener 99 per cent of the time due to its user-friendliness and quick results (it delivers a head-full of stick-straight locks in less than 10 minutes).
My curling iron doesn’t get used as often simply because I usually don’t get the style I’m after, even after 45 minutes of frustratedly coiling my hair around a hot barrel.
But with Conair InfinitiPro Curl Secret, gone are the days of wrapping your hair around a tube and clamping it into a flat piece of metal, only to reveal a jagged, crooked excuse for a curl.
The Curl Secret has a special tourmaline ceramic curl chamber that automatically pulls each lock of hair into it, and after a few seconds, releases a shiny, Sarah Jessica Parker-worthy spiral.
I discovered this one quiet spring evening when I decided to pour myself a glass of wine and plug the curler into my bathroom outlet. The handle displays three timer settings (either 8, 10, or 12 seconds), and two heat settings, chosen depending on whether the goal is soft waves or tight curls. I opted for 10 seconds on the low setting.
For best results, Conair recommends starting with clean, dry, hair free of any product, and since I had washed my locks in preparation for an event that morning, I was ready to go. I then used hair clips to separate my strands horizontally into three sections: top, middle and bottom.
Thirty seconds later, the curler’s red light illuminated, indicating it was ready for curl action. I grabbed a one-inch thick piece of hair (you can go even smaller with half an inch), and laid it flat across the chamber area of the curler, with the chamber facing my head as emphasized in the instructions. Squeezing the clamps, I watched in amazement as the lock was swiftly and seamlessly drawn into the curl chamber.
I squeezed the handles tightly for a few seconds until a beeping noise alerted me to release them, and my jaw dropped when I saw the perfectly shiny curl fall out.
Repeating this process over the course of 45 minutes (it should take less than that, but I had a learning curve to contend with), resulted in a head full of curls so bouncy, I was dancing around my apartment (and that was only partly thanks to the wine).
What was most impressive was how healthy and shiny my normally frizzy hair looked and felt, thanks to the tourmaline ceramic heating system. And because the timer indicates when to release the curl, there’s minimal risk of burning the hair, which can happen with other tools.
But the best part? Because the heater is contained within the chamber, I came out without any burns on my fingers or my neck, which can sometimes happen with traditional curlers.
A few notes: It is very important to start with clean, straight hair (I tried the curler with second-day hair and it definitely didn’t work as well).
It’s also imperative that you position the curl chamber facing the head, and not facing away from it, before closing the clamp so that the hair can be properly drawn into the curl chamber.
And for those looking for curls that last more than one day, you may want to try a different method: my curls, which generally last two days when using hot rollers, lasted about eight hours, but completely fell out after I had slept on them.
Overall, the Conair InfinitiPro Curl Secret tool is relatively fast, quick and efficient, and gave me what I was looking for: luscious, voluminous curls that, with a spritz of hair spray, lasted all evening.
