Lit from Within: KISS Clunky Curlers Goodbye with the KISS Instawave

Thursday, December 4, 2014

KISS Clunky Curlers Goodbye with the KISS Instawave

Product provided for review. All opinions are my own.

Hello, Fireflies!

And now, for something a little different, a new fun gadget for professional curly 'dos at home. Curious about how this fun tool works, and how I used it with my already curly hair? Read on!

I'd never seen anything like the KISS Instawave before! In my day, if you wanted to curl your hair, you had to clamp the hair onto the barrel, and turn it yourself, probably burning yourself a few times in the process, and sometimes getting hairs painfully caught in the clamp!

This handy tool is state-of-the-art, with Ceramic Ionic Technology that provides gentle heat that reduces frizz, two temperatures with a max of 420 degrees, an auto-shutoff timer, and an automatic curler that goes two different directions - no twisting the barrel, and no clamp!

I love that it has a light that indicates when it's ready to go, glowing red when it's on, and then blue when it's ready to go. For those with fine hair, the low temperature will help protect your hair. Me, I need the heavy-duty stuff, so I go for high. Crank it up!

There's a handy guide so you can get started right away. I want to make some curls NOW, right?

And, so I did. I have naturally curly hair already, but I have about three or four different levels of curls - at the nape of my neck, I have tight, frizzy corkscrews; as the hair moves up the back of my head, it moves from corkscrews to curls, and at the crown of my head, the hair is almost straight! I've straightened my hair to get it all the same texture - now I can get consistent curls with the KISS InstaWave.

There's a learning curve, especially for someone like me who has trouble discerning right from left! (I admit, I always have to hold up my hands and make the "L" to see which one is my left!) but it's not that hard, and if you go the wrong direction with the button, it's easy to fix.

Because I have a lot of thick curly hair, it was important for me to separate each section that I wanted to curl. If it picked up hair from another section, it might catch and get tangled. But, this is where the KISS Instawave shined, because the ceramic barrel allowed even some tangled hair to just slide up the smooth barrel! And if it couldn't handle the tangle, it was so easy to just push the button the other way, and then fix the curl.

After holding it in place for about 10 seconds, you pull the iron straight down, revealing a beautiful barrel curl.

I did watch the videos on the KISS Instawave website, and knew I wanted to try both a softer, wavier style, and also a tighter, corkscrew curl.

My first attempt, on the left, is a looser curl. The picture on the right shows how you can get tight corkscrew curls with the KISS Instawave.

It's more natural if you curl the hair away from your face, and then alternate curls in either direction, which is so easy to do with the button. I was even able to curl all the hair on the back of my head.

Once you have all the curls done, you can either set it with hairspray, or loosen them up and shake it out a bit first.