HOT TOOLS (2018 MODEL) Pro Artist 24K Gold Curling Iron | Long Lasting, Defined Curls (1-1/4 in)

I bought this to curl my hair and set it in rollers for a bouncy, voluminous, soft curl blow-out. This has been such a great curling iron! PROS: - has an ON/OFF button and a temperature control dial - heats up really quickly - the clamp does not squeak, it opens/closes very smoothly and my hair never gets caught in the clamp portion - the cable is really high quality which makes for storing the curler a lot easier, the cord never gets tangled and never gets caught on things when using it or storing it - this is a high quality curling iron -- my hair holds the curl pretty well (and I've had issues in the past where my hair falls out almost immediately after using a really cheap curling iron) - this is perfect for curling your hair before putting in rollers, once you take the rollers out you have a really gorgeous, bouncy, voluminous hairstyle - love that it has a little metal stand for the curling iron to lay on when setting it down - works really great for shoulder length hair CONS: - honestly, none!

I previously had a Bed Head, 1" clipless iron that I bought for $8 at Target on sale. It definitely took practice to get to use well (I burned myself a couple of times), sometimes the curls would fall nicely sometimes not. Overall, I felt the 1" barrel was too thin for my personal tastes, but I could make it work if I tried and had a lot of time to work with it. I don't hate the iron, and I'm keeping it just in case (it can make some nice looks too!), but I wanted a new iron that fit my needs better. I bought this for myself for my birthday, so I could dress up a little and feel fancier while going clubbing or going to special events. I always wanted to curl my hair but didn't feel a curling iron was worth the investment [normally $50-$60 for a better quality iron] for me personally, as I can't imagine curling my hair often. The price of this one was just so great (a little less than $30), I couldn't help myself. Pros: --1 1/4" barrel The curls are exactly what I wanted: voluminous and sexy. If you leave the curler in you hair for less time, you can have cute waves, too. Some styling and you just look like you worked so hard. Having all of the sections in 1" curls was not always flattering on my long (mid-back level), slightly layered hair. It could look a little like a lion's mane haha, if I wasn't careful. Oftentimes I'd pull some back to do a half-up, half-down to make things look better. This 1 1/4" is just so much more ideal for me. [Maybe check Youtube videos and see what girls use when they curl their hair for examples?] --Clip The clip prevents you from using your hand to wrap around the barrel and is therefore relatively safer imo. I would sometimes not use a glove with the clipless (not recommended), but lightly burned myself once. Still, you have to be careful with either--both are safe as long as the user is safe! The clipless effect does look a little different--The main difference is the slight crease where the clip holds onto the end of your hair--but I don't mind. To me it's a little too much effort with my long hair to deal with the clipless iron. --Heat settings Talking with friends of mine who curl their hair far more often than I, I heard a couple of times that a better quality (read: more expensive) curling iron with heat settings is really worth the investment. And normally higher quality ones have heat settings. According to some previous reviews I chose not to use the highest setting right away. I generally keep this one around the same heat: A mid-level makes nice looser curls on my normal (not too thick) hair. --Aesthetic I love black and gold together, so this just looks so nice to me. The gold is also supposed to be a good material to make a barrel out of! For smoother curls. --Value $30 is not bad for a Hot Tools curling iron. Cons: --Can't think of any yet! I've had no problems.

What a great curling iron. My hair stylist used this on my hair & I loved how it worked on my hair. She uses really nice tools for hair but most are very pricey (more than I would spend for these items) So I was really surprised to learn how reasonably priced this one was when I asked her the name of it so I could go buy one for myself. I actually ended up buying 2, one for my daughter & one for myself. Interestingly my daughter called me the day after I'd ordered hers, telling me about this great curling iron her hair stylist used on her hair that same day. I laughed telling her about my stylist using the same one on me. She was pretty happy when I surprised her with this new curling iron the next day. We've had them for about a month now & we just love it. We both have very long thick hair & this thing works wonderfully. It's smooth (hair doesn't get snagged in it), really light weight. I love how the cord part swivels as you curl too.I like how the little black knob at the end of the hot iron stays cool so you can hold it easily while holding your hair in the iron. It heats up quickly & has many different temp settings. Would highly recommend.

Purchased 6/2010, reviewed 6/2014: Well, better late than never. I bought this curling iron for my wife, after reading online reviews. She LOVED this curling iron. She liked that it heated up fast, opened and closed well, gripped her hair when she wanted it to, and let go when it was supposed to. I couldn't say exactly when it went from "love" to less than that. But it started probably around the two year mark, after being used on average, about once per week. It started to not heat up really well, and I think that there had been a flaw of some kind in the power cord, at the point where the cord attaches to the swivel connection on the iron. There was no visible problem, anywhere on the cord. It eventually got to the point where it didn't heat at all. That was probably in this last year, so it was a good 2-3 years old, I would say. So this last winter, about 2/2014, I took the thing apart, and couldn't find a thing wrong. I put it back together and kind of told my wife that it was her imagination--I don't know, I think I was just too busy at the time to be bothered. Then when I saw her a few weeks later using another old curling iron, and I asked her why she wasn't using the her favorite, and she said it just doesn't work anymore. So I figured maybe she wasn't making it up :) I took it apart again, and put an ohm meter on the cord part, and it was not good. I figured it unlikely that it was in the actual cord. So I started to cut into the thick part of the cord where it had a reinforced curve in it, and was able to get down to where I found that there must have been a break there. I cut that part of the cord out, soldered the cord onto the connectors that had been inside that molded reinforced curve, and put all of it back together with epoxy as something of a new homemade connection to reinforce it, and she was off and running again. Then in just the last few months, probably when the curling iron was about 3 1/2 years old, my wife started complaining that the curling iron was not gripping her hair well enough, and was slipping, and also that it was making a squeaking sound whenever she opened and closed the pincers--don't know if that's the right term. I am also not sure I understand another comment that she made, though, that she has trouble getting her hair out of it when she finds it is slipping. Anyway, all of that doesn't matter. I just looked at the spring area and could see that up underneath where the spring is, the point that contacts the pincer just below the thumb knob, there is a tiny roller that helps the spring to slide quietly back and forth, that was off center, and it also wasn't rolling anymore. It was mostly sliding. So I adjusted it to the side a little, and liberally sprayed some dry lubricant on it. The action works better, and it doesn't make any noise, so we will have to wait until she uses it again to see if it works. So as of today 6/16/2014, the iron is still going after approximately 200+ uses, albeit with some required tweaking to keep it out of the garbage. I would like to believe that the power cord issue that we had was a rare defect, and that most people never run into that. I'm thinking that most people could use this iron over 200 times and probably just be starting to have a squeaky spring issue, and that's about it. If I were to have to start this product search again, I would definitely take a chance again on this iron, and hope that we didn't get the cord defect in that reinforced bend near the swivel. For the money, and the use that we've had with this, I think it's a great deal. I actually just realized that we probably have used it many more than 200 times, as we have four girls aged 12 and under as well, but they generally don't get their hair curled, although on some special occasions, several of them do. Details on my star rating: Why did I ding this by one star? Well, although I would buy it again in a second, Amazon's star system equates four stars with a "like it" and five stars as a "love it." I could imagine some engineering tweaks to their design that would eliminate the issues we had. Also, I saw the inside of it when I was working on it, and although the parts were adequate, I would be cheating a curling iron with better quality parts that deserved the five stars, if I were to give this one five. As I've said in other reviews that I've written, to me, either four or five stars is a "buy with confidence" in my book. I wouldn't buy anything again with 1-2 stars on my scale, and a middle-of-the-road three star review by me would be "your mileage may vary" and would be a 50/50 shot.

Have used this for years and still works great

This is one of the best curling irons I’ve tried for my older, colored, fine straight hair. Good temp control, good long lasting smooth results, and i highly recommend it!

I just got this iron a few days ago and used it for a friend's wedding as soon as I got it. I normally would try the curling iron and practice before using it for an event, but this time I had no time to do so. However, I was very happy I got compliments on how good my curls/waves looked that day at my friend's wedding! More so since I have naturally straight hair. I'm not an expert in curling my hair, and this is my second curling iron. My first curling iron is a Conair one I got at Walmart. Comparing both of them, this Hot Tools curling iron is definitely way better than the Conair one. It heats up pretty fast after you plug it and turn it on, and it curls my hair faster too, so I get my hair done in less time. The Conair iron I have would take longer to get hot and curl my hair. Also, if I kinda mess up the curl with the Hot Tools iron, it's very easy to fix and doesn't leave my hair with a weird curl strand. Another thing I love about this curling iron is that once I clamp a hair section in it and roll it in to curl, the hair stays in the curling iron! I had this problem with the Conair iron that sometimes some hairs would come out of the iron as I'm trying to roll the hair section in to curl. But with this Hot Tools iron, this is no longer a problem for me. So far, I love this curling iron. I definitely recommend this product.

I asked for the Hot Tools 1 1/4" curling iron for Christmas. I already have a much smaller one (maybe 1/2 inch, can't remember), and it works wonderfully. I have very, very straight, reluctant, long hair, and even with a small one like that, I can roll a moderately sized section of hair on the highest heat setting and it makes very nice curls in a small amount of time. I wanted the 1 1/4" to make larger curls and waves, especially because my hair has gotten longer and I can't curl very high with a small one. I was SO upset and disappointed when I tried out my new curling iron and got barely any results at all. I put it on the highest setting (it's supposed to go up to 450 degrees) and it barely curled the very bottom of each section. I tried holding the hair in for a long time, using really small sections, using hairspray...nothing worked. I held up sections vertically from my scalp and tried curling to the very root, but it barely made the slightest suggestion of a wave, and I could make my hair straight again by just brushing it out with my hands once. I don't know if this particular curling iron was defective and didn't actually get hot enough- it really didn't feel like 450 degrees to me. Overall I'm just so surprised that the smaller one I have has more power and higher heat than this one. I'm really really disappointed. This was the thing I was most excited about for Christmas, and I was looking forward to using it for work, but I think I'm just going to have to send it back and find a different brand.