Why I rate the highly underrated ghd Glide Hair Straightening Brush
Hair straighteners have been our best friends since the early 2000s, but with all the damage heated styling tools are doing to our hair, you're likely ready for something gentler.
Hairbrushes have been a source of innovation in the last few years, with drying and styling tools, like the Dyson Airwrap, continuing to attract loyal fans. ghd too have their own styling brush offering with the ghd Glide Hair Straightening Brush, which (despite being highly underrated in my opinion) is the answer to your wishes for a product that is gentler than a straightener and more affordable than an Airwrap.
NOTE: Prices are accurate at time of publishing.
ghd (styled lowercase, for those who think it's a typo), which stands for 'good hair days', kicked off in 2001 when three UK hairstylists brought a new and innovative hair-straightening tool over from Korea – which took off instantly. Back then, we were still at the height of 'The Rachel' – the layered, face-framing hairstyle made popular by Jennifer Aniston in Friends – which had us ironing out the kinks and curls we'd loved just a few years earlier.
Now, two decades on, ghd has stayed at the forefront of styling technology. Aussie women (myself included) know and love the brand and are willing to drop their hard-earned cash on the reliable tools that promise to last through the years.
My own ghd straightener, which came to me second-hand eight years ago, only just died a few months back, and I'm amazed I didn't lose it earlier. The thing worked hard. My hair is thick, curly and typically unruly given how much of it I have, but my straightener never put a foot wrong. And with more awareness now about the damaging effects of daily straightening, I opted for a gentler replacement: the ghd Glide.
My hair has lost some of its intense curl in the last few years, which happens to most women as they get older, and has settled into a gentle wave that I actually like if I slather it with enough product when it's still wet. I'll straighten it for special occasions, or when humidity gives too much of a helping hand to the sheer volume of my 'do, but other than that, I typically leave it. On a good hair week, all I need is something to eliminate the odd cowlick or bed-head moment.
The Glide is a styling brush that promises to eliminate frizz, rather than give you the flat-iron appearance a hot straightener might. It uses ceramic technology to achieve this, and pearl ceramic bristles of varying lengths to grip larger sections of your hair and glide through them – so long as you've taken care of any monstrous knots.
The pros
It's perfect for short hair. The heated bristles on the Glide make for quite a large surface, so if you're sporting a bob or a lob, this is the perfect straightening tool. It takes a bit more effort to pull it through my own yards of hair, but it's perfect for arranging the hair that frames my face.
It's amazing for touch-ups. If you wake up with some puffed-up fringe action, the Glide can offer a quick fix. This is what I use it for most often.
It's ergonomic. A brush is much easier to operate than a straightener in my humble opinion, and I love how the Glide just takes a slow, brushing manoeuvre to work.
The Glide only reaches a max 185ºC. Any hotter, it would damage your hair.
It also has an 'automatic sleep mode' feature, which I find comforting given how often I catch myself wondering if I remembered to turn off my heated tools.
The cons
The Glide will not leave your hair looking dead-straight – after all, that's not the point. I figured this out pretty quickly after spending almost an hour trying to section my hair and straighten it, which did not work. The Glide is designed for taming and neatening an unruly mane, not beating it into submission. If you want to remove volume, stick to a regular straightener.
It takes some practice to get the best use out of the Glide. While it's easy to pull through clean hair, you can't clamp down on it, meaning a wayward strand might not smooth the way the rest of its section does, which can be frustrating if you're trying to straighten a larger section of hair. As they say, practice makes perfect!
Finally, is it worth it?
It retails at $250, but you can nab one for $212.50 in current sales. That's about $42 a year if it lasts you five years, and given a second-hand ghd lasted me nearly 10, the cost-per-use is likely to be even less. And for the convenience of smooth strands in minutes? We definitely recommend it!
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