GHD Gold Professional 1" Styler Review!

GHD Gold Professional 1" Styler

The GHD Gold Professional 1" Styler ($225) is GHD's sleekest styler ever, with a cooler, lighter body, smoother plates, and an bonus protective plate guard for storage and travel. Rounded barrel and contoured plates means you can not only straighten hair with this professional styler, but create curls, waves, and flips. Sleep mode provides added safety and universal voltage means no converter while traveling, makes the GHD your go-to styling iron.

Throughout the years, I've owned countless flat irons and have never really been 100% satisfied with any of them. For reference, this flat iron is my first GHD flat iron - I've never owned any comparable brands (Chi, T3, Solano, etc).

I've been using this flat iron for the past month now, so if you'd like to know what I think of this iron, please keep reading!

Product Features

• Includes protective plate guard to cover hot plates for easy storage and travel
• Cooler, lighter body
• Smoother plates
• Professional finish
• Ceramic heaters
• Contoured plates
• Rounded barrel
• Heats up to 374F
• Sleep mode
• Universal voltage
• 2-Year Manufacturer's Warranty

When turning the iron on for the first time, I automatically noticed that there is no temperature control switch, just an on/off switch. Already I was a bit apprehensive because I usually need very high heat for my thick, curly hair and low heat for my bangs (in order for them not to be stick straight and flat).

When the iron is switched on, it beeps, and the switch will light up and blink to indicate that the iron is heating up. Seconds later, it will fully heat up, and beep three times more and the light will stop blinking to indicate that it's ready for use. This iron heats up in less than 30 seconds, and is definitely faster than any other iron I've used.

I don't normally forget to turn my flat iron off after use, but it's a habit to plug in my flat iron before I'm actually going to use it to give it time to heat up. After 30 minutes of being idle, the iron will go into sleep mode and beep every 10 seconds as a reminder that it's on, and it's still plugged in. I think it's a pretty sweet feature.

My hair type:
Long (down my back), thick, curly - a mixture of loose curls and waves (not kinky), dry and fine. My hair is like a difficult child that does what they want, when they want and won't listen to authority. 

With that said, I need a pretty good iron if I want my hair to be perfectly primped.

I always start with the underside of my hair first, and comb out one inch sections. With one pass of my iron my hair is fairly straight, but two passes is needed because my hair is long, and with a thin plate flat iron, little areas can get missed. It takes around 20-25 minutes to get through my hair.

It doesn't pull my hair, snag, and my hair glides smoothly through the plates without causing bends in my hair.

What stands out the most to me about this iron is that it leaves my hair soft and shiny. It doesn't feel dry or fried and brittle like other flat irons I've used. Also, when flat ironing my bangs, I always style them on low heat so they'll fall naturally, rather than looking stick straight and in the way. This iron styles my bangs perfectly!

I have to mention that I never wear my hair straight, but I have to use a flat iron when I wear my signature loose waves. My curls are tighter toward the roots and remain semi-tight a couple inches down my hair, and after that, the curls loosen up. So, I section my hair off and flat iron from my roots to about 1/3 down my hair, leaving the bottom curly. I then use a large barrel curling iron to curl my hair. It may seem like I can use any flat iron for this and get the same results, but I can definitely notice a difference in how healthy my hair appears.

Because I have very long hair, this flat iron wouldn't be the best model for me for wearing my hair straight, as the plates are so small. If I did in fact wear my hair straight, I'd opt for a model with larger plates. For what I need this flat iron for, this model works just fine.

I wouldn't say this particular model would be the best for thick, coarse, kinky or very long hair, as I don't think it gets hot enough. But if you have short to medium length hair, with fine and normal texture, it's amazing.

$225 is a huge price to pay for a flat iron, and isn't in many of our budgets. But for those who are willing to pay an arm and a leg for professional hair tools, I'd definitely recommend looking into a GHD.

The Round-Up

Pros:

• Fast heat-up (under 30 seconds)
• Lightweight
• Easy to use
• Swivel Cord, doesn't tangle easily
• Sleep Mode - "sleeps" after 30 minutes of being idle
• Can create curls as well as straighten
• Makes hair soft and shiny
• Doesn't snag or pull hair
• Doesn't dry out the hair

Cons:

• The temperature goes up to 374 degrees F, so those who typically need 400 degrees and over for stick straight hair (very thick, tight curly and kinky hair) may want to look into a different flat iron. 
• Can't control the temperature
• Beeping is annoying - but is nevertheless helpful.
• Very expensive

Price: $225, Folica.