A hairdryer changed my life

Hair is a serious matter

When it comes to hair, I still basically want a Rachel.

Years ago, the wonderful India Knight (find her excellent Substack on here) recommended a product in the Sunday Times which changed my life.

And I honestly don’t think it’s frivolous to say that about a hair care gadget.

We are our hair – and so are men, so it’s not putting baby in the corner to rate a product that makes me feel good and confident about it that highly on my personal life concerns register.

That product was the Babyliss Big Hair – a hairdryer with a rotating brush, that makes it a cinch to blow dry your own hair. A task my friend Jo Fairley (a legendary beauty writer) once memorably wrote makes her feel like she needs three hands.

The miracle that is the Babyliss Big Hair. I’m on my second one.

With a BBH just the two will do it. You can pretty much do it with one.

Making it even more marvellous there are two girths of brush, so you can use the big bertha for your root lift and the more slender one to tame those smaller round-face strands.

My routine is to apply Sam McKnight Happy Endings (the best hair balm ever, fact, you can check it out here) for the wet comb through, then leave my hair to get nearly dry. At the crucial moment I then wield the BBH to smooth down the flyaway grey hair strands (my antennae) and create smooth-topped scalp volume.

For the finishing touch, I then apply straighteners to the ends of my hair, to get that soft top, sharp finish look that is the current mode.

It looks almost professional, really quite astonishingly so – but it does need a top up each morning. Which really came home to me hard, when I was away for a few, warm, rainy days last week.

Humid climactic conditions do terrifying things to my barnet.

By Thursday morning it was as big as Margaret Thatcher’s conference do. Uncontainable.

I was, to use one of my favourite Australian terms, a monstrous boufhead.

Bouf to the bouf to the bouf bouf bouf. Nightmare.

She always gets it right.

But how could I pack a hairdryer and straighteners for a three-day trip? I couldn’t, which made me swear I’d find a solution when I got home. Some kind of travel straightener, or something.

One quick trip to Superdrug delivered it – and joy of joys, it’s another Babyliss product.*

May I introduce the (horribly-named) Babyliss Cordless Gas Tong and Brush.

Powered by a small gas canister, there’s no bulky cord – and it does both jobs. It’s a mini hot-brush (you do the turning) and a curling tong (which I use as a straightener).

My new travel hair care set up. Sam McKnight’s genius Happy Endings, my trusty paddle brush (thank you Susie Howard) and the cordless wonder tong, plus brush attachment.

My first attempt sorted out the usual overnight hair weirdness in no time. It’s another absolute winner winner chicken dinner. £27.99.

One issue I do have to establish with it, though, is how you could take it on a plane, or even an international train, because of the gas canister issue. Despite that, I’m thrilled to have it, even if only for UK use - and if I find out about international travel, I’ll let you know.

And the other slight thing is - in it’s safety cover, it does rather resemble a sex toy.

So I will make sure to leave it in any hotel room, or friend’s guest room, next to my hairbrush. Just short of a sign saying: NOT A SEX TOY, important hair magic.

What would you think if you saw this on a bed?

Read more about it here.

What is your hair care miracle?

* This post is not sponsored. None of my posts are. I’m not an influencer. If I write about a product I like, I’ve bought it with my own money and would do so again.

If I ever write about a product I like that I’ve been given, I will say so.

I only write about products I genuinely think are great.