The Steam Dream - VS Sassoon Goddess

Aiight…I know I mentioned last week that I had tried the VS Sassoon Goddess Conditioning Ionic Steam Straightener as part of the Primped VIP Club and I wasn’t that impressed with it. I figure I should give you a better explanation and then you can make up your own mind (I swear I can be serious business sometimes!)

The Goddess Straightener is a clunky, chunky beast. I found it very heavy to use, but I am used to using a GHD that is a lot lighter (and I’m sadly lacking in the arm muscle department). The silver tourmaline ceramic plates have variable heat for various types of hair, with a retractable comb in the plates. The comb bit I liked, as you need to comb hair while straightening for best results. The varying heat of the plates is also good in theory, but you need to read the instruction manual very carefully to understand what you’re doing – there is quite a difference between 170 and 230 degrees, and you don’t want to mess that up!

One of the other selling points is the steam. You have to fill up the reservoir, which is kind of fiddly. I also found it very disconcerting having a heavy appliance hissing and fizzing whilst so close to my head. It reminded me of ironing my friends hair circa 2001, her bent down over the ironing board, me taking to her locks like I was ironing my undies. I think the steam was the biggest problem for me – it made my hair all sticky and straw-like, and then completely dried it out like beef jerky. What you need to remember is I have very fine hair that has been blonded on the ends with balayage, so my hair is fragile to begin with. My flatmate has been using the straightener, and as she said the other day, she finds it easy to use because she can straighten large chunks quickly. She has very very thick, dark hair and loves that she only needs to do a once over to get it straight.

Just on the once over thing, the press release talks about it being more effective than GHD with a one stroke pass, but I only ever do one stroke with my GHD. Again, shows how fine my hair is.

My conclusion is that it is great for thick hair (I got that impression from reading all the reviews on Primped) but not so great for fine hair. It is also purely a straightener - the shape of the plates means you can’t do curls (bummer) and you need muscles to keep it up. It’s a lot more hard work than a GHD, but it’s also $100 cheaper.

Price: $199.95
From: Department stores and electrical appliance shops (I think I saw them in Harvey Norman a couple of weeks ago?)
Why you need it: It would probably be a worthwhile investment if you have thick, dark hair and are looking for a straightener that just straightens.

Picture credit: VS Sassoon