Awesomeness: * The small water tank holds enough water for dozens of full heads of curls. * It can create perfect ringlets in 4-8 seconds! (see THE FIRST PICTURE) Answers to Questions and Criticisms I've Seen: Q: IS THIS A KNOCKOFF? A: If it is, it's just as good as the real thing! I've had it for 5 months and it has stood up to frequent use and several 6 foot drops (I'm on the clumsy side of very clumsy). Once or twice, when I dropped it, the water chamber flew out but it popped back in, no damage and no problem. Q: DOES HAIR GET CAUGHT AND BURNED? A: No. I think it must take some effort to get your hair burned. It's never happened to me even though at the beginning I did get my hair caught a few times. IF YOUR HAIR GETS CAUGHT: 1. First, just lightly and gently tug the hair. If you are gentle enough, you can try tugging from different directions and learn what works. 9 times out of 10, your hair will fall right out (of the Miracurl, not your head). 2. If that doesn't work, remove the power cord from the outlet so that the heat turns off immediately. 3. In every case, I have been able to get my hair out without cutting it or burning it by patiently and gently pulling, waiting, and pulling again. It's never taken more that 1 minute. 4. Try to remember what you did that could have caused the problem. I was always able to figure it out but after about half a dozen experiences with attention to what might have caused it, I almost completely stopped getting my hair caught. After a couple of months, it stopped happening completely. So take advantage of the learning curve. TIPS FOR USE * Don't get the device to close to your scalp if you are using steam. It can belch out too much hoy steam and hurt your scalp (Ive never been scalded but it has hurt). * Don't touch your skin with the Miracurl: It's hot on the inside. * Always face the side with the visible roller in the center towards your scalp and the water compartment away from your scalp. * Put only a little bit of hair in at a time to avoid it rejecting or tangling your hair. IN THE SECOND PICTURE, I showed about how much hair to put into each curl. You can curl more but you'll learn how much will work for your hair as you use it. * If you hair gets tangled, stay calm. First, unplug the device * Let your curls cool * If you want them to stay the way they look, consider a light-hold hairspray or add a styling cream to your hair when wet. * If you want to loosen your curls, let them cool fully. Then either pull your fingers slowly and gently through the curls. For some this can cause a 'fro, so those folks should use a little more time to take each separate curl and run a single finger right through the middle, separating each curl into two curls. This will loosen them with out increasing volume too much. And you can repeat as desired, separating those two curls into four. * If You have thick hair like I do, use hairdressers clips to hold up the top 2/3 of your hair while you curl the bottom third. Then do the middle. Finally, the top. * To get the tightest curl, set the time to "none," it will still automatically release but after 10 seconds instead of 8. * For maximum volume, turn the steam off so that you can hold each section of hair straight up to heaven and put the Miracurl close to your scalp (without steam, see above) * How close together your section of hair is is just as important as how much hair is in the section both for getting the Miracurl to accept it and for avoiding getting it stuck. UPDATE: October 2017 Still using it all of the time. And loving it. I've learned that you can create beachy waves even faster by placing the curler about halfway down from the scalp towards the ends and curling from there. That also allows you to get more hair in so it takes even less time to do your whole head. If this review was helpful to you, I'd appreciate it if you clicked the "helpful" button below. Thanks!
