I bought the instyler and me being a black woman I was afraid to try it just in case it did not work well on women of color but it has done exceptionally well. I�ve also used it on my mom�s hair and it was a lot easier to highlight her layers and it gave it body and volume as well as my own. I think that the product is ingenious because I use to first have to straighten my hair and then curl it. Now I can do both at the same time! The only grievance that I have with this product is that if you try to get to your roots then you will most definantly burn your scalp! It is really hot so if you need something that gets your roots then go buy a regular flat iron and use the instyler to do the rest.

OK, so anyway, I wanted to come back and update. After comments from those here speaking from personal experience, I picked up an InStyler. Rather lengthy, detailed review. Might help others who are wavering as I was. Midweek I almost returned it in frustration. But then I learned some things that changed my mind for now. So I picked up InStyler last weekend. Evening time, tried it out on dry hair when I got home, wonderful results. I did a trick my stylist taught me with a curling iron for that 'loose perm' look. (Not the best descriptive phrase, but 70s/80s girls will know what I mean ;) Start at front, working to sides and back with curling rod vertical instead of horizontal. First curl is directed at face, next one directed backward, repeat that alternating pattern till you get to the back, then do the other side. (Or starting position can be reversed, starting curl directed backward, alternate from there.) Results weer good; nice body, soft waves with a bonus: perfect ends, a little wisp of a curl. And lift at the top/crown was perfect. Not exaggerated & unnatural, not whimpering. Just right. I got the 3/4" barrel. 3 heat settings; L,M,H. First night I started out with Low. It does heat fast & gets much hotter than I anticipated. (I rarely use a curling iron but would rate the InStyler Low/Medium equal to curling iron High.) The grip part, a concern of others and me too: it isn't too bad to hold. YMMV and be better than mine. The base is wide and requires opening & closing your grasp as you go. Opening only at the start and end points. The furthest open position your hand isn't extended to the point of stretched. It's closer to position of a normal relaxed hand with palm flat, if that makes sense. On a scale of 1 (a hairbrush) or 2 (standard curling iron) to 10 (impossibly clumsy), I'd rate holding it a 3-5 range. This is where your experience could be much better than mine. My hands sometimes ache from that touch of arthritis appearing. So on mornings I struggle, holding my dryer can feel like trying to grasp & maneuver a brick. InStyler gets a 4/5 then. On good days with full strength & no ache I'd rate it a 3. It can be a bit tricky to maneuver as F2BH mentions, but that improves as you get familiar with it. Results after that first night were disastrous. I tried it every morning, both alone and after using the Conair Spin Brush. After air drying, after blow drying, with product, without, slower movement & pausing, faster straight pass. But the InStyler was doing terrible things. Frizz everywhere, I'm talking major, uncontrollable 'wet it and do over' frizz. And scorching, was really worried I was doing major hair damage in under a week. And strangest of all it was actually flattening my hair from middle to ends. And I do mean pressed flat. Couldn't figure that one out at all due to the cylinder shape. I just couldn't duplicate the nice results from the first use. Very frustrating! About midweek and at the point of giving up & returning it, decided to watch instructions. Couldn't find a DVD in the box (because as I discovered yesterday it's slipped into a little cardboard hang tag on the cord. Duh.) Meantime I watched the online demos and they mentioned use Low Heat for fine hair. hmmmm, could it make that much of a difference? Yes indeedy. That was one problem. After that first successful night on Low, I had been alternating between M and H heat. Simply out of habit, because a curling iron on low does diddly on my hair. One day I did switch InStyler to Low, but after turning it on at a higher heat, so it was much hotter than true Low setting. The other difference was the first night my hair was completely cool. Successive uses after that my hair was wet then dried, then InStyler used. For whatever reason, my hair responds much better to InStyler when it's cool . Easily remedied by switching my routine; blow dry upside down with fingers to give it some fluff, let hair cool while I put on makeup & get dressed, then use InStyler. An accidental bonus discovered. I work at home. Started at 4 a.m. yesterday morning, rushing to meet a deadline. About 9:30 something came up that required an immediate & quick errand. Drat. So busy with work I had done nothing with my hair yet. On the Scary Morning Hair scale, 1 being Run a Brush Through & Go, 10 being Frighten Small Children to Wails 'n Tears, yesterday was a 6. So I had to do something, and fast. Brushed my hair, no product, used the InStyler set on Low, did some quick passes through my hair. And there it was again: nice body, smooth curls just like the first time. And straight from Scary Hair no less! It was all about the heat setting + temperature of my hair. No frizz, no scorching, no flattened sections. Good to know it can be a quick remedy in a pinch. ;) I'm still on the fence about it though. Only because it's been a bumpy week with it. Now that I know Low heat & my hair being cool matters, I'll play with it a few more days. If I consistently get good results, I'm leaning to the side of keeping it. It's another style option & a nice change. Point of all this is even though it's seems obvious at first glance, there are tricks to using this tool and getting good results. Going on the premise that the average female grasps Hair 101 by the time of her late teens. So moving beyond the basics of good cut & products that work best for individual hair, with InStyler a great deal depends on individual hair type & how it responds to various factors. Heat setting for sure. Whether your hair responds best after being recently heated with a dryer or needs cool down time. How long you pause or don't, how fast or slow you go, etc. It's the difference between success or failure. So if you're skeptical as I was, it might be worth investigating but definitely watch online demos or DVD that pertain to your hair type. As far as which barrel, my suggestion would be to use your preferred curling iron size as a guide. Tho I rarely use one, any barrel larger than 1" just doesn't do much for my hair so I knew the smaller barrel would be the better choice for me. As far as the Spin Brush, that one is definitely a keeper for me. I'm still very happy with it. Consistently a nice polished finished look in much less time. It's versatile too. Flipped under, up, back or forward, all works well. There are off days, just like any hair day, but overall it's a great finishing tool & worth it to me. I do blow dry initially, but just to get moisture out, so I tussle my hair with my fingers, upside down, getting extra volume in. Zip through with Spin Brush and I'm good to go and it lasts all day. Where it's especially handy for me is if it's a weak hand day, no worries about being able to hold, let alone coordinate brush & dryer when my hands don't want to cooperate.

I admire you all who can do the Instyler. I would make a huge, tangled mess if I did it. lol. However, I found this video earlier today and I finally figured out how to do the waves the easy way. This is a short video showing three different types of curls. The last one is what I'm going to do. Easy Peasy curls All I need is a thinner curling iron and use smaller pieces of hair. I've always done a twist (wave) on each side of my face anyway, but it made bigger curls that fell out sooner. I noticed it's also how you take the hair off the iron.

If anyone is still looking for a dryer / brush combo, I’ll put in a plug for the John Frieda model. It’s much lighter weight than other brands and is one of the few with a round brush, not a flat or oval one. I’ve used this kind for years, and along the way have purchased bigger and better-reviewed ones that were just too big and too wide for me to use comfortably. The JF lasts between two and three years before the motor burns out, but for about $40 that’s an acceptable ongoing cost. If you prefer a round brush and a lighter tool, it’s the best. I haven’t tried the Dyson but have bought and returned several of the other brands mentioned here that were too big, too oval and too hot.