John Frieda Flat Finish 1-Inch Straightener

I really struggled with how to rate this straighter. I like the look of it. I love how fast it heats up and even better, how quickly it cools down. I also love the digital temperature display and the ability to find just the right temperature. No more low, medium, high, ect...you can set the exact temp. It glides through my hair very smoothly and works very well to straighten and smooth any frizzies. It really is a very good straighter at a reasonable price.

However........the design is ridiculous. Did they not have anyone test this product? The controls are right on the front of the top handle. At first I was constantly turning the straighter off and on, then when I adjusted for that I was turning the temperature up and down and didn't even know it. I kept trying and adjusting how to hold it and burned my hand a couple times trying to figure out a way to use it without hitting the controls. I sort of manage now by putting my thumb over the temperature display window, but it is akward and a completely unnecessary hurdle in using a fairly simple thing.

I have an unruly wave/curl to my hair that likes to go a bit crazy the more humid it gets. I mostly ignore it or use one of a supply of cute headbands to suppress it but sometimes even that doesn't work and I, who am the most impatient of hairstylers, have to pull out the flat iron. This one was so stylishly flashy with the way the temperature and buttons are designed! It heats up exceptionally fast, even to my impatient way of thinking, and cools down just as fast for storage quick in the mornings. And in about a minute of styling time my hair is tamed in to straight sanity. And the best part is it stays that way!

Update: I did take one star away because the more I use this straightener the more I find that the buttons are positioned so that I keep accidentally pushing the off button while I'm doing my hair and then I of course lose heat because the device is off. It might just be me, but I thought I should include it in my review as an f.y.i.

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I really like the way this iron heats rapidly and cools down just as quickly. My hair is relatively short and I wear it in sort of a sleek bob, so the 1 inch plates are perfect for me. There was absolutely no frizziness as there has been with some other irons.

But, good-grief-Carrie Nation! Wonder if the designer has ever used this. Just try to manipulate the iron without moving the controls. Extremely frustrating! The controls are simply in the wrong place.

Hence, a 50-50 for this iron, sorry to say.

Gail Cooke

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This may be a perfectly good straightner, but the design is terrible. They have the switch to make it hotter or cooler right on the front of the handle where you hold it, so every time you put it up to your head to use, you change the temperature setting and you don't know it. I would not recommend this product to anyone. Very poorly designed. I really can't say if it's a good straightner or not because I had the toughest time just "TRYING" to use it.

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I've been straightening my hair every day for more years than I can remember. Straighteners are amazing. I love them. They work wonders on my hair. I have very thick hair. After I blow dry my hair "straight", it's full, wavy and frizzy. When I don't blow it dry, it looks something like Roseanne-Roseanna-Danna of Saturday Night Live fame. That is to say, my hair is curly, frizzy and BIG. In my opinion, a good straightening iron should be able to straighten and smooth my hair from either it's blown dry or air dried state. This straightener was able to do that...but with difficulty.

The difficulty was not in the straightening itself. The parts of my hair I was able to straightened turned out great. The problem with this straightener is 100% in the design. The design is terrible! The on/off button and the up/down heat buttons are right where you need to place your hand to hold the straightener. I lost count of the number of times I either turned the heat down accidentally or even turned the whole thing off altogether! I could feel my fingers, hand, thumb (whichever) pushing down on the buttons but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I readjusted my hands in every possible position to find a way to hold the thing without some part of my hand eventually hitting those buttons. I was starting to get cramps in my hand just trying to manipulate the thing. I managed to straighten my hair with my thumb grabbing between the two sets of buttons but it was a very awkward way to hold it, making it very difficult to work on my hair safely and efficiently. And even then I kept bumping into the buttons and accidentally turning down the heat or turning off the unit. When I tried to use the straightener on my daughter I had to give up. The angle which I needed to hold it to straighten someone else's hair was not compatible with how my hand had to grib the straightener so as to not hit the buttons. It was a disaster.

The straightener I currently use has a slide on/off switch and a dial to adjust the heat and it's way at the bottom of the iron. The buttons on this unit are spread out across the bottom of the unit in such a way as to make it impossible to grip.

Otherwise, the unit is light and works well. If they redesign it and change the type of buttons so you can't accidentally hit them, it would be a good straightener. Unfortunately, it's too frustrating and uncomfortable to use the way it is now.

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