Roxie Reviews: Nicky Clarke Classic Blow Dry Styler

If anyone follows my Twitter they will know that I got very excited at my new 'toy' last week. I had nothing but praises for the Nicky Clarke Classic Blow Dry Styler (£13.27 from Boots) initially but after a few uses my opinion has changed slightly. I went for this styler because of the different attachments and because Nicky Clarke is a name regularly trusted so I thought I would be okay with the appliance.

The air dryer combines the brush and the hair dryer used for round brushing ones hair with two of its attachments (one for shorter hair - the thinner one - and one for longer hair to create volume), straightening hair with another attachment, and the last attachment can be used to tong the hair into curls. I never really straighten or tong my hair so the last two attachments didn't really interest me that much but as a time saver for traditional round brushing, the first two attracted my attention.

"Create salon styles quickly and easily with my 500W blow dry air styler. The four different attachments mean you can create numerous styles from smooth sleek locks to voluptuous bouncy curls whatever you hair type." - Nicky Clarke

(L-R) Volumising Brush, Curling Brush, Curling Tong, Straightening Brush



The Pros:



• It saves so much time round brushing wise. It usually took me about 45 minutes to round brush my shoulder length hair using a hair brush and a normal hair dryer, but with the Nicky Clarke Classic Blow Dry Styler it took it down to 30 minutes with styling.
• It has two speed settings and one cool setting to set the style.
• The appliance is very light to handle so it doesn't make your arms ache as you style your hair.
• The curling brush works wonder on shorter hair styles to create flicks and volume. I did a Jackie Kennedy inspired style on my mum's hair with the appliance and was highly impressed with the ease of the usage and staying power of the style.
• It can cut out a step in creating a style; it creates volume and curl that usually would need heated rollers to obtain - so your hair is subjected to only one dose of heat rather than two.

The Cons:

• After two uses the fastest speed setting no longer worked, thus taking the heat and speed of drying levels way up. Not impressive at all! This is the main reason I am taking this model back and having it replaced! After it broke not only had the speed depleated but the heat had also reduced severely.
• The curling tong doesn't heat up to nearly as hot as most curling tongs and does not produce the same curl as a result.
• The straightening vented brush tugged too much on my hair and felt as though it was stretching each strand. I wouldn't use this attachment anyway so this didn't bother me too much.
• The appliance over heats very easily, especially when using the tong and the straightening brush - I think this is the main reason for one of my speed settings breaking.
• Maybe it was because I used this attachment after the speed setting breakage, but I found the volumising brush did very little in terms of drying my hair and certainly didn't produce the volume I was promised.

The Verdict:

★★★/5



As I said, I was initially very excited by this product, but I became more and more unimpressed with this appliance. I'm hoping I just got a duff model, because I am going to replace it as I think it has great potentional. The styles it can create (especially with the curling brush) are wonderful so I would probably only use this attachment whilst avoiding the straightening and curling tong ones. I can't give any recommendation until I have replaced my model and tried it out, but fear not! I shall report back on that and let you all know if it's worth it.