*Starts post with humongous picture of self*
I'm definitely not vain or anything...
But seriously, seem as this post is about the NuMe Curl Jam Curling Set I thought it would be quite useful if you could clearly see my hair!
I bought the curling set about a year or so ago after being persuaded by a YouTuber who had a coupon code. Well done, you got some money out of me there! Joking aside and dismissing the mention of YouTubers advertising on their channels to avoid an argument because I know how divided/outraged/cheated/disappointed people feel about them doing this, I was initially drawn in by the wonderfully edited video of a famous YT'er (I'm not avoiding saying their name or anything I just can't remember who it was as it was so long ago) but I absolutely love this set regardless of how I came to buy it.
The set includes a straightener and a curling wand with three different sized barrels: 19mm, 25mm and 32mm. The site describes the set as having "crushed gemstone tourmaline...with powerful negative ions to dramatically smooth each lock of hair, crafting curls and straight styles to perfection" I don't really know anything about the technology of "crushed gemstone tourmaline" or anything but I do know that it produces lovely looking curls and waves that last. The carrying case it comes with is very handy and makes the 5 separate parts of the set nice and compact making storing them easy as well as travel friendly if you want to take them away with you. It also has a heat protecting glove which I thought I was too good for until I recently burnt myself not once but twice in the same curling session. As the tools get so hot I would strongly advise wearing the glove to avoid having a horrible scar on your arm like me (luckily the one on my face faded within a couple of days).
I am yet to use the straighteners as I have a pair that I have loved for a long time and so don't feel the need to use these as yet but I'm sure one day I will have a go with them. For now though, although this review is technically about the whole set I will only be talking about the curling wand and barrels.
The wand heats up so quickly and is extremely easy to use. You just wind your hair around the barrel and hold it there for about 10-15 seconds (I'm sure you've all seen the video of the girl who burnt a chunk of her hair off whilst curling it so I wouldn't hold it on there for too much longer than this). My hair isn't currently layered and is very fine. Although it is quite long, almost down to my belly button, I can curl all of my hair in 15 minutes if not less! If you have layered hair I think it would be best to separate the layers and work your way from the bottom layer to the top. For me though, this does not work as I found out this time. I thought I would try it this way as everyone else seems to do it like this, forgetting that most people need to as they have volume unlike my flat hair. It ended up being very funny looking near the crown of my head where I'd curled it right to the root on my bottom layers and I just had a big kink here! It wasn't my best look I have to admit. Thankfully it was something I was able to fix with a quick run of my straighteners at the top.
So if, like me, you also have very flat and unlayered hair then I would recommend you use some heat protection spray and then just separate your day old hair in half on either side and then split it again on each side so it's in 4 sections, two on each side. Then I work my way from the back of my head to the front curling it in pieces that are about an inch or so thick. It's always a good idea to curl away from your face and if you don't like it when your curls mix together then alternate each strand making sure the front bit is wrapped away from you otherwise it will just cover your face! As I said I generally hold each strand on the wand for 15 seconds and shorter if it's a very small piece. Making sure you get as much of the hair wrapped around the barrel means you won't be left with straight ends that flick out (unless that's the look you're going for).
Once I've completed one side I run my fingers through the curls to loosen them up a bit to make them more natural looking and so each strand is blended with the next. Then I repeat the same on the other side until all of my hair is curled. I tend not to use hair spray after I've curled it as my thin hair gets weighed down by it and actually makes the curls fall out a lot quicker, defeating the purpose of using the hairspray in the first place. If hairspray helps your curls stay for longer though then give it a quick spritz when you're done.
I generally use the 25mm barrel (I used this one in the pictures) as it gives you nice defined curls the day you do it that are still natural looking but that will also last a couple of days. If I use dry shampoo I can easily get away with having my hair curled for three days. If I curl freshly washed hair it won't hold the curls as well and so I always wash my hair the night before curling. The second day the curls will drop slightly, leaving you with nice bouncy, beachy waves. On the third day I put in a little dry shampoo to encourage some volume at the top as it would have dropped a bit in this area and also to absorb the grease as my hair has a 2 day limit. My hair will literally start to turn greasy as soon as it hits the 48 hour mark. If I wash my hair on Monday at 10am then on Wednesday at 10am it will be yucky, if I wash it at 10pm then all of Wednesday it will be fine until it hits 10pm, it's very odd! Does anyone else get this or is it another weird thing that only happens to me?! Anyway, on day 3 it's nothing a bit of dry shampoo can't solve and the waves are very lose but have that effortlessly messy look to them.
The smaller barrel holds the curls for a similar amount of time but I don't always fancy the tight curls it produces as much as I like the curls the 25mm gives you. The bigger barrel gives you waves similar to the second day curls I described, meaning the waves are almost completely gone by the next day. If I'm going to go to the effort of spending longer than the usual 2 seconds I spend brushing my bed head then I want them to stay for more than a day. But that's just me because I'm lazy! If you're not looking for the curls to last more than a day and want to have beach type waves from the outset then using the 32mm size is the right one for you.
I would recommend this set and the company itself as I had a good customer service experience with them and relatively speedy shipping of a couple of weeks considering it was coming to the UK from America and I was too cheap to upgrade to the faster shipping and stuck to the free shipping option instead! They are a bit pricey but there are a lot of coupon codes on the internet, especially on YouTube, and if you're not fussed about having a whole set, you can buy one wand size fairly cheaply. They have a lot of different combinations of barrel sizes and types on their website so go check it out!
Talk soon,
Mercedes
- 10:00
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