A few years ago, a brand rep put the Dafni hot brush styler into my hands, and I had high hopes for it. A literal hot brush, you just glide it through the hair as you would a standard hair brush, and it is supposed to convince it to submit, and make hair a bit more ‘on purpose’ looking. Finding it totally ineffective, at least on my vast and cantankerous hair, I cast it aside with disappointment, and not a little resentment, and was put off similar looking tools ever after.
So when ghd declared it was launching another hot brush my expectations were low. In spite of all the other entrants in the meantime to the hair DIY hall of fame, including the Babyliss Big Hair, Dyson Supersonic hairdryer and Dyson Airwrap styler, as well as the ghd Oracle curler, I had never encountered a plain old hot brush that did anything much.
But the ghd Glide is far better than any other hot brush I have tried. Designed for “second-day hair”, it offers utterly skill-free intervention to tame your hair. If you can brush your hair you can use a Glide. After applying a heat protectant, you simply run it through dry hair. It will eliminate any weird kinks that developed in the night, or get rid of that annoying hair bump you get after taking out a ponytail. (It is also pretty revelatory run through a rushed, untidy ponytail, giving it a polished finish.) I like to use it after washing and drying, because it tames postwash fuzz to make my hair presentable within a few minutes.
At €139, it is expensive, so worth buying only if you will use it regularly – and remember that, other than general taming, and possibly a bit of flicky business on the ends, this is not a styling tool. Unusually for ghd, it is also a limited-edition release, so it might not be available for more than the next couple of months.
The Glide is not sexy, or exciting, but I have reached for it so many times that I have to admit to liking it very much. The Dafni has been in a drawer for three years. That says it all.
