The Last Fashion Bible’s Online Editor, Melissa Reid, reviewed the ghd Unplugged. All opinions are her own.
ghd has been at the forefront of hairstyling innovation — and saving us from bad hair days — since it was founded in 2001. The brand continues to revolutionise haircare, giving us everything we need in our haircare arsenal, from curling tongs to max plate straighteners and hairdryers built with the brand’s tri-zone technology. The latest launch is something that I personally have been waiting for my whole life — the ghd Unplugged — the brand’s first on-the-go cordless straightener.
The ghd Unplugged promises quick, easy styling for those on-the-go lifestyles. Literally throw the Unplugged in your handbag or plug it into your laptop and voila — salon-quality hair straighteners whenever and wherever you need them.
“Our ghd R&D team have developed the latest battery and heat styling technology which allows us to launch Unplugged, a portable cordless styler that delivers the superior performance our tools are known and trusted for, giving consumers and stylists the flexibility to style anywhere, anytime,” said Ludovic Dellazzeri, Managing Director of ghd ANZ in a press release.
Sounds like a fabulous premise, but is the ghd Unplugged worth the investment? And does it work as well as a traditional full-size hair straightener?
I took my set on a winter weekend getaway to Queenstown. As we were only staying for two night, I wanted to travel light. According to ghd, the Unplugged is travel-sized, flight friendly and airport security safe, allowing me the freedom to carry the tool in my hand luggage — perfect!
Measuring just 22cm long and weighing a mere 300g — which ghd claims to be 46% lighter than other cordless hair straighteners on the market, the Unplugged is the most compact hair straightener I’ve ever seen. But while they are small, they certainly don’t feel fiddly. The main bulk of the weight sits in the handle, where the battery is housed, so they feel nicely balanced. The handle is actually a similar size to regular ghd stylers while the reduced size styling plates are much narrower and shorter.
It took roughly two hours to fully charge the long-life lithium-ion batteries, with five indicator lights that build as it charges representing roughly 20% each. Once switched on, they take around 45 seconds to heat up and promise up to 20 minutes of continuous styling.
While it might be smaller than ghd’s other tools, the Unplugged packs just as much punch and features all the same technology including dual-zone heaters that ensure a consistent optimum styling temperature of 185 degrees celsius across both plates for quick, sleek and smooth styles with no extreme heat.
Unlike other ghd models, the Unplugged has a slide switch to turn it on instead of a button, which is a great safety feature that prevents it being accidentally turned on while in your bag. Another great safety feature is the sleep mode, which automatically kicks in after three minutes of non-use.
My expectations were high for this product and I am delighted to confirm that the ghd Unplugged did not disappoint. While my hair usually requires a more robust tool like the ghd Maxi to straighten quickly, I was able to easily touch-up my hair with the Unplugged. After just one glide through, my hair was sleek and shiny. It also didn’t over-straighten and left my hairs with some natural movement, which I love.
If you are in the market for new straighteners, I highly recommended the ghd Unplugged. It may be may be small, but it is definitely mighty.
This article was produced in collaboration with ghd; the author of this article was gifted a pair of ghd Unplugged straighteners. All opinions are the authors own.
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