About a decade ago, inflation hit two types of consumer goods harder than everything else: jeans and heat-styling tools. Did anyone else make that entirely non-scientific and factually unconfirmed observation? For real, it seemed like jeans and blow-dryers went from $50 to $150 right after the turn of the century.
I've done my best to resist. I'm writing this in a pair of $15 Old Navy jeans, and on the rare occasion I blow-dry my hair, it's with a now-discontinued Goody dryer. But my curling iron is a $130 Sultra wand, and my flat iron is a $200 Solano beaut.
Full disclosure: I've gotten those tools from being in the biz, but y'all, I think I'd drop some serious cash on heat-styling tools; for the quality, the longevity, and--maybe most importantly--for the innovations.
For example, Sultra has this new pressing iron called The Diva (sadly, it doesn't play opera music), and it goes for $210. That's 21 times more money than one of my ex-husband's Omaha family friends sent us in a card when we got married. (We spent it on Taco Bell.) But it just may be worth the money, and here's why...
IT'S RIBBED FOR HER PLEASURE!
Seriously, it has these little gripper ribs--Sultra calls it the ThermaGuide Plate System--to make it super-easy to evenly straighten each section of hair. It comes with pressing creme to protect your hair and hold the style, and it has two heat settings: one for chemically relaxed hair and one for natural hair.
I gotta say, I haven't seen an iron like this one before, and not just because I'm a white chick who doesn't know anything about pressing combs. It's really the first of its kind to be designed the way it is--and that might just be worth the investment for those of us with especially difficult-to-straighten hair.
But you tell me--QQ: What's the most you've ever spent on a heat-styling tool? Would you spend over $200? Why or why not?