Travel-sized curling irons
 

Has anyone tried a travel-sized curling iron? I don't mean the cordless models, since I don't want to mess around with butane cartridges. Rather, I mean either the folding curling irons or the very short, compact model.

I wonder if they're too short to actually do the job? I have short-ish hair that's very fine and flyaway and looks very flat and dead unless I style it. So I usually pack my regular curling iron which is dual voltage. But I'd love to find something more compact.

Thanks!

Do you want to use it traveling in North America -- or to take overseas?

Because there are several good compact curling irons that work fine including Conair -- here is one http://www.amazon.com/Conair-Mini-Tr.../dp/B0049WMT86

But they don't work well overseas (even dual voltage ones). So if you are traveling say to Europe -- you'd do better to wait until you are there and buy one w/ European specs.

Hi Janis, thanks for your reply. This is for overseas, I travel to Europe every chance I get and am always looking for ways to lighten my luggage.

This Conair is exactly what I had in mind -- why is it that it doesn't work well outside North America?

Thanks again for your help.

You're welcome. No appliance w/ heat (hair dryer, curling iron, flat iron) works reliably. They will work some (maybe even most) of the time, but they also blow circuits w/ regularity. You don't know what 'ugly American' means until one has blacked out an entire B&B w/ their dual voltage hair dryer :)

If you travel overseas regularly, I'd just buy an inexpensive curling iron over there (not dual voltage) and use it only for your trips. It will work better and won't melt or short circuit.

Yes, I can imagine that hair dryers in particular could be volatile -- they use a lot of electricity!

In the past, I've had good luck traveling with my usual dual voltage curling iron -- it has heat settings that range from about 10 to 40 (on whatever weird little curling-iron scale it follows!)

Perhaps I should stick with that, which does give me a lot of control over the amount of heat, and not mess with something that works.

"<i>In the past, I've had good luck traveling with my usual dual voltage curling iron --</i>"

So have I - but I have also had two dual voltage appliances (a hair dryer and a flat iron) fail -- one quite spectacularly. Only twice out of MANY times, but two is too many IMO. I travel to the UK/Europe frequently and find it just easier in the long run to use a European flat iron (If I still used a curling iron, I'd buy one there too)

I agree with janisj. I'd just wait and buy one in Europe. That's your best bet.

sacc: If you were only going once -- I'd probably risk it. Your chances are pretty good it would survive one trip. But you did say you go to Europe as often as you can. That's why suze and I agree buying an inexpensive curling iron in Europe or the UK makes more sense.

Thanks, suze and janisj, for the suggestion. Since I have been going to Europe every year, it does make sense to buy a curling iron dedicated for just that!

One of our friends tells a great story about his teenaged daughter blowing a circuit at a B&B on one of their family trips. This was in the 80s when hair had to be BIG.