I LOVE this curler!!! The recently released Beachwaver works like a miracle. I broke my T3 curling iron in Florence (wrong wattage!) and was so sad because I loved that curling iron – it seemed to be the only thing that kept my hair curled. I kind of thought this would another gimmicky product; now that I’ve used it, I cannot properly express how great it is. But I will try.

It’s revolutionarily easy because it’s unlike a regular clamping curling iron. There’s only a small clamp at the base, and the unique feature is the entire curler rotates for you. You clamp the ends of your hair to the base, push the “GO” button, and it twirls your hair onto the rod. The tricky part is it rotates in two different directions (one for the left side of your head, one for the right) – since curls should always go away from your face. You just need to remember to push either “L” or “R,” depending on which side you’re curling.
You need to make sure your hair is clamped in the direction of the twirling (the same way you would with a regular curling iron). But since the Beachwaver twirls your hair for you, you can sometimes make a mistake and it will kink your ends the wrong way. Not to worry though: it only takes one mistake for you to catch on and never make that mistake again.

The reason this works on my thick, coarse hair is the ingenious varied temperature function. Select the right temperature based on the texture of your hair. To get the job done on my mane, I cranked it up to the max of 450º. Now a bit of warning: that is EXTREMELY hot, so you have to be careful because you WILL burn yourself if you touch the rod.

And now the best part: the curls you get are those loose, undone ringlets that can only be achieved when someone else (like a professional) is doing it for you. Hair can’t just be curled onto itself to get this kind of curl; it needs to spiral up the curler gradually. That’s why this curler has the fancy motorized twirling action that does that for you. Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean. It gives very helpful directions and clears up the confusing L and R buttons.

When I watched it, I thought, “This looks way too easy. Obviously, this girl has done this a million times, so she’s making it look super-simple.” But no! I didn’t even try to style my hair in any organized fashion. I just started curling and twirling away totally haphazardly. I even left out some strands and went back for them later, some of my loose hair got caught in the twirling action, and I curled some sections with a bunch of hair and others with only a little bit.

The shocking result? Perfection…in a not at all perfect way! You don’t want actual perfection here. The ideal beachwaves are messy and tousled, with variation and spontaneity.
The process was SOOOOO EASY and it took literally 5 minutes, including reading the instruction pamphlet. I only needed to work my way through seven or eight sections in all. Each section only needs to stay on the iron for 15 seconds, so you can realistically do this in 2 minutes. I didn’t even need to use the special tools, everything was done with just my hands. I left the curls alone, according to the directions, until they were cooled; then I ran my fingers through the ringlets and gently roughed them up.

I took this picture an hour after I curled my hair, so it wasn’t quite as curly as it was when I had just finished. But that’s how my hair is: I have to make it curlier than I want because the curls always fade fast. Most of the time, they all disappear, but not with this amazing tool. If the curls around after an hour, they are staying for good. Plus, the ceramic design is gentle so that means I can use this ever time I shampoo!!!

Thank you, Sarah Potempa, for making a curler that actually works and does what I want. This one was sent to me, but I’m buying a backup in case I manage to short this one out, and I cannot live without it. On QVC for $189.