RUSK Engineering Curl Freak Professional Curling Machine

This makes beautiful curls that hold up well day one, looser after a day or two. HOWEVER you need to follow directions EXACTLY to avoid potentially devastating consequences. The machine works by quickly pulling your hair in and around a spool. If you use a strand wider than the recommended 1/2 - 1" max (vertically) it will jam up in the machine. If you use a strand with some hairs from two sections it will jam in the machine. If you get it too close to your scalp (stay at least 1" out) it will feel like it's ripping your hair out. Yes, these all happened to me! The first time I used it I followed instructions to a T and all was well. The second time I tried to speed things up and had my hair 100% snarled up into the machine 3 times! My daughter used a stainless chopstick and was able to work the hair out. For this reason I will NEVER use this when I'm home alone. Remember the "buddy system"! The third time I tried it I only had 1 event and she was able to unwind the hair from the spool by gently tugging on it. My hair is halfway to my waist and this makes it more important not to use too big of a strand. My daughter has shoulder length hair and hasn't had any problems. I use this for special occasions when I have lots of time and no pressure. It's not for everyone, and if you have certain emotional health issues, like panic attacks, you probably should avoid this contraption but I have never had such fantastic body and curl so it's a winner for me.

My hair can be pretty stubborn when it comes to curling. This doesn't necessarily curl better than other curling products for me like I was hoping it would but it still curls just fine as long as I heat each piece long enough. I do love the timer feature though - you can make sure all your curls are consistent and the alternate directions option is fantastic so everything looks more natural I think. I think this product is most beneficial for long hair. Having it tried it with both long and short hair, it's honestly easier and quicker to curl short hair with a flat iron than with this though I would definitely side with this for long hair. It helps to make sure everything is curled and seems to keep the frizz down.The downside with this product is that it can take forever. I think it's super easy to use but there is a bit of a learning curve with it. You have to make sure you don't pull the curl out until you have completely opened the contraption back up or else you'll straighten the piece you just curled. Also, you'll get used to how big of chunks you can put into it (not as big as I would like). If you put too big of a chunk in it, it will lock up. However, it never hurt or anything. It stops pulling the hair in as soon as it detects a problem and it's easy enough to open up and start over again with that chunk of hair.

I have super thick, wavy hair that is usually very difficult to style, and especially hard to curl. When using a regular curling wand or iron, it usually takes 1.5 to 2 hours for my hair to be totally curled (and even then, there are usually imperfections such as dents in the hair or curls that are not consistent in size or quality. The curl freak is super easy to use! I got my package, read the instructions, and started using it with amazing ease. In total, it took me about 25 to 30 minutes (AT MOST) to curl my entire head of hair. The tool has 3 different modifiers on it so you can change your heat level (with a low, medium, and high setting), duration (8, 10, or 12 seconds), and direction (right, left, alternate). The tool gives you a countdown so you know when to release the clamp and the curls come out perfect every time. Unlike some other curlers I've seen, if you incorrectly wind the hair in the machine, it does not cause your hair to get trapped in it, which is awesome because you will not fry your hair if you make a mistake. I only had an issue with the hair not winding properly if I took too large of a section, but this only happened two or three times when using it. The Curl Freak is an awesome, awesome tool and it speeds things up so often I don't have to worry about never having time to make my hair look good!!

I tried very hard to like this but I have finally excepted this purchase as a complete fail. It works. It does exactly what it is supposed to as far as pulling hair and curls and very rarely gets stuck or tangles. That being said, you have to use very small sections of hair (almost half of what I would use normally) as a result, I have not seen this speed up the process at all compared to and old fashioned curling iron. In fact, it usually takes even longer because of the time spent touching up to make the curls look full and finished. The biggest issue I have though is that the curls are just so disappointing. They lack volume and bounce and for some reason are prone to get much more frizzy, much faster than a regular curl. Even using hair spray and the longest time setting doesn't seem to help and by the end of the day, some curls have gone completely flat. I have tried and tried about 6-7 different times think that I might get the hang of this curl freak thing but I am officially going back to my old iron. This is a waste of time and money. Do not fall for this fancy gimmick!I would like to return this item but I stupidly threw away the box.