Lee Stafford's CoCo LoCo Long Tong - A Review & A Giveaway

Over the past few weeks I seem to have gone from plodding along at level zero, to whizzing up to a level one hundred in the whole "taking care of me" stakes.

Whilst it is still true that I have minimal time to myself (a bathroom stop on my own is a luxury these days!) I've found that more and more often lately I have been forcing myself to spend a little bit of the time I do get, to actually pamper myself and look after me a little bit more than I was doing.

And a lot of this has to do with the fact that I've recently acquired a few fancy new tools into my my "beauty kit" - the first of which you met a short while ago - the Lee Stafford's The Academy Straightener - and the second, another Lee Stafford beauty, this time though, rather than be designed to take waves out of my hair this one is specifically there for putting them back in...

The CoCo LoCo Long Tong.

I love the idea of having a very natural looking, slightly curly but low maintenance hair style everyday but, honestly, I'm just so rubbish at doing anything with my hair (even a basic wash is a struggle) that it has always seemed like a total impossibility.

I've tried curling with straighteners - nope; I've tried plaiting which kind of worked but not 100%; I tried washing and leaving it to dry naturally but that wasn't right either.

Nothing seemed to give me the lovely, loose looking curls that I wanted.

Until now...

As I pulled the "Long Tong" out of the box, I had a lot of high hopes and high expectations as to what it could do, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed at all.

Now you've probably already seen that my hair is really long and really thick and yes, it does need a really good trim (there's that whole time shortage thing again!)...

...but when it comes to creating a wavy style that suits me I think there's far too much hair on my head to try have every single section curled...and curled...and curled - who's got time for that anyway?

I think it would just look way too much for me and not natural at all, so, with "Long Tong" in hand, I sectioned my hair a little bit and set to work, wrapping odd sized, imperfect sections around the barrel.

And as the name suggests, because this curler has an extra long barrel and is specifically designed to cater for longer hair styles (perfect for me) it was fab because I could wrap a full length section of hair around it in one go with no trouble at all.

The ceramic barrel is infused with coconut oil too, allowing the curler to moisturise, nourish and repair the hair as it styles - again, this is fantastic for me because my hair can be really coarse and flyaway without products, and who really would turn their nose up at an opportunity of getting a little extra hair nourishment.

Not me!

So, how did I get on?

Well, I'm not going to lie, it did take a little bit of getting used to - I've never actually used a curler like this before (yes I know - I did say I was rubbish with my hair), and I did have to keep peeking at the instruction booklet until I knew what I was doing and even then I had a few hand and forehead burn incidents.
(warning - the whole metal section does reach a very hot 200 degrees)

Once I was in a steady rhythm though of pressing down the thumb grip, wrapping the hair around the barrel and then waiting for about ten seconds for the curling magic to happen I did really find the whole process quite easy.

It wasn't quick though, not with the amount of hair I have, but I suppose that is something I will improve on with practise.

I have to say I do really love this hair styling gadget - it is a fab addition to my hair styling kit and is just what I've been after for so long now.

It is easy to use and produced lovely, wavy hair in no time - I would 100% recommend it to anyone.

I mean if a hair styling novice such as myself can get along with it so quickly and can achieve some fab results then trust me, anyone can use it...

...and when I say "fab results" obviously I mean I've managed some fab results for my own level of hair styling - I know my curls are far from perfect and I'm never going to be at hairdresser standard, but the more I practise and learn what I'm doing I have no doubt I'll get there.

And so, because I think they are just so blooming fabulous, I actually have one pair of these brilliant "Long Tong"'s to give away...
(well, I don't physically have them, they will be shipped out, brand new, direct to the winner's door)