Your curls are important: from the night out to the night in to the casual day on the beach, your curls can add a ton of bounce to your style. But when you’re in front of your mirror after a quick hair drying session — with all this curling equipment at your fingertips and without an infinite amount of preparation time — it’s hard to know the proper mechanics to create your look.

Which should you use? Your classic curling iron — the one time-honoured, so similar to the one you saw your mother use morning after morning? Or the market’s newly celebrated curling wand — something your friend at the office simply swears by? Let’s take a closer look.

Taking a Closer Look at Curling Iron

The curling iron is one uniform size up and down the barrel, whatever size you chose at the store. The larger the barrel size, the greater the curl, and vice versa. To create a more versatile look, with depth, you have to switch out the greater sizes for the smaller sizes. This means you will probably need a few different utensils.

Usually, longer and medium length hairstyles should opt for the larger barrels, while shorter lengths should utilize the smaller barrels. But the mechanism of the curling iron is incredibly easy and rapid. The curling iron has the clip attached to it. You simply clamp the iron to the bottom of your hair and curl up your head. This allows you to create tension, which allows a smooth, even coil all the way up and down the length.

You slowly unclamp and remove the iron and voila: your springy, tight curl appears. You just have to repeat around your head several times to get your desired look. Each curl should spring about the same way and be the same size, if you’re using the same barrel. The curling iron is incredibly useful for the thicker, already wavy head of hair: it takes more control of each strand.

Of course, the damage of the curling iron’s high heat clamped to the tips of your hair for 5-10 seconds takes its toll: nobody likes the look of dry, dead ends. And using the clamp often initializes some scary breaks in your strands as you coil: the tension is great for your style, but hard on your hair.

Define Your Locks with a Curling Wand

If you’re looking for a little more diversity — without going in for several different barrel-sized curling irons — look no further than the conical shaped curling wand. The base boasts a thicker barrel and descends into a smaller barrel size: this is perfect if you want to create thick curls intermixed with thin, coiled curls.

The wand comes with heat protectant glove. This is important, as, unlike the curling irons of the past, your hands won’t remain on the wand handle. Instead, you will be wrapping, holding your hair in place according to your desired curl size.

The curling wand yields more of a natural, beach wave look. In case of tapered barrel, the wand allows your waves to get skinnier toward the bottom. A curling iron cannot create this beach look at all, instead occasionally forming the strange, creased flip at your hair’s edge. Also, the cohesiveness of the curling iron goes out the window with the wand. Each curl forms differently based on the way you curl it around the barrel, how long you hold it, where you begin and end the curl etc.

You don’t have to curl your whole head, even — for a messier, outdoor look, skip a few strands of hair. You could never get away with this with your trusty curling iron. The wand breaks every rule in the book!

The Final Verdict

Whichever you choose: your wand or your iron, it’s best to always keep up safe curling techniques:

• always wear your glove to avoid burns: those curlers always heat up fast;
• make sure you’re always clean your styling tool. Just use some water and a microfiber cloth for a quick wipe-up after every use. This way, you will prevent any product build up — which will prevent burnt hair tragedies;
• finally, make sure to use a good conditioner: every time. Prevent breakage caused by harmful high-heat. And don’t forget to flaunt those curls! You created them: go show them off.