At its base, the Wave also has rubber stoppers that keep it from slipping off your counter as you style your hair. (Awesome! Because how many of us actually have a rubber mat to keep our tools from sliding off our vanities?)
And, Kirkland notes, this tool can be used on all hair types. Her recommendation for tighter hair types is to blow it out with a comb and hair dryer.
My Honest Thoughts
I am not a hairstylist. As a teen in the early aughts, I burned my hair with a one-inch curling wand trying to get my favorite singers’ effortlessly cool, wavy hair (and I always ended up with tight, crunchy prom curls I’d brush out aggressively). When a flurry of three-barrel wavers hit shelves a few years ago, I was thrilled to have something that could give me a similar effect, but I didn’t love reaching for them because they felt big and clunky.
With the launch of the Wave, I asked Toth for some tips on how to use a three-barrel waver correctly. He suggested starting with smoothed hair doused in a heat protectant. Because my medium-coarse hair is long and frizzy with an inconsistent wave pattern, I spritzed on Moroccanoil Perfect Defense Heat Protectant Spray and lightly straightened it with a flatiron. Then I sectioned my hair so that I could heat style from the bottom to the top of my head.
To use the tool, Toth advises clamping the base of the section through the barrels for three to five seconds, then removing the clamp and repeating the process down the shaft of hair. And that’s what I (sort of) did: I positioned the Wave close to my scalp and released the spring-loaded crimper around the two-inch section I was working with. I kept it in place for about five or six seconds. It wasn’t bulky or awkward (I wasn’t scared I’d burn my face or neck) and left behind a shiny, intact wave, without any smell of singed strands.
I finished each section by misting it with Oribe Superfine Hair Spray because I didn’t want the look to fall. My whole head took about 12 minutes to do, and I’m thrilled with the results. The look is more Rihanna than it is Ashlee Simpson (though Toth says Simpson’s look is possible with this waver) and undeniably cool. My only (very mild) complaint is that the tool is a little too large for my curtain bangs, so I do have to reach for another option to style them (that or some hair clips to pull them back).
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Sarah Han, commerce editor
The majority of the time, my hair isn’t styled. Time commitment aside, even the simplest of curling irons confuse me. I’ve tried multibarrel hair waves in the past, which cut down on some of the guesswork (or instruction reading) I face with most tools. All I have to do with the Wave is clamp and unclamp as I move down each section of hair, and it’s set at one temperature, so even less to think about!