ghd duet review NZ: is wet-to-style actually worth it?

The ghd duet is the one people ask about and nobody explains. It is a wet-to-style tool: you put it on soaking hair and take it off finished. No blow-dry first, no straightener after. At $645 it is also the most expensive thing ghd makes bar the Sculpt, so the question is fair - is it real?

duet style vs duet blowdry

Two different tools with confusingly similar names.

• duet style ($469.00) - plates. Wet hair to a sleek, straight, glass-finish style in one pass. This is the straightener version.
• duet blowdry ($469.00) - a brush. Wet hair to a soft, bouncy blow-out. This is the round-brush version.

Straight and sleek, get the style. Bouncy and voluminous, get the blowdry.

Does wet-to-style actually work?

Yes, with a caveat. HoverShine technology means the tool never lets water boil against the hair shaft - it dries and styles in a single pass at a lower effective temperature than straightening already-dry hair. In practice it saves real time.

The caveat: it is not faster on very long, very thick hair. If your blow-dry currently takes 25 minutes, the duet will not make it five. It shines on shoulder-length-to-long hair that is otherwise a two-tool job.

Is it worth $645?

If you currently blow-dry and then straighten, it replaces two tools and two rounds of heat. That is the case for it. If you air-dry and touch up, it is a lot of money for a tool you will not use as designed.

What it costs in NZ

RRP is $645. Chains occasionally flash-discount it hard, then return to RRP. Ours is $469.00 (duet style) and $469.00 (duet blowdry), in black or white, free NZ shipping, two-year ghd warranty. Ukiyo, Wanaka.