works well overall but bristles vary in length year to year become brittle and break off too easily [SEP] it is difficult to find a large barreled curling iron brush helen of troy offers a broad range of assorted sizes and they work well this is my third or fourth purchase of this same model in about years even though i purchase the same model i find that the hard plastic bristles vary in height from year to year the short bristles sometimes place the hot barrel too close to my skin especially when the bristles break off which is fairly easy and common possibly due to overexposure to heat the models that arrived with longer bristles are more suited for longer hair however they sometimes tangle in the hair and they too break off all too easily i have recommended to the manufacturer that they add something slightly more flexible to the bristles to keep them from getting brittle and breaking or perhaps design the barrels so that new sets of bristles can be installed however why would they take my suggestion when consumers can simply replace the entire unit with a new one the heating elements in these units have never failed only the bristles are problematicoverall i like this model but i find that i need to replace it after about months of use due to loss of bristles