FEMAIL puts the Babyliss Perfect Curl, the hottest new hair styling tool on the planet, to the test By Claire Coleman Everyone with straight, flat hair has, at some point, longed for glossy, tumbling curls or sexy beach-chic waves. In the past, this has meant tussling with some infernal heated hair gadget - tongs, wands, heated rollers or crimpers - generally resulting in various burns, knots, and the occasional emergency excision of tangled locks. So when I heard that Babyliss was launching a curling device billed "the biggest innovation in hair styling," you could forgive my scepticism. Because frankly, when you've seen one bit of hot metal that you wrap your hair around, you've seen them all. Impressed: Claire Coleman loved the way the Babyliss Perfect Curl transformed her straight locks Or that's what I thought until I encountered the 'Perfect Curl'. It looks like nothing I've seen before: the slick black handle may resemble a pair of straightening irons, but the fat round head does not. I fail to understand how it's going to transform my poker-straight barnet into a cascade of pre-Raphaelite ringlets. However, the girl demonstrating this all-new curler at the event I attended in London seemed undeterred by my lack of faith in something she told me had to be 'seen to be believed'. Like a conjurer about to perform a magic trick, she picked up an inch-wide section of her own hair, clamped it at the roots in the jaws of the device and I watched, astonished, as the length of her hair disappeared into the barrel. Seconds later, she released her grip, removed the device and in its place was, I admit, a perfect curl. 'I can do my whole head in five minutes,' she told me. I was impressed, but before I was prepared to let my locks be swallowed into the jaws of this monster, I wanted to find out a bit more. 'It's widely recognised that straightening is so popular because it's quick, easy and simple, but not everybody can achieve a curl as easily. We wanted to create a product that makes curling as easy as straightening,' Sandra Wey, of Babyliss, tells me. The result is something that Sandra describes as 'the most technologically advanced product we have ever worked on.' According to her, the hair isn't actually 'sucked up'. Instead, when you close the barrel, a specially designed catcher 'winds the hair into the heated chamber where it is suspended and heated from all sides. As it's not held against a barrel or against a heated plate under tension, it's more gentle on the hair,' says Sandra. Innovative: The Babyliss Perfect Curl is set to do for curling at home what GHD did for straightening There are three different heat settings - 190c, 210c and 230c - and three different timer settings - eight, ten and 12 seconds - so you can adapt it to your hair type, and what you're trying to achieve. For instance, people with fine hair should probably use the lower heat setting. For tight ringlets, crank up the heat and hold it for longer; or for looser waves, bring down the temperature setting or the time. If you try to curl too much hair, the device just beeps angrily. But once it's happy with the section you've given it, it whirs and then basically sucks up the strand of hair, in the way you'd slurp up a strand of spaghetti. It then beeps every couple of seconds, and when you hear four beeps in quick succession that's your cue to release the handles, freeing the perfect curl. Hairstylist Beverly Cobella has been using the gadget on shoots and in the salon, and is convinced it's a genuine game-changer. When GHD brought out straighteners, they were so successful because they were an idiot-proof way of getting straight hair. I think Perfect Curl will similarly revolutionise styling. It's the idiot-proof bit that worries me. I just can't see how hair isn't going to get tangled. But Sandra insists that with the built-in anti-tangle software, it's scientifically impossible. The wizardry doesn't end there either. For those who are a bit obsessive about this sort of thing, you can choose whether the hair is curled to the left, to the right or, using the Auto setting, in a rather haphazard way. A couple of curls were all very well, but could I really do my whole head in just five minutes as I'd been promised? There was only one way to find out. The instructions say that hair should first be clean, dry, combed through and spritzed with a heat protection spray. Glamorous: Claire wants lovely soft curls like Nicole Kidman or Trinny Woodall but hates traditional tongs I decide to go for all-out ringlets, so set the heat and timing settings to maximum. I divide my hair into sections and keep them clipped out of the way so I can curl it all a bit at a time, working from the layers underneath through to the top. It is ridiculously easy. I wouldn't say a child could do it because a part of the barrel does still get very hot, but I emerge from the session unscathed - with no burns on my fingers, ears or neck, which is a definite improvement on my previous experiments with a wand. And the anti-tangle technology really does seem to work. A few times, when I take a chunk of hair that's too big, or hold it an awkward angle, I fear the worst, but after a few warning beeps, I unclamp the jaws and the hair just falls out; no knots, no tangles, no bald patches. Using smaller sections of hair seems to give more defined curls, but after 15 minutes (five was optimistic) I look like Medusa - in the best way. I leave the ringlets to cool before brushing them out, as that should make the style last longer. When, a few minutes later, I run my fingers through my hair, I'm left with a cloud of bouncy curls. I really am impressed. I'm not sure that Perfect Curl makes curling your hair as simple as straightening it, but it's easily the quickest, most pain-free curl-creating method I've come across. The only drawback is the price tag - at £177 it costs more than the most expensive straighteners on the market. But then, seized by the minimalist idea that one gadget could help me recreate everything, from Bar Rafaeli's beach waves to Shirley Temple-style spirals, I start to have a clear out of my hair gadgets and I realise how much I've spent on them over the years. There are the tongs (£30), the wand (£30), the wavers (£35), the heated rollers (£45), the instant heating induction hot rollers that were going to transform my life (£150). . . Suddenly Perfect Curl doesn't seem so expensive. Perfect Curl costs £177 from perfectcurl.co.uk and hairdressers nationwide.