BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver review: Cordless and convenient but costly
If you’re willing to pay over the odds, the BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver lets you wave your hair from anywhere
Pros
- Perfect for on-the-go styling
- Great battery life
- Shiny results
Cons
- Max temperature too low for thick hair
- Very expensive
- Heavy
Cordless hair-styling tools have been on the market for a few years, and the BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver is as convenient and quick as they come. It creates smooth, uniform, shiny waves that last all day, and it comes with a convenient heatproof case for storage.
But as with most cordless tools, it also comes with a premium price tag. Retailing at well over the average price of a corded hair waver, I expected the BaByliss 9000 to perform well, and it did. However, there are a few major caveats to consider before you buy this over the corded alternatives, especially if you have thick or textured hair.
BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver review: What do you get for the money?
The BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver features an interlocking triple-barrel design that opens and closes using a lever to clamp the hair into a uniform “S” shape wave. The 21mm barrels have the same diameter as the barrels on the Beauty Works original waver, so they’re small enough to work well on short hair while still providing great volume and depth. They also come with cooltouch handles on the end of each barrel. Thanks to the ultra-smooth ceramic barrels, the waver adds shine to the hair while protecting it from excessive heat damage.
A little-known fact about heat-styling tools is that they sometimes don’t have uniform heat across the hot surface, leading to uneven styles that drop out faster than normal. To avoid this, the BaByliss 9000 waver comes equipped with micro-heating matrix heaters that are contoured to fit the shape of the barrels exactly. That means the waver provides consistent heat across the whole barrel with no hot spots, helping provide even, lasting waves. Furthermore, the barrels only heat up on the inside half, where the hair is clamped; presumably to conserve the waver’s battery life, but it also means that the outside half of the barrels is cool enough to touch during styling without burning your hands.
Speaking of temperature, the waver has three temperature settings: 160°C, 170°C and 180°C. To rotate through them, simply press the power button and the small white LED light indicators above tell you which setting you’ve selected. The temperatures aren’t listed on the waver itself, which is a shame, but the bottom light indicates the lowest temperature, and the light furthest up the handle the hottest.
While 180°C is hot enough to style most hair types, this is a much lower maximum temperature than your average corded waver, and isn’t hot enough to style very thick or textured hair.
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Still, the lithium-ion battery lasts 40 minutes on the highest heat setting, which is more than long enough to style a full head of long hair. It charges from empty in three hours via a proprietary magnetic charging cable, and the LED light around the power button flashes during charging before going static when fully charged.
Overall, the waver looks sleek and is incredibly well built – aside from the well-designed heated barrels, its handle is made from a shiny black plastic with rose gold accents. However, at 567g it’s fairly heavy due to the inclusion of a battery, which isn’t ideal when travelling and may defeat the object of a cordless waver for some users.
The accompanying travel storage case has a heat-protective lining, which means it can safely house a hot waver immediately after styling. It also comes with a heat mat and styling glove to protect your hands and surfaces from burns.
BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver review: What’s it like to use?
During my testing, I found the BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver styled my hair quickly and evenly and provided great shine. It heated up to its maximum temperature of 180°C in just 58 seconds, which gave me enough time to protect my hair using the Tresemme heat defence spray. I didn’t use any other styling products to help the waves last longer; I’d recommend using a styling mousse, hairspray and/or styling clips to set the hair if you want the waves to last longer.
To turn the waver on and off, press and hold the power button until it plays a gentle alarm sound and the LED light around the power button illuminates. As there’s just one button to control all the functions, you can easily scroll to your chosen temperature as soon as the waver has turned on. The temperature indicator light will then flash until it’s fully heated up; when the light goes static, it’s time to start styling.
My biggest concern was that the waver would run out of charge mid-way through styling as my hair is quite long and thicker than average. In reality, I need not have worried as the 40-minute battery life provided more than enough charge to wave my hair from root to tip and go in for touch-ups afterwards. Also, there’s a handy charge level indicator light around the power button that changes from green, to yellow, and finally red when the battery starts to run low.
In terms of styling, the process was relatively straightforward – I started at the bottom of my hair, taking short, wide sections and working my way around the lower layer. Then I worked upwards in layers of the same thickness. For reference, I have long and relatively thick hair, so with each section, I clamped the hair for ten seconds for each wave, and then moved down the strand. This was easy to do as the waver was light enough to operate with one hand and had a nice wide opening that allowed me to see exactly where the hair had been clamped to line it up with the next wave.
One small caveat to this is that I used fairly thick sections of hair – no thicker than the sections I used when testing other wavers for our best hair waver roundup – but this meant that some hairs got caught in the bottom of the barrel where it joined onto the plastic base. While I could get the hairs out of the barrel, this was slightly uncomfortable and I ended up wasting precious battery life detangling the hairs. To avoid this, I’d recommend using smaller sections of hair.
Overall, however, the waves ended up being smooth and shiny, and they only started dropping out after the first full day. This is, however, a faster drop-out rate than other hair wavers I’ve tested. But if you’re looking for a premium hair waver that creates shiny waves and has cordless functionality, the BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver is the best you’ll find. It’s perfect for a night out or on-the-go styling and touch-ups.
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BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Waver review: Should you buy it?
While this hair waver gives shiny results and offers unmatched convenience thanks to its cordless functionality, it’s only worth buying if your hair can be styled at lower temperatures. If you have very thick hair or lots of texture that’s stubborn and difficult to style, give this one a miss and opt for a waver like the BaByliss Deep Waves, which has even better styling power and a 200°C heat setting.
Corded alternatives not only have higher temperature ranges, but they’re also much cheaper. The Remington ProLuxe 4-in-1 adjustable hair waver, for example, retails at £55 and creates four different types of waves for the price of one while also having a wider range of temperatures.
However, if you’re dead set on cordless and are willing to pay a premium for it, then the BaByliss 9000 waver won’t let you down. The 21mm barrels are the perfect size for every hair length and it creates a pretty wavy look with minimal effort.
