Hair Styling Tools
Buy and sell hair styling tools in Costa Rica.
Almost every hair styling tool works one of two ways: with hot plates or a heated barrel, like a flat iron, a curling iron or a waver, or with hot air, from a plain dryer to a hot air brush or a Dyson Airwrap. In Costa Rica the flat iron is a plancha and the dryer a secadora, and those are the words a buyer types. New and pre-owned tools sit side by side, and a used one is judged on what a photo can’t show: whether the plates still close flush, how the motor sounds and, on a Dyson, whether it is genuine.
Flat irons, curling irons and wavers:
the hot-plate side of styling, and these tools don’t stand in for each other. A flat iron clamps hair between heated plates: narrow plates handle short hair, fringes and roots, wide ones get through long, thick hair in fewer passes. A curling iron wraps hair around a heated barrel, and the barrel decides the result, a thin one for tight ringlets and a fat one for loose waves. A waver presses an S-shaped bend with a row of barrels and does nothing else. Pick one with adjustable heat: a cheap one-setting iron scorches fine or coloured hair to get through thick, coarse hair.
Dryers, hot air brushes and the Dyson Airwrap:
the air side, where the motor matters more than the wattage on the box. A salon dryer with an AC motor is heavier and built to run for hours a day; cheap home dryers carry a small DC motor that wears out sooner; brushless motors, like the one in a Dyson Supersonic, are light, long-lived and priced to match. A hot air brush such as the Revlon One-Step dries and shapes in one pass and does its best work on straight or wavy hair of medium length. The Airwrap and its rivals swap heads to dry, curl and smooth from one handle. Heat protectant, curl creams and the rest of the routine are in hair care, and clippers, shavers and nail lamps in beauty tools and accessories.
A Dyson against an everyday dryer in colones:
a home dryer or plancha from Remington, Conair or Revlon costs somewhere around ₡20,000 to ₡50,000 new, while a Dyson Airwrap runs well past ₡300,000. An everyday iron gives up most of its value once the box is open, because a new one is cheap enough that few people gamble on a stranger’s. A genuine Dyson holds a large part of its price for years, which is exactly why copies circulate, and why a Dyson offered at the price of an ordinary dryer is not a Dyson.
Plates, filters and motors on a used one:
plug it in and try it on a strand of hair before agreeing a price. Close a plancha and hold it up to the light: the plates should meet flush along their whole length, and a scratched or chipped plate snags and pulls. Check that the display reaches the setting you choose; on a curling iron, test the clip spring. A dryer that smells burnt, rattles or cuts out after a few minutes has either a clogged rear filter or a tired motor; take the filter cover off, because lint packed against the mesh is a cleaning job and a dying motor is not. On a hot air brush, look for melted bristles and let it run a while: the motor is what tends to give out on the original Revlon One-Step. With a Dyson, settle first that it is one. Ask for a photo of the serial number on the rating label, which Dyson puts on the cable near the plug, and check the attachments against what Dyson lists for that model. On a Supersonic the nozzles hold on by magnet; push-on nozzles mark a copy. A flashing light that stops one mid-use usually means the filter wants cleaning, not that the machine is finished.
A salon dryer or a home Airwrap up for sale:
say how it was used, because a dryer that did years at a salon chair and one used at weekends look identical in a photo. Photograph the plates closed against the light, the display lit, the rear filter with its cover off, and every nozzle, diffuser and head laid out; for a Dyson add the serial label and the box. Someone coming from Alajuela or Puntarenas will want to try it on their own hair, so have it clean and a socket within reach, and pack the diffuser with the dryer: for a buyer with curls it is half the reason to want that one.