I tested £38 gadget to beat the salon and save my split ends – it blew my mind

The Irish Sun

2 days ago

MY hair used to be pampered like royalty – regular trims, glossy blow-dries and a shelf full of fancy products to keep split ends at bay.
But since becoming a mum in March, all that
TLC
has gone out the window.
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Siobhan O'Connor's hair has been left to fend for itself between 3am feeds and the endless blur of nappies
Credit: David Cummings
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According to Luxmend, their £38 gadget only targets split ends, trimming away the frazzled bits
Credit: David Cummings
These days, I'm lucky if I get five minutes to run a brush through it, let alone book a salon snip.
Between 3am feeds and the endless
blur
of nappies, my hair's been left to fend for itself, usually shoved into a dry-shampooed topknot that's more bird's nest than 'blowout'.
The result? A record-breaking ten months without a trim and therefore more
And while I dream of a head massage and glossy finish, the reality of juggling a newborn — and hearing my baby scream mid-hair wash — isn't exactly soothing.
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Add in the fact that my maternity pay is disappearing into nappies, wipes and babygrows, and a pricey haircut isn't an option any more.
Days at home mean it's easy enough to ignore, but with a holiday coming up, my unruly mop needs taming before it hits airport security.
So, on one of my early-hours TikTok scrolls, I came across a £38 gadget that promised to rescue my
The device — which looks like a typical hair straightener, but with scary
teeth
— has accumulated thousands of tried-and-tested videos, attracting more than two million views.
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Clip after clip showed users running the device over their frazzled ends, trimming just the damaged bits and revealing smooth, shiny strands underneath — within minutes.
Finally, a hair fix I could squeeze in during nap time? I was sold.
I tried incredible new air styler - it gave perfect curls with no heat and its a fraction of the price of Dyson Air Wrap
According to Luxmend, the gadget only targets split ends, trimming away the frazzled bits without affecting your overall length.
It works by feeding strands through a hair plate, which lifts any rogue, spiky ends and snips them off with built-in blades. The device comes with sectioning clips, a USB charger and a quick-start guide that recommends working in layers for the best results.
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Once charged, it powers up instantly, and to turn it off, you simply lock it shut. Easy enough.
But I won't lie, I was nervous.
The inner prongs look a little too aggressive for something gliding near my face. And the noise? Loud enough to make the baby stir.
It doesn't exactly scream 'trust me'.
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So, before committing my split ends to Luxmend's blades, I did what any trend-follower would do — another TikTok deep dive.
'Unravelling rope'
Cue panic. Among the glossy before-and-afters were
horror
stories — users showing clumps of hair inside the gadget's clear chamber, gasping as more than just their ends disappeared.
Was this sleek little trimmer a miracle — or a mistake waiting to happen?
Wes Sharpton, a hairstylist at haircare brand hairstory.com, says: 'As professional stylists, we think of split ends like an unravelling rope — they travel up the strand and only a proper haircut can truly stop the damage from progressing.
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'Split-end machines claim to remove frizz and damage, but in reality, they only trim the small hairs that stick out, and those hairs eventually reappear, leaving the hair still looking frizzy and uneven.'
That being said, considering the current state of my locks, I was desperate — and convinced myself that if I just did the ends, I wouldn't have much to lose if it did go terribly wrong.
4
The device comes with sectioning clips, a USB charger and a quick-start guide that recommends working in layers for the best results
Credit: David Cummings
During my daughter's nap, I finally gave it a go.
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I started cautiously, pulling down a hidden layer of hair from underneath.
That way, if it massacred my mane, I could at least cover the damage.
Taking a section about an inch wide, I fed the last two to three inches through the trimmer, clamped it shut and slowly pulled it down.
You can definitely feel the tension as it works — it doesn't glide like straighteners.
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There's a subtle resistance, like the machine is chewing through your ends — gently, I hoped. Once I reached the bottom, I flipped the gadget open and peeked through the clear chamber.
Sure enough, it was filled with tiny chopped hairs — the kind that normally coat the bathroom sink when my partner trims his beard.
I decided to tackle just one half of my head first, partly for damage control and partly to see if there was a real difference.
It's surprisingly easy to do solo, but you can't rush it. I tried feeding in a thicker chunk of hair at one point and the device struggled to chomp through it.
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Working in smaller sections, I watched the clear chamber steadily fill up with little wisps of split ends.
Weirdly, it became really satisfying and addictive. I didn't want to stop.
The results do far? The freshly trimmed sections looked noticeably smoother, glossier and far less frizzy.
Most of those pesky split ends had vanished, and with each section I got braver — thankfully without losing more than I intended.
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Siobhan was wowed by results from trimmer
Once half my head was done, the difference was obvious.
One side looked sleek and fresh, the other still rocking the tumbleweed look.
I was genuinely blown away that this £38 gadget managed to freshen up my frazzled ends in under 15 minutes.
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Sure, it's not quite the same as a salon experience, but let's be honest, neither is trying to wrangle a baby through a haircut.
And in the meantime, it has bought me a few extra months of avoiding the hairdresser — and the hefty bill that comes with it.
Pre-baby, I was paying as much as £150 per cut and £220 for a cut and colour, visiting the salon every four months.
That's at least £400 a year, just to get it trimmed.
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The best bit about my new split-end saviour?
You can whip it out whenever you've got a moment to yourself — even at 3am when the baby's asleep and you're wide awake.
That said, my one piece of advice?
Don't mention it to your hairdresser.
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