Dangerous Design: The InStyler

Image from: http://www.ititbuyit.com/images/2010110408.jpg

          

             The InStyler is a rotating hair iron made by Tre Milano, LLC. This hair iron is not like any other hair product out there in the market today and the reason might be that it is a very dangerous product to use. Last Christmas my sister received the InStyler as a gift and she was very excited to use it because after seeing all the infomercials on T.V. she thought that it would work perfectly. As soon as my sister received the InStyler she decided to give it a try only to find that it was extremely hard to use. She even burned her ear because the rotating cylinder gets really hot. There have even been YouTube videos that say how dangerous this product can be. The following link is to a video about a woman who bought the InStyler from QVC and received an attachment for the InStyler in order to reduce burns.

                                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLlUMbCS-RQ

            This is evidence that the InStyler is a dangerous product because it was worth it to QVC to send an additional protective shield for free to their customers in order to prevent burns. To really understand why this is such a dangerous product one must analyze the design further.

            The InStyler reaches very high temperatures just like any other hair product but the major difference is that since the InStyler has a rotating cylinder it is harder to maneuver when you are using it to straighten or curl your hair. The rotating cylinder was thought to be a great innovation to the design of this model because this allows you to both straighten your hair or curl it but by doing so it creates the unintentional danger of having an unprotected hot rotating cylinder really close to your head and fingers. I am sure that the designers of this product were only thinking about the efficiency that the cylinder would be to the model and didn't realize the possible dangers it could have. When designing something a designer must always think of the possible dangers to the consumer their product might bring. I would have to argue that the normal straighteners are safer to use because both of the sides are covered with a protective heat metal that allow you to put your fingers on one side of the straightened in order to close it. The following is a picture of a regular hair straightener.

Image from: http://www.myhairstylingtools.info/images/CHI-Turbo-2-Big-Flat-Iron-1.jpg

            This straightener is much safer because both of the heat plates are surrounded by protective metal that if you touch is still hot but not hot enough to burn you the way the InStyler can.