Croc 2 Infrared Flat Iron (1"): A Review for Natural Afro Hair

I have owned the Croc flat iron for a year. I purchased it from Folica for $125 on sale with free shipping.

If you are wondering will the flat iron work for your texture, I have several textures in my un-relaxed hair. The back of my hair is 3c. The middle of my hair is 4a/4b. The front of my hair is 3c/4a. Yes, it does look crazy (if you were wondering).

The flat iron did not come with good instructions. I used it for at least 2 weeks without turning on the infrared lighting because I thought it came on automatically. If you haven't figured out how to turn on the infrared, then power on the flat iron and push the power button one more time. You will see a red light turn on.

What I LOVE about the flat iron: it gets my hair SILKY. Yes, SILKY and oh so SOFT. Did I mention SHINY? I cannot keep my hands out of my hair. Even when I wash my hair afterwards I can still feel much of the silkiness. In the past I got relaxers, but this flat iron did better than any relaxer ever did.

It works on ALL of my hair textures. I get the same results, but I do have to run over the middle 1-2 swipes more than the other areas. I am not sure if that is because it is 4a/4b or because it is 2x thicker than all the other areas of my head.

I flat ironed my hair on the lowest setting, 280 degrees, and it did not damage my curl pattern. I did not get any noticeable damage during or after the process. Only a few (seriously like 4-5) strands broke off at the end (which was probably from my excessive combing).

It took me about 90 minutes to flat iron my hair (armpit length).

What I HATE about the flat iron: it turns off automatically about every 7 minutes. That is ANNOYING. It says "Err" which I'm guessing means "error." If the flat iron had come with an adequate manual then I would know how to fix the error (assuming there is a fix).

It says the flat iron promotes growth. This did not happen for my hair. Sometimes I will turn the flat iron on and hold my hair between the plates (not touching) for some of the infrared benefits, but I haven't seen any growth from that either.

The advertisements also say that the flat iron can repair damage. If the silky effect is a sign of damage repair, then I attest the flat iron repairs damage. If silkiness has nothing to do with damage, then I must say I noticed no improvement of repaired damage.

Lastly, I don't know if it is my hair in general or the flat iron, but my ends did not get very straight with this flat iron. Maybe if you turn the heat up it will get your ends straight.

I would definitely recommend this flat iron to a friend.