Having such curly, curly hair, I have gotten used to always putting product on it to keep it tame becuz it likes to fly-away, so it was weird not putting any product on it before using the Instyler but I wanted to do it right and it says not to use product on your hair. So I put it on the highest setting (pretty high but not as high as a flat iron, I don't think) and ran it through my hair like it shows in the instructions, and guess what - it straightened it right up. I have never seen my hair so straight. It was really weird, like someone else's hair. So... I know it's a pricey item but if it does this to my hair, I would pay almost any price. For me, it was worth it.