Huetiful Steamer Review, Pt 1: What’s Under the Hood?

Hi lovelies! I am here with my first sponsored review! : throws confetti while hitting a celebratory dougie:

Before we get started, let me just go ahead and throw this disclaimer out there:
The reviews found on this blog are truthful and honest opinions, not advertisements. The reviewer is not obligated and encouraged in any way to provide only positive reviews. Opinions found on this blog are those of the author of this blog and not those of any sponsors.

*This review is sponsored by Huetiful*


Cool… So I’m about to give you guys what is undoubtedly the longest review I have ever given in the history of The Awkward Stage. As someone who frequents hair boards, I know that steaming your hair and steamers is something of a holy grail. I have seen tons of rave reviews about the benefits of the steamer and I’m sure that some of you guys have too. Given that information, you can best believe that steamers are not cheap and like most hair tools, you want to get a full idea on its performance before you drop $100+ on something. Trust me, I totally get that. That’s why this review is as long as it is. It is a 3 part review that will cover the mechanics of the Huetiful Steamer (what do you see when you take it out of the box, comfort, etc.), how it performs with the Huetiful products, and how it performs with your own products. The aim here is to make the review as complete and as unbiased as possible.

So let’s start with what’s under the hood:
Pulling the steamer straight out of the box, there are 3 main components to the steamer:

-The main unit: which contains the water container, the plug, buttons, and all that jazz.

-The Bracket: which connects the main unit to the hood. It's inserted right into the main unit.

-The hood: This is pretty self explanatory right?

Once assembled, using the unit is pretty much idiot proof. You put your water in ( the holder holds about 1 cup (8 oz) of water), flip the steam and Ozone switches and let the steamer work its magic. What I love about the steamer is that it heats up pretty quickly. There isn’t any sitting around forever waiting for the steamer to heat up. I also love how there is a built in timer of sorts in the unit. The unit shuts off automatically once the water level gets too low, which typically takes 20 minutes. If you typically like longer DC sessions, you may find this feature to be annoying since you will have to get up, refill the steamer with water, and get back under the hood. Either way, I find that 20 minutes with this steamer is all you really need.

Here, however, is where my issues with the design of the unit begin.
A key feature of this steamer is its ‘toteability’ (yes, I made that word up lol). The idea being that you can assemble the steamer, set it on your tabletop, let it do its thing, and be done with it. At the end of it all, you can get a quality hair steaming using a tabletop unit. However, I found a few things that interfere with its ease of use (for me):

1) The plug is way too short. This is really a little thing but a big thing for me and it’s exactly what it sounds like. I have few ‘live’ electrical outlets in my apartment so when I use this steamer I have use it in my dining room where I have a live outlet right next to the table. The plug just barely got plugged in from the table. I feel like I shouldn’t have to dig around for an extension cord just to plug in the steamer. That interferes with ease of use…especially since I can plug up a heat cap wherever I choose to be and that’ll be the end of it. I think a longer cord would be a nice add-on to the unit.

2) The unit is not adjustable. Anytime I have to set 2 (thick) books under a unit so that it will adjust to my height, we have a problem. Even then, I still could not sit comfortably under the daggone thing. It was the most awkward 20minuntes of my life. I even started to get a crook in my neck. The point is, all people aren’t the same height. It would be nice if there was something on the unit itself that could adjust to different heights. A good comparison would be a tabletop hooded dryer. With a table top dryer (well, at least for the one I own) you can adjust the height so that you can comfortably sit under it. The Huetiful steamer would really be nice if it had the added feature.

3) The hood itself is small. Being that this steamer is marketed towards women of color, you would think the hood would be accommodating of that. Even though I am relaxed, I have A LOT of hair. And I’m just finished a 20 week stretch. So, yeah I have a lot of hair. With this steamer, it felt like the bulk of my hair sitting on the very top of my hair got the benefits of the steam action while parts of it were left out in the cold. I had to sit strategically (and essentially pile all my hair on the top of my head) so that all my hair could benefit from the steam. It just seemed like a lot to do and it is a problem that could be a eliminated if there were a bigger hood.




Other than those 3 main points, I really don’t have any major issues with the Huetiful steamer. At the end of it all, my hair came out really moisturized. Overall, I felt like my hair held onto moisture better than usual. To get an in depth look at what products I used for the steam and how my hair performed, stay tuned for part 2 of this review!