All Electrical Engineers Have Perfect Hair

Or don’t care about the condition of their hair.

You may be wondering where this post is going..... don’t worry. I have a point.

When you take electrical appliances to a foreign country, such as England, the voltage in the sockets are completely different. The plugs are also different shapes. In order to make anything work without blowing up, you require either an adapter or converter. In order for these to work, they need to fall into a certain voltage range. Whoever came up with this system deserves a swift kick up the arse because it makes life extremely difficult for those of us who want to bring their hair dryer or hair straightener along for the trip.

Hair dryers and straighteners are way beyond these ranges and most adapter/ converter products tell you that they simply do not work with them. You can try, but really it’s a crapshoot. It may work, it may not. According to some of the travelling websites I looked at during the *entire* evening I spent trying to figure this out, sometimes it will work for a while and then just decide to blow up. Or it will start to melt as soon as it heats up. Lovely.

So I decided to try my flat iron with an adapter. The light goes on indicating it is heating up and then it just does.... nothing. No heat, just a light to mock you that while there is power going into it, no straightening will be happening. Since the apartment I’m renting provided a hair dryer, I decided to not even attempt to plug mine in. So they both sit, with the adapter, in my suitcase and will remain there until I ship them back to Canada.

Moral of the story?

Leave your hair straightener at home and buy a cheap, animal-print one from the grocery store, as I plan to do this weekend.