TYMO CurlPro Plus Automatic Curling Iron Review (Australia, 2026)

Automatic curlers solve the hardest part of curling — the wrapping — by feeding a section into a clamp and letting a motorised barrel wind it up and set it. Their recurring complaint, though, is the size of that chamber. On a standard automatic iron the barrel is short, so someone with long hair has to curl the top half of a section, then re-clamp the bottom half, then blend two curls together, and the whole 'hands-free, so fast' promise quietly evaporates on a long head.

The CurlPro Plus is TYMO's answer to that specific frustration: a longer rotating barrel that captures more length per bite, so a long section gets curled closer to a single, continuous pass rather than two mismatched ones. That is the entire reason the 'Plus' exists, and it is a real, physical improvement for the right person rather than a cosmetic rename — the extra length is aimed at exactly the audience most likely to be annoyed by a normal auto-curler.

We weigh it against the rest of the hands-free field in our automatic hair curler buying guide, where the CurlPro Plus sits beside premium rivals like the Beachwaver and standard-length automatic irons that cost less but ask a long head to work harder.

The ritual is the same clamp-and-press loop as any automatic curler, and it remains disarmingly simple: clip a section into the chamber, close it, press and hold, and the barrel winds the hair in, heats it for the set timer, beeps and releases a finished curl. The difference the longer barrel makes is in how much of a long section that single cycle can actually cover before you have to re-clamp.

On mid-to-long hair that extra reach is the whole story. Where a short chamber forces you into a two-part curl and a visible join halfway down the strand, the longer barrel takes more of the section at once, so the curl runs cleaner from the release point down to the end, and the number of fiddly re-clamps per head drops noticeably. For someone whose old automatic curler was abandoned because it was slow on their length, this is the fix that keeps the format alive.

The honest limits are the same ones every chamber shares. It still cannot start a curl tight at the scalp the way a bare wand can, because the hair has to reach into the clamp, and it still wants a section of the right size — overfill the longer chamber and the grab and release go uneven just as they would on a short one. The upgrade widens what the machine handles in one pass; it does not remove the need for reasonable sectioning.

The curl the CurlPro Plus throws is a smooth, glossy, uniform barrel curl, and the ceramic-and-ionic combination earns its keep here: at a given heat the released curl comes out noticeably sleeker and less frizzy than a plain-barrel curl, with the kind of shine that reads as 'done' rather than 'attempted'. On long hair especially, that even, well-defined curl running down a long length is exactly what people are buying — a polished, full-head result without a stylist.

Hold behaves like a good ceramic automatic curler should: set with the timer you choose, it holds through a normal day on most hair types, with the usual caveat that very fine or heavily conditioned hair relaxes faster no matter what tool made it. Because the heat and curl-time are standardised, you tune the hold once to your hair and then stop thinking about it, which is the point of a hands-free tool.

Consistency is the crown and the constraint. Every curl is close to the same diameter and shape, which is a triumph if you want a repeatable polished finish and a limitation if you want artful variety. The CurlPro Plus is emphatically a 'look put-together with the least skill' machine, and on a long head that would otherwise take twenty minutes to hand-wrap, it does that job extremely well.

You get a spread of temperature settings and selectable curl-hold timers, which matter on an automatic curler more than on a manual one because you are not standing there adjusting each section by feel — you are trusting the preset you dialled in. Fine and colour-treated hair can run cooler and shorter; thick or resistant hair can take a higher setting and a longer hold to keep its shape. A couple of practice sections on your own hair types are the price of the convenience.

Safety is one of the format's quieter selling points and TYMO leans into it: the anti-scald outer body keeps the hot barrel away from your face and free hand, and an automatic shut-off covers the 'did I leave it on' anxiety that every heated styling tool creates. Combined with the fact that you never wrap hair around a bare element with your fingers, it is one of the gentler curlers to hand to someone who has always found curling a bit dangerous.

As with any heat styling, the routine-level discipline still applies: heat protectant first, hair fully dry before curling, sensible temperatures for your type. The CurlPro Plus makes the curling easy without making the aftercare optional, and the rotating mechanism, like any motorised barrel, benefits from keeping the chamber clean and not forcing oversized sections through it.

At a 4.6 average across more than ten thousand Australian ratings, the CurlPro Plus has one of the deeper evidence bases in the curling category, which is meaningful on its own. Automatic curlers are a format people are instinctively suspicious of — 'will it really do my hair' — so a pool this large and this positive is the reassurance that removes the gamble, especially at a mid-tier price near $110 rather than a premium iron costing three times that.

Read carefully, a 4.6 rather than a 4.9 on ten thousand is a healthy, credible score: it reflects near-universal satisfaction with the hands-free convenience alongside the recurring, honest complaints every automatic curler attracts — the one-signature-curl limit, roots being hard to place, and fine hair occasionally feeding unevenly. None of those undercut the core promise; they just say exactly what the format is and is not.

The value comparison is really the CurlPro Plus against two alternatives. Against a premium automatic curler it is a fraction of the price for the same hands-free mechanism plus a long barrel, and that is an easy case to make. Against TYMO's own standard-length automatic curler the answer depends entirely on your hair length — if a short chamber never frustrated you, the cheaper one wins; if it did, the Plus is worth the small step up.

Buy the CurlPro Plus if you have long hair and the reason you avoid or resent automatic curlers is the short barrel that forces you to double-handle every section. It is the tool that finally makes the hands-free format pay off on a long head, throwing a consistent, glossy, frizz-controlled curl you never had to wrap yourself, with enough safety engineering and enough happy owners to make it a low-risk purchase at its price.

Buy less if your hair is short to medium — you will not feel the benefit of the longer chamber, and a standard automatic curler or even a classic wand does the same job for less. And if you genuinely enjoy styling and want varied, hand-shaped curls or tight root placement, no clamp chamber is the right tool and a wand or an interchangeable-barrel set will serve your creativity better.

On balance the CurlPro Plus is a well-targeted upgrade rather than a gimmick. It fixes the single most common complaint about automatic curlers for the specific people who suffer from it — long hair — and it backs the fix with a huge, positive Australian rating pool and a price well under the premium flagships. If long hair is your problem and hands-free curling is your goal, this is the version worth owning.