Curling your hair can be a grueling process, speaking as someone who has barely touched a curling iron in her life; that’s what I’ve heard. And seen. Trust me, the few times I’ve tried manipulating hair with an iron? Not pretty.

Luckily there’s a new hair curling technology, so user-friendly that even I, a hair-curling neophyte, could handle it. And it’s right here in Ames.

Last week, Jenny Buckhouse, senior in marketing, and I headed down to Leedz Salon on Lincoln Way to test out how to achieve the perfect curl. Together, we spoke with owner and lead stylist, Doug Ziminski. The secret? Ziminski’s newly discovered BaByliss Pro MiraCurl.

The MiraCurl, which looks similar to a hair straightener if you were to add a sphere the size of your fists to the end, is a tool designed for easy at-home use. Basically, it’s idiot-proof — it creates the perfect curl for you — all you have to do is plug it in.

Once the tool heats up, you separate your hair into one-inch sections and clamp the spherical end around your locks, which will be drawn up inside.

Hold it for a few seconds (it comes with a beeping timer so you’ll know exactly how long) and out comes a perfect curl. The sphere is where the magic happens — it’s a Nano Titanium curling chamber where your hair is drawn in, wrapped, and heated from all directions, creating flawless curls every time – no crimping from your straightener or lines from your curling iron clamp.

Though you can create tighter or looser curls based on your heat, timer and curl direction settings, Leedz stylist Tara Hommer chose to create loose beachy waves on our model, which she says is the easiest and most natural looking style to come out of the MiraCurl.

The trick to this hairstyle is to set the curl direction to alternate, which keeps the curls from looking fake. All you do is comb out a section of hair, spray a little hairspray and allow the MiraCurl to take over.

To give us hair curling newbies peace of mind, the tool is smart enough to spit the hair back out if the section you use is too big, no harm done.

Hommer spent about 30 minutes total curling our model’s entire head, including the time it took for her to convince me to try out a few curls with the tool. Surprising to me, based on my skill level, even the curls I created turned out perfect and I was hooked.

Once the entire head was finished, Hommer used her fingers to shake it out and voila! Perfectly tousled beach waves that anyone, and I mean anyone, can create.

“It’s easy and quick and gave my hair great volume and the perfect wave,” Buckhouse said. “I’d definitely recommend it.”

The Miracurl is available online at Amazon.com for $247.99, but if you go into Leedz salon with your ISU student ID you can purchase the tool at a discount for $198.

Unsure about spending the money before testing out the tool? Make an appointment with Leedz Salon and they’ll give you a full Miracurl treatment for around $29.