I just tried curling mine this past weekend. It does a great job of curling, but it took me a little while to get the hang of it. I searched some videos on youtube, and found some showing how to curl with the GHD. Once you get the hang of it - it's pretty easy. I didn't do it with freshly washed hair (only because I didn't want to end up washing it, hating it, and then washing it right after... and wasting a bunch of time), and yes the curl did stay in. I curled my hair with the 1.75" GHD, and like I said it turned out well... however, I would imagine that it's much easier with the 1" GHD.