A curling iron would NOT work as well because you don't get the "cool down" time that you're getting by letting each foil curl sit & "cool down" as you're doing the rest of the curl wraps. And yes your hair would need to be completely dry to do this. These curls will last TONS longer than if you used a curling iron! And 2) in reality, it'd take no more time to wrap & briefly flat iron (heat) each foil than it would take you to curl your entire head with a curling iron & the results wouldn't last you an hour, & that's if you were lucky & sprayed each individual curl with a bucket of hairspray as you curled it AND after they were all done to hold the style!! Especially people who have naturally straight hair! Using this method would be of approx. equal time consumption but the results would last eons longer, be far more "weather resistant", and NOT require buckets of hairspray to hold their shape & giving you crunchy, 'potato chip'- feeling hair that no one wants to touch!!! This idea is BRILLIANT!!!