What We Love: The hair straightener glides through hair seamlessly and its silicone grip and swivel cord make it easy to maneuver and achieve any style. I found this compact model to be lightweight, comfortable to hold and easy to maneuver. Its combination of floating plates and rounded barrel helped serve two purposes: avoiding dreaded crimp marks when trying to style hair close to the root and doubling an adept straightener and curling iron alternative. It’s great for touching up second-day hair, especially face-framing pieces or flyways at the roots. It also comes with a heat-resistant travel pouch, and has a 360-degree swivel cord, universal voltage and auto shut-off after 30 minutes. To create the curl, “run the irons from the root to the end, twisting the iron at 180 or 360 degrees slowly away from the face with the iron vertical until you reach the tips of the hair,” says Justin. Repeat this method around your head, changing the direction of how you curl the hair to add depth and dimension. Fix crooked shots and straighten images or think out of the box and tilt an already straight image to give photos a fresh perspective with Pixelied. What We Love: With smooth titanium plates, a curved-edge design, and negative ion technology to reduce frizz, this versatile tool imparts shine and creates styles faster.

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When we wanted to exert the least amount of effort and see the highest payoff, the ion Magnesium Flat Iron gave us the best results. At an affordable price point, its design included everything we wanted from a hassle-free hot tool: It automatically turned off after 45 minutes, beeped when it reached our desired temperature, and thoughtful placement of the heat setting buttons, which are placed on the inside of the tool to avoid accidentally bumping the wrong one while we used it. Amika The Confidante Moisture Maintenance Styler: I loved the digital display and interior button size and placement, but this model snagged my hair and the hinge pinched my palm while using it. It’s better to start off using lower heat and fewer passes until you see what works best with your hair. “You should expect to pass over the hair one to four times depending on your hair type and texture,” says Bryant. “As straighteners are extremely hot, it’s best to use it on a lower setting at first to see how your hair handles it.” Should You Always Use A Heat Protectant With A Flat Iron?Don’t use any harsh or abrasive cleaning products as this can tarnish or damage the plates,” she says. For the most stubborn build-up, wipe the plates down with a damp, hot cloth, says Justin. “Just make sure it’s not drenched with water.” One of the first decisions to make before purchasing a hair straightener is choosing which material will work well for your hair type—specifically, which will get your hair straight and cause the least amount of damage. “Ceramic, tourmaline and titanium are all good options for flat irons,” says Henry. “The type of hair you have should determine which one is best for you.” Ceramic hair straighteners, she says, are the most common and most gentle, and therefore best for delicate or fine hair, and for color-treated or chemically-stressed hair that’s prone to damage. “Typically, ceramic irons do not get as hot as metal irons,” she says. After applying a heat protectant and curl cream, Justin tells us to separate the hair into manageable sections, and Kee adds that it’s best to start with the bottom layers of hair first, going from the base of the head to the tip of the strand.

straightener | Dyson UK Corrale™ hair straightener | Dyson UK

The 1-inch plates on this iron make it versatile enough to work well for short or medium-length hair, or on bangs or fine baby hair around the face. “A 1-inch plate allows for a grip tight to the root regardless of hair length,” says Nicole Henry, senior colorist at Warren Tricomi Salon. However, the Chi may be slightly more time-consuming to use on longer hair between the single set temperature and the face that the plates cover less surface area.Remington Shine Therapy Argan Oil And Keratin 2-Inch Iron: The nine digital settings and smooth glide of this ceramic model made it a standout, but the wide paddles aren’t versatile for use on shorter hair. Dyson Corrale: The lightning-fast heat-up of this iron and its flexible floating plates allow for serious maneuverability while styling. But the base, charging cord and tool itself take up a lot of real estate on the counter. I didn’t love that it required 70 minutes to charge for only 30 minutes of use. And the iron, while cordless, was about six ounces heavier than most others due to its lithium-ion battery, so it felt cumbersome.