We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more. Beauty Hair Hair Products & Tools The 14 Best Hair Straighteners For Pin-Straight, Frizz-Free Looks, Tested & Reviewed We straightened, styled, and even curled our hair to find the best of the best. By Irene Richardson Irene Richardson Irene Richardson is a beauty + fashion commerce writer for Dotdash Meredith's beauty brands. She covers trends surrounding style, makeup, skincare, and more. InStyle's editorial guidelines Updated on April 12, 2024 @ 05:15PM In This Article Expand Jump to a Section Our top picks Reviews What to Keep in Mind Your Questions, Answered Why Shop with Us InStyle / Jhett Thompson In a time when heatless curls and moisturizing hair masks are all over TikTok, your old straightener from high school may be gathering dust. But while you may cringe at the core memory of your hair literally smoking as you used the hair straightener, the classic hair tool is far from a relic of the past. In fact, the best flat irons today have innovative features and use high-quality materials to better protect your hair from heat damage while giving you that sleek, frizz-free polish. LA-based hair stylist Laurabeth Cabott says there are a few specific features to look for when shopping for a flat iron that will help preserve the health of your hair, most notably temperature and plate material. “Anything over 360 degrees can strip your hair color, so if you're not sure high you should go with heat, keeping it below that threshold will help prevent breakage over time," she says, especially if your hair is fine, dry, or colored. “Ceramic plates are going to be your best bet if you are looking to straighten without compromising the integrity of your hair." With Cabott's help, along with two other celebrity stylists, we tested 25 of the most popular hair straighteners currently available in search of the very best. Here’s how each one performed. Our Top Picks Best Hair Straightener Overall: Kristin Ess 3-in-One Flat Iron at Amazon ($75) Jump to Review Best Budget: Ion Magnesium Flat Iron at Amazon ($81) Jump to Review Best Flat Iron for Thick Hair: Hot Tools Pro Signature SteamStyler at Amazon (See Price) Jump to Review Best for Curly Hair: Hot Tools Pro Artist Black Gold Flat Iron at Amazon ($69) Jump to Review Best Flat Iron for Natural Hair: Tymo Ring Plus at Tymobeauty.com ($70) Jump to Review Best for Curling Hair: BaBylissPro Nano Titanium Dual Ionic Flat Iron at Amazon ($160) Jump to Review Best Luxury: Dyson Corrale at Ulta ($500) Jump to Review Best for Frizz: Drybar Reserve Styling Iron at Amazon ($162) Jump to Review Best for Short Hair: L'ange Le Duo at Ulta ($89) Jump to Review Best for Damaged Hair: L'Oreal Professionnel Steampod Flat Iron & Styler at Amazon ($250) Jump to Review Best Hair Straightener Overall Kristin Ess 3-in-One Flat Iron Amazon View On Amazon $75 View On Target $95 Our Ratings Ease of Use 5/5 Glide Performance 4.5/5 Value 5/5 Straightening Ability 5/5 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.What We Don’t Love: The temperature settings are a little confusing. An excellent flat iron can straighten hair quickly, but this one goes a couple of steps further by using negative ion technology to combat frizz and lightweight, non-slip dual-titanium plates to reduce the number of passes needed to get the straight look we wanted. We partially credit our healthier-looking hair to the lack of pressure we needed to use while moving the iron through our strands — each pass from root to end was smooth, which prevented crimping, and the wider plates meant that we could work in larger sections to straighten and curl our hair in just one pass, reducing the number of times our hair was exposed to heat. Though the gorgeous white finish and gold accents give this tool an elevated, luxurious appearance, the design was uncomplicated and straightforward, especially for beginners. One button controls all four heat settings and a clear LED screen on the handle flashes when one is changed. You also won't have to worry about whether you left it on or not — it shuts off automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity. Plate Width: 1.25-inch | Plate Material: Titanium | Heat Settings: 4 | Temperature: 280—440 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Kat Lewis InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Jessica Christopher Best Budget Ion Magnesium Flat Iron Sally Beauty View On Amazon $81 View On Sallybeauty.com $82 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.9/5 Glide Performance 4.5/5 Value 5/5 Straightening Ability 4.4/5 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.What We Don’t Love: The clamp is a little loose. 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 the heat setting buttons are easy to reach (but hard to accidentally bump — a true feat). The tool also felt comfortable in our hands, courtesy of a slim design and silicone-textured handle, to give us a firm grip and it prevented our hands from burning on the hot iron. For the most part, we were able to run it through our hair without tangling our strands, though we did notice minimal shedding when we used it on fine hair. However, across hair types 1C to 4B, the ceramic tourmaline plate evenly distributed heat. These features, along with a swivel cord, that enabled us to easily reach all the way around our head, were especially helpful when we used it to curl our hair, as the narrow, thin plates required us to work in small sections. A tighter clamp may have led us to see more defined curls on fine hair, but we were glad that it was loose enough to avoid clamp marks. Plate Width: 1-inch | Plate Material: Ceramic tourmaline | Heat Settings: 4 | Temperature: 210—450 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Masego Manamela InStyle / Masego Manamela InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Masego Manamela InStyle / Masego Manamela Best Flat Iron for Thick Hair Hot Tools Pro Signature SteamStyler Target View On Amazon View On Walmart $80 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.3/5 Glide Performance 4.8/5 Value 5/5 Straightening Ability 4.7/5 What We Love: The steam function helps prevent heat damage, managing to straighten even the curliest hair without causing harm.What We Don’t Love: The design is a little bulky. This Hot Tools flat iron gave us sleek, shiny tresses fast — and with less heat than many other options, courtesy of its steamer function. We were able to easily control and focus the steam (we chose the high setting when we were really in a rush and the low when we were more painstaking) to straighten our hair easily, gently, and without ever getting a fried, crunchy look. When we wanted to use it as a traditional iron, we just turned it off and used one of the six heat settings. Though the slim rectangular water reservoir for the steam feature makes the design a bit bulky, it wasn't heavy to hold or cumbersome when styling. Its 1.5-inch plates provided ample space for us to place large sections of our hair between the clamps and move from root to tip quickly — we only needed to run the iron through one or two times to see smooth strands for an overall fast styling session. One thing we noted is that we spent a little more time styling finer hair, as it was more likely to slip through the plates. Plate Width: 1.5-inch | Plate Material: Ceramic | Heat Settings: 6 | Temperature: 300—450 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Alyssa Kingham InStyle / Alyssa Kingham InStyle / Alyssa Kingham InStyle / Alyssa Kingham Best for Curly Hair Hot Tools Pro Artist Black Gold Flat Iron Ulta View On Amazon $69 View On Sallybeauty.com $130 View On Hottools.com Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.1/5 Glide Performance 4.1/5 Value 3.8/5 Straightening Ability 4.3/5 What We Love: With four plates, a wide range of heat settings, and a curved design, this tool is a master at straightening curly hair.What We Don’t Love: Using the dual-plated design requires a bit of a learning curve. Since curly hair is more delicate than other hair types, we wanted to find a flat iron that was gentle, but still gave us the straight look we wanted. And we found it with this Hot Tools iron: The smooth plates and rounded surfaces prevented our hair from getting stuck or tugged like it so often does with traditional rectangular edges, and we liked being able to adjust the temperature settings on each individual plate to control how much heat we were using. We found the most success by setting one plate at a lower degree than the other, so that we could prime the hair with just a little heat before the hotter second plate sealed in the style.Whether you have fine, medium, or thick hair, there’s a heat setting, 30, to be exact, to guide you toward your desired look. This technique isn’t totally intuitive — occasionally the dual plates creased our hair when we left it on a strand for too long. Plate Width: 0.5-inch | Plate Material: Gold plated | Heat Settings: 30 | Temperature: 300—450 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Kimberly Souza InStyle / Kimberly Souza InStyle / Kimberly Souza Best Flat Iron for Natural Hair Tymo Ring Plus TYMO View On Tymobeauty.com $70 View On Best Buy $70 View On Target $70 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.9/5 Glide Performance 4.1/5 Value 5/5 Straightening Ability 4.6/5 What We Love: The flat iron gets hair straight in one pass without applying much heat. What We Don’t Love: It doesn’t have any curling capabilities. The Tymo Ring Plus has a lot going for it: With an ergonomic design and cord that swiveled with our movements, we could get every one of our strands pin straight, even when we started on very wavy, curly hair. At first, we questioned whether this would be possible, since the highest heat setting (out of nine!) is 410 degrees (many irons go up to 450 degrees), but we got a sleek, straight finish without ever needing to crank it way up. We loved that the interior of the clamp had comb-like teeth to mimic the effect of a hot brush. This feature allowed us to easily straighten and untangle our hair without catching strands. Although this design isn't conducive for curling hair — at most we saw a soft wave — we loved the straight look it gave us that we didn't mind. Plus, it comes with hairpins, a glove, a travel bag, a detangling brush, and a straightening comb. Plate Width: 1.25-inch | Plate Material: Titanium | Heat Settings: 9 | Temperature: 250—410 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Tamara Staples Best for Curling Hair BaBylissPro Nano Titanium Dual Ionic Flat Iron BaBylissPRO View On Amazon $160 View On Ulta $160 View On Babylisspro.com Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.8/5 Glide Performance 4.9/5 Value 4.9/5 Straightening Ability 4.9/5 What We Love: The design of this iron is easy to maneuver, so you can take as much time as you’d like to create an array of curly and wavy styles without your arm getting tired.What We Don’t Love: It doesn’t shut off automatically. A hair straightener usually isn’t our first choice for curling hair, but the lightweight BabylissPro made creating everything from beachy waves to tighter ringlets so easy that we considered ditching our other hot tools. The swivel cord was so flexible, we barely had to move a muscle as we worked from our bangs to the back of our heads, and we didn't experience any hair catching in the plates, especially impressive since curling required us to wrap and pull each section through. Regardless whether we fancied straightening or curling our hair that day, we were blown away by how we didn’t have to crank the iron up to the highest heat setting to see results that lasted all day. Additionally, we believe the ion technology truly did give us softer, shinier strands. With our hair woes solved, our one wish is an automatic shut-off, but given all of its other great features we can let this con slide. Plate Width: 1.25-inch | Plate Material: Titanium | Heat Settings: 5 | Temperature: 300—450 F | Automatic Shut-Off: No InStyle / Jhett Thompson InStyle / Jhett Thompson Best Luxury Dyson Corrale Dyson View On Ulta $500 View On Best Buy $500 View On Dyson.com $500 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.1/5 Glide Performance 4.4/5 Value 3.9/5 Straightening Ability 4.4/5 What We Love: The flat iron gave us super straight hair in one swipe while its cordless design made for easier styling.What We Don’t Love: The tool’s thick plates have small indentations along the sides to better control heat, but our hair sometimes got stuck. In true Dyson form, this straightener comes with all the bells and whistles. Whether we were curling, straightening, or creating waves, the patented flexing plates seemed to mold around our strands so we could create a variety of styles in record time. The plates are made of flexible materials and when hair is clamped between them, it molds to your specific hair weight and automatically adjusts the temperature to a customized setting for your hair, giving you far more control with fewer passes needed. The straightener doesn’t travel solo either: It comes with a charging dock, a heat-resistant travel case, a beautiful storage box, and a magnetic charging cable. There’s even a safety lock, so you can stow it away when it's still warm. We also feel that using this tool had a direct impact on the lack of static around our scalp — a good thing considering it helped us avoid frizzy curly hairs getting occasionally caught in the plates. The cordless design was a total game changer because we could style our hair faster without getting tangled, but we also loved the less flashy features as well, like the dinging sound it makes when it reaches the temperature we want and a five-minute automatic shut-off. Plate Width: 1.6-inch | Plate Material: Copper alloy | Heat Settings: 3 | Temperature: 330—410 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Leticia Almeida InStyle / Tamara Staples Best for Frizz Drybar Reserve Styling Iron Ulta View On Amazon $162 View On Nordstrom $162 View On Ulta $133 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.8/5 Glide Performance 4.4/5 Value 4.5/5 Straightening Ability 4.7/5 What We Love: The hair straightener taps ionic technology and negative ions to vanquish frizz and give us an ultra smooth, sleek look. What We Don’t Love: You have to work in small sections to ensure hair doesn’t slip out of the plates. We blame frizz and flyaways on bad weather and high humidity, but sometimes it starts with what tool we’re using — and Drybar just came to the rescue with their new innovation. The titanium plates on its styling iron slid through our hair like butter and took no stragglers in the process. The results? Hair so soft and smooth we couldn’t stop touching it. We took advantage of its slightly curved edges to target the flyaways around our faces — a feat we weren’t able to accomplish with the bulky, rectangular designs of traditional flat irons. It also features Drybar's signature Ionic Technology, which releases negative ions to seal the cuticle to lock in the style and prevent frizz. When we followed the brand’s suggested temperature settings for our hair type, we were able to style our hair quickly. We ran out of time, however, when we tried to rush the process and squish large sections of hair into the thin 0.5-inch plates. However, working in small sections prevented slippage and actually allowed us to create more defined curls and rewarded us with styles that lasted all day. Plate Width: 0.5-inch | Plate Material: Titanium | Heat Settings: 5 | Temperature: 250—450 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Alicia Dolieslager Best for Short Hair L'ange Le Duo Amazon View On Ulta $89 View On Walmart $80 View On Target $90 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.6/5 Glide Performance 3.5/5 Value 4.4/5 Straightening Ability 3.7/5 What We Love: The short barrel fits in our hands nicely and is the perfect size for styling short hair. What We Don’t Love: It tugs at the hair if you try to iron large sections at a time. Weighing under a pound and designed with smoothing plates and an overall adorable look, there’s a lot we love about this mini pink tool. We were particularly over the moon about its compact, rounded tip design, ideal for styling and curling short hair. Unlike traditional flat irons with an elongated shape, this one held our shoulder length strands in place, courtesy of the miniature size of the plates, and we never saw any dents from too much pressure. The ceramic plates very rarely tugged at our strands. In fact, we really only noticed it when we clamped down too hard after we got greedy and tried to straighten too much hair at once with the 1-inch plate. Its uncomplicated design is a great introduction for beginners: It heated up fast, fit perfectly in our hands, and only had one button to cycle through the five heat settings. Plus, it has a cooling function that kicks on once the tool reaches the set temperature to set styles in place. Plate Width: 1-inch | Plate Material: Titanium | Heat Settings: 5 | Temperature: 280—430 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Stephanie Lewis InStyle / Jhett Thompson InStyle / Jhett Thompson Best for Damaged Hair L'Oreal Professionnel Steampod Flat Iron & Styler Sephora View On Amazon $250 View On Sephora $250 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.8/5 Glide Performance 4/5 Value 4.8/5 Straightening Ability 4.6/5 What We Love: The steaming feature allows you to achieve your desired style with less heat to avoid further damage to already vulnerable hair. What We Don’t Love: The comb attachment tugs a little. It’s a daunting thought to consider applying more heat to already brittle, damaged hair, but the L’Oreal steam feature straightened our strands just as efficiently as traditional high heat options. Although the practice isn’t a totally new concept, styling tools use steam to boost moisture, condition hair, and cleanse scalps. Frankly put, our hair looked incredible after using the tool’s steaming feature. Think: Shinier, glossier, and healthier hair, and it wasn’t even a painstaking process to get these results. As steam tools were new to some of us, we appreciated that there were downward facing arrows on the tool that we used to guide us through the straightening process and ensure we were holding it correctly. We also like that we only had to press one button to toggle between the three different temperatures as we straightened our hair. Plus, the flat iron came with a detachable comb that we used on days we craved big, beachy waves. It helped hold our hair in place as we styled, although, the comb prongs are a little close together, meaning we had to work through our hair slowly to avoid tugging. Plate Width: 1.25-inch | Plate Material: Ceramic | Heat Settings: 3 | Temperature: 350—410 F | Automatic Shut-Off: No InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Rachel Marek InStyle / Rachel Marek InStyle / Tamara Staples Best Ceramic Chi Lava 4D Hairstyling Iron Ulta View On Ulta $161 View On Chi.com Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.6/5 Glide Performance 4.8/5 Value 4.4/5 Straightening Ability 4.8/5 What We Love: With smooth plates and an ergonomic design, this iron cut our styling time in half and created long-lasting looks. What We Don’t Love: Its lowest heat setting is still very hot. Chi has long been a leader in styling hot tools (and no stranger to TikTok fame) for a good reason. Case in point: The Lava 4D Hairstyling Iron, which offers ceramic plates infused with a thick mineral lava coating that tamed our pesky flyaways and frizz with just one pass. It smoothly moved through our super coarse hair like it was nothing. Designed with long, curved arms, and 1-inch plates, the flat iron is a versatile option, and we were able to master all the styles we could dream of, flipping small sections into spiral waves or running the iron root to end for a blown-out look. Plus, it heated up faster than any of the other irons we tested (about 15 seconds!). However, we should note that we were initially concerned that this hot tool would be, ironically, too hot for us (especially on fine or damaged hair), as 370 degrees is the lowest heat setting available, which is far higher than your average straightener. Fortunately, we didn’t have to clamp down on our hair for more than a few seconds, so the heat isn’t applied for very long, and Chi also happens to make a top-notch heat protectant. It took about an hour before the iron automatically turned off, and as added security, we liked that there was a locking mechanism to prevent the hot plates from touching other items while it cooled off. Plate Width: 1-inch | Plate Material: Ceramic | Heat Settings: 5 | Temperature: 370—450 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Tamara Staples Best Flat Iron for Fine Hair T3 Smooth ID Ulta View On Amazon $249 View On Nordstrom $212 View On Dermstore $249 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.5/5 Glide Performance 4.8/5 Value 3.9/5 Straightening Ability 4.5/5 What We Love: With advanced heat technology and non-snagging ceramic plates, this iron protects fine hair as it straightens. What We Don’t Love: It takes time to learn how to curl hair using the flat iron’s extended rounded edges. Overall, the pièce de résistance of this smart tool was the technology — after evaluating our specific hair type and texture (including whether we colored our hair or not), it selected and heated to the perfect temperature to style our fine hair for a totally customized experience. From there, we never needed to re-enter our information — the iron remembered our unique settings and automatically heated up to that temperature with every use. What's more, it harnesses an ion generator and patented CeraGloss-coated ceramic plates to boost shine and reduce frizz. (And unlike with other designs, we rarely saw our fine hair slip from the tool as we twisted and twirled it between the plates.) The arms’ edges were slightly longer than the hot plates themselves, meaning our fingers had a place to safely rest (versus burning our fingertips, like other options) while we straightened our hair. However, they did cause a few pain points when we tried to curl our hair — the arms were so long that sometimes our hair wasn’t sitting on the hot part of the iron. However when we did find ourselves wanting to adjust the temperature ourselves, it was simple to unlock the screen and go back to the manual mode, where we could choose one of the nine temperature settings. Plate Width: 1-inch | Plate Material: Ceramic | Heat Settings: 9 | Temperature: 260—410 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Maria Rowella InStyle / Maria Rowella InStyle / Maria Rowella Best Hybrid Hair Straightener Dyson Airstrait Straightener Ulta View On Amazon $499 View On Nordstrom $500 View On Ulta $500 Our Ratings Ease of Use 4.3/5 Glide Performance 5/5 Value 2.8/5 Straightening Ability 4.4/5 What We Love: The Air Strait glided over different hair types with ease and fluidity — no tugging whatsoever.What We Don’t Love: The cord is big, bulky, and heavy, with the power center right in the middle. The Air Strait isn’t a traditional hair straightener, per se, but it takes your hair from wet to dry by skipping the hot plates and using directed hair flow to dry and straighten simultaneously. Plus, it has everything you could imagine: A bright LED screen, pre-set temperatures for wet and dry styling, and zero wait time for the tool to heat up. One of the highlights for us was noticing the pre-set wet styling temperatures (175 degrees, 230 degrees, and 285 degrees) were significantly lower than the temps for dry styling (250 degrees, 285 degrees, and Boost — which goes up to 320 degrees and is recommended only for touch-ups). We appreciated the preemptive defense against heat damage, and the settings were easy to adjust. We loved how easily the Air Strait slid over our hair; without any hot plates, there was virtually no tugging or pulling, further reducing the risk of hair damage. Even when we used the clamps to press down on our hair, there was no chance of our hair getting stuck in the hair straightener. Thanks to that fluidity, we found it incredibly easy to successfully straighten hair (although thicker hair needed a few more passes). Like many Dyson products, we were less than impressed with the bulky cord that ultimately weighed down the Air Strait. It was heavy, and our editor with Type 3B/3C hair had to take a break to give her arms a rest mid-way through using. We also imagine the thicker cord will make it hard to store this in space-constrained areas. Plate Width: 1.6-inch | Plate Material: Copper alloy | Heat Settings: 3 | Temperature: Up to 320 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Jhett Thompson InStyle / Jhett Thompson Best for Beginners FHI Heat Platform Tourmaline Flat Iron Amazon View On Amazon $113 View On Fhiheat.com $150 View On Target $150 Our Ratings Ease of Use 5/5 Glide Performance 4.6/5 Value 3.4/5 Straightening Ability 4.1/5 What We Love: It’s a no-frills hair straightener that’s easy to use, thanks to its lightweight feel and simple features.What We Don’t Love: The temperature can only be adjusted by dial, and it was often unclear what temperature we were on. If you’re new to using hair straighteners or other hot tools, you won’t be intimidated by the Fhi Heat Platform flat iron we tested. The simple, intuitive tool didn’t require us to watch hours of tutorials or practice on an old Barbie before we were able to straighten our hair with ease. It heated up in about 30 seconds and had five easily adjustable heat settings to choose from (140 degrees, 230 degrees, 300 degrees, 370 degrees, and 450 degrees). It slid through all hair types easily while straightening (although we felt a little tug while curling). The swivel cord was super long — up to 12 feet — and when purchasing this flat iron, you can select from a few different width options depending on your specific hair type and needs. This hair straightener did fall short for us with the temperature adjusting. The Fhi flat iron uses a dial, and the designated markings are every 70 degrees. So, if you wanted to hit a 350-degree temperature, you’d have to make your best guess between 300 degrees and 370 degrees. If you’re comfortable with imprecise temps, this may not bother you as much. Plate Width: 1.25-inch | Plate Material: Ceramic | Heat Settings: 5 | Temperature: 140—450 F | Automatic Shut-Off: Yes InStyle / Tamara Staples InStyle / Tamara Staples What to Keep in Mind Hair Type: “Fine hair is delicate and can be damaged easily, especially by heat, so using a lower heat between 250 and 300 degrees will help prevent breakage over time,” says celebrity hairstylist Annagjid Kee Taylor.If you have especially thick or heavy-bodied hair, celebrity hair artist Kieron Justin says you may need to bump it up to 450 degrees to get a pin-straight style, but going any higher will damage your natural curl pattern. Plate Material: “Ceramic is the most commonly used option because it distributes heat evenly, reducing ‘hot spots,’ which leads to damage,” says Taylor, while Justin urges his clients to double check that their flat irons are fully ceramic, and not just ceramic plated. However, if you plan on using your iron every day or have fine or thin hair, tourmaline plates might be the best option as they are the most gentle, thanks to their semi-precious stone coating. “This layer emits negative ions once it heats up,” says Taylor, preventing static and frizz, while increasing shine.Titanium plates are durable and typically made from lightweight metal, which will "heat up very quickly and maintain a consistent temperature,” says Taylor. She recommends these features only for hair types that need extra oomph, like thick, coarse, and curly hair, but she adds that titanium flat irons are very powerful tools and if you aren't careful or familiar with this type, you could easily and quickly damage hair. Styling Goals: One of the best parts about flat irons is their incredible versatility. When we say the sky is the limit for how many styles you can create with an iron, we actually mean it. For example, by holding the hair straightener horizontally, you can build your hair’s body by adding waves. And with a little practice, you can take it to the next level to fully curl too — just twist small sections of your strands between the plates as you pull it down. Your Questions, Answered Can you curl hair with a flat iron? After applying a heat protectant and curl cream, Justin tells us to separate the hair into manageable sections, starting with the bottom layers of hair first, moving from the base of the head to the tip of the strand. 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. If you want a more natural look, Taylor suggests allowing the curls to cool before combing through with your fingers and giving your hair a good tousle. What type of flat iron is the least damaging? According to Taylor, ceramic plates are superior because they distribute heat evenly and use far-infrared heat to heat the hair from the inside out, meaning that "you’re reducing the amount of time you need to expose your hair to heat," she says. Ceramic material also slides through hair seamlessly without pulling on strands. Just be sure to watch how often you’re ironing the same section of hair, says Taylor, since these plates tend to heat up quickly and can disrupt your hair’s integrity when it lingers on hair or you’ve done one too many passes. How do you clean a flat iron? Without a regular weekly wipe down, build-up from heat protectants and other styling products can impact the amount of heat that is transferred from the plates to your hair, dulling the heat's strength. Even with a high temperature, you’ll need to do more passes to get the same result. Before cleaning, ensure the iron is turned off and has completely cooled down. Then dip a damp cloth into a bit of rubbing alcohol and carefully wipe down the plates to remove any debris. Taylor also likes to dip a cotton swab into rubbing alcohol to really get into the iron’s edges and crevices. Alternatively, Cabott says a simple microfiber cloth works, as long as you don't see too much build-up. “And if you are consistently seeing a lot of gunk, you may need to rethink your shampoo, conditioner or other products you are using.” Why Shop with Us Irene Richardson is a writer covering fashion and beauty trends. For this story, she compiled insights from our in-house testers, read dozens of online reviews, and rounded up our top picks. She also spoke with hair experts Annagjid Kee Taylor, Kieron Justin, and Laurabeth Cabott.