The 6 best cordless straighteners to shop in 2024, for a sleek finish on-the-go

Perfect for quick touch-ups and packing in your bag for on-the-go styling, the best cordless straighteners are a great addition to your hair tools kit - without the need for a wall socket.

The days of having to plug in to use the best straighteners are officially over, thanks to the latest cord-free technology. From easy-to-manoeuvre stylers to tools with multiple temperature settings, it’s never been easy to give your locks a well-deserved refresh whilst you’re on the go.

Whether your plugs aren’t easily accessible or you’ve just got caught in the rain, our beauty editors have put together an in-depth edit of the best cordless straighteners to achieve a sleek and straight finish, no matter where you are or what hair type you have. Shop our top buys to shop in 2024…

Fiona McKim

As woman&home's Beauty Channel Editor, Fiona Mckim has tried more beauty products than she’s had hot dinners.

Fiona joined woman&home as Assistant Beauty Editor in 2013, working under industry legend Jo GB, who taught her everything she needed to know. She has since covered every corner of the industry, from interviewing dermatologists and celebrities to reporting backstage at Fashion Week and judging the W&H Beauty Awards.

Lucy Abbersteen

Lucy Abbersteen is a freelance beauty editor who has written for titles including Marie Claire, Glamour and OK!, as well as regularly contributing to woman&home. She has many years of experience testing hair tools, including dryers.

The quick list

The best cordless straighteners, reviewed by our beauty editor 

The best cordless straightener for on-the-go

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If you’re on the hunt for a compact styler, at just 22cm long and fitted inside a slim coordinating colour case, the ghd Unplugged is far more portable than most of the best ghd straighteners. The accompanying charger is pretty small, too, so you won’t have to sacrifice much space in your hand luggage. Its compactness does, however, make the plates on the smaller side, which meant we couldn't straighten particularly big sections of hair at once. However, it only took our tester a few passes through a section to get it completely straight.

As well as being able to charge it from the mains, this model can also be charged via USB-C from, say, a laptop, so it’s a true straightening iron for on-the-go. You’ll never be left wondering how much battery you have left due to its handy light display on the handle - perfect for keeping an eye on while styling. However, a downside that we noticed was that a full charge only lasted us for roughly 20 minutes, which is slightly less than average for cordless straighteners. So, unless you can style your whole head of hair within that time, or if your hair isn’t very long or curly, these straighteners might be more appropriate for quick touch-ups or refreshes as to a full styling session. But when it comes to portability, they're a winning choice.

Read our ghd Unplugged review has more information

The best budget cordless straightener

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First and foremost, this tool got a big tick in our book for its approachable price tag. Cordless stylers can often be quite pricey, as you can see in this guide, but you can bag BaByliss’ tool for a more reasonable £180 - and are worth keeping an eye on as they are often discounted. To make transporting it even easier, the wire-free straighteners also arrive with a snazzy case.

When it came to using the styler, BaByliss’ heritage of hair tool know-how was obvious through its sleek results. It did require a few passes over curly hair to straighten it, but it did so well and left our hair with a straight finish. Rechargeable batteries in cordless straighteners can often feel heavy, but that isn’t the case here, as the 9000 doesn’t feel awkward or difficult to use. A ring at the base of the styler continuously shows one of four colours, indicating how much of the battery life is left, which we thought was a nice touch. Again, there are only about 30 minutes worth of juice to a full charge here, but this tool still allows you to enjoy wire-free styling for a bit less money than other models.

See our full BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Straightener review for a more in-depth look at this tool

The best high tech cordless straightener

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The Dyson Corrale Straightener

The Dyson Corrale Straightener

Dyson’s hair tools are undoubtedly famous in the hair world, all thanks to their impressive technology - and the fact that they are some of the most expensive consumer styling tools on the market. Throughout the review, we found the Corrale effect – which gives this styler its name – a little unusual, but very clever. Although the straightener is gliding smoothly over your hair, the process feels a little like you’re running it over tangled hair or as though it’s snagging – but don’t panic, it isn’t. In fact, this feeling is the plates gathering and aligning your hair for the perfect flyaway-free finish and we must say that we found these straight results stay put.

On a full charge, the Corrale’s battery lasts 30 minutes, which, as is a running theme in this guide, isn’t enough time to take hair that’s very curly, thick, long or all of the above, to poker straight. On the other hand, unlike many other straighteners that have ditched their wires, this one can be used while plugged in and charging. Another drawback of the Corrale is that it’s rather heavy, and as it’s no smaller than standard, so there aren’t any space-saving or weight-saving benefits to take advantage of in your luggage. Its cordless-ness therefore lends itself better to distance from power, rather than travel.

The Corrale is also the most expensive cordless model in this round-up by quite some way, with a price tag that's just shy of £400 – which is more than most pairs of straighteners in general, not just cordless models. If you have the budget, only you can decide if you deem the price tag worth it, but if you want cool technology and the cost isn’t prohibitive this is a good pair of straighteners.

See our full Dyson Corrale review for a detailed look at this cordless model

The best cordless straightener for battery life

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Revamp's newer cordless model, the iGen Progloss Cordless Ceramic Straightener, actually left our tester with time to spare when straightening her naturally curly hair. In terms of battery life, its 40 minutes of use at full charge puts the tool ahead the others in our edit. Not only that, but these straighteners also come with a second, additional battery – so when the first one runs out, you have another full charge ready to go while you’re on the move. In total, this gives you up to 80 minutes of styling time, in which you’re much more likely to be able to style a full head of thick, long, and/or curly hair, which went down well with our testers who were used to seeing 30 minutes or less.

That extended battery life does come at a price, though. Much like the Dyson Corrale, these straighteners do feel quite heavy once the battery is attached – especially if you’re lugging your second battery around, they’re even heavier, which is something to consider if you often travel light. But if you want to completely style your hair with your wire-free tool, rather than simply touching it up on the go, these offer the longest amount of cord-free styling time by quite some way.

The best cordless straightener for fast charging

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Like its wired counterpart, Cloud Nine’s Original Cordless Iron impressed us, boasting a fairly lightweight design, three heat settings as the brand’s famous “Revive Mode” for reduced friction and kinder-to-hair styling. As we’d expect from makers of some of the best straighteners for curly hair, the sleek and shiny results of this tool went down well with our tester - despite it requiring a few passes through curly hair.

Setting this tool far apart from the rest of those in this roundup, this styler promises a fast charging time in just 90 minutes so you don’t have to wait anywhere near as long as other models to be powered up and ready to go - which we were pleasantly surprised with when we were waiting to test them.

There are few notes of improvement that could help make the tool’s styling experience as seamless as its results. As the straighteners show a green battery right up until you get the low battery warning, you’re completely in the dark over how much power you have left. Although, the styler does alert you to the low battery by playing a short sound - which happened around 20 minutes into our tester styling with both the middle and highest temperatures. Battery quibbles aside, this cordless styler gets lovely results.

The best cordless straightener for multiple temperature settings

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Revamp doesn’t just offer one cordless option, this Progloss Liberate Cordless Compact Straightener is much smaller than the iGen model – barely over 20cm, to be precise – and is nice and light. Despite the charging time being noted as three hours, when we unboxed this styler and plugged it in, it already had a half-full battery.

While many other straighteners style at one temperature, we were pleased that this model has three options (160°C, 180°C, and 210°C) to enable a more customisable styling experience. Like ghd’s offering, its plates are quite small, but there’s another common cordless straightener issue at play; as with other styles in this list, 30 minutes of battery power is more than some other models and fairly standard, but not enough time to style a head of thick, long hair. In turn, this makes this styler better for on-the-go touch-ups; however, the brand’s other model is best for those who need theirs to last for a full styling session.

Nevertheless, our tester found that using this model yielded soft-feeling hair, which we imagine is partly down to the moisturising oil-infused plates. It's easy to use and its handy sparkly travel case can be slipped into your bag without adding extra weight.

How we tested the best cordless straighteners

When it came to researching the tools for this feature, we tried and tested most of the cordless straighteners from leading haircare brands that are available on the market. To assess each pair of cordless straighteners, we charged them up to a full battery and styled our hair from its natural texture to see how well they straightened and for how long. While testing each tool, we assessed the following factors...

• Price
• Design
• How long they take to charge fully
• Battery life
• Portability and weight
• How well they styled hair
• Accompanying case

We also spoke to leading hair stylists to evaluate the benefits of owning a cordless straightener. "Straighteners always have been and always will be such a versatile tool – they can be used in many ways and not just for sleek hair," says session hair stylist and BaByliss ambassador Syd Hayes. "I am using [the BaByliss 9000 straightener] all the time backstage when we have no electrical sockets; a complete game changer to the backstage world. The cordless tech gives me the freedom to provide amazing hair anywhere; on any beach, backstage at Fashion Week for final hair touch-ups, or in the back of a van on the way to a shoot location. It can be so versatile and, for me, provides such freedom with my styling."

Syd Hayes

Syd Hayes is a renowned hair stylist and the owner of the Q Cut salon in Kew Gardens, London. He is also an ambassador for BaByliss and has worked on countless photo shoots and fashion week shows during his career.

Are cordless straighteners right for you?

If you travel often or you frequently find yourself pressed for time and still need to style your hair, cordless straighteners make a great investment. But according to woman&home's beauty editor Aleesha Badkar, who owns the Dyson Corrale, there are some pros and cons to take into account before buying these useful portable stylers. One being its short battery life.

"For me, I have no choice but to use the Corrale corded – and with a magnetic attachment, this can be annoying, as it easily falls out. And then comes the actual battery power," Badkar says. "Even corded, the battery lasts no more than a few minutes before it conks out, and I have to restart it and try again. And after a couple of attempts, it will die, not to be resuscitated again until its juices are topped up to 100."

On the other hand, a lot of cordless straighteners perform just as well as corded ones, minus the fuss of the tangled wire. "The results from the Corrale are second to none. High heat settings and wide but intelligent plates mean my long, thick, frizzy hair is easily tamed in just 10 minutes and left with a glossy shine," Badkar says.

Aleesha Badkar

Aleesha Badkar is woman&home's Acting Digital Beauty Editor, covering all things beauty on the site, from the best techniques and sharpest tools to the newest products. Previously, she was Deputy Editor and Beauty & Fashion Editor for My Imperfect Life, where she headed up the beauty, fashion and eCommerce pages.

How to choose the best cordless straighteners for your hair

There are a few different factors to consider when selecting a pair of the best cordless straighteners. 

• Battery life: If you have thick hair or a lot of it (or perhaps both) consider whether you need the longest battery possible for your styling needs. 30 minutes tends to be the standard, which won't give you enough to straighten a whole head of naturally coily or curly hair from scratch but can work for refreshing already-styled hair.
• Temperature settings: If you are somebody who styles their hair at a higher temperature, compare the styling temperature to your existing wired straighteners before you buy. Some cordless options have multiple temperature settings to choose from, catering to different hair thicknesses and textures.
• Weight: Because of their rechargeable batteries, cordless straighteners can be heavy, which is something to bear in mind if you'll be carrying them around all day.