The 7 best hair straighteners for all hair types and styling preferences, tested and reviewed by us
From cordless to steam stylers, our beauty team reviews the best hair straighteners on the market – with options for various hair types and budget levels
In a nutshell, the best hair straighteners can quickly create smooth and sleek styles with an equally smooth user experience. But there are so many techy tools on the market today that, if you work outside of the hair industry, knowing which to invest can feels like an overwhelming prospect. That's where the woman&home beauty team comes in; we've a lot of straightener intelligence between us and have tested everything from the latest cordless launches to longstanding award-winners.
Straighteners have come a long way over the last few decades, and so have our expectations. In the early '00s, a tool that could transform frizzy hair into something sleek was enough. Now, though, we want that and more. Tools that heat up fast and can curl just as well as they can smooth, or that don't require close proximity to a plug (AKA the best cordless hair straighteners). But above all that, we really don’t want to jeopardise our hair's health.
We therefore made it our mission to test and revisit a huge range of tools, including tools from ghd to Dyson and BaByliss, to find the top options for all hair types and styling preferences. Whether you seek the best straighteners for thick hair or a versatile model that can replace both your old straightener and curler, these are the tools that performed better than the rest.
The 9 best hair straighteners, reviewed by our beauty team
So, where do you begin in your search for the perfect pair of straighteners?
Zoë Irwin, Creative Director at John Frieda Salons, says it's "all about technology. They should combine smooth styling plates which glide through the hair with ease, with a heat that’s high enough to create a lasting effect in the hair – but not so high as to cause damage."
"[Good straighteners] should have a range of heat settings to cater for different styles or types of hair," adds Tyler Moore, expert stylist at Live True Salons. "You should also ensure that any straighteners you use have either titanium or ceramic plates, as these distribute heat more evenly and help you avoid any unnecessary harm to the hair."
Below are our beauty team's tried and tested favourites – all of which deliver on all of the above.
The quick list: our top 3 hair straightener picks
RRP: £239
Ranked the best overall by our team, ghd's Platinum+ Straighteners style your hair at an optimal 185ºC, with 'floating' plates that glide along the hair easily. There's also a long, 360º swivel end cord, allowing you to curl, wave and smooth your hair to your heart's content.
RRP: £229
For thick hair, Cloud Nine's Wide Iron is the one to invest in. Our team gave it five stars for its ability to quickly and seamlessly straighten, wave and curl. As the name suggests, it features wide plates that smooth over your hair efficiently, and allow you to recreate chic, tousled looks as well as sleek styles.
RRP: £399.99
For a techier cordless option, The Dyson Corrale™ is the one to add to your cart. 70 minutes of charge gets you with 30 minutes of styling, while the flexible plates glide through your hair easily, without any snagging. The tool also features three temperature settings and integrated sensors that regulate them, meaning no unwanted temperature spikes.
The best hair straightener overall
The ghd Platinum+ Hair Straightener
Ghd is still arguably the biggest name in hair straightening, so it feels right that one of their most advanced tools tops our list. If you’re anything like us – i.e. you've been using straighteners very regularly since the early '00s – you’ll agree that these are the kind of flat irons our singed-haired younger selves could only dream of.
Everything about the Platinum+ is intuitive and easy. As with all ghd straighteners there are no temperature settings, you simply turn it on and it heats to 185ºC (which the brand recommends to preserve hair's health) in a matter of seconds – with a satisfying ding when it’s good to go. The cord is long, with a 360º swivel end for easier movement (especially handy for curls and waves) without getting tangled in wire. It sounds basic, but it's a game-changer for a fuss-free user experience. The ceramic-coated plates also “float”, meaning there's bit of bounce when they're pressed together, gliding effortlessly and seamlessly through hair. These plates also allow you to style with a good amount of tension.
All in all, it's hard to find a straightener that’s more of a crowd-pleaser. It scored highly among our team for adding bends, waves and curls to fine hair, and got extra points for cutting down styling time in hair that’s thick and/or naturally curly, too. The results also genuinely last; it isn’t the kind of straightener whose work will be redundant within hours, but one that’ll have you marvelling at your hair's smoothness the next day.
See our full ghd Platinum + review for a more in-depth guide to this styler
The best hair straightener for thick hair
Personal recommendations are always the best and we first discovered the Cloud Nine Wide Iron Hair Straightener not through a flashy marketing campaign, but via a rave review from our Beauty Editor’s local hairdresser. Cloud Nine may not be as instantly recognisable a name compared to ghd or Dyson, but trust us when we say they more than compete in the performance department.
For thicker and curly hair types, the straightening process is rarely a quick one. Including drying time (either naturally or with one of the best hair dryers), it easily take hours. Wide plates, like those seen here, are therefore incredibly useful, as you can work on much larger sections of hair at a time. And although the plates are wide, there's little trim around the edges, so you can still get close enough to your hairline to style baby hairs, too. Combined with the extra width, the curved edges also make this an ideal tool for creating looser, more "undone" waves and curls comapred to smaller tools.
Those who straighten their hair regularly enough that flat irons would be top of their list of desert island supplies will know that heat damage is the inevitable sharp edge of the styling sword. And annoyingly, the more frazzled your hair is through straightening, the harder it is to retain a frizz-free finish. But we can genuinely say, hand on heart, that this styler left our hair in the best condition of any straighteners we’ve used. We’re not sure if that's down to the smooth plates, the lower heat setting options or because the results are so long-lasting that we barely need to refresh them the next day – or a combination of the three. Either way, if you’re serious about owning the best hair straighteners for thick hair, try these.
The best hair straightener for smoothing
The Dyson Corrale Hair Straightener
At first glance, the Corrale is undoubtedly two things: beautifully presented and very expensive. (In fact, it’s one of the priciest options in our guide.) But it’s also, as you’d expect, brimming with impressive tech, and much like the Dyson Supersonic Dryer and the Dyson Airwrap puts the focus on hair health.
Although nothing here would completely confuse a flat iron first-timer, it’s fair to say the Corrale looks a little different to your average straightener. Most have a gap between the "arms", but Dyson filled this space with an OLED display panel that shows the temperature and battery life during use. It's heavier and bulkier than your average iron but also features a detachable wire; 70 minutes of charge gets you 30 minutes of styling (pretty efficient for a cordless straightener). The flexible plates do have a slightly unsettling crackling sound and feel as they glide across hair, but this is down to the spot-on level of tension that aims to reduce damage, rather than any actual snagging.
The three heat settings – 165°C, 185°C and 210°C – are integral to the Corrale, with integrated sensors regulating the temperature of the smart plates 100 times per second. This means no hot spots or unwanted temperature spikes. We also found our hair felt physically cooler after passing through this iron compared with other straighteners on the same heat setting.
As a team, we’re a little divided on overall verdicts of the Corrale. Those with fine, naturally straighter hair consider it an all-round success, but those with thicker and/or naturally curlier hair found it takes too long to achieve smooth, sleek results with the Corrale than other stylers. We’d also note the end results are closer to a sleek blow-dry with more volume than poker straight hair. Depending on your hair type and preferred look, this may be appealing or unappealing.
See our full Dyson Corrale Hair Straightener review for your detailed guide
The best hair straightener for damaged hair
The Panasonic EH-HS0E Enrich Advanced Care Hair Straightener
Panasonic's straightener looks the part with its matte black casing and champagne accents, but its real beauty lies in its haircare. The key thing you'll notice is the way the 3D flexible plates deliver an ultra-glossy finish, which lasts incredibly well between washes. The plates gently adjust as you straighten to swiftly smooth hair in one shot without too much direct heat, which is great for the overall condition of our hair. We found that the lowest heat setting (150°C) was still effective enough to passably straighten a sizeable section of coarse hair in one go, which will be music to the ears of anyone who usually uses higher temperatures to achieve a smooth finish. This styler also heats up fairly quickly, taking about 20 seconds to reach the lowest of the five heat settings and another 10 or so for the highest.
Much like the Panasonic Nanoe & Double Mineral hair dryer, this straightener utilises Panasonic's unique Nanoe technology. This takes microdroplets of water from the air, splits them into tinier particles and feeds them back into your hair to hydrate it. This is great news for those with dry or dehydrated hair and anyone who would prefer their hair straightener didn't frazzle their ends (which is everyone, right?). Even better, there's also an intelligent thermal sensor within the plates that ensures the heat is completely even, which does away with damaging hot spots and leaves hair uniformly silky and shiny after use.
The best cordless hair straightener
The BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Straightener
It’s not strictly true to say there were no cordless straighteners before the BaByliss 9000 was invented, but there really weren’t many on offer – and certainly not that we rated particularly highly. So it's no wonder it had a glowing reception from us. Our only gripe is that the required charging time is still quite a long one: 3 hours plugged in for 30 minutes of cordless useage.
Still, this tool rivals wired stylers in terms of power and results. It runs on a lithium-ion, high-performance battery and is equipped with three heat settings. Because the plates are of the floating ceramic variety, we were pleased that they didn't snag but did heat up nice and quickly, maintaining the temperature throughout and styling speedily, too. One pass on the lowest setting (160°C) was enough for fine hair to be styled perfectly straight, while thicker hair needed one of the higher settings (180°C to 200°C). The results were impressive and comparable to corded tools, with long-lasting shine and smoothness. We’d especially recommend this one if you need the best straighteners for curly hair. The only distraction was the occasional clicking noise, which we assumed to be the floating plates adjusting to the thickness of our hair.
The cordless capabilities are clearly the biggest draw here and will appeal to anyone who carries straighteners with them during the day. Being able to smooth out post-commute frizz or add in a few waves before a night out, with no need for a plug, is a huge plus. Sure, the 9000 is a bit heavier than your average iron (common with cordless, battery-powered straighteners), and the charging time could be quicker, but we think these are fair trades for its performance.
See our full BaByliss 9000 Cordless Hair Straightener review
The best hair straightener for dry hair
The L’Oréal Professionnel SteamPod 4
Those familiar with previous iterations of the SteamPod will know that this is not L’Oréal’s first foray into steam styling. It is, however, its sleekest and best version of this tool yet – earlier versions had a larger, connected water tank, which has been refined over the years.
The concept is this: Regular straighteners often pull moisture from the hair, which is why it appears to "steam" as you style. L’Oréal wanted to change this by purposefully adding steam to the hair to re-infuse moisture and leave it soft and silky. The newest features here are wider plates, so you can straighten more hair at once; the choice of three different combs for different hair types; and curved outer plates that heat to 100°C to help you style curls and waves. The latter definitely signals a shift towards consumers wanting their flat iron to do more than simply straighten.
The set-up is still slightly more laborious than your average styler, as you need to add water to the tank before you begin. Normal tap water isn’t recommended here (the brand takes no responsibility for damage caused to the tool from scaling), instead, they suggest you use lime-free, demineralised water. Although it's not too expensive, it's still an added cost and a bit of a faff, so try and stock up in bulk. You've a choice of three temperatures spanning 180–210ºC and it heats up quickly.
The SteamPod is undeniably clunkier and noisier than a traditional straightener, but you can really feel the difference. Instead of feeling very dry, our hair felt almost tacky with moisture. This initially made our naturally curly-haired beauty editor recoil – excess water almost always equals frizz – but it didn’t cause her hair to poof or become fluffy, it simply felt smooth and sleek.
See our full L’Oréal Professionnel SteamPod 3.0 review for more on this tool
The best hair straightener for adding shine
The Revlon Double Straight Copper Ceramic Dual Plate Straightener
Every now and again, a beauty product comes along that really surprises you. The first thing you’ve probably noticed about the Revlon Double Straight Copper Ceramic Dual Plate Straightener is that it looks more like a fork than a straightener. Instead of the usual two plates, it has four, with each pair joined together at the top. Forgive our cynicism, but our initial thoughts were that this unique design is purely a marketing gimmick. Surely if this was the optimum shape then other brands would have caught on sooner? Luckily, we don’t mind being proven wrong, because we were – and quickly.
In a way, we didn’t give this tool a totally fair trial; we used it on naturally curly hair that had been left to air-dry for a while before blow-drying, without adequate styling products. But it rose to the challenge, leaving hair silky smooth and just-stepped-out of the salon shiny with minimum effort. We'd compare the effects to those of a wide-plate styler, but the gap in the middle of the tool means less heat comes into contact with your hair – which surely reduces damage, comparatively speaking. Revlon designed it so that the first plate straightens the hair, then the second reinforces its work, like some kind of smoothing tag team. (For clarity, the plates are the same, so it doesn’t matter which way around you hold or use the styler.)
Another pro point in hair damage control is 10-temperature range – the broadest we’ve seen – spanning 140–235°C. We’d recommend using as low a temperature as you can bear; our tester actually found 170°C to be the sweet spot. The final tick here is that the styler automatically heating to the most recent temperature you used when you turn it on, which will save you a few precious seconds in the morning.
How we tested the best straighteners
A selection of the best hair straighteners our beauty team tested for this feature
Hair straighteners are an investment, so you want to know that any reviews that inform your purchase are reliable. To help you make an informed decision before adding a hair tool to your basket, our beauty team has tried every single straightener on this list – plus extras that didn’t make the final edit.
Each hair straightener was used on multiple occasions and, where possible, on several different hair types and textures. Some are even long-standing favourites of our team, and have been part of their hair routines for years. When comparing the straighteners, we also all used the same shampoo, conditioner and styling products to make sure that nothing else swayed the results. And while testing each tool, we assessed the following factors to determine their efficiency and ease of use:
- How well they styled our hair and the condition they left it in
- Number of heat settings
- Any interesting or unique tech
- Price and value for money
- Design
- Ease of use
How to choose the best hair straighteners
There are a few different uses for hair straighteners, so it's key to consider how (and how regularly) you’ll be using them before purchasing.
If you have coily, curly or frizzy hair that you tend to straighten daily, floating plates and customisable heat that helps protect your hair’s health should be a priority.
Meanwhile if you have fine hair and are as adept at how to curl hair with straighteners as you are smoothing, then long, narrow plates and curved outer edges will make the process a lot easier.
What to consider when buying hair straighteners
While our experts covered many of the things to keep an eye out for while straightener shopping, here's a handy list of the must-check features that'll help you find the right pair for you.
- Price: The best hair straighteners can be pricey, but if you're on a budget or have hair that's already closer to straight, you can get away with a more straightforward – and therefore cheaper – model.
- Temperature settings: Thicker hair generally needs a high temperature for effective smoothing. If you have fine or damaged hair, look for options that go lower in temperature.
- Accessories: A heatproof mat is a handy addition, as is a case if you regularly carry your straighteners around with you.
- Plate size/width: Your straightener should accommodate your hair type – larger plates for thick, long hair and narrower irons for shorter hair.
- Materials: Flat iron plates can be made of many materials, with ceramic, titanium and tourmaline generally considered best for preserving hair health and really promoting a smooth, shiny finish.
Which temperature should when straightening my hair?
Usually, the optimum temperature for your hair will depend on overall type and thickness. Very thin or fine strands can usually be styled on a lower temperature setting, particularly if they are patterns that are closer to straight, while very curly thicker and/or coarser hair requires a bit more heat to effectively straighten.
To limit heat damage to your hair, we recommend the following as a general guide:
- For finer strands: Set your iron to between 150–185°C.
- For thicker strands: Set your iron to between 180–200°C.
How can I tell if my straighteners are too hot?
Tell-tale indications that your hair is heat damaged – from styling without any protection or using temperatures that are too high for it to handle repeatedly – include dryness, dullness and split and snapped-off ends. The most drastic signs won't appear overnight, but within a couple of weeks you’ll start to see changes in your hair. One thing you'll notice quickly is limpness, which can affect your hair’s ability to hold a style through the day.
If you can help it, save using your flat iron for special and specific occasions that are fewer and further between over daily use. Sparing your hair from heat wherever possible, or turning the temperature down when you feel you can limit your styling, will make a difference, too. Alternatively, consider investing in and using one of the best hair straightener brushes, which are often designed to reduce heat damage and style on lower temperatures.
Which hair straightener plates are best?
A few different plate materials are used in the world of straightening irons, each one with slightly differing benefits. Here's an overview of the key ones to know about when shopping for a pair of the best straighteners.
- Ceramic plates evenly distribute heat, eliminating cold and/or overheated spots and thereby reducing hair damage. Ceramic-coatings still help with consistent heat across the plates, but can chip and wear out, exposing the metal beneath.
- Titanium irons heat up quickly and stay hot consistently, allowing you to create a straight finish in less time. Some titanium also carries an ionic charge, which smooths hair and prevents frizz.
- Tourmaline requires less heat than ceramic and titanium to smooth, while delivering similar results. And using less heat means less damage inflicted on your hair, which also builds up over time.
How often should I clean my straighteners?
If you use your hair straighteners regularly (think between a few times a week to daily), we recommend cleaning your flat iron at least once a month. This may sound excessive but, trust us, it is important. The natural oils from your hair, along with styling product residue, slowly but surely build up on the surface of the plates over time – you'll see visible gunk around their edges if you skip cleaning them.
Learning how to clean straighteners properly not only removes that build-up, but proper care will help your tool to last longer (build-up can affect its lifespan). This residue can also inhibit the effectiveness of your flat iron; the cleaner your iron, the better the straightening results. Simple.
What type of heat protectant should I use?
Providing a vital barrier between your hair and your flat irons, the best heat protection options for hair are products that don’t simply shield, but work to condition and strengthen your hair, too. They might come in the form of leave in conditioners and sprays that you apply to damp hair, or dry mists that you can use between washes. Here’s what to look out for when shopping for one.
- Humectants: Not just for skincare, these attract moisture, which is especially important for hair's overall health. The result? Less frizz and hair that's hydrated and shine. Key examples include glycerin, panthenol and propylene.
- Amino acids: Work as strengthening and conditioning agents. In haircare, their main function is to supply antioxidants and repair surface damage. For example, keratin, which is made up of amino acids, makes hair more damage-resistant and helps to revive overprocessed and styled hair.
- Natural oils: Deliver moisture as well as sealing the hair cuticle while. These oils add sheen and slip, too, which is especially welcome when you want to style with a smooth finish. Particular superheroes include coconut oil, which is both protective and helps to seal the look of split ends. It's also good value as a little goes a long way.
