A good pair of hair straighteners are an essential part of any hair tool arsenal, and the best hair straighteners will help you achieve effortlessly sleek and straight locks outside of the salon.
From cordless models to ceramic and tourmaline plates with built-in ionic technology, there are a dizzying number to choose from.
With so much choice, choosing the right hair tool for the job can be a bit of a challenge. So, the question is, where do you start?
Read on to discover our guide on how to choose the best pair of straighteners and our top picks from brands including Dyson, Cloud Nine, L'Oréal and GHD.
Best straighteners to buy
- Best budget: Remington Ceramic Straight Hair Straighteners S3500
- Best cordless: Dyson Corrale Hair Straighteners
- Best for coarse hair: T3 Single Pass X Hair Straighteners
- Best for damaged hair: Remington Air Plates 230C Titanium Ceramic Straighteners
- Best for styling: GHD Original Styler
- Best for smooth hair: Paul Mitchell Neuro Smooth Straighteners
- Best for thick hair: GHD Platinum+ Styler
- Best for heat protection: Cloud Nine Original Iron
- Best for frizzy hair: L'Oréal Professional Steampod Straighteners
- Best for curling hair: Alfa Italia Lustri Titanium Styler
- Best for fine hair: Revamp Progloss Touch Ceramic Straightener
- Best for travelling: The Cloud Nine Cordless Iron Pro
- Best for long hair: GHD Max Styler
- Best for short hair: GHD Mini Styler
- Best for temperature control: BIO:IONIC Volcanic MX 10X Styling Iron
1. Remington Ceramic Straighteners S3500
Best Budget Hair Straighteners
A great option if you're on a budget, these cheap and ultra-reliable hair straighteners do exactly what they say on the tin for a fraction of the price of more expensive straighteners.
Special anti-static, tourmaline ceramic plates glide effortlessly through your hair while delivering extra shine and protection versus standard ceramic coating.
Complete with floating plates for even pressure and heat distribution, they will also straighten your hair in one stroke and automatically shut off after 60 minutes,
With up to 30 heat settings to choose from and a heat up time of just 15 seconds, they're perfect for a salon style finish that won't cost you an arm and a leg.
2. Dyson Corrale Hair Straighteners
Best Hair Straighteners for Travelling
Following the global success of the iconic Dyson Supersonic and Dyson Airwrap stylers, it's no surprise that Dyson’s Corrale straighteners are incredibly popular amongst beauty lovers around the world.
Built to be used cord-free (for up to 30 minutes), the Corrale is kitted out with flexing manganese copper alloy plates to make styling easy and avoid splaying.
It uses less heat than an average straightener (with three different heat settings - 165°C, 185°C and 210°C) and promises less damage as a result - it reduces frizz and fly-aways, too. When you’re done, pop it back into the charging dock for 70 minutes to fully recharge. Top of your wish list? Ours too.
3. T3 Single Pass X Hair Straighteners
Best Hair Straighteners for Coarse Hair
The T3 Single Pass boasts wide powerful plates that are designed to straighten long, thick or coarse hair in one stroke, or very fast.
There's a digital heating system to maintain consistent heat and T3 Tourmaline + Ceramic + Ionic technology which ensures you'll have a smooth and long-lasting finish - just as you would at the salon!
4. Remington Titanium Ceramic Hair Straighteners
Best Hair Straighteners for Damaged Hair
Remington's Air Plate Ceramic Hair Straighteners use a suspended-plate system that delivers impressive results.
You'll be able to style each strand of hair with just one stroke, thanks to clever technology and black titanium-infused ceramic plates for fast and smooth results.
5. GHD Original Styler
Best Hair Straighteners for Styling
You can't go wrong with GHD and it may be an oldie, but it's still a goodie. The GHD Original Styler is a professional styler, which heats up fast and provides a sleek finish.
The thin barrels mean that the plates can be used in a variety of ways to create curls, waves or just super straight hair.
6. Paul Mitchell Neuro Smooth Straighteners
Best Hair Straighteners To Achieve Smooth Hair
These Paul Mitchell Neuro Smooth straighteners heat up to 450°F (232°C) in 30 seconds and are designed to style your hair in one easy pass.
There's even a SmartSense microchip that monitors the temperature 50 times per second to ensure an even heat distribution at all times - that's a lot of tech for a pair of hair straighteners.
7. GHD Platinum+ Styler
Best Hair Straighteners for Thick Hair
Whether you’re after bouncy curls, beachy waves or sleek ‘n straight locks, ghd’s Platinum+ Styler won’t let you down – far from it!
The latest GHD straightener, the Platinum+ Black Styler took five years to develop and features groundbreaking 'smart' predictive technology that controls heat based on the thickness of your hair, the section of hair you're straightening and your styling speed, changing the power to optimise your styling needs.
8. Cloud Nine Original Iron
Best Hair Straighteners for Protection
This straightener uses less heat to create your perfect look, which ultimately means less damage to your hair.
Using 'state of the art temperature control technology' you can style your hair without searing it.
There's also lots of handy features including a swivel cord, hibernation mode and temperature gauge.
9. L'Oréal Professional Steampod Straighteners
Best Hair Straighteners for Controlling Frizz
Not a traditional hair straightener, this device uses steam instead of heat to ease out the kinks and frizz in hair, leaving hair soft and silky – and, most importantly, healthy.
Consider it a garment steamer for your hair. Dual plates glide through without tugging or dragging your hair, helping to control frizz and reduce the appearance of split ends. Rain and humidity will become a past-you problem as this clever tool helps you achieve the ultimate shiny finish.
10. Beauty Works x Molly Mae Sleek and Shine Hair Straightener
Best Hair Straighteners for Curling Hair
These must-have sleek and shine straighteners by Molly Mae are the perfect straighteners for creating a high-shine finish and long-lasting silky straight locks. A single pass eliminates the appearance of flyaways, glidling down the hair shaft for an ultra-glossy result.
The straighteners allows you to customise your styling dependent on your hair type., while the narrow ceramic plates are perfect for any hair length, allowing effortless and precise straightening and for creating waves and curls.
Buy it now Lookfantastic (£59.99)
11. Revamp Progloss Touch Ceramic Straightener
Best Hair Straighteners for Fine Hair
The ceramic plates on this Revamp hair straightener are infused with argan oil, coconut oil and keratin. It claims to leave hair sleek and smooth no matter the style and has a rubberised matte black body, designed for good grip and durability.
The brand states that the straighteners also use ionic technology to keep hair smooth.
It has 32 heat settings (from 80C to 235C) and a 'hair mode' setting, where you pick the optimal temperature according to your hair type.
12. BIO:IONIC Volcanic MX 10X Styling Iron
Best Hair Straighteners for Temperature Control
If you’re looking for effortless styling and high-shine strands, this tool is the one for you.
The IONIC Volcanic straightener is known for its moisturising heat. Rather than depending on styling products to shield your hair, this pro-level hair straightener will restore your strands instead of scorching them.
Made with one inch sonic vibrating plates, infused with natural volcanic rock, it styles and smooths your hair in less than 10 minutes.
The digital temperature control heats up to 230°C, allowing you to tailor your styling to the smallest degree.
13. GHD Max Styler
Best Hair Straightener for Long Hair
Ghd’s team of scientists have concluded that 185ºC is the ultimate temperature for long-wearing, effortless styles with minimal damage to your precious tresses.
Thanks to advanced ceramic heat technology, the ghd max styler ensures this temperature is consistently delivered.
It's designed with broad 2 inch plates, it’s perfect for styling long, curly or thick hair types, for smoother, healthier, frizz-free shiny locks.
It also boasts a handy ultra-speedy 30 second heat-up time, and includes an automatic sleep mode that switches the device off after 30 minutes.
14. The Cloud Nine Cordless Iron Pro
Best Hair Straighteners for Travelling
The Cloud Nine Iron Pro comes in a luxurious faux leather case, the brand's first-ever cordless straightener, which is ideal if you're travelling. All you need to do is give it a solid charge, and you're all set.
Its sleek compact design weighs just 290g, which means that taking it with you on-the-go is much easier.
The straightener has just two buttons – one to turn it on and choose between two temperature settings, either 160C or 170C and another 'revive mode'.
Buy now from Cloud Nine (£299)
15. GHD Mini Styler
Best Hair Straighteners for Short Hair
The sleek, slim plates on these mini straighteners allow you to get right to the root of short hair with complete control, all without burning your fingers.
They're also perfect for smoothing out unruly coils, kinks and fringes too, while maintaining an optimum heat of 185C, that is distributed evenly from root to tip for a smooth, sleek and shiny finish.
How do I choose a hair straightener?
When it comes to choosing a pair of hair straighteners, it can be tempting to go with the cheapest option and hope for the best.
However, not all straighteners are created equal and there are several things you need to consider before buying:
Hair Type
The first, and most important, place to start would be to think about your hair type. Is it tightly curled, or do you have loose waves? Is it coily, thick or thin?
Once you've established your hair type, you will then need to think about what look you want to achieve.
For example, if you have thick or curly hair and want straight locks, you'll need straightener that has wider plates and greater temperature control.
Likewise, if you have thinner wavy hair, you would want to opt for a straightener with a smaller plate that applies less heat to avoid damaging your hair.
Plate material
Ceramic: Thin, Fine Hair
Ceramic coated plates are great for smoothing out hair and reducing frizz. Heating evenly and gently, ceramic plates do less damage to your hair and evenly distribute heat.
Titanium: Thicker, Wavy Hair
Titanium plates heat up in seconds and maintain a consistent. heat across the plate. This makes them perfect for straightening thicker hair which requires a higher temperature than normal. Requiring fewer passes, they smooth your hair and reduce the potential for heat damage.
Tourmaline: All Hair Types
All hair types. Tourmaline straighteners are effective even at lower temperatures and heat in seconds. They get the job done without dehydrating your tresses, help reduce frizz and leave your hair looking shiny.
Plate width
Small (Less than 1 inch): Best for short hair as well as hair that requires you to get very close to the scalp - works for both thick and fine short hair.
Standard (1 inch): Most hair straighteners come in one-inch plate sizes that can be used on just about every kind of hair, be it long or short. While it’s not ideal for every hair type, it should be suitable if you need an all-purpose hair straightener.
Large (More than 1 inch): Anything larger than a one-inch plate is considered a large straightener, which can be found in sizes 1.25 inch right up to 2.5-inch models .The longer the hair, the faster you’ll be able to straighten it with a large-bodied iron.
Temperature control
Most hair types can be perfectly styled with a temperature setting between 70-140 degrees. However, very thick or coarse hair will need a temperature of about 200 degrees.
Similarly, if the temperature is too cool, you will have to work twice as hard to straighten your hair, which can leads to unnecessary pulling and snagging that damages your hair.
Look for a straightener with a suitable maximum temperature and a setting that adjusts the temperature so that you can experiment and find the right one for you.
Ionic technology
Ionic technology reduces static and locks-in moisture for a silky smooth, frizz-free finish. Tourmaline ceramic plates give fast, even heat to reduce damaging hot-spots, and glide effortlessly through hair.
Are expensive hair straighteners worth it?
You may need to fork out a little bit more money if you have thick coarse hair, as you would need to invest in a larger plate that applies more heat. These extra features tend to mean that the straightener would cost you more.
Someone with shorter fine hair would only require a small less heated straightener, generally costing you less money.
As long as you have identified your hair type, plate type and size required, and also the temperature control - you have a better chance of choosing the correct straightener for you, regardless of the price.
We tend to go by trusty brands rather than equipping ourselves with product knowledge - but now that you have that, there's no need to spend hundreds of pounds unnecessarily.
