8 Best Hair Straighteners of 2019

Looking your best isn’t easy. You’ve got to match your style to the color and shapes that look best on you, keep your hair neatly contained and well styled, and project a sense of confidence to really make the best of your natural looks.

For most of us, that means investing in hair styling products and tools, since good hair requires regular maintenance and styling.

A good straighter is a must have, but it easy to buy a cheap and ineffective straighter since there are so many available. An ineffective straighter means more time spent styling your hair, quickly adding up to hours of wasted time.

Plus, all that extra time damages your hair no matter how good your heat-styling spray or how much moisture you try to pack into your hair.

In this article we go over some of the best straighteners on the market right now, the key features that make them stand out, and the pros and cons for a better direct comparison.

Our Top Picks: Detailed Reviews

BioIonic One Pass Straightening Iron (Top Pick)

The BioIonic One Pass has an impressive array of benefits, in addition to the heat you need to quickly and efficiently straighten curly hair.

With up to 400 degrees F in the two ceramic plates, the BioIonic One Pass largely lives up to its name. Like any straightener you may have to experiment a little with what speed and technique delivers the best results, but you can say goodbye to overworking your hair with multiple passes.

While this is on the higher end in terms of price point for a flat iron, you’ll end up saving money in other styling and hair-healing products. Think of it as a long-term investment in good hair.

We’ll go more in depth into this straighter, and all our top picks, in the main list. But, if you’re looking for a reliable, high-quality, and highly-effective straightener in a hurry, this is a good option.

HIS Professional Glider Flat Iron (Best Value)

The HIS Professional Glider is affordable, easy to work with, and comes with its own cloth bag for easy packing and travel.

This straightener brings a lot of high-end features and qualities to a mid-range price point. Designed to help maintain even heating, a high 450-degree maximum temperature, and the 360-degree swivel cord, this straighter is easy to use and consistently performs.

The higher heat makes the HIS Professional Glider a good choice if you have coarse hair, or if you have a particularly tight curl texture. But it’s lower heat settings (which you should use whenever possible) protect your hair from heat damage and burns.

Remington Pearl Pro Flat Iron (Best Budget)

A bargain isn’t a bargain if it doesn’t perform like you spent more money on it. In straighteners that means that the heating elements have to last, perform evenly and well, and it has to have adjustable heat settings and ease of use features.

The Remington Pearl Pro delivers on each requirement. The swivel cord, LED temperature display, and 30 second heating time makes this straighter a good choice for beginners and expert straighteners alike.

It’s durable enough to hold up to long-term use and has an auto-shut off that will prevent the heating elements from burning out if you accidentally leave it on after styling.

We’ll get more into the specifics in a moment, but if you’re looking for a great bargain that performs more like a salon tool than a department store buy, this is a good choice.

In Depth Comparison – The Best Straighteners

Before we get into the specifics of each straightener, its worth spending some time on one important point.

Ceramic or Titanium?

When deciding on a hair straightener a lot of people will ask if you’re looking for a ceramic or a titanium straighter. This is because titanium straighteners are often hotter, but ceramic straighteners distribute the heat more evenly.

However, since all the straighteners on our list heat to a similar high-temperature, the difference in materials is more a matter of which suits your personal preference, and which straighteners come with other important features and benefits.

That said, if you’ve used both ceramic and titanium straighteners you know that they feel different against your hair, and glide differently. Titanium straighteners usually move more smoothly through your hair, while ceramic straighteners can pick up heat-resistance sprays and actually help distribute the product through your hair.

If you’re looking for a straightener for more than just yourself, it’s also worth mentioning that most salons and stylists prefer titanium straighteners for professional use.

8 Best Hair Straighteners Comparison Table

 

8 Best Hair Straighteners: Detailed Reviews

1. BioIonic One Pass Straightening Iron (Top Pick)

Editor’s Rating: 4.9/5.0

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The BioIonic One Pass Straightening Iron won our best overall pick since it’s a versatile flat iron that reaches high heat, glides smoothly through your hair, and is effective for most hair types.

This straightener also has an ergonomic design. That means less strain on your hand and arm while you’re styling your hair. It also makes it easier to create complicated and precise styles quickly and easily.

The silicon strips in with the ceramic heating plates also make this ceramic straightener glide more like a titanium straightener. That means you can move quickly, avoiding scorching your hair and undoing all your hard work.

While this isn’t the highest heat available from the straighteners on our list, 400 degrees is more than enough for most hair types. You’ll certainly want to use a heat protective spray for better styling results, and less damage building up over time.

But the adjustable heat control also makes it easier to use minimal heat, and minimize damage, anytime you don’t need truly high heat. You can use high heat to fight through tight curls and coarse hair types, and lower heat for finer hair and touch-ups.

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2. HSI Professional Glider Flat Iron (Best Value)

Editor’s Rating: 4.7/5.0

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The HIS Professional Glider is a good flat iron with a moderate price point, and flexible enough to take the place of a curling iron and several other styling tools as well.

Its rounded edges make styling easy and avoid the hard creases and sharp lines that can come with some more angular straighteners.

The Professional Glider also has a higher heat point that the BioIonic, giving it a little more versatility when it comes to the coarsest and curliest hair types. The adjustable heating elements also make it easy to work with fine and heat sensitive hair without burning and overly heat damaging your locks.

The 360-degree swivel cord on this straightener is a must have if you straighten your hair often, making it easier to use and less likely to develop a short in the cord.

This straightener also has the serious advantage of being a dual voltage machine, making it compatible with electrical sources in the US and abroad. Don’t worry about getting a different styling tool, or hoping you can borrow one, on your next international trip.

The travel bag also makes it easy to keep the heating elements clean and debris free, at home or in a suit case. Plus, at a lower price point than many similar straighteners, it’s an affordable tool for almost anyone.

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3. Remington Pearl Pro Flat Iron (Best Budget)

Editor’s Rating: 4.4/5.0

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The Remington Pearl Pro flat iron boasts an incredibly fast heating time, only 30 seconds, and reaches a maximum temperature of 450 degrees. That makes this an easy, fast, an efficient ceramic straighter, well up for even the coarsest hair types. It easily adds shine to already straight or moderately curly hair, and powers through tight curls and frizziness without overly damaging your hair.

The Remington Pearl Pro is also one of the more affordable straighteners out there, but it doesn’t seem like it when you use it.

The LED screen also gives you a clear exact indication of the temperature setting you’re using.

The crushed pearls in this straighteners name also add to the glide of this straightener. This flat iron also has a swivel cord for easy use. It’s easy to get salon quality heat and control when using this straightener, and equally easy to make sure you’re using gentler lower temperatures when you don’t need extra heat.

This straightener also has an auto-shut off feature that protects it, and your home, against burning out from maintaining heat for too long.

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4. InfinitiPro by Conair

Editor’s Rating: 4.3/5.0

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The InfinitiPro is a similar straightener in most respects to the Remington Pearl Pro. With 1-inch heating element plates, a 30 second heat up time, and a swivel cord, this straightener is both easy to use and effective.

The InfinitiPro gets a bit warmer than its competitors, reaching 455 degrees instead of 450.

However, it does have a few key differences. This isn’t a ceramic straightener. That extra 5-degree boost comes, in part, from the heating efficiency of the titanium plates. But, instead of using a traditional titanium heating element, the InfinitiPro uses a ceramic-style heating element that helps provide consistent heat.

That combination gets rid of some, but not quite all, of the uneven heating that can make titanium straighteners harder to work with.

Instead an LED temperature display, this straightener as 6 discrete heat settings from lowest to highest. That’s more heat control that traditional straighteners, which usually only have 3 settings, but less than some of the free adjusting straighteners on this list.

This straightener also gives you a slight indicator of the ion frizz control. The ionizer built in to this straightener produces a small clicking sound when it’s working.

However, the rainbow coating on the heating elements can chip and flake off, which reduces the aesthetic appeal and creates a slight risk of leaving flakes of coating in your hair when it starts to wear out.

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5. T3 Singlepass Flat Iron

Editor’s Rating: 4.6/5.0

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The T3 Singlepass is the first wider straightening iron on this list. At 1.5 inches it’s a moderate increase in width that allows this straightener to perform slightly better when it comes to the thickest and most stubbornly curly hair types.

However, that extra width means that your hair is exposed to the heat of the straightener slightly longer with every pass. The extra time contributes to more damage building up in the hair strand, meaning you should try to use this straightener on lower temperature settings and minimize the number of passes you use.

However, T3 has adjusted for this with a slightly lower temperature setting than the other straighteners on our list. That deliberately reduces the risk of damage, relying on the width of the heating elements rather than sheer heat alone to straighten your hair.

Their custom blended ceramic provides relatively smooth action and easy gliding over your hair.

This straightener also comes with the standard features of a swivel cord, and a 1 hour auto shut off. The 9-foot cord is slightly longer than average and makes it easier to style while also accomplishing other beauty tasks.

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6. Kipozi Professional Flat Iron

Editor’s Rating: 4.6/5.0

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The Kipozi Professional Flat Iron is another high-performance straightener with a high temperature, swivel cord, and an auto-shut off feature that protects both the iron and your other possessions.

However, this flat iron also includes some of the best features of the other irons on this list. Instead of a 9 ft cord, it has an 8 ft version, still plenty long enough to make styling easy.

It also offers dual titanium heating plates using a ceramic heating element to help even out the performance across the whole heating surface.

It also has an LED temperature display in addition to separate heat settings, along with a guide that recommends different temperatures for different types of hair and style goals. That means that even a novice hair straightener can be confident making styling decisions with this tool.

Like most of the straighteners on this list, it also includes an ionizer to help directly counteract frizzy unmanageable hair, even on the lowest heat settings.

And it has a dual voltage design that makes this straightener another world-travel ready tool.

However, some users report that this straightener is more damaging than similar competitors, and it will need to be replaced sooner than higher end alternatives.

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7. Dry Bar Tiny Tress Press Detailing Flat Iron

Editor’s Rating: 4.5/5.0

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The Dry Bar Tiny Tress Press is a good option if you have shorter hair, but still want to benefit from the styling power of a straightener.

This little flat iron is as powerful as larger competitors, and well up to handling longer hair and big styling jobs. But it really shines when you use it to touch up the roots of your hair, make detailed adjustments, and to straighten and shape hair close to your face.

With those kinds of small detail job, a larger flat iron leaves you vulnerable to burns, and avoiding them often means not attending to the details surrounding your face.

But the difference between a good hairstyle, and a fantastic hairstyle, is usually in those small details.

This titanium straightener is a little cooler than some of the competition, at only 400-degrees. It uses infra-red to heat your hair from the inside out, helping make it significantly more effective for stubborn hair types. That means that this little straightener is more effective than other similarly low-heat options.

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8. John Freida Sleek Finish Flat Iron

Editor’s Rating: 4.5/5.0

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John Freida is a big name when it comes to most aspects of hair care and styling. His products aren’t at the absolutely highest end of quality or price but tend to be a good balance between the two, performing well without eating a hole in your wallet.

This flat iron is no exception that trend.

The heating elements on the Sleek Finish flat iron are rather unique, made of ceramic heating plates for even heating and greater heat control, which have been coated with titanium to glide smoothly through your hair.

Titanium also means that your hair comes out smoother and shinier than with most ceramic straighteners.

It also has the benefit of reaching a maximum temperature of 455-degrees. That means that this straightener is suitable for all hair types and can tackle even the coarsest and most stubborn strands.

This straightener also has extra long plates. That makes it easy to straighten more hair at once, reducing your styling time significantly. It also means you can safely use slower speeds and lower heat settings, without adding hours on to your styling routine.

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Conclusion

We’ve tried to balance out list with the best performing straighteners in a number of price points. All of these straighteners are designed to work with most hair types, and many of them specialize in the trickier thick and coarse hair varieties.

If you haven’t used a hair straightener before, think carefully whether you want a ceramic or a titanium straightener, and we recommend erring on the side of caution when it comes to temperature and over working your hair.

You should also consider whether you are likely to need to take your straightener internationally, or with you on business trips and other travel.

We’re confident that, even if none of the straighteners are the perfect tool for you, we’ve at least given you a good criteria list so that you can be confident in your purchase. Happy styling.