10 Best Hair Straighteners 2021 – Top Rated Flat Iron and Hair

Hair straighteners are the perfect solution for daily hair straightening at home. Most of us spend a lot of money and time getting our hair done in the salon. By buying hair products, you can easily straighten your hair at home.

Hair dryers are helpful, but nothing beats a good straightener for incredibly straight and straight hair. Choosing the best straightener for your hair can be tricky. There are so many options available like ceramic flat irons, ionic hair straighteners, etc.

Here are the 10 Best Hair Straighteners in India.

Let’s take a look at the Best Hair Straighteners!

Finding the best was next up on our list of challenges. After several hours of testing, we decided on a few models that we think are suited.

Here are the Top 10 & Best Hair Straightenersin 2021

How Does It Work?

The working of a hair straightener is a bit technical, and may not be easy to understand, but we can give it a try.

Now, your hair typically has some hydrogen bonds that are found in the cortex. These normally bend and become very curly.

What the hair straightener does is to break them down. Once they are broken, the hair becomes typically straight, and the hair straightener has a way of trying to ensure the hair doesn’t go back to its original form.

Unfortunately, if the hair is exposed to moisture or water, the hydrogen bonds normally re-form and become curly again, and this is why most people will need to straighten their hair every day because once you shower, it becomes curly again.

What to look for when buying straighteners

Width

Depending on the length of your hair, the width of the straighteners matter. The wider plates (approximately 5cm) suit longer hair better, the thinner plates (<5cm) will work better on shorter hair. The wider plates also suit thicker hair types.

Plates

What the plates are made from is important. The words to look out for are

Ceramic – you typically find that the less expensive straighteners have ceramic plates. They take a bit of time to heat up, but it is evenly distributed.

Metal – Metal plates are the ones that get hot within seconds and tend to cost a little more money.

Ceramic-coated – These are metal plates, coated in ceramic. The plates heat up really quickly and the heat is more even distributed. These tend to be the most expensive.

Heat settings

If you have really fine or thin hair, the idea of adding high temperatures to it seems mad. Which is why the best hair straighteners now have a variable temperature setting.

Ionic technology

So many women use straighteners to tame frizz. Frizz is caused by too much positive charge on the hair, so much like with the best hair dryers, ionic technology aids your tools in taming frizz.

Cord length

This is an obvious one. You either prefer a really, really long cord that means you can style standing up, wherever. Or you like a shorter cord that packs away neatly.

Types Of Hair Straighteners

Like any merchandise in a market, hair straighteners too have evolved with time, and there are various types available. Each type is unique and suited for a different type of fair. Listed below are some of the most common types of straighteners available.

Flat Iron

Flat irons are the base of the straightener. Some of the flat irons are coated on top with ceramic and other metals. Pure flat iron straighteners are available in the market. However, flat iron plates are not very popular because they do not spread the heat event. This may result in some uneven patches on your hair. Flat irons sometimes overheat too hence coated flat irons are popular today. 

Ceramic

Ceramic straighteners are of two types: Solid ceramic and ceramic coated.

Solid ceramic plates heat up very evenly, thus providing a smooth finish to your hair. They also maintain a constant temperature throughout the process and are best suited for frizzy hair. 

Ceramic coated plates usually contain coatings on ceramic on any other plates. One of their advantages is quick heat-up. They also reduce the friction between the hair, which prevents any damage. A significant disadvantage of this type is that after a while, the coating tends to peel off, revealing the layer underneath which may not produce satisfactory results. They can be used on curly and frizzy hair. 

Titanium

Titanium is one of the best coatings on a hair straightener. It is absolutely safe to use and has quick heat-up. Its lightweight quality makes the hair straighteners very light and easy to handle. Titanium straighteners are very costly and hence recommended only if you have very curly hair or for professional purposes. 

Tourmaline

If you have very dull and damaged hair tourmaline ceramic straighteners are an excellent option. The have ionic and infrared technology that produce negative ions which remove the static charges causing frizz and help retain moisture in the hair. This adds shine to the hair and makes it look voluminous. 

Straightening Brush

A straightening brush is like a hairbrush that is used to smoothen the hair from the roots. Many brushes are equipped with scad technology to prevent burning in the scalp. They are equipped with ionic technology to remove frizz and are very gentle on your hair. 

How to straighten your hair like a pro

In the past, ok in the 90s, when all we wanted was poker straight hair, we used to grab our straighteners, clamp them over our strands, as firmly as possible, and drag them from root to tip, without a care or thought. Thankfully, those days are over, but there are still ways of improving our technique.

‘A common mistake with straightening is going over the same piece of hair multiple times,’ warns Larry King – hair stylist extraordinaire, founder of Larry King Haircare and Marie Claire Hair Awards 2021 judge. The trouble with this he says, ‘is one side of the hair straightens better and easier than the other. This causes irreversible heat damage and breakage usually on one side than the other. Invest in good tools that maintain the condition of your hair too.’

King also explains that to achieve the best results it’s all about identifying your hair type, the look you’re trying to achieve and finding the appropriate tool to suit. Once you know that you’ll know to get the most from the settings on your straighteners. ‘There are multiple different ways to straighten thick vs thin & long vs short hair,’ he says. He recommends a high intensity heat for thicker hair: ‘With thick hair you want to aim to take the density out, but with finer hair you just need to gently take the curl out, so lower the temperature for thinner hair.’

‘If you want a straight, sleek look, whilst maintaining some volume, use a lower temperature. This will take out the curl but maintain the volume. If you wanted it sleeker and flatter, taking out the density, then you want a medium temperature, around 165°C – 185°C. If you go to hot on a straightener you find you then can’t change the look. So will struggle to add volume or curls later on.’

Tips for Choosing the Best Hair Straightener for Your Needs

1. Based on the Heat Setting

A great range of hair straighteners allows you to set the temperature as per your requirement. Different hair types require different temperature setting. And there are some hair straighteners that only have an on/ off button.

2. Based on the Temperature

On the basis of the temperature, the straighteners can be classified on the basis of various types.

Some of them work between 360- 380 degrees and some of them have a setting of 380- 410 degrees. This is because different hair textures require a different set of temperature and one must choose the right set of straightener for the hair.

3. Based on the Plate Material

On the basis of the material of the plate, the product can be classified into various types. These are ceramic, tourmaline and titanium.

If one is using a ceramic-based plate, it helps in the even distribution of heat on the product, and the hair will turn out to be much softer as compared to the other plates.

In case of a titanium-based straightener, this works best if the user has thick hair. It is also lightweight in nature and will get heated up way faster as compared to others.

If one wishes to get more shine, then tourmaline is the best.

The ceramic plate holds the heat and also takes care of frizzy hair. As ceramic has a great capacity of holding the heat, it also tends to end the heat in a faster way.

The titanium plate is another one that heats up faster than a ceramic one. This also has an ionic charge which makes the entire process of straightening fast.

4. Based on the Size

Hair straighteners come in various sizes – ½’, 1’, ¼’, and a 2’ straightener.

f the Plate

This entirely depends on the length and type of hair. The thin plates are suited for short hair and medium plates are suited for short to medium hair.

And wide plates are used for long, frizzy, and thick hair. All those who have fine hair tend to use plates that are medium to slim in nature. And those who have thick hair should go for wide plates.

So…Which One Should You Buy?

Now that you already have some idea as to which flat iron to buy, the next thing you need to do is to determine your budget and ask yourself what you really want out of your purchase. Some people are pretty content with buying a hair straightener that does a good job of giving them the hair style they want. Others are more concerned about whether the hair straightener will damage their hair or not. Some are more interested to know if a product is affordable. Then there are also those that want flat irons for hair that are durable and long-lasting. 

The good news is that with our list of the top rated hair straighteners, you are assured that all these products are effective, efficient, reasonably priced, durable and easy to use. Just take your pick.