My other favorite part? The plates are 4.25 inches long to tackle larger swaths of hair at once-our Best Value pick is the only straightener to upstage this at 4.5 inches long.Īnother great feature is the nine-foot-long cord this iron has, which is one of the longest ones of all the irons we tested and helps guarantee that you’ll have an outlet close enough to use this at your vanity, or wherever you typically sit for styling. It’s a simple feature, but it elevated my experience with the iron, and plenty of styling tools make you guess when they’re ready for use.

I’ve never seen this mechanism before, but it adds to the iron’s sleek look and it’s super easy to use-and as the dial has a slight resistance, you won’t accidentally turn it up or down.Īside from looking and feeling like a high quality styling tool, one of my favorite parts of this flat iron is how it alerts you with a loud beep when it arrives at your chosen temperature. Instead of using buttons to control the temperature, you rotate a swiveling wheel at the base of the straightener and watch the temperature adjust on the digital screen. It only took about 14 seconds for the iron to heat up and when I decided to bump up the temperature to 365☏ halfway through, it signaled that it was ready within a few seconds.

The instructions suggested turning the iron between 355☏ and 405☏ for wavy medium-thick hair, so I opted for the low end of that scale and got to work. The Hot Tools iron’s temperature settings ranges from 205☏ to 455☏ and increases by 10-degree increments. It moves through my hair with ease to create a sleek, frizz-free, and shiny ‘do. Our Best Overall pick, however, does neither of these things. I’ve also used some that straighten my hair just fine, but not without tugging at my strands or feeling gritty against them.

I’ve used irons that appeared as though the plates weren’t fully touching when clamped around my hair, leaving me with flattened waves. Above anything else, I want a hair straightener that smooths out my naturally wavy-curly, damaged hair with ease.

Kipozi flat iron