If it’s time to buy yourself some new hair straighteners, you may well be a little bewildered by the sheer variety of brands and models out there. There can often be huge price differences between the top and bottom-end models, so is it really worth paying the extra for your straighteners?

Huge amounts of us now own and rely on our hair straighteners, often using them pretty much every day. This isn’t without cost to our hair though. You might have chosen against having permanent hair straightening because of the risk of severe chemical damage, but unfortunately even the best hair straightener in the world is going to cause its own damage. Regular straightening often leaves our hair brittle, dull and dry, so it’s worth buying straighteners that will at least minimise that damage.

The material the plates are made from can be important when it comes to damage limitation. Very cheap straighteners often use metal or coated-metal plates and these are best avoided. They can take a long time to heat up, hold their heat unevenly giving heat ‘hot spots’, and often pull and snag at your hair as you straighten.

Ceramic straighteners are much better, heating up far more quickly and holding their temperature evenly. They also tend to glide through the hair more smoothly. Tourmaline plates, where ground tourmaline is infused into the ceramic, are thought to be even better for your hair. Tourmaline generates a lot more negative ions than ceramic alone, and it’s thought that these neutralise the positively charged ions found in damaged hair, helping to combat static and leave hair looking shinier.

Temperature control
Another really useful feature that it’s worth paying extra for is an adjustable heat setting. It’s advisable that hair isn’t exposed to temperatures over 180C during styling to keep the worst of the damage at bay, but most straighteners offer temperatures of up to 230C! Heat protection sprays can only do so much, so by choosing straighteners with an adjustable temperature setting you can at least make sure you only get them as hot as needed for each section of hair.

So although you don’t need to pay top dollar to get a good quality pair of straighteners, it really is worth spending that bit extra if it will get you good quality plates that will hold their heat evenly and avoid snagging your hair as you straighten. Adjustable temperature controls are another feature that are worth paying for – your hair will thank you for it!