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.

Iconic flat iron