Best Hair Straightener for Your Hair Type

If you’ve been exposed to the world of hair—be it at your own posh appointment, sipping chilled cucumber water while perched comfortably in a stylist’s chair, or sitting on your couch drinking Baja Blast while watching the makeover montages of Queer Eye—you have probably heard terms like “thin, fine, thick, and coarse” being used to describe the tresses in question.

These and other words help describe the textures and qualities of different hair types and have become popularly known to dictate which products we should use. On most consumable styling products (such as shampoos, conditioners, and hair sprays), companies will indicate the intended benefit of the product, advertising solutions for volume, dry and damaged hair, oily hair, or frizzy hair.

When it comes to nabbing the best at-home hair straightener, though, the path to finding the most useful match is a bit less clear, especially since we are often making these purchases online, potentially missing comparison factors between products and instead opting for the “most popular” or “highest rated” choice, which, as it turns out for hair straighteners, may not be the right option, depending on your hair type.

what kinds of hair straighteners are there?

Different hair straighteners absolutely work better for certain hair types. Typically, there are four common hair types: straight, wavy, curly, kinky; in this order, they are progressively farther away from being straight, with each of the four still holding variety within, as well.

straighteners for different hair types

It is important to make the distinction, for example, between thin vs. fine hair and thick vs. coarse hair. To have thin hair means that you don’t have a lot of hair on your head, while having fine hair means that each individual strand of hair you have, itself, is thin in diameter. A person can have a very full head of very fine hair, just as they can have thin hair that is not fine.

Similarly, a thick-haired person has a lot of hair on their head, but that does not mean that her hair is coarse (remember the thick-fine haired person above). To have coarse hair means that each individual strand of hair, itself, is thick. I have thick hair (lots of it) that is also coarse (each strand is thick), and the hair straightener that I need to use is definitely not the same as the one that a person who has thin, coarse hair should use, for example.

how do hair straighteners work?

All of today’s credible hair straighteners work by pressing two hot plates together, while strands of hair become heated and pressed in between those plates. The straightener is designed in a “wand” shape, to glide the heat over the hair in a downward motion, pressing it flat with each pass. While this might sound a little bit dangerous on paper (and it can be—S/O to my other minor burn victims), it also sounds pretty simple.

But nothing is ever that simple!

Our different hair types and textures only need the type of care that is right for them. The hair straightener that is ideal for a beautiful, thick head of kinky hair could potentially seriously damage some otherwise shiny, straight locks on another. Whether it will save you money or save your hair, let’s talk about these differences!

So, those hot plates I mentioned earlier are really one of the three of the most important parts of figuring out which hair straightener will work best for your hair type. There are three main, different types: ceramic, titanium, and tourmaline. The material that your plates are made out of will interact alongside one of the other important factors, which is the heating capability of your tool. These three different plate types can sustain a certain range of temperatures.

Ceramic vs. other hair straighteners

Ceramic plates provide lower temperatures (still enough to cook a casserole, at about 365˚F), but very even heat, ideal for thin hair and fine hair. Stepping up the intensity are the titanium plates, which heat up quickly, get much hotter, and are the right choice for those who have hair that is thicker, coarser, or more towards the curly and kinky end of the spectrum. Tourmaline is really more of a plate covering option and provides the perks of keeping the plates hotter longer and making them incredibly smooth, which is excellent for preventing hair damage.

In the realm of hair straighteners, you definitely get what you pay for, so if you do have a head of hair that sounds like it will require more heat, consider saving up to make an investment in a top-quality titanium option. If you have less hair or thin hair, avoid damage by opting for a ceramic straightener; you may be able to spend a bit less since the power of your wand does not need to be as intense.

hair straightener plate width

The third important key to selecting the best hair straightener for your hair type is to consider the width of the hot plates. You want them to have as even heat coverage as possible, but also be proportionate to the length of hair on your head and the texture of your hair. Following earlier trends, thinner and finer hair often work best with thinner plates, while thicker and coarser heads of hair may benefit from bigger plates.

The overall goal when straightening is to complete the transition with as little heat damage as possible. This does not only mean passing the wand quickly—you can still damage your hair with a lot of quick passes, just as badly as you can with one extremely slow pass. Aim for a middle ground where you are taking enough time for the heat to transfer without damaging the integrity of your strands (supported, of course, by the proper straightener selection!).

Resources— Cosmopolitan, NY Mag