11 Best Hair Straighteners 2021

This light and bargain-priced Remington delivers smooth strands that stay in place. The tool was the lightest-weight of the winners (0.77 pound!) and tied for best at maintaining sleekness. “One pass for effective straightening that lasted,” an evaluator said, with another adding hair “felt soft and looked straight with this iron.” In Lab tests, it heats up to 93% of its claimed temperature in 60 seconds, which is speedy but not as fast as the 15 seconds claimed.

This smart flat iron allows you to plug in personal info like hair length and texture to automatically calculate the perfect styling temperature for your hair. “Far too many times, people use a hotter setting than they actually need,” our Lab pros say, but with nine temperature settings, this iron has the perfect fit for everyone, meaning you won’t scorch even super fine hair. It nabbed top scores for making hair noticeably shiny, with testers noting it “glided effortlessly” through strands without pulling, tugging or creases for a style that “lasted all day long.” Stylist Sabrina Porsche says, “I love T3 because if I am doing a silk press, I know I am getting super straight and shiny results.” The iron remembers your settings but also offers instructions for re-touches and manual setup, plus 60-minute auto shut-off for peace of mind.

Revlon’s super long, 1-inch-wide tool gave lasting straightness to even the longest, thickest hair. It has the widest temp range (180°F to 455°F) in our tests to work on all hair types and at 4.9 inches, the longest plate length we tested (“but not too long,” said testers!) aided in “making the process quicker,” a pro noted. It took around a minute to reach 94% of its claimed temperature, and it earned the top score for maintaining hair straightness in our technical test, though the lowest score for keeping hair staying straight, shiny, and frizz-free all day, so make sure you use an anti-frizz serum!

Perfect for travel (or inconveniently placed outlets in the bathroom), this Dyson flat iron can be used cord-free: The brand claims one 70-minute charge grants 30 minutes of cordless styling. Unlike traditional flat irons that have a solid surface, the Dyson’s plates are flexible so hair doesn’t get squished flat which “left [hair] a bit voluminous like a blowout” and a style that testers said “retained volume,” yet “stayed straight and kept its body.” It’s heavy and bulky, but experts found that “it didn’t seem to matter during use.” From the operational standpoint, the Dyson excelled: It heated up to 95% of its claimed temperature in 60 seconds and maintained a steady plate temperature for 15 minutes, while the outside surface temperature stays cool to the touch. However, in Lab tests, hair struggled to maintain straightness after 24-hour humidity exposure, and our experts found it pulled and snagged hair more than other irons during styling.

Want to go from wet, curly hair to dry, straight hair? This round brush/hair dryer hybrid is able to pull even super-curly hair smooth and straight, thanks to an innovative design that’s both easy to use and effective. The hair dryer brush claims to “deliver gorgeous volume and brilliant shine in a single step,” and our editors are obsessed. The unique design allows for volume at the root of the hair, sleek strands, and salon-worthy movement through the ends, which means you may be able to skip using a flat iron altogether.

This iron is our Beauty Lab standard: We use it for various evaluations such as anti-frizz studies. It glides through hair without tugging and is easy to use according to consumer testers. Plus, with over 3,700 five star reviews on Amazon, it’s safe to say people are obsessed with this flat iron from BaBylissPRO. Because the titanium iron is so thin and the plates go all the way to the edge of the clamp, it’s able to nab frizz right at the root of the hair, making this iron perfect for stubborn frizz or super-curly and natural hair. One reviewer who says she has “very, very curly hair,” claims that this flat iron cuts her styling time in half and gets rid of frizz in one pass.

This clever brush requires absolutely no styling skills to transform your hair into smoother strands, plus it won’t sacrifice volume at the root or give hair that crunchy, too-straight look. Don’t expect it to get your hair as pin-straight as it might with a traditional straightening iron, but we recommend using it whenever hair is misbehaving but doesn’t need to be stick-straight. It slashed one of our curly-haired editor’s straightening time in half.

According to Amazon reviewers, this is the best flat iron money can buy (and for under $50!), racking up over 32,000 five-star reviews on Amazon (it’s worth checking out the thousands of before and after photos, too). Reviewers say it can press hair silky smooth in one pass, cut down on styling time, and is snag-free. In our Beauty Lab tests, however, it scored low for ease of use and satisfaction with testers citing the heat dial as “difficult to adjust,” plus it took the longest of all irons to heat up — we also found hair didn’t remain straight.