Hair Straightener Reviews...

Find the perfect hair straighteners for you!

Below are reviews from either myself or my friends of some of the most popular hair straighteners around. I will do it in price order so the cheaper straightener reviews appear near the top and the expensive ones like GHD's and Kodo's can be found near the bottom. I hope these help!

 

Remington Ceramic Straightener (Essentials) - around £15
Features: 200 degrees top temperature, ceramic coated, 1 minute heat up.

Review: These straighteners actually really surprised me. Although they didn't do much for my thick, wavy, long hair, my friend who has rather thinner and less wavy hair has a pair of them and they do a great job. If I blow dry my hair quite straight before using them, it actually does an ok job on my hair too which for £15 is pretty impressive. They don't heat up as fast as the more expensive straighteners, but at this price, who cares if you have to wait a couple of minutes longer? You can also use them to curl your hair (similar to GHDs) and although I haven't tried this myself, my friend tells me they work really well on her hair. She also said they are very gentle on her hair and don't seem to dry it out as long as she regularly uses conditioner. Overall, a great buy for £15 if you have quite thin hair which is quite straight naturally.

 

Babyliss Pro Straight - around £30
Features: 200 degrees top temperature, fast heat up, 10 heat settings, ceramic coated.

Review:

My sister bought these straighteners a few months ago and on her hair, they work wonders. I watched her straighten her hair with them and felt like kicking myself for spending £100 on GHD's when these £30 Babyliss straighteners appeared to do as good a job. However, appearences were deceiving! You see, my sister has very different hair to me, hers is quite thin, and only has a slight wave. When I tried them on my thick, quite curly hair they were absolute pants! I had to run them over one tiny section of hair about 30 times before it looked remotely straight. There were some good points about these however, they do heat up very quickly and they don't seem to dry your hair out. However, I would only advise buying these if you have thin, non-curly hair otherwise you could be there all day trying to get good results.

 

u2o Duo Magic Rechargeable Straightening Irons - around £50
Features: 200 degrees top temperature, portable with a rechargeable battery, cordless, charging station, variable temperature, 50 minutes operating time after charge, comes in various colours...

Review: These were the first set of portable, rechargeable hair straighteners that I had ever used. I always had an outdated idea that all portable, electrical hair products were, well, basically rubbish but actually these have changed my mind. The design is very sleek and modern, they are shiney, slim and very portable. Sometimes you question why people call products portable when actually they are far too big to carry around with you, but these could truly be slipped into a handbag on a night out. I have used these hair straighteners a few times now, once after blow drying my hair when it was curly/wavy/messy, once on the day after straightening my hair with GHD's (as a top up), and once on a night out to get rid of frizz and a few kinks. To be honest, I wouldn't use these to straighten my hair from scratch as it takes too long and the results aren't as good as those I can achieve with my GHD's. However, my hair is down to my waist, thick, wavy and quite course. If I had shorter, finer hair, I think I would use them to straighten it from scratch.

Where these straighteners really come into their own, is for topping up your hair style a few hours after straightening, or even the next day. If the weather is a bit damp and foggy, and your hair loses it's sleek straightness, just pop into the loos and give your hair a quick once over with these and you will look like you just stepped out of the house! I was really impressed with the results when I did this, and my girlfriends were passing them around amongst each other. The charge lasts for 50 minutes which is more than enough to re-do your do a few times in a night and they are great for taking in the car/on the train on your way to work if you are running a bit late. Overall, I would recommend these to people as a great way of maintaining your hair style, or even as an everyday straightener if you have short, easy to style hair.

 

Trevor Sorbie Pro Straightening Irons - around £50
Features: 200 degrees top temperature, digital display, auto shut off, long cable, ceramic plates..

Review: Hmmm, where to start? First of all I have to say that at £50 I think these straighteners are overpriced because they certainly didn't seem to perform any better than those in the £20-£30 price range. I found them quite difficult to use, they were heavy, awkward and kept snagging my hair on the end of the plates. They are also a lot slower than most straighteners when it comes to reaching their optimum temperature which just isn't good enough considering the amount of competition out there. All in all, I wouldn't pay for these unless they were in the bargain bin with 90% off. My hair was left still wavy and feeling (and looking) very dry. Quite disappointing really, although I do like the look of them and the digital display is quite cool (if a bit unneccesary).

Good Hair Day MK4 Straighteners (GHDs) - around £100
Features - Ceramic plates, fast heat up, sleep mode, curved edges so you can also create sleek curls and waves, universal voltage.

Review:

Well, everyone knows that GHDs are pretty much accepted to be the "Microsoft" of the hair straigtening world, but they don't come cheap and are they really worth it? In my opinion, yes. GHDs are the only straighteners I have ever owned which actually manage to straighten my hair and keep it straight for a reasonable length of time. Others that I have tried can sometimes get it looking quite straight but the results just do not last. I have never used another pair of straighteners that glide through the hair like GHDs either, they never snag or pull so straightening is always smooth and easy. I like the rounder barrel of the MK4 model although to be honest, I still tend to use tongs if I am curling my hair as I find it easier. I have tried curling my hair with them though and it does work, it can also produce a wavy effect or even a crimped effect. If you have long, thick, wavy hair then just buy a pair of GHDs and you won't regret it. I wasted so much money buying straighteners that did a bad job, I might aswell have just splashed out the £100 to start off with - oh, and another thing, GHDs do tend to last years with average use so they really aren't a bad investment.

Sakarra by Kodo Straighteners - around £100
Features - Ceramic plates, 220 degrees top temperature, fast heat up, auto shut off, salon length cord.

Review: These straighteners are probably GHDs biggest rival and they do actually straighten hair extremely well (as you would expect when paying £100). The top temperature is around 30 degrees higher than that of GHDs, however, temperature isn't everything and you have to weigh up the benefits of extra heat against the negatives - i.e. it is more damaging to your hair. I thought that the Kodo straighteners straightened my hair as well as the GHDs but certainly not better - therefore why the extra 30 degrees? I also didn't find them to be as smooth as my GHDs, they didn't particularly snag, but they didn't glide the same way either. They did heat up very, very fast, faster than my GHDs and they were easy and comfortable to use. I would certainly buy these for myself if I needed a new pair of straightening irons and felt like a change, although I am hoping my GHDs will last for a good few years yet. Kodos do have a lot of followers and I can see that this isn't for no reason. Oh, and they look good too!