
If you find yourself going through new hair straighteners on a semi-regular basis, the Conair InfinitiPro Tourmaline Ceramic Flat Iron offers the longest warranty—five years—among the flat irons we tested. The 1-inch-wide model is lightweight at 0.51 pound and comfortable to hold. All of the irons we tested weighed less than a pound, and the difference between the lightest and heaviest straighteners was minimal (1 to 2 ounces). The GVP weighs 0.56 pound—it was one of the heaviest straighteners we tested, but it weighed only 0.12 pound more than the lightest straightener we tested.

What Is the Hair Straightener Lawsuit About?
The GVP is still light enough to hold on a daily basis, and the iron’s other features, such as quality plates and a digital display, compensate for the added weight. The cord is 9 feet long, giving you plenty of space to plug it into an outlet that is located far away from a mirror. The straightener itself is 13 inches long, which we found to be the perfect length to wield while styling hair—and the plates are around 3.5 inches long, plenty sufficient to capture a good-size section of hair. It’s unlikely that using chemical hair straighteners once or twice will cause cancer. The plaintiffs with the highest chance of success in this sort of case will be people who used these products frequently over a long period of time.
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The plates on the BaByliss Pro Porcelain Ceramic Straightening Iron we tested didn’t touch, making it hard to straighten hair. Speak with an attorney who is experienced in MDLs and mass tort lawsuits to find out what the statute of limitations is in your case. Although it may seem like a cut-and-dry fact, multiple factors can affect the statute of limitations for your own case. The only way to find out how it applies to you is by speaking with an attorney. In 2023, all open cases were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation or MDL. In this type of lawsuit, the plaintiffs share much of the pretrial activities, such as discovery, but each case receives its own verdict.
The Tress Press Straightening Iron
This can lead to a number of health risks, including reproductive cancers. Another high-end iron we tested, the BaBylissPro Nano, is very narrow and overall good, but we didn’t find anything to justify the cost. In size and design it’s very similar to our budget pick from Conair, except the Nano has a longer cord. This straightener comes with a five-year warranty—the longest of all our flat iron picks. The straightener is the same overall length as the GVP, but the casing is slimmer in width by about half an inch and the plates are slightly shorter (around 3.25 inches). We noted the time it took to straighten or style hair with each straightener and if any snagged pieces of hair.
Lighter and more compact: Rusk W8less Professional Ceramic and Tourmaline Str8 Iron
She’s also learned to distrust the temperature settings on inexpensive devices. “They get hot so quickly that they must be hotter than the guide is telling me they are,” she said. Our panel testers were not aware of the prices on any of the flat irons they tried. After the initial round of testing, our testers’ favorite models were the priciest ones.
The Best Flat Iron for Fine Hair - Us Weekly
The Best Flat Iron for Fine Hair.
Posted: Wed, 09 Aug 2023 12:19:24 GMT [source]
These products tended to be less irritating than the lye version, although they were more likely to dry hair out. Chemical hair straighteners have been in use in the United States for over 100 years. Over that time, a variety of different chemicals have been used to relax and straighten hair.
Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). The HSI Professional Ceramic Tourmaline Flat Iron is bulky and uncomfortable to hold. And all of the dials and buttons are located inside the straightener, dangerously close to the plates.
Wider plates are bulkier and increase the chances of accidentally clamping the same sections of hair multiple times, and the chance of warping, such that the plates don’t meet evenly across the whole surface. Plus, they’re not great for people with curly or textured hair, who need to focus on small sections of hair at a time, or people with short hair. Likewise, we aimed for straighteners with plates on the long side, but not so long the straightener wouldn’t be maneuverable.
Diagnosed With Cancer After Using Chemical Hair Straighteners?
Cosmetic chemist Perry Romanowski has tested straighteners on hair dyed in a range of colors and found that high heat from straightening can change color noticeably for blondes or redheads. “A brown color won’t be as noticeable if there’s a change typically,” he said. If our pick is unavailable, we recommend the Rusk W8less Professional Ceramic and Tourmaline Str8 Iron. It was the third-lightest flat iron we tested at 0.50 pound, but its slim plates get just as hot as those of the GVP, and the cord is the same length. The smaller design of this straightener makes it great for curling or flipping hair.
After decades of use, in 2022, a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found a positive correlation between use of chemical hair straighteners and diagnoses of uterine cancer. People who used hair relaxers more than four times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer as people who never used chemical straighteners. In 2023, a 25-year study was released that supported the connection between the use of chemical hair relaxers and uterine cancer. Price can vary, with straighteners that cost from as little as $20 to more than $200.
However, normal conditioners (like ones you use in the shower after shampoo) “do a wonderful job of killing static flyaway,” Evans said. “If you use a conditioner, you barely get any static buildup anyway,” he added. If you’re straightening your hair, you’d better be using a conditioner in the shower. Tool weight and cord length can greatly impact your overall experience in using a flat iron. We also preferred models with warranties (since sometimes the electronics simply burn out) and automatic shutoff features, as it’s dangerous to leave hot plates lying around. When it comes to plate size, stylist Tippi Shorter said that a 1-inch-wide plate is the best option for most people.
We tested the straighteners on three friends’ hair to see how they worked on different hair textures. Romanowski advises going up to at least 300 degrees to get the job done. Try temperatures above 400 degrees only if you find that you have to do multiple passes on strands of hair. Again, the goal is to limit the amount of time that you use a straightener on your hair. One quick pass at a high temperature is better than multiple slightly cooler passes.
Studies have shown that people who use these products four or more times a year have a greater chance of developing reproductive cancer. Most of the irons we tested were equipped with a dial to change the temperature instead of a digital display. Per all our experts’ advice, figuring out the right temperature to get your hair straight in as close to a single fluid pass is crucial to helping it maintain its health. The GVP’s display will best allow you to figure out the right temperature and use it consistently.