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However, evidence seems to point to the fact that people who have used chemical hair straighteners or hair relaxers have a higher risk of developing some cancers. There is currently an active mass tort lawsuit with over 8,000 plaintiffs against manufacturers of these products. If you’ve been harmed by a hair straightener or relaxer, you may be eligible to join the lawsuit. We’re testing our current picks against a new group of hair straighteners. We’re testing flat irons from BaBylissPro, GHD, and Paul Mitchell, mini flat irons from Amika and BaBylissPro, and straightening brushes from Amika, Dafni, and Tymo, as well as hot combs from Andis and Gold N Hot.
How we picked
There are some general temperature guidelines by hair type, but even those vary by head. The now-discontinued Rusk Deepshine was slightly lighter—0.44 pound—than our runner-up pick, the Rusk W8less, which weighs half a pound. The Deepshine straightener was the lightest model of all the flat straighteners we tested, but it didn’t feel as sturdy as the W8less and other models we considered.
Less expensive, more unwieldy: Conair InfinitiPro Tourmaline Ceramic Flat Iron
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If hair regularly gets snagged or otherwise caught on the device, you’re forced to apply more heat on those areas to fix them. The GVP Ceramic Titanium Digital Flat Iron’s temperature range is as wide as that of the competition, and its plates are big enough to grab a strand of hair without being too big to maneuver. It heats up as quickly and is about as light as the rest of the straighteners we tried, and the casing never snagged our hair. The 9-foot-long cord means you won’t have to lurk near a power outlet, and its auto-shutoff feature keeps your home and belongings safe.
The Tress Press Straightening Iron
With practice, you can figure out the ideal temperature for your hair and how to best maneuver the tool to create the style you want, but it’s best to take things low and slow at first. We spoke with Trefor Evans, the director of research at TRI Princeton, a hair testing and consulting firm; cosmetic chemist Perry Romanowski; and stylist Tippi Shorter, Aveda’s global artistic director for textured hair. We read research papers on heat damage, blog posts about hair destroyed by hair straighteners, plus hundreds of customer reviews of various flat irons. Like our runner-up pick, the Rusk W8less, this straightener has a temperature dial, which goes from 165 °F up to 455 °F in 10-degree increments. At 14 inches, the InfinitiPro iron is slightly longer than our pick, the GVP Ceramic Titanium Digital Flat Iron, which in our experience made it a little unwieldy when styling.
Anyone can use a flat iron, but how well a particular iron will work on your hair—how straight your hair will get, how long it will stay that way, and how much damage it will endure from the heat—depends on a variety of factors. The curlier or more textured your hair, the more heat, time, or styling products you may need to invest to get the style you want; the finer your hair, the more easily it may be damaged by high temperatures. If you live in a humid climate, your hair will reabsorb water more quickly, which restores its natural (less straight) shape.
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You Must Have a History of Exposure to Chemical Hair Relaxer Use
We’re also considering low- and no-heat straightening tools, such as Annie’s Classic Foam Rollers, Caruso’s Molecular Steam Hairsetter, and Remington’s Condition Hair Setter. The Rusk W8less has a manual dial that goes to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, the same max temperature as on the GVP. Besides the temperature dial and the on/off switch, there are no other buttons on this flat iron. The temperature dial goes from 1 to 50, which correspond to 10-degree increments between 240 °F and 450 °F.
Our testers preferred the feel of the glossy finish on the casing of the CHI model to the matte finish of the GVP one, and it was only slightly bulkier than other straighteners we tested. We can’t promise that you’ll never damage your hair again; it’s a risk you take whenever you use any heat styling tool. But by using a quality device and using it correctly, you can reduce your chances of heat damage and keep your hair looking healthy (and as straight as you prefer). The downside is that a flat iron can damage hair if used incorrectly—or even correctly. A concerning study conducted by the New York State Department of Health found the presence of formaldehyde in some hair straightening products that advertised themselves as being formaldehyde-free. This points to the possibility that even those people who thought they were getting a safer hair straightening product may have been exposed to these EDCs.
The casing is solid black, and the design is simple and straightforward, but it doesn’t look or feel cheap. Most other models we tested, including our pick, get up to 450 degrees or higher. We decided on a flat iron that reaches higher temperatures because it’s compatible with more hair types. Some claim that titanium plates hold heat better than the standard ceramic plates. Three of the models we tested—the CHI Pro G2 Digital, the BabylissPro Nano, and the TS-2 Millennium—featured titanium plates.
Diagnosed With Cancer After Using Chemical Hair Straighteners?
To bring a hair relaxer lawsuit, you need to prove that actual harm occurred. Just increasing your risk of reproductive cancer is not enough to bring a lawsuit. An ideal straightener gets quite hot, but not hotter than 460 ºF, with clear and granular controls that will help you figure out what temperature your hair responds to. Stylist Tippi Shorter has seen people with curly hair straighten their curls into oblivion, leaving behind permanently straight frizzy hair. “Once it has been straightened from too much heat, it’s hard to bring it back,” she said. Even before it gets that bad, accumulated damage can cause frizz, split ends, rough-feeling hair, and breakage.
If you already own a hair straightener you like—one that you can hold and maneuver easily, and that heats to the temperature you want and stays there—you’re probably set. If you find the device clumsy to use, you’re damaging your hair unnecessarily. If it’s hard to hold and move around, you’re probably clamping your hair too tightly, unevenly, or for too much time.
The GVP iron’s one-year warranty is shorter than most of the warranties on the 10 other flat irons we tested; the average warranty was around three years. We tried dropping each of the straighteners a few times each on a tile floor and then turned them on to see if they still worked (all of them did). Since no-lye formulas are gentler on the scalp, they make up the majority of home treatments. Chemical hair relaxers contain ingredients that are known to be endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
This placement seems logical, but some brands put their buttons on the inside of the straightener, making it easier to accidentally burn a finger. The auto shutoff time on the GVP is adjustable, and ranges from 0 to 90 minutes. Its soft rubberized exterior feels nice, without any rough edges or fancy patterns. This means that there may be different statutes of limitations for different plaintiffs in the same MDL. Some states’ statutes of limitations are as short as one year, and some are as long as six years. In addition, some states do not start the clock on the statute of limitations until an injury is discovered or ought to have been discovered.
