Hair Straighteners-Terms and Definitions

Hair Straighteners are an integral part of many women's daily beauty ritual. In response manufacturers have come up with lots of new and exciting, but often confusing, features.

Here are some terms and definitions of the most important:

CERAMIC PLATES
Most of the latest hair straighteners will have ceramic plates. Older-style straighteners have aluminium or alloy plates. These work by conducting heat directly onto the hair shaft. This can be very drying and cause long-term damage. Ceramic plates tend to radiate heat (through infra-red) into the inner hair-shaft. This distributes the heat more evenly and the plates are less likely to suffer hot-spots. The hair is more pliant and supple and can be worked more quickly. This uses less heat overall and causes less long-term styling damage. Ceramic plates also tend to be much smoother causing less drag on the hair being straightened.

Some hair straighteners have plates that are just given a light ceramic coating which can easily wear off during daily use. Look for SOLID-CERAMIC plates as a sign of quality.

TOURMALINE
Tourmaline is a semi-precious stone. It is ground into a fine powder and coated onto the ceramic plates of a hair straightener. Tourmaline is naturally high in negative-ions when heated, resulting in sleeker, shinier, and frizz-free hair. Only the more expensive straighteners have tourmaline coated plates so this should mean a good standard of hair-iron.

NEGATIVE IONS
Negative Ions means less static when hair straightening and this means less frizz. Frizz and static are the twin enemies of straight hair so any straightener that produces negative irons will mean quicker styling times. Negative ions also help to seal in the hair's own moisture resulting in silkier and softer hair.

IONIC
Ionic is just another term for 'negative ion'.