Straightened hair is a versatile styling choice that easily merges with any ensemble, complements any look, and is suitable for any event or theme. This makes hair straighteners to be an essential hair styling accessory that one must have in order to be uber stylish. Though using a hair straightener requires no extra knowledge or skill, you still ought to be careful since it is an electrical gadget and there is heat involved and you would not want to damage your hair. We have compiled this basic guide containing some essential tips to straighten your hair without room for any folly: A Basic guide to using a hair straightener: · Start by prepping your hair. Prepping involves shampooing and blow drying. Do not use a flat iron on greasy, grime-soaked hair, otherwise, you may end up frying your hair with heat. It is advisable to use a deeply nourishing shampoo and conditioner that will help your hair cope with the ensuing heat and styling workup. · Remove any knots in your hair with the help of a detangler and spritz some protectant spray all over (in the inside hair as well). · Once your hair is free of moisture, set the straightener to an adequate temperature. Choose the temperature considering the texture of your hair. Roughly, for fine hair, anything lower than 200° C will set you right, and for coarse and curly hair, you need to use a temperature setting above 200 ° C. · Create tiny sections of hair and sandwich a section between the heating plates of the flat iron and slide through the lengths of hair in straight strokes. Use a wide plate straightener if you have plenty of hair and use a narrow plate hair straightener if you have fine hair. · Once you are done working on the entire head of hair and you have achieved perfectly straightened hair, lock in your style with a setting spray. How to pick a suitable hair straightener: Know hair styling jargon You cannot blindly choose from any of the hair straightener options available. There is a specific type that will suit your hair texture and produce optimal styling results with minimum damage. If you falter in choosing the right, the contrary might happen. Your hair would not remain straightened for long, and you may end up incurring a great deal of damage to your hair. To avoid ending up this way, you should familiarize yourself with the hair straightener jargon that you will encounter a lot of, while shopping for a hair straightener online. Ever given a thought about, what is ceramic, what is tourmaline or what is cold shot and what is hot shot? Yes, these terms matter a lot when selecting the right hair straightener for your hair. What are ceramic, tourmaline, and titanium heating plates? For instance, if you have curly hair, titanium plates are what you should be using, anything other than that would give nothing to minimal results. Girls with fine hair should choose ceramic plates because their hair doesn’t require extreme amounts of heat. Tourmaline plates are meant to be used by medium hair type girls as it gives the optimal heat needed for that texture of hair. What do terms like keratin-infused mean? Other than the material of heating plates, you’ll be coming across words such as keratin-infused, titanium-coated, and ceramic-plated, these imply that the heating plates of the said hair straightener are coated with powdered metal. These metals radiate ions that help neutralize static created by plates and maintain hair frizz-free. Surf through Mr. Barber’s website to find out the best hair straighteners.