6 Best Flat Irons for Black Hair 2024

Are you tired of struggling to find the perfect flat iron for your gorgeous black hair?  Whether your locks are natural, relaxed, or color-treated, we understand the unique challenges you face. Say goodbye to frizz, breakage, and endless styling woes. We’ve scoured the market to bring you a curated selection of flat irons designed specifically to cater to the needs of black hair, ensuring flawless results and empowering you to rock your signature style with confidence!

Is your hair natural or chemically processed?

When picking the best hair straightener for black hair, the most important thing to consider is the health condition of the hair. Whether your hair is natural or chemically processed, it completely changes the game.

Generally, natural hair is healthier compared to relaxed hair. However, African hair is inherently fragile, and chemical processing makes it even more delicate.

So, it’s crucial to choose a straightener that is gentle on your hair and minimizes the risk of further damage.

Now, let’s see how you can pick the right one.

The 3 Most Important Features to Look for

1. Plate Material

Titanium flat irons are best for hard-to-manage, thick, natural black hair. They heat up quickly and distribute heat efficiently, making them ideal for styling dense and textured hair and meeting the need for speed.

Ceramic is a gentler option than titanium if your hair is damaged due to bleach or chemical treatments.

Tourmaline-infused ceramic plates are the best choice if your hair looks dry, feels brittle, or frequently thermally straightened. They offer additional benefits compared to ceramic plates, such as reducing frizz and static, resulting in smoother hair with less heat damage.

2. Heat Settings

For relaxed hair, choose a flat iron with a starting temperature of about 260 °F. And make sure it has precise temperature control to ensure the safest and most effective straightening process.

When it comes to natural hair, the temperature ranges change. Natural hair is harder to style and typically requires temperatures between 400 °F and 450 °F.

3. Plate Size:

Even if it is relaxed or natural, all curly and coily textures should stick with a flat iron that’s no larger than 1″ in width.

Wide plates apply more heat and can damage weak, relaxed hair. Additionally, larger plates cannot reach near the roots and hairline, which is a big problem, particularly for hard-to-straighten, tight curls.

1. Best For Silkpress
Ghd Platinum Plus Flat Iron

Price: $280
Available sizes: 1”
Material: ceramic
Heat range: pre-set to 365f
What we like: unique wishbone hinge, even heat distribution, heats up very fast
What we don’t like: no variable heat settings, expensive
How it stands out: one of the highest quality flat rions in the market with fast yet gentle styling, which is the key for taming black hair

GHD Platinum Plus Flat Iron is our favourite overall flat iron this year for black hair, and especially if you want to use your tool for silk press.

We know that black hair is very difficult to tame, but at the same time, more fragile than usual. This tool has very high levels of performance and allows you to have a very successful session with least passes as possible, which protect the strands from heat damage. Silk press is a procedure that can cause heat damage if not careful, so it’s important to have a flat iron which is fast yet gentle.

It comes with a pre-set temperature which is 365F. This number is the optimal heat, providing fast and efficient results while not over burning your strands. Since black hair is fragile and can’t take too much heat, this temperature is perfect of it.

It has ceramic plates which we prefer for this hair type. It heats up slower and gentler than titanium, and distributes the heat more evenly. Avoiding hot and cold pockets, your delicate strands are protected from heat damage while being tamed with less passes.

The 1” plate width is the most versatile number in the market and can tame most hair types and lengths without overheating.

It’s a very ergonomically designed tool and very beginner friendly as it comes with only an on/off button. That said, it’s one of the most luxurious flat irons in the market and has highest quality material available. Of course, this comes with a price which is $280, which is definitely an investment. But this tool genuinely is one of the best for black hair. If this is your case, and you use your tool often we really recommend considering it. It will last you for many years and protect your strands from heat damage while being fast.

Read more: Ghd Platinum Plus Flat Iron review

2. Best For Frizzy Hair
Bio Ionic 10x Styling Iron

Price: $240
Available sizes: 1”
Material: ceramic
Heat range: 280f to 450f
What we like: long plates for fast taming, very shiny results, 5 year warranty
What we don’t like: costly, not very fast, vibration can get annoying if you use it for longer periods
How it stands out: conbination of vibration and ionic technology provides super smooth results

This tool is one of our favourites for black hair, not only for its gentle and efficient styling capacities, but also its very smooth results.

Bioionic, with its 10x Styling Iron, came up with a tool with a perfect recipe for smooth results which are free from frizz. Vibration technology is a unique feature amongst flat irons. This tool’s plates basically vibrates while you’re using your tool, which increases the surface contact. This way, it provides smooth results with less passes and lower temperatures. Since black hair is very hard to tame, this is a very helpful feature. Frizz issues are also common amongst this hair type, and ionic technology is something to seek out. This feature emits negative ions and eliminates frizz from the strands, which is one of the reasons why we love this tool for frizz free results.

Ceramic makes the tool gentler and less prone to heat damage as well. Its wide heat range is perfect since black hair’s needs differ a lot when it comes to heat. 450F maximum temperature is one of the highest in the market and can tame any hair type.

1” plates are convenient as it fits most hair types and lengths. Length of its plates, on the other hand, are 4.52”, and longer than average. This size is great for longer hair, but also makes the tool harder to manoeuvre. But it still is a very lightweight tool with 8.7oz.

This tool has very durable material and its price reflects its material quality. $240 is a price which is not for everyone but its vibrating plates justifies its cost. If you have the budget for it, we think it’s worth it.

Read more: Bio Ionic 10x Styling Iron

3. Best for Professional Use:
Babylisspro Nano Titanium Prima3000 Ionic Straightener

Price: $190
Available sizes: 0.75”, 1”, 1.25”
Material: titanium
Heat range: 300f to 465f
What we like: very sturdy and fast, high quality material,
What we don’t like: heavy and bulky, doesn’t have floating plates and auto shut off
How it stands out: a very durable tool that appeals to professionals and can tame strands very fast

If what you’re looking for a heavy-duty flat iron which is resistant and powerful, this tool may be just what you’re looking for. Babyliss generally appeals to professionals and their Prima 3000 especially stands out. This is a tool can tame the strands very quickly with its titanium plates. This material is not the best for beginners with its high heat and speed, but great for professional use.

It also has a heaping 465F maximum temperature, which is the highest number that we’ve ever come across. It can tame even the unruliest strands in no time. That said, its minimum heat setting is not so low with 300F, it’s too harsh for some fragile hair types and should be used cautiously.

Like most heavy-duty tools, it’s bulky. It weighs 13.4oz and has a length of 12.5”, which are both numbers above average. This can be frustrating if you use your tool for longer periods and suffer from arm fatigue.

It comes with an ion generator. This is great for black hair which usually struggles with frizz. It emits negative ions and eliminates frizz successfully from your strands, providing silky results.

As Babyliss aims to satisfy professionals, it leaves out auto shut off for the ones that want to keep using their tool for long periods. But this is a very useful feature that eliminates the risk of fire.

It’s not the cheapest tool in the market, but it has an extremely durable material. It comes with an industrial strength swivel cord and a silicone cool tip which is resistant to corrosion. Combined with a 4-year warranty, we think it has great value.

Read more: Babylisspro Nano Titanium Prima3000 Ionic Straightener Review

4. Best For Tight Curls:
Drybar Reserve

Price: $190
Available sizes: 1”, 1.25”
Material: ceramic
Heat range: 250f to 450f
What we like: ionic technology, very long cord, heat sensors to create consistent temperature
What we don’t like: overpriced, hard to manoeuvre due to being too long
How it stands out: a vibrating flat iron with a combination of gentleness and efficiency

DRYBAR is known to offer high quality hair tools and their Reserve Flat Iron is one of our favourites this year. This tool stands out with its high-quality material and styling session. It’s gentle yet powerful, as well as being very versatile in terms of style.

This tool, first of all, is a vibrating flat iron. This feature is made to provide the optimum tension to your strands while styling. The result is a more efficient session with less passes. It also makes the tool less damaging to your strands, as it avoids snagging and harsh pulls. It also has multi directional floating plates, to keep better contact between the tool and the hair.

This tool is very versatile, with its heat settings, size options as well as satisfying different styling needs. With a heat range between 250F and 450F, it can tame unruly strands and be very gentle for fine hair as well. It comes in 2 plate sizes, both considered to fit most needs; smaller one for shorter and longer one for longer strands. With its rounded shape, it can also create beautiful locks. Back of its plates get really hot which means you can use the tool like a curling iron as well. It’s good to watch out for the heat though, to avoid burning your hands.

It has ionic technology, which we love for black hair. As this hair type tends to have frizz issues, this feature is really helpful, emitting negative ions to eliminate frizz.

Its ceramic plates are very gentle on the strands and protects them from heat damage. It’s an expensive tool with luxury qualities and one which is great for daily use. If this is what you aim to do, we really recommend it. But if you don’t use your tool often, it may be too much of an investment.

Read more: Drybar Reserve review

5. Best For Natural Hair:
Babylisspro Nano Titanium Digital Straightener

Price: $100
Available sizes: 1”
Material: titanium
Heat range: 285f to 450f
What we like: memory function, great for creating curls with its round shape
What we don’t like: too harsh for fine strands, doesn’t have auto shut off
How it stands out: an affordable luxury tool with very fast styling capacity

Babylisspro Nano Titanium Digital Straightener is a strong tool which has a very fast styling capacity. This tool can tame even the unruliest strands, and since natural hair is in this category, we thought it’s worth mentioning.

This tool has a very high maximum temperature of 450F, and titanium plates. Combination of these two is the recipe for a very fast and powerful styling session. It can heat up a lot and recover its heat as fast as possible. If you have fine hair though, we don’t recommend it as it may be too harsh even in the lowest setting. But in terms of hair length and styling needs, it’s a versatile tool. It appeals to both shorter and long strands and has a very rounded shape, which is great for creating curls as well.

It has memory function. This means that it remembers the heat setting that you chose before so you don’t need to adjust your tool every time, which can be frustrating. But it leaves out auto shut off on purpose, to appeal professionals that want to keep their tool on for a long time. But this means that you miss out on a great feature that eliminates fire risk.

Babyliss is a luxury brand and their products are usually very durable, appealing to professionals. This tool offers a more affordable option than usual, without compromising from the usual material quality. It has a lightweight design with only 8.8oz, which is easy to handle. But the session it offers is very powerful. We think it has great value and definitely worth considering for black hair.

Read more: Babylisspro Nano Titanium Digital Straightener review

6. Best For Long Hair:
T3 Lucea Flat Iron

Price: $170
Available sizes: 1”, 1.5”
Material: ceramic
Heat range: 260f to 410f
What we like: recovers its heat very fast and comes with a great tool kit to support your session
What we don’t like: overheats, buttons get pressed accidentally
How it stands out: versatile hair tool fitting different hair types and styling needs, great material quality

We like a flat iron that has durable material, can tame strands fast, while being gentle as well. T3 Lucea satisfies most needs when it comes to hair straightening.

T3 Lucea comes with two plate size options, and their 1.5” one caught our attention for long strands. Large plates can cover a larger area at one pass and can tame longer hair in a much more efficient way. These plates size also can heat up more and provide a more powerful session. If your hair is longer than shoulder-length, this tool will most likely satisfy you.

One feature that stands out with this tool is its heat IQ technology. This is made to help recover its heat as fast as possible to optimize the session’s quality. This is the reason why we love this tool as it’s very efficient while being gentle. It’s ceramic plates also helps with protecting your hair from heat damage with its slow heating and even heat distribution.

Its heat settings are quite versatile. While this tool also appeals to fine strands with 260F minimum heat, its 410F maximum temperature is why we love this tool for black hair. One thing to mention though; this is one of the few tools on our list that has a problem with overheating. Its temperature actually goes up till 440F, which is much higher than what’s advertised and a reason to be careful for fragile hair types.

As a luxury tool, it’s sturdy and comfortable to hold. While being ergonomic otherwise, it has a design issue regarding its buttons. They’re placed poorly and can accidentally get pressed.

Read more: T3 Lucea Flat Iron review

7. Best For Short Hair:
Fhi Platform Signature Pro Styler

Price: $150
Available sizes: 0.5”, 1”, 1.25”, 1.75”
Material: 3 layers of baked ceramic with tourmaline
Heat range: 140f to 450f
What we like: lightweight, frizz free resutls with tourmaline
What we don’t like: doesn’t have digital display
How it stands out: a simple yet solid flat iron with versatile plate size options for different hair lengths and styling needs

While FHI Platform Signature Pro Styler appeals to many different hair lengths, and their 0.5” size option is one of our favourites for short hair. With this plate width, you can come very close to the roots and straighten even the shortest hair styles. Even pixie cuts benefits from this size. It also appeals to the ones who want to style their bangs, or just do small touch ups with their flat iron.

It has a very wide range of heat settings starting from 140F and reaching till 450F. These numbers fit to absolutely all hair types, be it very thin and damaged or extremely stubborn and unruly.

Ceramic infused with tourmaline makes this tool as gentle as possible on your hair. It heats up slowly and distributes its heat evenly. Tourmaline is great for black hair as it eliminates frizz from the strands.

It’s very convenient to travel with as it’s really light weight and compact. It weighs only 7.7oz, which is much less than the average number in the market. Dual voltage also helps if you want to take your tool to other countries.

It’s a solid tool which is sturdy to hold and elegantly designed. It has a very long 12ft cable which appeals to the ones that have their plug far from their mirror. Its cost is not very low, but relatively affordable, when compared to the other luxury tools in the market.

Read more: Fhi Platform Signature Pro Styler review

8. Best Value:
CHI Original Lava Ceramic Hairstyling Iron

Price: $100
Available sizes: 1”, 1.5”
Material: ceramic infused with volcanic lava
Heat range: pre-set to 395f
What we like: beginner friendly, fast results
What we don’t like: there’s no temperature control or auto shut off
How it stands out: an durable flat iron with volcanic lava plates which hydrates hair and brings shiny results

Chi Original Lava Ceramic, when it comes to price vs performance, is a very successful tool. Its material quality and speed outweigh its relatively affordable price of $100.

Chi, with this flat iron, offers a tool with an extraordinary plate material. Ceramic infused with volcanic lava is very beneficial for creating a bone straight hair style while being gentle on your strands. The results are long lasting and shiny. It’s also great for daily use with the gentle ceramic.

This tool doesn’t come with digital display. It just has an on/off switch and that’s it. What is disappointing is its lack of auto shut off. This feature makes your flat iron fire safe and is very useful to have.

It doesn’t have any variable heat settings, but comes with a pre-set temperature of 395F. this makes this tool very easy to use as you don’t need to find out the right setting, hence beginner friendly. But this temperature doesn’t appeal to all hair types. We love this tool for black hair which needs higher temperatures to tame, but it’s way too harsh for fine strands.

This is a very fast tool with extremely durable material. It’s ergonomically designed and while it may not be the cheapest in the market, it has great value. $100 is more than fair for what you get from it, as long as you don’t have fragile strands.

Read more: CHI Original Lava Ceramic Hairstyling Iron review

Best For Faster Styling

Hot Tools Pro Artist Xl Digital Salon Flat Iron

Price: $87
Available sizes: 1”, 1.5”
Material: ceramic
Heat range: 180f to 455f
What we like: 7 year warranty, wide range of temperature options, heat memory feature
What we don’t like: gives off a strange smell when it heats up
How it stands out: affordable flat iron that can tame very thick and long strands easily with its large plates

Larger flat irons are usually faster and more effective, and Hot Tools Pro Artist XL Digital Salon Flat Iron doesn’t disappoint. This tool has very long plates with 5” and it also offers a very wide option with 1.5”. Combination of these two, offers one of the largest plate sizes when it comes to flat irons, and appeals to thick and long strands. This tool can heat up much more than the smaller alternatives and helps you style more hair at once. Both these qualities equal to a verry fast and effective session. Unfortunately, these also cause it to be quite bulky and its quite long with 12”. But its weight remains light enough and below average(9.2oz).

It comes with 30 different heat settings starting from 180F, reaching till 455F. It has one of the widest ranges of heat in the market and it will fit your needs no matter how thick or fine your strands are. It also has memory function, meaning that it remembers the temperature that you choose so you don’t have to adjust it every time.

It comes with auto shut off, but it’s set to 2 hours, which is a bit too long to make the tool completely safe from fire risk.

It’s a budget friendly tool with great performance, ant its sacrifice is mostly is on material quality. It actually gives off an unpleasant smell when it heats up, which is an indicator of this. It’s not a very durable tool, but it comes with a 7-year warranty that puts minds at ease.

Read more: Hot Tools Pro Artist Xl Digital Salon Flat Iron review

Best Budget

Remington Shine Therapy

Price: $40
Available sizes: 1”, 2”
Material: ceramic
Heat range: 300f to 450f
What we like: argan oil and keratin helps with shinier results, affordable, very large plates for styling in less passes
What we don’t like: heavy, doesn’t have dual voltage, not good for curling, too harsh for fine hair
How it stands out: a very powerful yet affordable tool with shiny and long-lasting results
Rating: 4.3/5.0

Remington Shine Therapy is one of the most powerful tools on our list, as well as one of the most affordable ones. This tool is one of our favourites for black hair this year, for its capacity to tame even the most stubborn strands.

It comes with two plate width options, and while the 1” one is the most common size in the market, this tool actually caught our attention with the 2” option. This is the widest size available in the market, and is perfect for unruly strands, as well as longer ones. Combined with its long plates which are 4.3”, and it has a very large surface.

This way, the plates can cover a very large area at one pass and can tame your strands very quickly. It also gets hotter than usual, and provide a very powerful session. Considering its maximum temperature of 450F, this tool is fast and furious. This is great if you have black hair, or any type of thick strands which needs higher temperatures to tame. But it’s not the best for fine hair. Its minimum heat setting is 300F and may be too harsh on some very thin and fragile hair types. It does have ceramic plates which makes the session gentler, but we still don’t recommend this tool for fine hair.

It’s a budget tool with a very affordable price. As usual, it makes compromises according to its cost, and this compromise is in the material quality department. It’s not the most durable tool in the market and not the sturdiest to hold either. It also is quite heavy with 12oz, which is much more than average.

Read more: Remington Shine Therapy Review