For the woman who wants to counteract the natural curls or waves in her hair, there are many straightening and styling tools available that can help. Technology is always advancing, and some recent advances can do wonders for the woman with the right hair type and texture. For others, however, a tool that has been around for a long time can be the best option for straightening their hair: the InfraShine hair straightener.

The basic hair flat iron is simple in design and easy in use. It is used to flatten and straighten hair in one step while, at the same time, protecting the ’straightenee’ from burning their skin due to accidentally coming in contact with the irons. In the early 29th century a hair dresser developed a way to straighten hair which involved the pressing together of two hot irons, which had been heated on a stove. This concept is the origins of the original design of the hair straightener.

Currently with the dawn of more safe and secure electrical heating elements, the flat iron motif is simpler and is mainly a design housed in a single unit. Irons today are heated from within rather than older irons that were heated on the stove. The electrical unit is much simpler to use because the hair straightened is condensed so that it can be used in restrooms and other places where heating irons would otherwise be unfeasible.

Although, heating elements are now heating through electrical currents, modern units are still very similar to these flat irons. They are also more user-friendly that other hair styling tools on the market today. Many new models of straightening iron make use of ceramic plates that cut heat up time in half and combined with smoothness to allow the straightening iron to glide through the hair more quickly. Smoother plates cause less damage to the hair and straighten the hair faster, while non-metal plates seem to cause more than the normal amount of heat damage.

Newer hair straightening technologies also claim to use ionizing and infrared technologies to work on the hair. The actual straightening technique involves breaking down hydrogen bonds in the hair structure to alter the shape of the hair from the cortex up, straightening the shaft of the follicles. However, this ionizing technology may not act as a benefit to the average person, as the ionizing mechanism works to also weaken the other bonds in the hair structure, which can permanently damage weaker hair over time.

Men and women who want to have beautiful, straight hair may think that they need to purchase expensive and fancy hot hair tools. That is not necessarily the case, however. Older, less expensive methods can pose an excellent option for those with limited resources and time. A flat iron, for example, is a good way to straighten your hair and it poses little risk.