You go, curl: the very best curling irons and hair wands for amazing style

The Hot Tools Professional is a go-to curling iron for professional hair stylists. Both Le and Bree Rhodes, founder and hair stylist for Just Hair Services in New York, use Hot Tools on their clients.

“For industry types this is good to get that perfect wave allowing you to place bends exactly where you want without having to stress your wrists,” Le said. While the Hot Tools Marcel Iron is typically used among professionals, you don’t have to be a pro to use it. Though some Amazon reviewers do suggest watching tutorials before using the iron as there is a learning curve.

The rotating mechanics of the iron allow you to create twists and curls without getting tangled up in the cord or experiencing any awkward positions with your arms. The Marcel handle is easier to access than traditional clamps because it runs the entire length of the iron’s grip. The handle is also detachable so the tool can be used both traditionally and as a wand. 

This iron has a 24 karat gold barrel, which remains hot for longer and can sustain high, constant heat without being damaged. This will make the curling iron last longer than those made with ceramic or titanium. 

The T3 Whirl Trio comes with three wand attachments —two straight and one tapered barrel. This gives you a range of styles to choose from whether you want mermaid waves or spiral curls or anything in between. 

This wand has five heat settings, reaching up to 410 degrees, to produce the perfect temperature for any hair type. The ceramic barrel self-regulates temperature to prevent over- or under-heating. It has an auto shut off after one hour, which means you won't have to worry about leaving it plugged in. In addition to the interchangeable barrels that are included with the wand, T3 makes other attachments that you can purchase separately.  

Though this curling wand is pretty pricey, many reviewers say it’s worth it. The T3 Whirl Trio also won Allure’s Best of Beauty Award in 2015, 2016, and 2017. 

The BLINNGO Automatic does most of the heavy lifting for you. Unlike some other devices, all the action takes place inside the device. The tool feeds your hair into its centre and around an inner ceramic barrel. 

With the BLINNGO, you start at the top of your head where you want the curl to begin rather than at your ends. Slip a piece of your hair into the curling iron’s opening and press the button that correlates to the direction you want your curl to face and that’s all you have to do. The spinning barrel automatically wraps your hair and holds it for an amount of time that you set, then you simply release your hair and it comes out as a bouncy spiral.

The BLINNGO Automatic is best if you have longer hair. Because it’s not able to get as close to the scalp, the tool needs some length to grab onto. There’s also limited space inside the instrument, so if you have really thick hair, you’ll have to split it into smaller sections. 

If the thought of letting a spinning barrel essential suck up your hair terrifies you, no worries. The BLINNGO has a safety feature to prevent tangles. If your hair starts to wrap weirdly, the tool automatically stops and allows you to pull your hair out. 

Large barrels are ideal to get big, soft curls. The ghd Curve Soft has a 1.25-inch rod that creates voluminous, Hollywood-style curls. Worth noting though that these results will not be the same for all hair types. This type of iron is best for thick, long hair but other hair lengths and types will still get volume and a soft wave.

The Curve Soft’s barrel is loaded with sensors that make sure the heat stays at a consistent 185 degrees — a temperature that, according to ghd, is ideal for styling. 

Le recommends this iron to her clients because it gets hot enough, but not too hot to damage the hair. She said the spring clip is easy to work with and the heat-protected tip of the iron helps prevent burning the user.

This iron will help you look like you just got a blowout at a salon, but that kind of style does not come cheap.  

The Paul Mitchell Neuro Curling Iron has an extra-long barrel that's perfect for longer hair, so you'll never have to get a shorter cut to enjoy your curls.

In seconds, this curling iron heats up to 230 degrees, but is adjustable for hair types that require lower heat. The titanium barrel gets extremely hot while still protecting hair from damage, which is good for thick hair. The extra long 1-inch barrel lets you create both loose and tight curls. 

Neuro is a branch of John Paul Mitchell Systems, an established brand within the beauty community, so you can trust that your hair is in good hands.  

If you’ve watched TV in the last decade, you’ve likely seen an InStyler ad. This tool is able to straighten or curl your hair while adding volume and smoothing your strands. Unlike the original InStyler, the Amazing has two-way rotation, so you’re able to control the direction of your curls.

InStyler Amazing’s brush smooths your hair while the rotating iron adds your desired texture. The tool is versatile enough for any hair type and its four different heat settings work with any hair whether it’s thick, thin, long, short, straight, or curly.

Because there are so many parts to this iron, some reviewers have said that the InStyler pulled their hair during some uses. So be aware of the moving parts when operating the curling iron. There is a bit of a learning curve when first using the InStyler. 

If you can’t afford to dish out over £100 for a curling iron, Le says the BaByliss Pro has the same great qualities but at a more affordable price point. “This one also gets hot fast and has a smooth glide that won’t snap the hair,” she says.

The BaBylissPRO comes in three different sizes, so you can choose based on the style you want for your hair. The handle rotates to help ease your styling process and prevent awkward arm positions.

You have the option of 50 heat settings going up to 210 degrees. The turbo button instantly boosts the heat to its highest setting. The iron utilises infrared technology to heat your hair from within, minimising damage. However, because it can get so hot, you might want to use heat protectant spray before styling with this iron.

This iron is slick, so it doesn’t work perfectly with all hair. Some reviewers with fine or thin hair reported their hair slipping out of the iron’s clamp resulting in troubles with achieving a desired curl. However, reviewers with thick hair wrote that the heat and the smoothness of the barrel worked perfectly for their hard-to-curl hair. 

The Dyson Airwrap has been the centre of a lot of buzz in the beauty world, and rightfully so. This innovative curler uses hot air instead of a hot surface to create styles. The Coanda effect attracts hair to the Dyson’s barrel then wraps it into a coil for you. The coolest thing about this device is that you don’t have to fiddle with getting your locks to hold in place: the Airwrap does most of the work for you.

There are three different stylers to choose from. The Airwrap includes eight attachments: two 1.2-inch barrels, two 1.6-inch barrels, a firm smoothing brush, a soft smoothing brush, a round volumising brush, and a pre-styling dryer. The dryer is essentially an attachment that turns the iron into the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer. 

Because this tool uses air to create curls, you can style your hair while it is still damp and let the Airwrap dry it while it curls. Intelligent heat control technology measures airflow temperature more than 40 times per second, ensuring that it never reaches more than 302 degrees. This prevents excessive heat damage.