I have a Conair curling iron with a large barrel -- I use it to straighten my hair which is thick/wavy/frizzy. It doesn't have steam or bristles, but I think the round barrel works better (looks more natural) than some of those straightening irons which are flat and can leave a crimp if you hold it the wrong way. One thing I like about the one I have is that I can control the heat settings. I find that with coarse hair it helps to use a higher heat. It is easy to use and does a good job of straightening my hair unless I go out into the rain -- then it's back to the 'fro.

I have a Revlon flatiron. It works well in straightening/smoothing my naturally curly hair. Make sure to do small sections.

I bought the Conair with the steam feature and the bristles slide out if you don't want a brush. It seems to leave my hair so shiny and healthy. It has exceeded my expectations. Mine was on sale at Target for $16.99 regularly $19.99. It not only straightens my hair but seems to prevent from getting curly again if I go out in damp weather.

Gosh, it's funny how we straight haired girls envy those girls with the beautiful curls and vice versa. I'm currently enjoying my stick straight hair, but have always envied those of you with all those bouncy, bodied curls.

My hairdresser told me the best kind are the ceramic ones which are quite small - she said they heat up the best but don't so as much damage to your hair as the metal kind. I still have the metal kind cuz the ceramic ones cost £80 and besides - i am thinking of having my hair cut (on friday, yikes!!)

;) ed

you can get those ceramic ones on ebay, in case you wanna try them for a bit cheaper, Michie.

I know this is an old post, but I found it in a search and thought it may still be pertinant.

I use the Solano flat iron with comb (the iron has a comb on it) and I can get my thick stubborn curly hair stick straight if I want. It takes some technique to get it natural looking straight, but it comes out absolutely perfect! The best I could ever get with a blow dryer is fluffly straight hair for an hour and then it would get weird waves to it.

Just make sure that hair is well conditioned, not oily, and completely dry when you use it. I use it 3 times a week and my hair is healthy and shiny.

I haven't found any ceramic ones with a comb so I haven't tried those, and I find that steam usually leads to frizz. I've tried the conair one too, it took forever to get my stubborn hair even close to what the blowdryer gave me.

Well I got a Conair one for Xmas from my sister & I hate it b/c it doesnt' open up very much & I have allot of hair so it would take me forever to get it all straightened. Does anyone that that problem or is it just the Conair?

Michie

Michie, you really need to straighten small sections of hair at a time to get it to look right, don't try to cram all your hair into an iron, you can damage it and get awful results. But if you get a wider iron you can do long hair faster. As I remeber the conair was about 1 1/2 inches wide. I use a 2 1/4" and it takes about 20 minutes (my hair is almost to middle of my back). Also, using a more professional iron works faster too.

without a straightening gel or pomade, it's just going to burn your hair...

mine's wavy and rough- my husband has nearly waist length curls that make women rush across the street to interrogate him on who does his hair...

it takes a flat iron AND product to actually get his curls out... if I get it wet, the 'so straight' gel will kill the curl for a few hours, but it reverts to bushy at the slightest provocation.

flattening it's the same- it will only last an hour or so, and the 'hand' will be off- it looks like straightened hair, not straight hair.

'frizz ease' brand has always struck me as the WORST of the products out there- it's a glosser, that's it.

TIGI makes good stuff- but for 1/4 the price, and of the store brands like got2b or the one they sell at Wal-Mart work just fine on our hair...

good luck!

Chinacat, never heard of TIGI ... what stuff do you use on yourself and hubby? I also found Friz Ease to be waste of time and money.

Citre shine pomade is great when I want a smoother look, also Aveda has one that works, I forget the name. It's greasier though so you have to be careful how much you use. They both work better than any of the products that say they're for straightening - go figure.

My problem is that my hair is neither curly or straight. It's Jeckyll and Hyde hair!

TIGI makes shampoos with names like 'control freak' and goop with names like 'rubber rage' and 'bed head'...very trendy, cool packaging, can now buy it at CVS and Drug Emporium.

I use almost nothing in my hair- well, except the cobalt-blue dye I streak over my patch-o-grays (that comes from Hot Topic, where the kids LOVE my take on 'blue haired old lady' but Tom's become a product junkie...

he uses a wax pomade on his van dyke to keep it shaped,

and the curl up, curl-refresher spray, and the curling balm by some no-name outfit for Wal-Mart. they're like $3 a jar, and they seem to work out just fine on our thick, course hair.

I use the 'so straight' (again, I'm not looking at it, don't know who made it, but it's a silver squirt bottle) to tame my strays ( I get flyaways so bad they look like a halo) but only just around my face....

mine's more PMS than jeckyll and hyde- it's all things at once- mostly out of control. it's one of the reasons I wear it so long- and shorter, and I have to have nearly half of it to get the rest of it to lie sort of close to my head.

I love the Jekyl and Hyde description...fits me to a tee. I have tried hundreds of dollars in products and different steam straighteners, had my hair chemically straightened at the salon once, large barrel metal curlers and I have never had sleek, smooth straight hair until I tried a ceramic straightener. I got it at Target for $29.99 and it is like nothing I have ever tried - I love it! You can get "ionic" ones for $150 but this one works great for me. I think it is a Vidal Sassoon. I tie up the top half of my hair on top of my head and do the underneath first in sections - then the top. It takes longer than letting it go curly but for someone who always wanted smooth hair, it is definitely worth the extra few minutes.