This High-Tech Flat Iron Actually Makes My Hair Feel Healthier

For better or worse, I’m a curly hair-haver who simply prefers it not-so-curly. After years and years (and years) of wrangling my coil-shaped pegs into pin-straight holes, heat damage has become an extremely touchy subject.

Upon seeing the havoc I was wreaking on my delicate follicles, I knew I had to get smart about minimizing the effect of styling tools. Just looking at a drugstore flat iron was enough to trigger PTSD — it was time to get serious with a quality hair straightener.

I set aside my CHI straightener without much of a heavy heart, and went exploring for a new option that would do more for my fragile follicles. It wasn’t long before Eva NYC’s newest release popped up on my radar.

Eva NYC’s Spectrum Far-Infrared Styling Iron uses red beam infrared light technology to heat hair from the inside out. This controlled, high-temperature styling protects the hair shaft while locking in moisture and creating shinier, frizzless strands.

It sounds...too good to be true, I know. I had my doubts as well, until I actually tried it. The flat iron passed over my puffy, freshly blow dried hair like it was coated in cooking oil. There wasn’t a lick of resistance or pull as the ceramic plates moved firmly from my roots to my ends, and not once did my hair snag or stutter.

With other straighteners, I’ve become accustomed to the process taking up to 25 minutes, but with the infrared iron, my hair was done in less than 10. Sections that usually required several passes were pin-straight in just one, and even the flyaway frizz at my crown was flattened right away.

When I was finished — way earlier than I anticipated — I assessed the damage and found, curiously, none. In fact, my super-smooth hair felt full of moisture, rather than dehydrated from the heat as with other straighteners. Each follicle swished and flexed naturally, without any of the crunchy, over-styled texture I had feared. The shine was unreal — it looked like I was fresh out of a Keratin appointment or had dunked my head in some new, all-over hair highlighter.

Consider me a convert. Now that I know everything a flat iron can deliver, you won’t find me wielding any other tool on my (slowly but surely) recovering hair. At a regular retail price of $100, it’s a small investment for the shiniest hair of my life. But better yet, today you can get it on sale for just $70.

Shop Eva NYC’s Spectrum Far-Infrared Styling Iron for $70 at Ulta.com.