Sure, anyone can walk straight into a hair salon and get their hair styled to perfection, or at least that is what we hope. However, in the real world we need something that can turn our hair from the biggest mess into something amazing. Also, of course it has got to be really quick, cost effective and easy for us to do this all at the same time when we are at home and in a rush to get out the house. The all in one solution... hair straighteners!

Hair straighteners come in all shapes and sizes and can do wonders for your hair, but here are some guidelines to get the most from them:

1. You can buy hair straighteners really cheaply, but like the old saying goes, you really do "get what you pay for". This is no exception with hair straighteners. Personally I love GHD hair straighteners but there are many other variations out there like Sedu and T3 who promise to deliver quality as well.

2. Ensure the hair straightener has ceramic plates. This is a piggyback of point one, but any hair straightener that uses cheaper imitations to lure in you - use caution. Often they give up on you right when you need them. Are likely to catch your hair and can sometime cause damage when not dispersing heat correctly within your hair.

3. Choose the width of the hair straightener carefully. If your a girl with longer, thicker hair you would benefit from a wider hair straightener and if you have shorter hair or intend to do all sorts of funky styles I would suggest going for a thinner hair straighteners so you can target specific hair parts in more detail and have more control. Also for the guys, I would suggest going with narrow hair straighteners if they have shorter hair.

4. It can be very useful to get a hair straightener that lets you adjust the temperature of the hair iron. Ideally you want it to be able to get pretty hot so you can straighten or curl your hair in the morning and it should still hold till the evening. The lower the temperature, the shorter the amount of time your hair will stay the same way.

5.Make sure you look into getting other hair care products to take care and look after your hair as repeat repetitive use will take its toll on your hair if you don't look after it.