Is it true that Ceramic Plates for Hair Straightener are bettter than Titanium Plates & Aluminum Plates?

Last month, one of my US customer (in hair tools and hair extensions) visited us and asked me this question. I just suggested her to choose ceramic if consider utility and to choose titanium or aluminum if consider outlook matching. Now let’s looked into this question more deeply:

There are mainly 3 types of plates for hair straighteners: ceramic plates, titanium plates and aluminum plates coated with ceramic.

As they are different in materials, so let’s go closely into it first.

Ceramic Plates

Ceramics are made by shaping water, earthen powders, and clay into forms, which are then fired at high temperatures. It’s a not a pure but a mixture of element depending on the clay. And the main element is aluminum oxide and silica. It’s very stable and not easily oxided or corroded.

Aluminum Plates

Aluminium is a silvery-white, lightweight metal. It is soft and malleable. It has a high thermal conductivity, has excellent corrosion resistance and can be easily cast, machined and formed. It is a very malleable and ductile metal. Aluminum Plates in fact is a mixture, mostly we will have ceramic coating on aluminum plates so that it will have a feature of a mix, metal inside and ceramic outside. 

Titanium Plates

Titanium is a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength. Titanium is as strong as steel but much less dense which is mainly used in aircraft, spacecraft and missiles because of their low density and ability to withstand extremes of temperature. Most of our tiatnium plates are TiN plating on stainless steel, so it’s a mix and stainless steel is the main . Stainless steel has lower thermal conductivity but higher dense than aluminum.

 Now let's compare them with different aspects:

1. Smooth Glide-smooth: Thanks to the material named “Glaze” that makes the surface of ceramic super smooth. They will lead a smooth glides without tug or pull at hair when it passed by. While aluminum plates are oil coated and titanium has grain lines on the surface. 

2. Lifetime-Density: the density of ceramic material is far higher than titanium or any metal material, so it won’t be scratched easily. However, on the other hand, higher density means more fragile, so a more careful application will be needed or it won’t be durable as other plates. Aluminum and Titanium are known as low density and high strength, so it will be much durable but easier to be scratched than ceramic plates.

3. Efficiency-Thermal conductivity: Aluminum has better thermal conductivity than titanium and ceramic, but most aluminum plates are coated, and ceramic’s thermal conductivity is determined by which clay is made of (there’s a special aluminum oxide ceramic, it’s thermal conductivity is similar to aluminum) Plus that ceramic plate is much thicker than the other two, so it’s hard to say which one is more quicker in thermal conduction. And it’s a pity that the ceramic plates usually cannot applied in MCH heater which is much in heat up time than PTC heater.

4. Less damage-Theramal eveness: As ceramic has hardness inside and smooth outside, so it has the best theramal eveness than other materials. has great heat distribution. Every part of the ceramic plate releases the same amount of energy. This leads less passes and more evenly straightened hair. So less damage to your hair using cermaic plates.

5. Convenience-Weight: Ceramic plates is thicker and own higer density, so it’s heavier than the other materials. Aluminum/titanium plates are easier to handle because of light weight. You also do not have to worry about dropping it and breaking the plate as you would with a ceramic iron.

6. Outlook-Color: Both ceramic and titanium have few choices for color. Espacially the color for ceramics are dim so there are almost dark color (coffe to black) in the market. On the other hand, the coated aluminum can choose a variaty of colors as the coating is a mix of ceramic oil.