L’Oréal’s latest flat iron uses infrared light to make hair styling much faster

Hair gadgets have become increasingly popular over the past decade. Hair dryers, curlers, steamers – you name it, there’s probably a TikTokker shilling for the latest hair gadget that will totally revolutionize a hair routine. Despite this, I was excited to get a demo of the L’Oréal Light Straight at CES 2026.

It’s an extension of the technology that L’Oréal presented at CES 2024 with the Airlight Pro hair dryer. In a nutshell, most conventional hair styling tools rely on heated coils and motors. The Airlight Pro Hair Dryer introduced infrared light to speed up drying while reducing the overall heat required. (I have done long-term testing of the high-tech hair dryer versus a standard hair dryer over the past year, and can confirm that it East much faster.)

The Light Straight uses the same technology, but in flat iron form. The proposed benefit is the ability to straighten or curl hair in a single pass, using less heat. Typical hair styling tools can exceed 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but the Light Straight won’t exceed 320 degrees. In total, the company says this should result in three times faster styling and twice as smooth hair. Considering that styling can take forever — and lead to crusty strands — saving time while reducing damage is a compelling argument.

I haven’t been able to try it on my own hair due to hygiene reasons. I did, However, manipulate the device and see a robot arm curl and straighten a test strand of hair. The flat iron is relatively light to hold and heats up quickly. In the demo, I could see the robot curl then straighten hair in one pass, but the resulting hair wasn’t too hot to the touch. It was an impressive demo, but we’ll have to see how the device works on different hair types. L’Oreal told me the device should work on most hair types, but that won’t change the fact that flat irons are easier to use on some hair types than others.

The Light Straight is expected to arrive sometime in 2027, so we don’t yet know how much it will cost. Later, L’Oréal says it wants to extend this infrared light technology to multi-styler tools like hair dryer/roller brush combos.