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

Hair tools 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 completely revolutionize your hair routine. However, I was excited to get a demo of L’Oréal’s Light Straight product at CES 2026.

It’s an extension of the technology L’Oréal presented at CES 2024 Airlight Pro hair dryer. In short, most traditional hair styling tools rely on heated coils and motors. The Airlight Pro Hair Dryer introduced infrared light to help speed up the drying process while reducing the overall heat required. (I’ve been doing some long-term testing of a high-tech hair dryer versus a standard dryer over the past year, and I can confirm that… He is Much faster.)

Light Straight uses the same technology, but in a flat iron form. The suggested benefit is the ability to straighten or curl hair in one stroke, using less heat. Typical hair styling tools can exceed 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but LightStreet will not exceed 320 degrees. Overall, the company says this should translate to three times faster styling and two times smoother hair. Considering that styling can be time-consuming — and result in some crunchy strands — saving time while also minimizing damage is compelling.

I couldn’t try it on my hair for health reasons. I an act, However, you can handle the device and see the robot arm curl and straighten a strand of hair. Flat irons are relatively lightweight, portable, and heat up quickly. In the demo, I could see the robot curling and then straightening hair in one pass, but the resulting hair wasn’t very hot to the touch. It was an impressive demo, although we’ll have to see how the device performs on different hair types. L’Oreal told me that the device should work on most hair types, but it won’t change the fact that flat irons are easier to use on certain hair types than others.

The Light Straight is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2027, so we don’t know yet how much it will cost. What’s more, L’Oréal says it’s keen to expand this infrared technology to include multi-style tools like rotating hair dryer/brush combos.