Ceramic coated flat irons and curling irons used to be the rage, before tourmaline hair styling tools hit the shelves. Tourmaline is known as a complex aluminum borosilicate and has been utilized in hair styling tools because it has a unique property. When tourmaline is heated, it demonstrates pyroelectricity where one end is negatively charged and the other end is positively charged.

When this is used in tourmaline hair styling tools, the crystal releases negative ions- six times more than ceramic tools do. These negatively charged ions essentially help to smooth the hair by sealing the cuticles, and also help the hair retain moisture. For people who have frizzy, thick or textured hair or for those who blow dry, curl or straighten their hair regularly, the tourmaline hair styling tools are particularly good. The hair comes out looking shinier, smoother, and healthier. Tourmaline hair styling tools create less friction as the tool is used because tourmaline hair styling tools are smoother.

So to answer your question, tourmaline hair styling tools seem to be the better choice since after using the tools, the hair is better conditioned and suffers less from styling than utilizing other hair styling tools. This is especially true for people with thick or frizzy hair.

I experienced using flat irons and I have the same questions about which flat hair iron is the best and less damaging to the hair. I have read an article online which is very informative about the tourmaline and ceramic hair flat irons. I hope this will answer your questions.

Over the years there are many development in the area of hair styling technology and one of the most popular new technologies is tourmaline plated flat irons. The metal-plated irons are now outdated were replaced by ceramic plated flat irons several years ago. Ceramic flat iron technology has been developing and expanded and include a new material which is known as tourmaline.
Tourmaline is a semi-precious gem that is crushed to fine particles and infused in the ceramic plats of the flat iron. It reacts to the heat by becoming charges since it attracts impurities like a magnet. It also get rid of odors like smoke, pollutants and perfumes. If tourmaline is heated it becomes source of negative ions and far-infrared heat and produces a greater number of negative ions than plain ceramic plates.

When ceramic and tourmaline is combined it creates the best material available on the market that can be used for flat iron plates. Tourmaline-ceramic which is commonly called tourmaline produce much better results and less damage to the hair. But tourmaline performs a little better.

These are the significant differences between tourmaline and ceramic flat iron:

1. Ceramic flat iron is less damaging to the hair but even more less damaging is the tourmaline.
2.Tourmaline plates is more effective to straighten the hair especially frizzy hair because it produces more negative ions than ceramic plates.
3. There are many choices when it comes to ceramic flat iron plates but tourmaline is now becoming more popular.
4. Tourmaline only takes 25 seconds to straighten out hair while ceramic flat irons takes longer than 25 seconds.
5. Tourmaline is less expensive than ceramic flat iron.