How much does it cost to use hair straighteners in the UK?
Hair straighteners draw about 50 to 60 watts, so a 15 minute session uses around 0.013 kilowatt hours and costs 0.35p at the Ofgem cap rate of 26.32p per kWh. Used every day for a year that comes to £1.27. Even an hour at the higher 60 watt rating is only 1.6p, and the hair dryer you use before them costs far more.
What a pair of straighteners draws
Hair straighteners are two small heated plates on a hinge, and they need far less power than most people expect. Philips gives the BHS515 a rating of 50 to 53 watts in its user manual, and BaByliss's Sleek Control 235 is listed at 60 watts. That is about a thirtieth of a hair dryer and less than many televisions draw while you watch them.
The reason is the size of what is being heated. The plates are a few centimetres wide and hold very little metal, so once they reach temperature only a trickle of electricity is needed to replace the heat that goes into your hair and the air around them. The rating on the box is the most the straighteners can draw, which they do while heating up. After that the thermostat cuts in and out, so a real session usually costs a little less than the figures here.
Work it out for your own hair straighteners
Type in the wattage from the plate on the back, then your own unit rate. The numbers update as you type.
What a session costs
| Time | 50 W | 53 W (Philips BHS515) | 60 W (BaByliss Sleek Control 235) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 0.11p | 0.12p | 0.13p |
| 15 minutes | 0.33p | 0.35p | 0.39p |
| 30 minutes | 0.66p | 0.70p | 0.79p |
| 1 hour | 1.32p | 1.39p | 1.58p |
| 15 minutes daily for a year | £1.20 | £1.27 | £1.44 |
The working is the same for any pair. A 53 watt straightener is 0.053 kilowatts, and a quarter of an hour on it uses 0.053 × 0.25, which is about 0.013 kilowatt hours. Multiply that by the cap rate of 26.32p and the session costs 0.35p. Someone with long, thick hair who takes half an hour every morning pays about £2.55 over a year.
| Appliance | Typical draw | Usage we assume | Per hour (UK) | Per usage (UK) | Per month (UK) | Per hour (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hair straighteners | 53 W | per 15 minute session | 1.4p | 0.35p | 10.6p | 0.97 cents |
Rates: Ofgem cap 1 October to 31 December 2026 at 26.32p per kWh (source), EIA residential average June 2026 at 18.34 cents per kWh (source). Checked 2026-09-22.
Leaving them on by accident
This is the worry that brings most people to the question, usually halfway to work. Most modern straighteners handle it themselves. The Philips BHS515 manual says the appliance switches off automatically after 30 minutes, the ghd platinum+ goes into sleep mode once it has been left on and unused for 30 minutes, and the Philips HP8361 switches off after 60 minutes.
On cost alone, a forgotten pair is close to harmless. Half an hour at 53 watts before the auto off kicks in costs 0.70p. A pair with no auto off left on for a full eight hour working day would use at most 0.42 kilowatt hours, which is 11.2p, and the thermostat would keep the real figure lower than that. The reason to go back and check is the fire risk from plates sitting at up to 230 degrees on a carpet or a bed, and if your straighteners have no auto off that is the best argument for replacing them.
Straighteners against the hair dryer
The straighteners are rarely the expensive part of a hair routine. A ten minute dry with an 1,800 watt hair dryer uses 0.3 kilowatt hours and costs 7.9p, which is the same electricity as about 22 sessions of 15 minutes with a 53 watt pair. If you blow dry and then straighten every morning, the dryer accounts for well over nine tenths of the cost.
Hot air stylers and dryer stylers belong in the hair dryer's price bracket because they work by blowing heated air. Shark lists its FlexStyle air styler and dryer at 1,750 watts, so ten minutes with one costs about 7.7p. Anyone choosing between a hot air brush and a pair of straighteners to finish their hair is choosing between pence and fractions of a penny.
Cutting the cost
There is very little to save on the straighteners themselves, since a whole year of daily use comes to £1.27. Unplugging them as soon as you finish saves the minutes they would otherwise spend holding temperature on the dressing table, and a lower plate setting for fine hair reduces the heat lost to the room by a small amount.
The real saving sits one step earlier. Towel drying your hair properly before you pick up the dryer, then letting it air dry for a while before you straighten, cuts the dryer time, and each minute off an 1,800 watt dryer is worth about 0.79p, more than two full sessions with the straighteners.
What this costs in the United States
At the EIA residential average of 18.34 cents per kilowatt hour, a 15 minute session on a 53 watt straightener costs about a quarter of a cent and a year of daily use about 89 cents. In California, at 34.74 cents, the same year is about $1.68, and in Texas at 15.94 cents about 77 cents.
Common questions
How much electricity do hair straighteners use?
Philips rates its BHS515 straightener at 50 to 53 watts and BaByliss lists the Sleek Control 235 at 60 watts, so a 15 minute session uses about 0.013 to 0.015 kilowatt hours. A year of daily 15 minute sessions comes to under 5.5 kilowatt hours, which is £1.27 at a 53 watt rating.
How much does it cost to use hair straighteners in the UK?
About 0.35p for a 15 minute session on a 53 watt pair at the cap rate of 26.32p per kWh, and 0.39p on a 60 watt pair. A full hour costs 1.4p to 1.6p.
Does it cost much to leave hair straighteners on by mistake?
Very little, because most switch themselves off. The Philips BHS515 and the ghd platinum+ turn off after 30 minutes, and the Philips HP8361 after 60 minutes. Even a pair with no auto off left on for eight hours at 53 watts would use 0.42 kilowatt hours, which is 11.2p.
Is it better to use a blow dryer or straightener?
On running cost the straightener wins by a long way. A ten minute dry with an 1,800 watt hair dryer uses 0.3 kilowatt hours and costs 7.9p, which would pay for more than twenty 15 minute sessions with a 53 watt straightener. If you do both, nearly all of the cost is the dryer.